So, this thread here is the result of a bored author being asked a hypothetical question, in a...
A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm (Worm/Pokemon)
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Disclaimer and Chatty Bit
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
I don't own either Pokemon or Worm.
Worm is the property of Wildbow.
Pokemon belongs to Game Freak and Nintendo.
None of this belongs to me, I'm just writing in this sandbox for my own amusement and the amusement of others.
Worm is the property of Wildbow.
Pokemon belongs to Game Freak and Nintendo.
None of this belongs to me, I'm just writing in this sandbox for my own amusement and the amusement of others.
So, this thread here is the result of a bored author being asked a hypothetical question, in a Discord, with a bunch of other people.
Shoutouts to @eonmoon for the original idea, and the rest of the Taylor Varga Discord for putting up with the insanity of our working discussion while we plotted this stuff.
Basically, this runs on a combination of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon rules, like turns and the idea of announcing moves before use, as well as talking, and the anime, so no move limit.
Now, confusion may commence!
Things may be adorable and/or funny, so please read with caution.
Now, a bunch of explainy bits for people who don't know what's going on below, all nested in these spoiler tags. Good luck, have fun.
Essentially, the Pokemon world works on weird physics. Luckily a lot of that isn't particularly relevant to this story, but I think it's best to explain.
There's more than 800 species of Pokemon, a number which keeps climbing. Each Pokemon has either one or two types, abilities- one or two, plus a 'hidden' ability- and movesets. In the games, a Pokemon can only know up to four moves, but that's a rule I'm not using. There's stats, Physical and Special; a Physical move uses Physical Attack and Physical Defense, while a Special move uses Special Attack and Defense. Speed determines turn order, or in this case movement speed, and HP is how many attacks a Pokemon can take before fainting.
In Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon explore these suddenly appearing Dungeons. The layout is different every time, and they get jobs to do things, like explore, rescue Pokemon, find or deliver items, and escort, to name a few.
For the sake of your sanity, you might want to look up a type matchup chart, just to help out, though I'm not using a lot of the stuff in there. We are, after all, elsewhere.
There's more than 800 species of Pokemon, a number which keeps climbing. Each Pokemon has either one or two types, abilities- one or two, plus a 'hidden' ability- and movesets. In the games, a Pokemon can only know up to four moves, but that's a rule I'm not using. There's stats, Physical and Special; a Physical move uses Physical Attack and Physical Defense, while a Special move uses Special Attack and Defense. Speed determines turn order, or in this case movement speed, and HP is how many attacks a Pokemon can take before fainting.
Shadow is a Vulpix, making her a pure Fire type, with the ability Flash Fire, which makes her immune to fire and gives her a small stat boost.
Eon is a Ninetales, the evolved form of Vulpix. He's also pure fire type with Flash Fire. Eon's special in that he's a shiny Ninetales, meaning that he has a different colour scheme to a normal one- grey fur instead of gold, with blue tail tips instead of orange.
For the sake of your sanity, you might want to look up a type matchup chart, just to help out, though I'm not using a lot of the stuff in there. We are, after all, elsewhere.
The Wormverse is a mess. There's a bunch of superheroes and villains, called Parahumans, who get their powers in something called a Trigger Event. A person's Trigger is normally an extremely traumatic, one bad day, though they can be extended events that cause a person to collapse. This gives them powers, which then results in supers running about.
Every three months, one of three creatures, called Endbringers, attack and wreck a city, causing hundreds of deaths each attack. The approximate death rates for Capes- aka Parahumans- that fight back is one in four.
There's the PRT- Parahuman Response Team- that has a bunch of Capes and try to keep the peace. The Protectorate are over 18, the Wards are under it. The PRT are all normals who oversee the Protectorate and the Wards.
We're in Brockton Bay, which has a lot of Capes for the area, and not enough heroes to fight all the villains.
It's probably recommended that you go look stuff up if you get confused, I'm not too sure I've done it justice, but that should be all you need to start out reading.
Every three months, one of three creatures, called Endbringers, attack and wreck a city, causing hundreds of deaths each attack. The approximate death rates for Capes- aka Parahumans- that fight back is one in four.
Behemoth is the biggest, and the first to have shown up in 1992. He's radioactive, extremely tough, and has a kill field. He's a fairly slow dynakinetic, making him able to take attacks well.
The second to appear and second smallest, he's fast and a macro hydrokinetic- he can sense the water in people. His attacks are normally coastal, bring a lot of rain, and tend to lead to tsunamis. He can create a water echo, which acts as armour, and is ridiculously powerful. He sank both Kyushu and Newfoundland during his attacks.
The third, the smallest, and probably the scariest, she looks like a sepharim, and is a precognative- she see's the future, and tends to set up plots months or years in advance. People who spend too long near her 'song', a scream she uses to control people, become 'Ziz bombs', people who are normally used for her plots. Anywhere she goes where her attacks last long enough get quarantined.
Cape powers fall into twelve classifications, and can fit more than one.
Mover; superspeed, flight, teleportation, and other sorts of inhuman mobility.
Shaker; the ability to manipulate surroundings in some way.
Brute; more strength, more toughness, or both, as well as regeneration.
Breaker; the user gets a different state, normally one that changes how physics works on them.
Master; typical controller. Could be a people Master, a Master of some kind of animal, or could create projections as minions.
Tinker; creates Tinkertech, which is impossible to be understood by pretty much anyone else, and is normally beyond human capability.
Blaster; ranged attacks, like laser beams.
Thinker; improved mental functions. They might think quicker, have better senses, enhanced perception, precognition in various forms, and more.
Striker; requires touch or close contact.
Changer; changes the users body to another shape, material, or an organism that might not exist outside of the power.
Trump; powers relating to powers- copying, granting, altering or removing, mainly.
Stranger; stealth and deception, like invisibility or a perception filter, or a forget-me field.
Mover; superspeed, flight, teleportation, and other sorts of inhuman mobility.
Shaker; the ability to manipulate surroundings in some way.
Brute; more strength, more toughness, or both, as well as regeneration.
Breaker; the user gets a different state, normally one that changes how physics works on them.
Master; typical controller. Could be a people Master, a Master of some kind of animal, or could create projections as minions.
Tinker; creates Tinkertech, which is impossible to be understood by pretty much anyone else, and is normally beyond human capability.
Blaster; ranged attacks, like laser beams.
Thinker; improved mental functions. They might think quicker, have better senses, enhanced perception, precognition in various forms, and more.
Striker; requires touch or close contact.
Changer; changes the users body to another shape, material, or an organism that might not exist outside of the power.
Trump; powers relating to powers- copying, granting, altering or removing, mainly.
Stranger; stealth and deception, like invisibility or a perception filter, or a forget-me field.
We're in Brockton Bay, which has a lot of Capes for the area, and not enough heroes to fight all the villains.
It's probably recommended that you go look stuff up if you get confused, I'm not too sure I've done it justice, but that should be all you need to start out reading.
Also, mild to heavy spoiler warnings for both Pokemon Mystery Dungeon; Blue Rescue Team, PMD; Explorers of Sky, and Worm, as is to be expected for this sort of stuff.
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Chapter 1- Arrival
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
A hoop appeared in mid-air, purple mist rippling within. A small red and white fox jumped out, looking around with intrigue in its brown eyes, while a taller white fox followed it, looking mildly exasperated and amused in equal doses.
"This looks cool!" The little fox said, in a feminine voice. "Thanks, Hoopla!"
"Hoopa, Shadow." The elder one groaned. "Hoopa."
"Hoopla, Hoopa, it's the same thing. He doesn't mind." Shadow grinned as the ring-portal closed. The little purple scarf around her neck fluttered slightly along her back as she began running around in circles, desperate to sniff at everything. "This is really cool, though, Eon! Really cool!"
"You've said, Shadow." Eon sighed, twitching his tails. Little blue spots shimmered at the end as he began moving after her. "Now, what do you want to do?"
"Dunno." She said, crouching. Making a careful leap, she landed on top of a nearby dumpster, using it as a vantage point to look around. "Whadda you want?"
Eon sighed again. This'll be a long trip. With some careful movements of his own, the Ninetales ended up next to the young Vulpix, looking about them himself. "We should probably just look around this city we're in first."
"Alright!" Making another jump, she found herself caught in mid-air by a pink glow.
"Shadow." Eon sighed again. "Illusions, remember?"
"Oops." She blushed slightly. "Sorry." Waving his tails, the pair of vulpines rippled, replaced by a girl in a dress and leggings, and a boy with jeans and a t-shirt. With a frown, Shadow focused her own budding powers, making a hat and dropping it on her head. "Now c'mon! I wanna see what's going on here!"
"Just don't get lost, Shadow." The older fox said, as the younger ran off through an alleyway. "Silly kit…"
"Ooh!" Shadow perked up slightly. "I think there's something happening over there!"
"Where?" Eon looked sideways at her, glad she'd finally slowed down. It's like she's on a permanent sugar rush…
"Thataway, I think." She hummed, pointing with one hand in the vague direction of a slum. "I can feel it." Nodding, Eon guided the female towards another alley, and the illusion of two humans shattered.
"Stay still." He told her, waving his tails again. Light shimmered along both their furs for a moment, then the fox coughed. "Invisible now. Got it down a bit ago."
"Sweet!" The Vulpix grinned widely. "C'mon, I wanna go see what I'm feeling!" The smaller fox ran ahead, jumping lithely over bins in the way, while the larger evolved form made his way along more carefully and slowly, sometimes landing on the bins as he went over them.
The little fox's nose twitched, and Eon frowned. "Feels like fire."
"Yeah!" She agreed. "That's what I thought, but I wasn't too sure."
"'s fire." The Ninetales nodded. "Good job, pix."
"Thanks!" For a moment, she was happy to sit there and absorb the praise, then she frowned. "Should we go try and help? Someone might get hurt." Eon smiled at her.
"Be careful, Shadow." He told her. "Don't get hurt."
"M'kay!" She bounced quickly off and out of the alleyway, then froze and stared. "Whoa. Bugs."
"Hm?" Eon made his way over to her, peering over her head. "Hm. That's a lotta bugs."
"Should we burn them?" Shadow asked, twisting her head. "They're stinging at the fire dragon." She frowned further, her scarf rippling. "Is it a Charizard?"
"No." He replied. "Not a Charizard. They're not around here, remember." The Ninetales thought for a moment, then sniffed. "Think there's more people here."
"Oh!" Shadow perked up. "I'll go ask them what's happening!"
"Shadow-!" Eon called, feeling the invisibility break as she scrambled up a wall with her claws. "Oh, for…" He groaned.
"Bug girl's not doing too well." Alec commented. "Think we should help?"
"She is defending us, from what Tattletale said." Brian nodded. "Bitch, get your dogs-"
"Hi!"
"Ready?" He trailed off, all four of them whirling around to face the new arrival-
"What?" Lisa said.
"Hi?" The small red fox said again, a little more unsurely. She pawed at her purple scarf. "You can understand me, right? Hoopla said you would, but he's tricky."
"No, we understand you." Brian answered, apparently automatically, while the others gaped.
"Oh, good!" She grinned widely. "So, hi! Mind telling me what's going on down there?" Lisa blinked.
Calls herself a vulpix.
Vulpix out-of-context, unknown.
Came from elsewhere.
Hoopla out-of-context, unknown.
Hoopla likely a nickname; tone and inflection.
'Hoopla' brought her here.
Curious; saw fight below, wants to help.
Doesn't want to join in without knowing what's happening.
Vulpix-
Lisa winced as her power errored out on her.
"Bug girl down there picked a fight with Lung," Alec told her, waving towards the ground. "No idea why, and she's not doing too hot."
"Why not?" The Vulpix asked. "There's plenty of fire down there- oh, that was a pun, wasn't it?" Her tone suddenly showed understanding. "I see. My friend does a lot of those." The red fox pattered over to them, the Undersiders drawing back as she did, to look over the edge. "So, the Charizard down there's a bad guy?"
"Yes?" Brian tried, sounding confused.
Charizard is another creature like her.
She knows some, is familiar with it.
Charizard-
Again, Lisa's power cut out, and the Vulpix nodded.
"Alright, good." Taking the end of her scarf in her mouth, she pulled, undoing it, then throwing it towards Lisa in a little pink grip. The Thinker automatically caught it, and the vulpine creature crouched. "Hold onto that for me, please? It's kinda important to me." Absently, Lisa nodded, and she grinned, widely and fanged-ly, in response. "Nice." A jump later, and the female fox was on the ground between Lung and the new Cape, six tails billowing out behind her. "Hey, Charizard guy!"
The audacity of the shout, along with the surprise of a two-foot tall fox appearing from the rooftops and yelling at him, made Lung pause, incredulous, while the bug girl just froze. "Hi! Please stop being mean to Ms Bug Lady, for me? It's not very nice to try and set someone on fire, even if they'll get better after it." The innocence and childishness of the tone made Lisa gape.
Lung growled out something unintelligible, making the Vulpix cock her head. "Sorry, Mr Charizard guy, but I didn't understand that. Which is weird, since I should understand you even if most the human-people don't." A long, drawn-out sigh made Lisa look automatically to the side, completely out of both awe and confusion from the ongoing situation, and watch the three and a half feet tall white-grey fox join them at the edge of the roof.
"Pix, he's not a Charizard." The male called down, making them all look towards him. "You won't understand him anyway."
"Ooooh…" The Vulpix said slowly. "That makes sense. Alright. Hey, Ms Bug Lady?" She continued, turning to the new Cape. "Could you get away from here a bit, please? I don't want you to get hurt."
"Just a minute." Flexing his tails, the new arrival overrode whatever the insect controller was about to say, his eyes glowing the same light pink the scarf had. The same glow surrounded the Cape, lifting her slowly into the air. She squeaked, then went perfectly still as they all watched her float over to the rooftop, being placed gently next to them. "There we go."
"Who are you?" Lisa finally asked, breaking through her confused daze.
"Hm? Oh, sorry. Eon, and the little vixen is Shadow." He greeted them, offering her a paw like a dog would. The feeling of unreality returning, she shook it, and he grinned. "Sorry about her, she's enthusiastic." The dry tone made her chuckle, and the new Cape did the same, before wincing. "You ok?"
"Just a few burns." She shrugged slightly. "I'll be fine." Eon looked at her sceptically, then looked back at a crash from the group.
Shadow landed lightly a few feet from a thrown dumpster, and turned her head to look at it. "Um, I don't think that's allowed, Mr Dragon Guy. I don't think that's a move, anyway." She cocked her head again. "Then again, I think Hoopla-"
"Hoopa!" Eon shouted, in the tone of someone who didn't know why they were bothering.
Lisa knew it quite well, after dealing with Alec for over a year.
"-Said you human types work on weird battle rules." Shadow continued, completely ignoring her companion. "So I guess it's ok." Lung roared, breathing fire across the little fox. Some of the Undersiders gasped in shock, and the bugs around the area buzzed violently, until the red flames died down.
"Hey!" Shadow yelled. "That's a bit mean. Anyway, thanks for that. I guess I can forgive you for being rude if you're gonna boost me." She twitched. "Wonder if you have Flash Fire as well?" Lisa gaped, while Eon sighed again.
"Shadow, they don't have any of the same battle rules as we do." He told her. "No turns, no announcements, no Moves and no Abilities." While Lisa tried to figure out why she could hear capitals on some of those words, Shadow looked up.
"That's a Move, though." She pointed. "Or is it just something that looks like a Move?"
"It just looks like one, Shadow." Eon said. "And you don't need to do announcements here either."
"Really?" Lisa blinked, shaking her head to get rid of the growing headache- one that, for once, had very little to do with her powers.
I can't tell if it's the fire, or her eyes are actually sparkling…
"Really. We do it at home for courtesy." Eon shrugged, lying down in a ripple of white fur and long tails. "No need here."
"Awesome." The word rumbled across the area as Shadow turned back, crouching slightly as if she were about to lunge. "Alright, Mr Dragon Guy, let's go!"
"This looks cool!" The little fox said, in a feminine voice. "Thanks, Hoopla!"
"Hoopa, Shadow." The elder one groaned. "Hoopa."
"Hoopla, Hoopa, it's the same thing. He doesn't mind." Shadow grinned as the ring-portal closed. The little purple scarf around her neck fluttered slightly along her back as she began running around in circles, desperate to sniff at everything. "This is really cool, though, Eon! Really cool!"
"You've said, Shadow." Eon sighed, twitching his tails. Little blue spots shimmered at the end as he began moving after her. "Now, what do you want to do?"
"Dunno." She said, crouching. Making a careful leap, she landed on top of a nearby dumpster, using it as a vantage point to look around. "Whadda you want?"
Eon sighed again. This'll be a long trip. With some careful movements of his own, the Ninetales ended up next to the young Vulpix, looking about them himself. "We should probably just look around this city we're in first."
"Alright!" Making another jump, she found herself caught in mid-air by a pink glow.
"Shadow." Eon sighed again. "Illusions, remember?"
"Oops." She blushed slightly. "Sorry." Waving his tails, the pair of vulpines rippled, replaced by a girl in a dress and leggings, and a boy with jeans and a t-shirt. With a frown, Shadow focused her own budding powers, making a hat and dropping it on her head. "Now c'mon! I wanna see what's going on here!"
"Just don't get lost, Shadow." The older fox said, as the younger ran off through an alleyway. "Silly kit…"
"Ooh!" Shadow perked up slightly. "I think there's something happening over there!"
"Where?" Eon looked sideways at her, glad she'd finally slowed down. It's like she's on a permanent sugar rush…
"Thataway, I think." She hummed, pointing with one hand in the vague direction of a slum. "I can feel it." Nodding, Eon guided the female towards another alley, and the illusion of two humans shattered.
"Stay still." He told her, waving his tails again. Light shimmered along both their furs for a moment, then the fox coughed. "Invisible now. Got it down a bit ago."
"Sweet!" The Vulpix grinned widely. "C'mon, I wanna go see what I'm feeling!" The smaller fox ran ahead, jumping lithely over bins in the way, while the larger evolved form made his way along more carefully and slowly, sometimes landing on the bins as he went over them.
The little fox's nose twitched, and Eon frowned. "Feels like fire."
"Yeah!" She agreed. "That's what I thought, but I wasn't too sure."
"'s fire." The Ninetales nodded. "Good job, pix."
"Thanks!" For a moment, she was happy to sit there and absorb the praise, then she frowned. "Should we go try and help? Someone might get hurt." Eon smiled at her.
"Be careful, Shadow." He told her. "Don't get hurt."
"M'kay!" She bounced quickly off and out of the alleyway, then froze and stared. "Whoa. Bugs."
"Hm?" Eon made his way over to her, peering over her head. "Hm. That's a lotta bugs."
"Should we burn them?" Shadow asked, twisting her head. "They're stinging at the fire dragon." She frowned further, her scarf rippling. "Is it a Charizard?"
"No." He replied. "Not a Charizard. They're not around here, remember." The Ninetales thought for a moment, then sniffed. "Think there's more people here."
"Oh!" Shadow perked up. "I'll go ask them what's happening!"
"Shadow-!" Eon called, feeling the invisibility break as she scrambled up a wall with her claws. "Oh, for…" He groaned.
"Bug girl's not doing too well." Alec commented. "Think we should help?"
"She is defending us, from what Tattletale said." Brian nodded. "Bitch, get your dogs-"
"Hi!"
"Ready?" He trailed off, all four of them whirling around to face the new arrival-
"What?" Lisa said.
"Hi?" The small red fox said again, a little more unsurely. She pawed at her purple scarf. "You can understand me, right? Hoopla said you would, but he's tricky."
"No, we understand you." Brian answered, apparently automatically, while the others gaped.
"Oh, good!" She grinned widely. "So, hi! Mind telling me what's going on down there?" Lisa blinked.
Calls herself a vulpix.
Vulpix out-of-context, unknown.
Came from elsewhere.
Hoopla out-of-context, unknown.
Hoopla likely a nickname; tone and inflection.
'Hoopla' brought her here.
Curious; saw fight below, wants to help.
Doesn't want to join in without knowing what's happening.
Vulpix-
Lisa winced as her power errored out on her.
"Bug girl down there picked a fight with Lung," Alec told her, waving towards the ground. "No idea why, and she's not doing too hot."
"Why not?" The Vulpix asked. "There's plenty of fire down there- oh, that was a pun, wasn't it?" Her tone suddenly showed understanding. "I see. My friend does a lot of those." The red fox pattered over to them, the Undersiders drawing back as she did, to look over the edge. "So, the Charizard down there's a bad guy?"
"Yes?" Brian tried, sounding confused.
Charizard is another creature like her.
She knows some, is familiar with it.
Charizard-
Again, Lisa's power cut out, and the Vulpix nodded.
"Alright, good." Taking the end of her scarf in her mouth, she pulled, undoing it, then throwing it towards Lisa in a little pink grip. The Thinker automatically caught it, and the vulpine creature crouched. "Hold onto that for me, please? It's kinda important to me." Absently, Lisa nodded, and she grinned, widely and fanged-ly, in response. "Nice." A jump later, and the female fox was on the ground between Lung and the new Cape, six tails billowing out behind her. "Hey, Charizard guy!"
The audacity of the shout, along with the surprise of a two-foot tall fox appearing from the rooftops and yelling at him, made Lung pause, incredulous, while the bug girl just froze. "Hi! Please stop being mean to Ms Bug Lady, for me? It's not very nice to try and set someone on fire, even if they'll get better after it." The innocence and childishness of the tone made Lisa gape.
Lung growled out something unintelligible, making the Vulpix cock her head. "Sorry, Mr Charizard guy, but I didn't understand that. Which is weird, since I should understand you even if most the human-people don't." A long, drawn-out sigh made Lisa look automatically to the side, completely out of both awe and confusion from the ongoing situation, and watch the three and a half feet tall white-grey fox join them at the edge of the roof.
"Pix, he's not a Charizard." The male called down, making them all look towards him. "You won't understand him anyway."
"Ooooh…" The Vulpix said slowly. "That makes sense. Alright. Hey, Ms Bug Lady?" She continued, turning to the new Cape. "Could you get away from here a bit, please? I don't want you to get hurt."
"Just a minute." Flexing his tails, the new arrival overrode whatever the insect controller was about to say, his eyes glowing the same light pink the scarf had. The same glow surrounded the Cape, lifting her slowly into the air. She squeaked, then went perfectly still as they all watched her float over to the rooftop, being placed gently next to them. "There we go."
"Who are you?" Lisa finally asked, breaking through her confused daze.
"Hm? Oh, sorry. Eon, and the little vixen is Shadow." He greeted them, offering her a paw like a dog would. The feeling of unreality returning, she shook it, and he grinned. "Sorry about her, she's enthusiastic." The dry tone made her chuckle, and the new Cape did the same, before wincing. "You ok?"
"Just a few burns." She shrugged slightly. "I'll be fine." Eon looked at her sceptically, then looked back at a crash from the group.
Shadow landed lightly a few feet from a thrown dumpster, and turned her head to look at it. "Um, I don't think that's allowed, Mr Dragon Guy. I don't think that's a move, anyway." She cocked her head again. "Then again, I think Hoopla-"
"Hoopa!" Eon shouted, in the tone of someone who didn't know why they were bothering.
Lisa knew it quite well, after dealing with Alec for over a year.
"-Said you human types work on weird battle rules." Shadow continued, completely ignoring her companion. "So I guess it's ok." Lung roared, breathing fire across the little fox. Some of the Undersiders gasped in shock, and the bugs around the area buzzed violently, until the red flames died down.
"Hey!" Shadow yelled. "That's a bit mean. Anyway, thanks for that. I guess I can forgive you for being rude if you're gonna boost me." She twitched. "Wonder if you have Flash Fire as well?" Lisa gaped, while Eon sighed again.
"Shadow, they don't have any of the same battle rules as we do." He told her. "No turns, no announcements, no Moves and no Abilities." While Lisa tried to figure out why she could hear capitals on some of those words, Shadow looked up.
"That's a Move, though." She pointed. "Or is it just something that looks like a Move?"
"It just looks like one, Shadow." Eon said. "And you don't need to do announcements here either."
"Really?" Lisa blinked, shaking her head to get rid of the growing headache- one that, for once, had very little to do with her powers.
I can't tell if it's the fire, or her eyes are actually sparkling…
"Really. We do it at home for courtesy." Eon shrugged, lying down in a ripple of white fur and long tails. "No need here."
"Awesome." The word rumbled across the area as Shadow turned back, crouching slightly as if she were about to lunge. "Alright, Mr Dragon Guy, let's go!"
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Chapter 2- Versus Lung
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Shadow grinned, watching the larger form carefully. Despite being so much younger than Eon was, she'd still done a fair bit of her own hunting during Dungeon runs, whether it was just exploration or Rescue missions, or even the rare missions where they ended up fighting some kind of boss- like with Hoopla, she recalled with amusement, before shaking herself, no, focus!- so she was perfectly used to evaluating a target.
Right then. Big dragon, lots of times my size. Going to be difficult to fight head on, kinda like Dialga, but I'm smaller than him, so I can use that. Looks like a dragon, but he's on fire... wait, Eon said that they don't have the same rules here, so they probably don't have types either, right? She sniffed the air curiously. Then again, he's on fire. Pretty sure he's immune to fire, then. Darn, that's bad, I do a lot of fire stuff. Least I'm not a one-trick foxy, so let's try some other things, eh? A vague plan in mind, she tilted her head carefully to the side, making her eyes go wide, and started her attack.
"Mr Dragon Guy, why're you being so mean?" She said, pouting. "I mean, I haven't done anything to you, so why'd you want to fight?" The face of the angry dragon softened slightly, so she powered up her attack. "And Ms Bug Lady didn't mean to hurt you too bad. You must have startled her. Makes sense; dragons are super cool and scary, and a dragon on fire is, like, double the coolness! But it is kinda scary too, I guess, especially to someone who can still be hurt by fire. But you really didn't need to try hurting her really bad, though. That'd be mean, and she might've gotten really hurt." The dragon leaned down slightly, looking a lot calmer, and she started gently wagging her tails. "And I'm sorry if I've annoyed you at all, Mr Dragon Guy. I really didn't mean too, I promise! I just saw that Ms Bug Lady was in trouble, and I thought I should probably help her before someone got really hurt." The Cape grumbled something, so Shadow fired off a Captivate as well just to try and slow him down. "Are you alright now? Are we ok now? I'm sorry..."
Quietly, Shadow thought she could hear Eon chuckling in the background, and almost smirked. Still got it, ya old fox! Now, the final bit... Her fur rippled a little from a phantom breeze, and her eyes began to glow a gentle white.
"I mean, if we're ok, I guess you can stop being so mad now, right? You have somewhere else you can go to, yeah? So would you like to go there?" Looking her opponent in the eyes- huh, has he shrunk a bit? Weird- she focused her attack further. "Or I suppose you could just go to sleep now, and take a rest. No-one else is gonna cause trouble for you, and I'm not gonna get hurt if you do, so you can just take a rest. That makes sense, right?" She widened her eyes and waved her tails again, both Captivate and Tail Whip taking effect again. To muddle to waters a bit- heh, waters with a fire guy. Bit, what's the word, contra-dic-tory?- her eyes flickered again as she used Confuse Ray. He flinched slightly as the yellow dots hit him, his eyes going vague, and she used Hypnosis again. This time, the dragon wavered, the fire flickered as he swayed, then Shadow was forced to jump backwards as he fell forward, snoring before he impacted the ground. He bounced slightly, and she winced before realising the scales covering him had taken the impact so he didn't feel it. The fire around him began to disappear and he began shrinking slowly, making her nod. Turning as she heard a patter of claws on concrete, she grinned toothily at Eon, who was prowling his way slowly towards the two of them.
Stepping around the smaller fox, the white Ninetales inched forwards, sniffing at the dragonic prey. Nodding once towards her, Eon indicated away with his tail. Both of them padded away from the sleeping enemy, back towards the alley where they'd come in from, and Shadow raised an eyebrow to see the rest of the group from the rooftop leaning against various walls in differing states of shock and awe.
"Good job, little vixen." He nodded, seeming amused. "No damage at all, which is a plus." Shadow giggled.
"He wasn't that bad, once I knew what I was doing." She replied, keeping her voice calm and level so she didn't accidentally wake her former opponent. "Nowhere near as bad as Dialga was. And nothing like that little mishap with Wigglytuff." Eon flinched harshly, unconsciously flicking his tails in an uncomfortable manner.
"Pix, nothing is like that mishap with Wigglytuff. Not even Arceus himself showing up would be like it." He said grumpily. She giggled, making him glare at her a little before lightening up. "Still, why didn't you use Imprison? I know you know it."
"Because I remembered that you said there's different rules here, so I didn't know if Imprison would stop him using his fire like it should. They don't have Moves, after all." Shadow watched Eon raise an eyebrow, nodding approvingly.
"Very good."
"Hey, it's not just because of you we got that Hyper Rank, y'know." She grinned. "Actually, speaking of that, can I have my scarf back, please?" The blonde girl she'd given it to nodded absently, still staring at the sleeping dragon.
"I'm sorry, but what did you do?" She asked, as Eon helped her tie her scarf again and made sure the badge was properly on display. "My power's getting nothing out of this."
"Your power?"
"Cape, Parahuman, whichever." She added. "Superpowers. I make connections, but right now I'm getting… basically static, from Lung."
"Lung?" Shadow cocked her head.
"Capes have names for in costume, and it's considered a very bad thing to use someone's real name while they're in costume, or vice versa." The blonde explained. "They're called the Unwritten Rules, and they're something you might want to look up sometime."
"Huh. Interesting." Eon murmured, lowly enough so that Shadow barely heard him.
"I used some of my Moves on him." Shadow explained in return, looking backwards at the slumbering Cape. "Baby-Doll Eyes, which lowers Attack, Tail Whip to lower Defence, Captivate lowers Special Attack, then Confuse Ray and Hypnosis, which Confused him and put him to sleep."
"Why do I hear capitals there?"
"Because they're stats." Eon continued, sitting on his haunches and sweeping his tails around his legs. "Attack and Special Attack govern the outgoing effectiveness of Physical and Special Moves respectively- for example, something like a Tackle would be Physical, while Flamethrower is Special- and Defence and Special Defence deal with incoming attacks of the same type. If Shadow here was to Tackle me, then her Attack would go against my Defence, for instance, and the damage I took would depend on the outcomes of that."
"Interesting…" The blonde mused. "And 'Confused'?"
"Pretty much what it suggests." The white Ninetails said. "It causes an enemy to act strangely, misinterpreting orders and sometimes injuring themselves because they were distracted part way through an attack."
"I think I want to talk to the two of you again sometime." She decided, after a moment's pause. "This sounds incredibly interesting."
"I'd like that." Shadow smiled. "Oh! Actually, what's your names? You know mine, and Eon's, after all."
"I'm Tattletale," the girl replied, with a vulpine smile both fox Pokemon matched. "That's Grue, our leader, that's Regent, and the girl at the back is Bitch." They turned their heads sharply to look at her. "It's just what she prefers. The PRT tries to call her Hellhound, but her name's Bitch." Slowly, Eon nodded.
"And her?" He pressed, pointing at the bug user. Said Cape twitched, seeming embarrassed at being singled out.
"Ah, um, I don't have a name." She told him. "First night out." Shadow's eyebrow rose.
"Wow. Who thinks to fight a dragon on their first night? Even our first exploration was pretty low rank."
"Our first exploration was an E Rank, in a forest, pix." Eon deadpanned. "Of course it was easy for a pair of Fire types."
"Neh." She stuck her tongue out at her partner, who sighed. "Anyway, what about… Illumise?
"I-llu-me-say."
"I-llu-mys." Shadow retorted. "No distracting me. Or Masquerain? Or Vespiquen, or Vivillon? Maybe Genesect?"
"Pardon?" Tattletale and the girl chorused. Eon sighed.
"All of them were different 'mons we're familiar with." Waving one of his tails like a brush, the air rippled, and pictures of the different Pokemon Shadow had suggested appeared there. "All Bug types, though Genesect is what's called a Legendary. They're all really powerful."
"Ah- maybe not that, then." She winced.
"Vespiquen could be good for you, though." Eon gave, making the mentioned Pokemon float forward slightly. "Female only, and they direct a hive of Combee, the pre-evolved form." A pair of Combee appeared as well. "The left is Male, and the Females have that red mark to identify them."
"And no-one would mind?" Shadow snorted.
"We've got a Vespiquen on call as part of the team backup." She told her. "She'd probably take it as a complement that you chose to use her name as your own."
"I- thank you, then. I'll think about it." The possibly-newly-named Cape smiled behind her mask, and Eon nodded in return.
"No worries. Now, Shadow," the younger fox looked over at him as the illusions vanished. "Come on, it's time we got going. Still need to set up a base, after all."
"Yup yup!" She bounced, jumping on the spot. "Lead the way, leader! Bye, you guys! And girls!" Eon rolled his eyes, standing and turning in a sweeping movement. "Seeya again sometime!" Both of them padded off, turning into a nearby alleyway and stalking down it.
Flicking his tails, Eon set up the invisibility illusion again, looking at his teammate.
"What do you think?"
"They're odd." She replied promptly, trotting to keep up with him. "That Tattletale girl reminds me a bit of that annoying Alakazam we met ages ago."
"She did have a very smug air, yes." Eon nodded. "But I mean about them as a whole."
"I think the bug girl would be a really good Rescue team member." Shadow began. "She's got the right sort of air for it, and fighting a dragon takes a lot of guts."
"Rather like someone else I know." He smirked, looking slyly at his partner, who pouted.
"Look, not my fault the silly Druddigon was mad…" She grouched.
"I wasn't implying such a thing. Now, the other team?"
"I don't think they're a Rescue team, or really good guys at all. I don't think they're bad, not like those meanies in Team Meanies, but they aren't good guys either." Shadow decided, after a moment's pause. "Dunno why, though."
"Interesting." Eon frowned, then adjusted the illusion slightly as they went onto a main street. "We'll have to see if we can speak to that Tattletale girl again soon, then."
"Alright. Hey, can we try and find the bug girl too?" Shadow asked, enthusiastic. "I liked the feel of her."
"Ok, ok." He smiled slightly through his sigh. "After we have a base set up. Can't be a Rescue team without a base, after all."
"Nope!" Shadow ran after him with a grin. "Hey! Maybe when we're done, we can recruit the bug girl into the team! I mean, she'd have to be here and couldn't come with us… unless one of the really big Legendaries did something, but she could be in our team here! How cool would that be?"
Eon sighed heavily again as Shadow began another spiel, turning down a new street and passing a motorcycle roaring the other way.
Some things never change…
Lisa stared at the alleyway the two talking foxes had left through, and sighed heavily. If that sentence isn't a sign that my life's getting too weird, then I have no idea what is.
"Well." Brian tried behind her. "That was something."
"Yeah." The new Cape nodded. "I just got given advice on Cape business from two foxes from who knows where. Not what I was expecting on my first night."
"Believe me, we weren't expecting them either." Alec said lackadaisically. Rachel grunted, while Lisa pursed her lips.
"Come on, team, let's get out of here in case big 'n scaly over there wakes up once the little one's out of range." She put forward, starting towards the dogs. "Hey, Bugs, need a lift somewhere safe?"
"Um, sure, I guess." The Cape looked nervously at Lung. "Would you be able to drop me off at Winslow?"
"The shithole high school?" Alec said, looking around the group.
"We can do that." Lisa nodded. "Bitch, Grue, I'll borrow one of the dogs and take Bugs here where she needs to go."
"Alright." Brian nodded. Rachel glared at her for a moment, then grunted her agreement, swinging herself onto Brutus' back while Brian and Alec climbed onto Judas. Lisa made her way up onto Angelica, offering a hand to the other Cape to help her up, then whistled a command to the dog, having her jump up to the roof and towards the school in silence. Behind her, she heard the other two dogs jumping after her, following her lead in silence as the strangeness of the night finally settled in for all of them.
When Armsmaster found the scene several minutes later, all he found was a collection of thrown objects, a number of burn scars on the ground, and an unconscious, slowly shrinking Cape lying face down on the ground, snoring slightly.
Right then. Big dragon, lots of times my size. Going to be difficult to fight head on, kinda like Dialga, but I'm smaller than him, so I can use that. Looks like a dragon, but he's on fire... wait, Eon said that they don't have the same rules here, so they probably don't have types either, right? She sniffed the air curiously. Then again, he's on fire. Pretty sure he's immune to fire, then. Darn, that's bad, I do a lot of fire stuff. Least I'm not a one-trick foxy, so let's try some other things, eh? A vague plan in mind, she tilted her head carefully to the side, making her eyes go wide, and started her attack.
"Mr Dragon Guy, why're you being so mean?" She said, pouting. "I mean, I haven't done anything to you, so why'd you want to fight?" The face of the angry dragon softened slightly, so she powered up her attack. "And Ms Bug Lady didn't mean to hurt you too bad. You must have startled her. Makes sense; dragons are super cool and scary, and a dragon on fire is, like, double the coolness! But it is kinda scary too, I guess, especially to someone who can still be hurt by fire. But you really didn't need to try hurting her really bad, though. That'd be mean, and she might've gotten really hurt." The dragon leaned down slightly, looking a lot calmer, and she started gently wagging her tails. "And I'm sorry if I've annoyed you at all, Mr Dragon Guy. I really didn't mean too, I promise! I just saw that Ms Bug Lady was in trouble, and I thought I should probably help her before someone got really hurt." The Cape grumbled something, so Shadow fired off a Captivate as well just to try and slow him down. "Are you alright now? Are we ok now? I'm sorry..."
Quietly, Shadow thought she could hear Eon chuckling in the background, and almost smirked. Still got it, ya old fox! Now, the final bit... Her fur rippled a little from a phantom breeze, and her eyes began to glow a gentle white.
"I mean, if we're ok, I guess you can stop being so mad now, right? You have somewhere else you can go to, yeah? So would you like to go there?" Looking her opponent in the eyes- huh, has he shrunk a bit? Weird- she focused her attack further. "Or I suppose you could just go to sleep now, and take a rest. No-one else is gonna cause trouble for you, and I'm not gonna get hurt if you do, so you can just take a rest. That makes sense, right?" She widened her eyes and waved her tails again, both Captivate and Tail Whip taking effect again. To muddle to waters a bit- heh, waters with a fire guy. Bit, what's the word, contra-dic-tory?- her eyes flickered again as she used Confuse Ray. He flinched slightly as the yellow dots hit him, his eyes going vague, and she used Hypnosis again. This time, the dragon wavered, the fire flickered as he swayed, then Shadow was forced to jump backwards as he fell forward, snoring before he impacted the ground. He bounced slightly, and she winced before realising the scales covering him had taken the impact so he didn't feel it. The fire around him began to disappear and he began shrinking slowly, making her nod. Turning as she heard a patter of claws on concrete, she grinned toothily at Eon, who was prowling his way slowly towards the two of them.
Stepping around the smaller fox, the white Ninetales inched forwards, sniffing at the dragonic prey. Nodding once towards her, Eon indicated away with his tail. Both of them padded away from the sleeping enemy, back towards the alley where they'd come in from, and Shadow raised an eyebrow to see the rest of the group from the rooftop leaning against various walls in differing states of shock and awe.
"Good job, little vixen." He nodded, seeming amused. "No damage at all, which is a plus." Shadow giggled.
"He wasn't that bad, once I knew what I was doing." She replied, keeping her voice calm and level so she didn't accidentally wake her former opponent. "Nowhere near as bad as Dialga was. And nothing like that little mishap with Wigglytuff." Eon flinched harshly, unconsciously flicking his tails in an uncomfortable manner.
"Pix, nothing is like that mishap with Wigglytuff. Not even Arceus himself showing up would be like it." He said grumpily. She giggled, making him glare at her a little before lightening up. "Still, why didn't you use Imprison? I know you know it."
"Because I remembered that you said there's different rules here, so I didn't know if Imprison would stop him using his fire like it should. They don't have Moves, after all." Shadow watched Eon raise an eyebrow, nodding approvingly.
"Very good."
"Hey, it's not just because of you we got that Hyper Rank, y'know." She grinned. "Actually, speaking of that, can I have my scarf back, please?" The blonde girl she'd given it to nodded absently, still staring at the sleeping dragon.
"I'm sorry, but what did you do?" She asked, as Eon helped her tie her scarf again and made sure the badge was properly on display. "My power's getting nothing out of this."
"Your power?"
"Cape, Parahuman, whichever." She added. "Superpowers. I make connections, but right now I'm getting… basically static, from Lung."
"Lung?" Shadow cocked her head.
"Capes have names for in costume, and it's considered a very bad thing to use someone's real name while they're in costume, or vice versa." The blonde explained. "They're called the Unwritten Rules, and they're something you might want to look up sometime."
"Huh. Interesting." Eon murmured, lowly enough so that Shadow barely heard him.
"I used some of my Moves on him." Shadow explained in return, looking backwards at the slumbering Cape. "Baby-Doll Eyes, which lowers Attack, Tail Whip to lower Defence, Captivate lowers Special Attack, then Confuse Ray and Hypnosis, which Confused him and put him to sleep."
"Why do I hear capitals there?"
"Because they're stats." Eon continued, sitting on his haunches and sweeping his tails around his legs. "Attack and Special Attack govern the outgoing effectiveness of Physical and Special Moves respectively- for example, something like a Tackle would be Physical, while Flamethrower is Special- and Defence and Special Defence deal with incoming attacks of the same type. If Shadow here was to Tackle me, then her Attack would go against my Defence, for instance, and the damage I took would depend on the outcomes of that."
"Interesting…" The blonde mused. "And 'Confused'?"
"Pretty much what it suggests." The white Ninetails said. "It causes an enemy to act strangely, misinterpreting orders and sometimes injuring themselves because they were distracted part way through an attack."
"I think I want to talk to the two of you again sometime." She decided, after a moment's pause. "This sounds incredibly interesting."
"I'd like that." Shadow smiled. "Oh! Actually, what's your names? You know mine, and Eon's, after all."
"I'm Tattletale," the girl replied, with a vulpine smile both fox Pokemon matched. "That's Grue, our leader, that's Regent, and the girl at the back is Bitch." They turned their heads sharply to look at her. "It's just what she prefers. The PRT tries to call her Hellhound, but her name's Bitch." Slowly, Eon nodded.
"And her?" He pressed, pointing at the bug user. Said Cape twitched, seeming embarrassed at being singled out.
"Ah, um, I don't have a name." She told him. "First night out." Shadow's eyebrow rose.
"Wow. Who thinks to fight a dragon on their first night? Even our first exploration was pretty low rank."
"Our first exploration was an E Rank, in a forest, pix." Eon deadpanned. "Of course it was easy for a pair of Fire types."
"Neh." She stuck her tongue out at her partner, who sighed. "Anyway, what about… Illumise?
"I-llu-me-say."
"I-llu-mys." Shadow retorted. "No distracting me. Or Masquerain? Or Vespiquen, or Vivillon? Maybe Genesect?"
"Pardon?" Tattletale and the girl chorused. Eon sighed.
"All of them were different 'mons we're familiar with." Waving one of his tails like a brush, the air rippled, and pictures of the different Pokemon Shadow had suggested appeared there. "All Bug types, though Genesect is what's called a Legendary. They're all really powerful."
"Ah- maybe not that, then." She winced.
"Vespiquen could be good for you, though." Eon gave, making the mentioned Pokemon float forward slightly. "Female only, and they direct a hive of Combee, the pre-evolved form." A pair of Combee appeared as well. "The left is Male, and the Females have that red mark to identify them."
"And no-one would mind?" Shadow snorted.
"We've got a Vespiquen on call as part of the team backup." She told her. "She'd probably take it as a complement that you chose to use her name as your own."
"I- thank you, then. I'll think about it." The possibly-newly-named Cape smiled behind her mask, and Eon nodded in return.
"No worries. Now, Shadow," the younger fox looked over at him as the illusions vanished. "Come on, it's time we got going. Still need to set up a base, after all."
"Yup yup!" She bounced, jumping on the spot. "Lead the way, leader! Bye, you guys! And girls!" Eon rolled his eyes, standing and turning in a sweeping movement. "Seeya again sometime!" Both of them padded off, turning into a nearby alleyway and stalking down it.
Flicking his tails, Eon set up the invisibility illusion again, looking at his teammate.
"What do you think?"
"They're odd." She replied promptly, trotting to keep up with him. "That Tattletale girl reminds me a bit of that annoying Alakazam we met ages ago."
"She did have a very smug air, yes." Eon nodded. "But I mean about them as a whole."
"I think the bug girl would be a really good Rescue team member." Shadow began. "She's got the right sort of air for it, and fighting a dragon takes a lot of guts."
"Rather like someone else I know." He smirked, looking slyly at his partner, who pouted.
"Look, not my fault the silly Druddigon was mad…" She grouched.
"I wasn't implying such a thing. Now, the other team?"
"I don't think they're a Rescue team, or really good guys at all. I don't think they're bad, not like those meanies in Team Meanies, but they aren't good guys either." Shadow decided, after a moment's pause. "Dunno why, though."
"Interesting." Eon frowned, then adjusted the illusion slightly as they went onto a main street. "We'll have to see if we can speak to that Tattletale girl again soon, then."
"Alright. Hey, can we try and find the bug girl too?" Shadow asked, enthusiastic. "I liked the feel of her."
"Ok, ok." He smiled slightly through his sigh. "After we have a base set up. Can't be a Rescue team without a base, after all."
"Nope!" Shadow ran after him with a grin. "Hey! Maybe when we're done, we can recruit the bug girl into the team! I mean, she'd have to be here and couldn't come with us… unless one of the really big Legendaries did something, but she could be in our team here! How cool would that be?"
Eon sighed heavily again as Shadow began another spiel, turning down a new street and passing a motorcycle roaring the other way.
Some things never change…
Lisa stared at the alleyway the two talking foxes had left through, and sighed heavily. If that sentence isn't a sign that my life's getting too weird, then I have no idea what is.
"Well." Brian tried behind her. "That was something."
"Yeah." The new Cape nodded. "I just got given advice on Cape business from two foxes from who knows where. Not what I was expecting on my first night."
"Believe me, we weren't expecting them either." Alec said lackadaisically. Rachel grunted, while Lisa pursed her lips.
"Come on, team, let's get out of here in case big 'n scaly over there wakes up once the little one's out of range." She put forward, starting towards the dogs. "Hey, Bugs, need a lift somewhere safe?"
"Um, sure, I guess." The Cape looked nervously at Lung. "Would you be able to drop me off at Winslow?"
"The shithole high school?" Alec said, looking around the group.
"We can do that." Lisa nodded. "Bitch, Grue, I'll borrow one of the dogs and take Bugs here where she needs to go."
"Alright." Brian nodded. Rachel glared at her for a moment, then grunted her agreement, swinging herself onto Brutus' back while Brian and Alec climbed onto Judas. Lisa made her way up onto Angelica, offering a hand to the other Cape to help her up, then whistled a command to the dog, having her jump up to the roof and towards the school in silence. Behind her, she heard the other two dogs jumping after her, following her lead in silence as the strangeness of the night finally settled in for all of them.
When Armsmaster found the scene several minutes later, all he found was a collection of thrown objects, a number of burn scars on the ground, and an unconscious, slowly shrinking Cape lying face down on the ground, snoring slightly.
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Chapter 3- Bases, conclusions, and exposition
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
"This place looks pretty neat!" Shadow grinned enthusiastically, bolting around the area with glee. "All foresty and green… it's pretty, too! Way nicer than the guild, or the cave in Sharpedo Bluff."
"I thought you liked Sharpedo Bluff." Eon queried, seating himself at the base of a tree to watch her.
"I did. It was just kinda drafty, and a bit boring in there. Too many rocks, made me think of that boring old mountain we found the smith Ninetales on. This is nice, though. Lots of trees to mess about with and it's all pretty!"
"You'd need to be more careful not to set this one on fire, though." Eon said drily. Shadow popped out from behind the tree she was running near and glared at him.
"It only happened once, and that wasn't even my fault!" Shadow yipped angrily at him. "And we fixed it! Besides, that field was ugly anyway!" Eon chortled to himself.
"As you say, little pix." He grinned. "Besides the point. Set up a base here?"
"Hmmm..." Shadow walked around the tree, looking about the forest. "Yeah, I think so. It's pretty, and kinda nicely hidden." She hummed. "We'd need to knock down a bunch of stuff to make a base, though."
"Eh." Eon shrugged, standing again with a ripple. "We can put something together, don't you think?"
"Yeah!" The Vulpix bounced. "C'mon, Eon, let's go find stuff and build a little base!" He laughed.
"You go and find sticks and branches to build with, ok? I'll set up the area to build in."
"O-kay!" Shadow ran off, weaving through the trees, while Eon panned his view about. His eyes fell on an old tree, a willow, with a few roots poking out from the ground.
"Hmm..." Sniffing for a moment, Eon nodded. "Yeah, this'll do." Pawing at the ground to make a little indent, he began digging using his Psychic power, making a hole under the tree roots.
Lung looked up as Armsmaster entered his view, standing outside his cell.
"Come to gloat?" He growled, before Miss Militia made her way over as well.
"No. We came to find out what happened." The woman said, looking at him. Lung raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you would know, Miss Militia." He scowled. "Indeed, I do not myself, truly." Armsmaster stiffened slightly.
"How don't you know?" He asked. "You were the one fighting."
"Indeed." The Dragon of Kyushu nodded. "I was. I fought an insect user. She was not who won, however."
"So you killed her." It wasn't phrased as a question, but he snorted and shook his head.
"No. She was carried away by my opponent's partner." He laughed. "A grey Kyuubi, one clearly of great power, rescued her from our fight."
"A Kyuubi?" Miss Militia asked, confused.
"A kitsune of legend, but one who has aged to the point of near-Kami." He explained slowly. "Such a powerful creature could defeat even me with ease, such are their strength."
"So this... Kyuubi," Armsmaster said, "Fought you?" Lung barked out a laugh.
"No, it did not. If it had, I feel it may be likely there would have been more damage to our arena." He snorted. "And potentially more weather changes. No, the white Kyuubi did not challenge me. That it left to a younger kitsune, with six tails, it called its shadow."
"And the younger one beat you?" Miss Militia checked.
"It did. Do not be fooled; young at it may have appeared, to have six tails tells of its great strength." He growled to himself again, irritated at the memory of his defeat. "And it did not even use its power upon me. It merely spoke, and calmed my rage with its words, before sending me to sleep, where you clearly found me. The Kyuubi and its kitsune must have taken the Cape with them as they left. The Undersiders were there as well, though I do not know what those legendary creatures would have done with them." He thought for a moment. "Perhaps it killed them, though I doubt it. Kitsune are not known for such actions. More likely that the Kyuubi merely removed them from the area for whatever reason it may have had." Miss Militia and Armsmaster exchanged glances, before the Tinker thudded away. Miss Militia waited a moment more, giving a nod of thanks to the captive Cape, before following her fellow Protectorate member.
Lung snorted, settling back in his cell.
A Kyuubi saved that girl, he thought to himself, and a white Kyuubi at that. Even if it sent the younger kit to battle me, the Kyuubi was still the one to save her. His eyes widened slightly, long-ago stories coming back to the forefront of his mind. A white Kyuubi... one of Inari-sama's messengers? And the young kitsune must have been a younger Zenko kitsune. Perhaps some kind of apprentice?
He placed a hand on his chin.
For not one, but two messengers of Inari-sama to come to the rescue of that Cape, and two so old and powerful as a six-tailed and a Kyuubi no less... interesting. He mused silently. Yes, very interesting indeed. For Inari-sama to send a messenger to her... but was it for her, or for me? He paused at that. If it was for me, it was to stop my actions and protect the girl. If not, Inari-sama had a message for the Cape, and I was a target of opportunity. As, perhaps, were the Undersiders. He nodded firmly to himself. If Inari-sama allows it, then perhaps I shall watch for that Cape as well. I believe she will go to do great things.
Decision made, Lung leaned back against the wall again, resolving to instruct his men to avoid the girl and Inari's kitsune the next chance he got, when he inevitably was broken out of the PRT's hold, as well as resolving to try and follow the Cape's journey closely.
He did not think she would die, like most Capes who were independent. She would likely not be a villain, given what he saw of her morals and that Inari himself was guiding her in some way. New Wave was unlikely, unless she had no family, and the Wards would be a bad fit for her if she was being guided by a Kami. No, independent she would be, so he would watch to see where she went in her career.
It would, at the very least, be interesting.
Carefully, Shadow nudged the last branch into place under Eon's watching eyes.
"I think we're done." She grinned, flopping to the ground. "Right, Eon?" The Ninetales walked forward, circling the little den once before nodding.
"I think so, Shadow." He agreed, smiling at her. "Should do well."
"Mhm." The little fox yawned. "Took a bit too long, though. Probably going to be daytime soon."
"There's enough time to rest, though." Eon said, poking her in the side. She yipped, affronted, and he snickered. "C'mon pix, we'll go explore a bit more later."
"Mkay." She grumbled, slinking inside. He heard her curl up on the bed she'd claimed, and a few seconds later her snores drifted out, making him smile to himself.
"Good job, pix." He said quietly. "Might've pushed our luck asking you to fight the dragon guy- Lung, but you did good there. Definitely not the little apprentice I picked up a few years ago." He chuckled at the memory of the young, wide-eyed Vulpix who'd asked him to help her be a Rescue team Pokemon, before following her inside, pulling closed the woven door while the willow tree settled around them, hiding it from sight.
"... and that's how our universe works." Tattletale finished, leaning back in her chair and sipping on a mug of coffee. On the other side of the table, Eon nodded.
"I see."
"So, there's a bunch of people with powers that've been through a really bad event, and loads of them keep fighting each other? Sounds kinda scary." Shadow opined, drinking her hot chocolate.
"It can be, especially the Endbringers." Tattletale nodded. "I've never actually seen one up close, and I really hope I won't have to anytime in the future, but we've all seen the new reports. The last attack was in Feburary, the Simurgh, so there's probably going to be another next month."
"I see..." Eon mused again, twitching his tails.
"Yeah." She said. "Well, you've shown up randomly at our base- and it's really annoying me that you found us so easily, by the way- and I've explained how everything here works so you don't do something stupid. Now, your end of the deal. Where did you come from, and how?" Eon chuckled.
"Alright, alright. You've certainly helped us, so we will explain. We come from a world full of Pokemon, creatures like ourselves and the ones we showed you yesterday. I'm called a Ninetales there, while Shadow is a Vulpix, the pre-evolved form."
"I'm not gonna evolve, though. I like being me!" Shadow grinned.
"There are different types of Pokemon, eighteen in total, and some types have an advantage over others- for example, as a Fire type, I have an advantage against Ice, but in turn Water types have an advantage over me." Eon waved his tail. "Moves have types as well, so Moves that have the same type as the user are stronger than others.
"Most Pokemon are fairly common, but some are known as Legendaries, like Genesect. These are very rare Pokemon- sometimes there's only one in existence- and they're pretty close to a sort of god. Then there are Mythicals, though I admit I don't really know what the difference is between a Legend and a Mythical."
"Interesting." Tattletale hummed. "What did Shadow mean about Hyper Rank last night?"
"Ah, you heard that?" Shadow blushed. "Well, in our world there's things called Mystery Dungeons, and Rescue or Exploration teams get formed to go look about in them. A lot of the time they do jobs, like rescuing people or finding lost items or fighting criminals that're hiding in a dungeon. There's ranks that get assigned that say how good your team is, which lets you do more difficult missions." She brightened a little. "Sometimes, if you get really powerful and famous, you might get challenges from Legendary or Mythical Pokemon!"
"And you're Hyper Rank?"
"Yep!" Shadow turned, showing Tattletale the badge on her scarf. "Exploration teams start on Normal Rank, then there's Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Super, Ultra and Hyper. Above that is Master, and that climbs through three starred versions to Guildmaster." She frowned. "Though we aren't all that famous, and we still got a challenge from Hoopla, which is what brought us here in the first place."
"You're here because of a challenge?"
"Naw, we finished that." Shadow shook her head. "Dunno why Hoopla sent us here, but he kinda showed up on one of our off days and asked if we could go somewhere for some reason. We said yeah, and then we came here."
"Anyway, we got that challenge request from Hoopa, which we ended up winning." Eon flicked his fur slightly. "And to be fair, we were kinda famous for helping out with that rescue for Uxie and Azelf, which is probably why we got a challenge from Hoopa."
"Uxie, Azelf?" Tattletale questioned. A flick of his tail caused three illusionary Legends to appear above the table.
"Uxie is the yellow one, Azelf is the blue one. The pink one's called Mesprit. We were asked to help find Mesprit, since she'd gone missing. They're Legends, but it turns out someone had attacked Mesprit to try and steal something she was guarding."
"What was it?"
"A crystal." Shadow said, unnaturally serious. "Part of something really important, Uxie and Azelf had been attacked over them as well, and we were asked to make sure she was ok, and found her unconscious, though the crystal was safe."
"To be fair, at least it was for a good reason." Eon reasoned. "Though he could have explained things rather than just stealing them."
"What-"
"Another time, Tattletale." Eon said seriously. "But for the most part, that's all there is to our world. The battle mechanics Pokemon tend to use are complicated, there's status effects and stuff to deal with too, but none of those are really relevant here so there's no point going into them."
"I see." The Thinker- as she'd explained her powers- looked annoyed at the fact that her power didn't work on them very well, but she let the subject drop. "What do you plan on doing now?"
"The normal rescue work, probably." Eon shrugged with a ripple. "Rescue people, explore... not sure other than that."
"Yeah, there's not really any Dungeons or anything here..." Tattletale frowned. "Hero work might do for you... Don't suppose I could persuade you to join a villain team? The Undersiders have fairly good pay, the Boss is pretty generous." Smirking vulpinely, Eon reached a paw across the table.
"No, I think we'd rather avoid villain work. Though acting as your heroic rivals might be an amusing pass time." Tattletale grinned, putting her hand on his paw-
"As you wish. I have been watching you for some time, Lisa Wilbourn, I have become aware that you are something special, and I would like to buy your services."
Word choice, buy vs. hire: large amounts of money involved.
Word choice, buy vs. make an offer: not really a negotiation.
She glanced at the weapons the three hired guns had in hand.
"I'm listening."
-Eon shuddered slightly at the vision, a sound suspiciously like a scream echoing in the back of his mind.
"Yeah, that might be funny. Look, get yourself a phone or something- a burner, not something permanent- and maybe we can try and set something up with you sometime. It might give you some clout with the heroes." The purple-suited Cape frowned behind her mask. "Maybe I should see about giving Bugs some help too. Either on our team or maybe try set her up with you guys, if you'll take her."
"I'd love to!" Shadow grinned, while Eon removed his paw. "It'd be fun, though she wouldn't fit the theme."
"Theme?"
"We're Team Inari." Tattletale snorted.
"Like the Japanese God?" Shadow cocked her head.
"Dunno about that. In our world, Inari's a Ninetales like Eon here, but massive and super powerful and super old. Sometimes he's white, and sometimes he's a normal gold Ninetales, but a lot of the time he shows up as a red Ninetales. Apparently he hides in a mountain range that no-one's ever found. Pokemon used to think Eon was a messenger from Inari, since he's a shiny Ninetales."
"And I wouldn't know either way." Eon grumped. "Amnesia for a lot of my life, so I wouldn't know if I was one of Inari's helping Ninetales or not. Things were dull for a while, then Shadow here worked up the courage to ask me to make an Exploration team with her so she could join the Wigglytuff Guild. Had a lot of fun there over the last year and a half."
"Do you care that you don't remember?" Tattletale asked gently.
"Not really. If I find out what went on before, then I will. I'm happy as I am, so I'm not gonna try tripping the balance for something that doesn't matter all that much anymore." Tattletale blinked slowly.
"I see... Well, Inari's a god here as well. I'll let you use the computer to look it up if you want, though you could probably use your illusions and just go to a library or something to use the computers there." She grinned. "But yeah, you should probably go and look the stuff up at some point. Y'know, just in case..."
Taylor looked around the room carefully once again. It was a computer lesson, and she'd finished with her work, so she was going to use the rest of the time she had left to do a little bit of research into what had happened the night before.
It had been... weird, to say the least. Running into that group with the dogs was a bit of a surprise, as was finding out from Tattletale that Lung had been after them for a stunt they'd pulled. That had been a bit awkward, since it wasn't really children she'd been trying to save after all.
Quickly, she looked up the names that'd come up in the conversation with the other strange additions and read the results.
Her eyes widened.
Villains? She thought, closing the tabs and leaning back in her chair to think. I went and fought Lung for a bunch of villains? Before she could get too worked up about that, she frowned. Then again, they seemed… alright. Not like bad people at all. She shook her head, reaching for the mouse again. Never mind that for now. I can figure out more about them later, when there's time. Moving for the search bar again, she contemplated what she was about to do for a second, then typed in a search for information on white nine-tails foxes.
Nearly ten minutes later, she closed the tab and leaned back, gaping slightly.
You've got to be kidding me. She closed her eyes, pressing the balls of her palms against them, and flinched as the bell rang. Slowly shutting down her computer, she contemplated what she'd just read over, trying to figure it out as she walked to her next class, head down. Is someone pranking me? Using a projection of a white Kyuubi as a way of fooling me? And a little kitsune as well? Or am I literally being followed around by a god's messenger and it's friend? The thought followed her through the rest of the day, causing her to completely ignore the attempts at bullying the rest of the school did.
I wonder if it's true?
"Y'kay, Eon?" Shadow asked, as the invisible duo left the city proper and headed into the outskirts.
"Hm?" The larger fox shook his head, looking down at her in confusion.
"You ok?" She asked again, cocking her head. "You look kinda distracted. You were like that in the Undersider's base too, actually." She grinned. "Something on your mind?"
"Had another dizzy spell." He said quietly. Her eyes widened, and she automatically glanced around, despite there being no-one around and them being invisible.
"What did you see?" Shadow questioned softly.
"Flashback into Tattletale's past, I think." He replied, just as gently.
"Anything interesting?"
"I don't think she willingly joined that group." Eon muttered. "I saw the conversation where she was... recruited." He practically spat the word. "Three people, two males and a female, with guns, while her boss talked to her. It wasn't a request for her to work with him."
"I see." Shadow bit her lip, fangs pointing over slightly. "Do you think we should take a look into that?"
"Maybe, yeah." He nodded. "And we should probably look into this Inari thing, as well."
"We've got some time." Shadow looked upwards. "Think we should go search for a library for a bit?"
"Sure." Eon agreed, shaking the thoughts of the vision from his mind for a while. "Stay close, ok?"
"Ok!" Her mood immediately bounced back to normal, grinning and jumping on the spot as she began looking around them both, moving back towards the city again. Eon chuckled lowly at her change, following behind her as she ran from building to building, balancing on her back paws as she looked into windows.
"I thought you liked Sharpedo Bluff." Eon queried, seating himself at the base of a tree to watch her.
"I did. It was just kinda drafty, and a bit boring in there. Too many rocks, made me think of that boring old mountain we found the smith Ninetales on. This is nice, though. Lots of trees to mess about with and it's all pretty!"
"You'd need to be more careful not to set this one on fire, though." Eon said drily. Shadow popped out from behind the tree she was running near and glared at him.
"It only happened once, and that wasn't even my fault!" Shadow yipped angrily at him. "And we fixed it! Besides, that field was ugly anyway!" Eon chortled to himself.
"As you say, little pix." He grinned. "Besides the point. Set up a base here?"
"Hmmm..." Shadow walked around the tree, looking about the forest. "Yeah, I think so. It's pretty, and kinda nicely hidden." She hummed. "We'd need to knock down a bunch of stuff to make a base, though."
"Eh." Eon shrugged, standing again with a ripple. "We can put something together, don't you think?"
"Yeah!" The Vulpix bounced. "C'mon, Eon, let's go find stuff and build a little base!" He laughed.
"You go and find sticks and branches to build with, ok? I'll set up the area to build in."
"O-kay!" Shadow ran off, weaving through the trees, while Eon panned his view about. His eyes fell on an old tree, a willow, with a few roots poking out from the ground.
"Hmm..." Sniffing for a moment, Eon nodded. "Yeah, this'll do." Pawing at the ground to make a little indent, he began digging using his Psychic power, making a hole under the tree roots.
Lung looked up as Armsmaster entered his view, standing outside his cell.
"Come to gloat?" He growled, before Miss Militia made her way over as well.
"No. We came to find out what happened." The woman said, looking at him. Lung raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you would know, Miss Militia." He scowled. "Indeed, I do not myself, truly." Armsmaster stiffened slightly.
"How don't you know?" He asked. "You were the one fighting."
"Indeed." The Dragon of Kyushu nodded. "I was. I fought an insect user. She was not who won, however."
"So you killed her." It wasn't phrased as a question, but he snorted and shook his head.
"No. She was carried away by my opponent's partner." He laughed. "A grey Kyuubi, one clearly of great power, rescued her from our fight."
"A Kyuubi?" Miss Militia asked, confused.
"A kitsune of legend, but one who has aged to the point of near-Kami." He explained slowly. "Such a powerful creature could defeat even me with ease, such are their strength."
"So this... Kyuubi," Armsmaster said, "Fought you?" Lung barked out a laugh.
"No, it did not. If it had, I feel it may be likely there would have been more damage to our arena." He snorted. "And potentially more weather changes. No, the white Kyuubi did not challenge me. That it left to a younger kitsune, with six tails, it called its shadow."
"And the younger one beat you?" Miss Militia checked.
"It did. Do not be fooled; young at it may have appeared, to have six tails tells of its great strength." He growled to himself again, irritated at the memory of his defeat. "And it did not even use its power upon me. It merely spoke, and calmed my rage with its words, before sending me to sleep, where you clearly found me. The Kyuubi and its kitsune must have taken the Cape with them as they left. The Undersiders were there as well, though I do not know what those legendary creatures would have done with them." He thought for a moment. "Perhaps it killed them, though I doubt it. Kitsune are not known for such actions. More likely that the Kyuubi merely removed them from the area for whatever reason it may have had." Miss Militia and Armsmaster exchanged glances, before the Tinker thudded away. Miss Militia waited a moment more, giving a nod of thanks to the captive Cape, before following her fellow Protectorate member.
Lung snorted, settling back in his cell.
A Kyuubi saved that girl, he thought to himself, and a white Kyuubi at that. Even if it sent the younger kit to battle me, the Kyuubi was still the one to save her. His eyes widened slightly, long-ago stories coming back to the forefront of his mind. A white Kyuubi... one of Inari-sama's messengers? And the young kitsune must have been a younger Zenko kitsune. Perhaps some kind of apprentice?
He placed a hand on his chin.
For not one, but two messengers of Inari-sama to come to the rescue of that Cape, and two so old and powerful as a six-tailed and a Kyuubi no less... interesting. He mused silently. Yes, very interesting indeed. For Inari-sama to send a messenger to her... but was it for her, or for me? He paused at that. If it was for me, it was to stop my actions and protect the girl. If not, Inari-sama had a message for the Cape, and I was a target of opportunity. As, perhaps, were the Undersiders. He nodded firmly to himself. If Inari-sama allows it, then perhaps I shall watch for that Cape as well. I believe she will go to do great things.
Decision made, Lung leaned back against the wall again, resolving to instruct his men to avoid the girl and Inari's kitsune the next chance he got, when he inevitably was broken out of the PRT's hold, as well as resolving to try and follow the Cape's journey closely.
He did not think she would die, like most Capes who were independent. She would likely not be a villain, given what he saw of her morals and that Inari himself was guiding her in some way. New Wave was unlikely, unless she had no family, and the Wards would be a bad fit for her if she was being guided by a Kami. No, independent she would be, so he would watch to see where she went in her career.
It would, at the very least, be interesting.
Carefully, Shadow nudged the last branch into place under Eon's watching eyes.
"I think we're done." She grinned, flopping to the ground. "Right, Eon?" The Ninetales walked forward, circling the little den once before nodding.
"I think so, Shadow." He agreed, smiling at her. "Should do well."
"Mhm." The little fox yawned. "Took a bit too long, though. Probably going to be daytime soon."
"There's enough time to rest, though." Eon said, poking her in the side. She yipped, affronted, and he snickered. "C'mon pix, we'll go explore a bit more later."
"Mkay." She grumbled, slinking inside. He heard her curl up on the bed she'd claimed, and a few seconds later her snores drifted out, making him smile to himself.
"Good job, pix." He said quietly. "Might've pushed our luck asking you to fight the dragon guy- Lung, but you did good there. Definitely not the little apprentice I picked up a few years ago." He chuckled at the memory of the young, wide-eyed Vulpix who'd asked him to help her be a Rescue team Pokemon, before following her inside, pulling closed the woven door while the willow tree settled around them, hiding it from sight.
"... and that's how our universe works." Tattletale finished, leaning back in her chair and sipping on a mug of coffee. On the other side of the table, Eon nodded.
"I see."
"So, there's a bunch of people with powers that've been through a really bad event, and loads of them keep fighting each other? Sounds kinda scary." Shadow opined, drinking her hot chocolate.
"It can be, especially the Endbringers." Tattletale nodded. "I've never actually seen one up close, and I really hope I won't have to anytime in the future, but we've all seen the new reports. The last attack was in Feburary, the Simurgh, so there's probably going to be another next month."
"I see..." Eon mused again, twitching his tails.
"Yeah." She said. "Well, you've shown up randomly at our base- and it's really annoying me that you found us so easily, by the way- and I've explained how everything here works so you don't do something stupid. Now, your end of the deal. Where did you come from, and how?" Eon chuckled.
"Alright, alright. You've certainly helped us, so we will explain. We come from a world full of Pokemon, creatures like ourselves and the ones we showed you yesterday. I'm called a Ninetales there, while Shadow is a Vulpix, the pre-evolved form."
"I'm not gonna evolve, though. I like being me!" Shadow grinned.
"There are different types of Pokemon, eighteen in total, and some types have an advantage over others- for example, as a Fire type, I have an advantage against Ice, but in turn Water types have an advantage over me." Eon waved his tail. "Moves have types as well, so Moves that have the same type as the user are stronger than others.
"Most Pokemon are fairly common, but some are known as Legendaries, like Genesect. These are very rare Pokemon- sometimes there's only one in existence- and they're pretty close to a sort of god. Then there are Mythicals, though I admit I don't really know what the difference is between a Legend and a Mythical."
"Interesting." Tattletale hummed. "What did Shadow mean about Hyper Rank last night?"
"Ah, you heard that?" Shadow blushed. "Well, in our world there's things called Mystery Dungeons, and Rescue or Exploration teams get formed to go look about in them. A lot of the time they do jobs, like rescuing people or finding lost items or fighting criminals that're hiding in a dungeon. There's ranks that get assigned that say how good your team is, which lets you do more difficult missions." She brightened a little. "Sometimes, if you get really powerful and famous, you might get challenges from Legendary or Mythical Pokemon!"
"And you're Hyper Rank?"
"Yep!" Shadow turned, showing Tattletale the badge on her scarf. "Exploration teams start on Normal Rank, then there's Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Super, Ultra and Hyper. Above that is Master, and that climbs through three starred versions to Guildmaster." She frowned. "Though we aren't all that famous, and we still got a challenge from Hoopla, which is what brought us here in the first place."
"You're here because of a challenge?"
"Naw, we finished that." Shadow shook her head. "Dunno why Hoopla sent us here, but he kinda showed up on one of our off days and asked if we could go somewhere for some reason. We said yeah, and then we came here."
"Anyway, we got that challenge request from Hoopa, which we ended up winning." Eon flicked his fur slightly. "And to be fair, we were kinda famous for helping out with that rescue for Uxie and Azelf, which is probably why we got a challenge from Hoopa."
"Uxie, Azelf?" Tattletale questioned. A flick of his tail caused three illusionary Legends to appear above the table.
"Uxie is the yellow one, Azelf is the blue one. The pink one's called Mesprit. We were asked to help find Mesprit, since she'd gone missing. They're Legends, but it turns out someone had attacked Mesprit to try and steal something she was guarding."
"What was it?"
"A crystal." Shadow said, unnaturally serious. "Part of something really important, Uxie and Azelf had been attacked over them as well, and we were asked to make sure she was ok, and found her unconscious, though the crystal was safe."
"To be fair, at least it was for a good reason." Eon reasoned. "Though he could have explained things rather than just stealing them."
"What-"
"Another time, Tattletale." Eon said seriously. "But for the most part, that's all there is to our world. The battle mechanics Pokemon tend to use are complicated, there's status effects and stuff to deal with too, but none of those are really relevant here so there's no point going into them."
"I see." The Thinker- as she'd explained her powers- looked annoyed at the fact that her power didn't work on them very well, but she let the subject drop. "What do you plan on doing now?"
"The normal rescue work, probably." Eon shrugged with a ripple. "Rescue people, explore... not sure other than that."
"Yeah, there's not really any Dungeons or anything here..." Tattletale frowned. "Hero work might do for you... Don't suppose I could persuade you to join a villain team? The Undersiders have fairly good pay, the Boss is pretty generous." Smirking vulpinely, Eon reached a paw across the table.
"No, I think we'd rather avoid villain work. Though acting as your heroic rivals might be an amusing pass time." Tattletale grinned, putting her hand on his paw-
"As you wish. I have been watching you for some time, Lisa Wilbourn, I have become aware that you are something special, and I would like to buy your services."
Word choice, buy vs. hire: large amounts of money involved.
Word choice, buy vs. make an offer: not really a negotiation.
She glanced at the weapons the three hired guns had in hand.
"I'm listening."
-Eon shuddered slightly at the vision, a sound suspiciously like a scream echoing in the back of his mind.
"Yeah, that might be funny. Look, get yourself a phone or something- a burner, not something permanent- and maybe we can try and set something up with you sometime. It might give you some clout with the heroes." The purple-suited Cape frowned behind her mask. "Maybe I should see about giving Bugs some help too. Either on our team or maybe try set her up with you guys, if you'll take her."
"I'd love to!" Shadow grinned, while Eon removed his paw. "It'd be fun, though she wouldn't fit the theme."
"Theme?"
"We're Team Inari." Tattletale snorted.
"Like the Japanese God?" Shadow cocked her head.
"Dunno about that. In our world, Inari's a Ninetales like Eon here, but massive and super powerful and super old. Sometimes he's white, and sometimes he's a normal gold Ninetales, but a lot of the time he shows up as a red Ninetales. Apparently he hides in a mountain range that no-one's ever found. Pokemon used to think Eon was a messenger from Inari, since he's a shiny Ninetales."
"And I wouldn't know either way." Eon grumped. "Amnesia for a lot of my life, so I wouldn't know if I was one of Inari's helping Ninetales or not. Things were dull for a while, then Shadow here worked up the courage to ask me to make an Exploration team with her so she could join the Wigglytuff Guild. Had a lot of fun there over the last year and a half."
"Do you care that you don't remember?" Tattletale asked gently.
"Not really. If I find out what went on before, then I will. I'm happy as I am, so I'm not gonna try tripping the balance for something that doesn't matter all that much anymore." Tattletale blinked slowly.
"I see... Well, Inari's a god here as well. I'll let you use the computer to look it up if you want, though you could probably use your illusions and just go to a library or something to use the computers there." She grinned. "But yeah, you should probably go and look the stuff up at some point. Y'know, just in case..."
Taylor looked around the room carefully once again. It was a computer lesson, and she'd finished with her work, so she was going to use the rest of the time she had left to do a little bit of research into what had happened the night before.
It had been... weird, to say the least. Running into that group with the dogs was a bit of a surprise, as was finding out from Tattletale that Lung had been after them for a stunt they'd pulled. That had been a bit awkward, since it wasn't really children she'd been trying to save after all.
Quickly, she looked up the names that'd come up in the conversation with the other strange additions and read the results.
Her eyes widened.
Villains? She thought, closing the tabs and leaning back in her chair to think. I went and fought Lung for a bunch of villains? Before she could get too worked up about that, she frowned. Then again, they seemed… alright. Not like bad people at all. She shook her head, reaching for the mouse again. Never mind that for now. I can figure out more about them later, when there's time. Moving for the search bar again, she contemplated what she was about to do for a second, then typed in a search for information on white nine-tails foxes.
Nearly ten minutes later, she closed the tab and leaned back, gaping slightly.
You've got to be kidding me. She closed her eyes, pressing the balls of her palms against them, and flinched as the bell rang. Slowly shutting down her computer, she contemplated what she'd just read over, trying to figure it out as she walked to her next class, head down. Is someone pranking me? Using a projection of a white Kyuubi as a way of fooling me? And a little kitsune as well? Or am I literally being followed around by a god's messenger and it's friend? The thought followed her through the rest of the day, causing her to completely ignore the attempts at bullying the rest of the school did.
I wonder if it's true?
"Y'kay, Eon?" Shadow asked, as the invisible duo left the city proper and headed into the outskirts.
"Hm?" The larger fox shook his head, looking down at her in confusion.
"You ok?" She asked again, cocking her head. "You look kinda distracted. You were like that in the Undersider's base too, actually." She grinned. "Something on your mind?"
"Had another dizzy spell." He said quietly. Her eyes widened, and she automatically glanced around, despite there being no-one around and them being invisible.
"What did you see?" Shadow questioned softly.
"Flashback into Tattletale's past, I think." He replied, just as gently.
"Anything interesting?"
"I don't think she willingly joined that group." Eon muttered. "I saw the conversation where she was... recruited." He practically spat the word. "Three people, two males and a female, with guns, while her boss talked to her. It wasn't a request for her to work with him."
"I see." Shadow bit her lip, fangs pointing over slightly. "Do you think we should take a look into that?"
"Maybe, yeah." He nodded. "And we should probably look into this Inari thing, as well."
"We've got some time." Shadow looked upwards. "Think we should go search for a library for a bit?"
"Sure." Eon agreed, shaking the thoughts of the vision from his mind for a while. "Stay close, ok?"
"Ok!" Her mood immediately bounced back to normal, grinning and jumping on the spot as she began looking around them both, moving back towards the city again. Eon chuckled lowly at her change, following behind her as she ran from building to building, balancing on her back paws as she looked into windows.
Last edited:
Chapter 4- Exploring, talking and teaming
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
"Eeeeeoooonnnnn?"
Eon sighed. "Yes, Shadow?"
"I'm bboooorrrreeeddd." The little Vulpix whined. "Where the hell are the library's in this city?"
"I don't know, Shadow." Eon sighed again, casually tugging her closer to his side to make sure she didn't run into the person they were passing in the other direction. "I don't know the layout of this city either, remember?"
"I know..." She huffed. "But still, how could we get through this much of the city and not run into a single library?"
"...Yeah, that is a little ridiculous." He nodded. "You don't smell anything?"
"Nope, and I know you don't either, Eon." Shadow grumped, looking around again. "There's just humans everywhere. Some of the shops look pretty cool, though." Eon glanced over, seeing her looking into a window of a nearby building, one filled with colourful clothes.
"I suppose." The Ninetales sighed. "Though I dunno why you're looking."
"Use them for illusions." She explained, moving along. "We might need 'em." Eon raised an eyebrow at her, then shot a speculative look at the window again and following her.
"Fair enough." Eon nodded. "Anything interesting?"
"Eh, some of it." Shadow shrugged. "Looks cool and all, but I don't really see the point in a lot of it."
"Hm..." Eon said non-commentally. "How're your illusions doing?" He asked instead.
"Ok, I think." She grinned. "I've been working pretty hard at them." Looking around, Eon nodded towards an alley that smelt abandoned.
"Want to show me?"
"Sure!" Shadow pattered down the alley, her tails waving in anticipation, while Eon padded after her in curiosity. "Alright," she turned, looking at him. "Whaddya want to see first?"
"Anything you want." He shrugged. Shadow nodded, chewing her lip.
"Right." Closing her eyes, she waved her tails back and forth, focusing. A second Ninetales, one the normal golden colour, flickered into being next to her, breathing steadily as it looked at Eon. The shiny Ninetales' eyes widened, and he carefully circled it, watching the illusion move to track him with its eyes.
"...Impressive." He said slowly. "Very impressive." Shadow blushed, pawing at her neck.
"I've been watching how you move a lot." She explained. "It's one I've been working on for ages."
"You do all this through observation?" He asked.
"Mhm. I've done it with some of the others in the Guild and around town, too. It's... difficult," Shadow admitted, "Even Pokemon you'd expect to move the same like Stantler and Sawsbuck have loads of little differences to follow." She waved her tails again, the Ninetales copy moved its jaw for a moment.
"This was the hardest part, though." It said, in Shadow's voice. Eon gaped.
"Sounds too?" He stared, eyes wide.
"Yeah." The Vulpix coughed, her illusion stilling aside from its breathing. "Trying to throw my voice was hard at first. Then I figured out how to make the illusion of my voice. It's weird, and it took a while to make it sound right- I had Chatot help me with it- but I've got it now." She looked down. "Can't make it sound any different, though."
"Shadow, that's still very impressive." Eon smiled proudly. "What else can you do?" The Ninetales vanished into the air, and Shadow's fur changed to a dark purple, with the fur on her tail turning black and her feet grey.
"Colour changing as well." She grinned, stepping backwards into the shadow of a dumpster. "Figured it'd be useful to hide with, now we're somewhere else." Eon nodded, focusing his own illusion. His grey fur went completely black, with dark grey tail tips, and smiled.
"Yeah, it probably would be a good idea." Eon replied, stepping out and dropping the illusion again. He quickly checked the invisibility one, as well as the one that was keeping them from being heard, while Shadow moved out.
"Mhm." She pawed at the edge of her scarf again, messing with the Rescue Badge proudly pinned there. "I've been messing with projections, mostly. Figured that if we can scare people off, we can avoid fighting too much here."
"Good idea, little kit." Eon stretched. "Now, want to keep going?"
"Sure." Shadow took a step forward, then froze, sniffing. "Huh?"
"What's up?" The Ninetales took a step forward.
"Shush!" Shadow snapped, sniffing around. "Something's weird."
"How?" Eon didn't move as the little Vulpix walked slowly around the area, focusing on a small spider on the wall.
"This spider." She said softly, careful not to startle it. "Something's wrong with it."
"What?" Eon shifted, leaning closer.
"I'm... not sure." She admitted. "It smells... wrong, though." Eon raised an eyebrow, then sniffed.
"Huh." He frowned. "You're right." Sniffing at the bug again, he noted the scent that seemed to cling to it below the normal smell that bugs had. That smells oddly familiar... he mused to himself.
"It smells kinda like..." Shadow paused, eyes suddenly wide. "The Bug Girl from last night." Eon's eyes widened as well, and he sniffed again.
"It is!" The Ninetales barked, surprised.
"Is she nearby, do you think?"
"Probably." Eon nodded. "We don't know how far her powers can stretch, but then again she could've just come through here."
"I don't think so." Shadow frowned. "The smell's too recent. It's kinda like she's exactly here, not just been here before." The little Vulpix brightened. "Hey, let's go find her and say hello!"
"Shadow, wait!" Eon sighed loudly. "Remember what Tattletale said about the Rules."
"Don't say hi to the Capes if they're not in costume, even if you know them." She nodded. "I know. I just wanna see if she's around."
"Alright." He sighed again at his younger partner, then followed her out of the alley. "But no interacting with her if she's out of costume."
"I know, Eon." Shadow grumbled, exasperated.
"Just making sure." The larger vulpine shook himself carefully. "Now, second point. Any idea how to find her?" She paused, thinking.
"No idea." Shadow admitted. Eon snorted.
"Thought not."
Taylor sighed miserably as she glanced at the nearest window. Mentally, she noticed a few of the bugs in her range skittering about strangely as something passed them by, but the vision on her bugs was still too blurry for her to properly make anything out, so she ignored it and continued walking.
She wanted to go out in costume again.
She'd enjoyed the night before, once the absolute terror of fighting against Lung had worn off. The feeling of doing something, even just patrolling the rooftops, after that shitty day at school, had been great. She wanted to do it again.
And maybe she'd get lucky enough to run into the Undersiders again. They'd seemed nice, even if they were villains, and she wouldn't mind talking with them again.
Even Tattletale. She'd seemed like she was alright, though Taylor knew that their interaction had been shaded a bit by everything that'd gone on before, but she seemed like she'd be alright to talk to on occasion.
And then there were the foxes.
Taylor frowned, pausing at a display to think. The foxes had been... strange, to say the very least. Shadow and Eon. A pair of kitsune, apparently, one with six tails and one white one with nine. From what she'd read- assuming that she did her best to ignore the contradicting stories she'd found while looking- that meant that Shadow was the younger one, but still about six hundred years old and would be incredibly powerful, while Eon was a lot older, at least a millennium at a guess, and even more powerful.
She wondered why they'd never intervened with the Endbringers before. Maybe they hadn't been able to leave; given that she'd seen that they were apparently messengers of Inari, a Japanese God, she wouldn't be too surprised.
Taylor hoped to see them again as well. It'd be interesting to ask them to tell her stories, and maybe she could confirm that they were actually godly messengers of some kind.
And of course, ask them why they'd intervened against Lung for her.
That, in particular, was something that'd been creeping in the back of her mind since she'd read about it earlier that day. Even the actions of the Trio hadn't been able to knock the foxes from her thoughts. The fact that the two had fought against Lung for her- well, that Shadow had put Lung down for her, was incredible to her. She was just Taylor, and they were- probably- god-level creatures. Why would they fight for her?
Taylor shook her head. There's no way they were actually fighting for me. They'd probably come to deliver some kind of message to Lung by defeating him, and saving my life was just a side effect of it all. She began walking back towards her house, planning to get as much of her homework done as possible so she'd be able to go out later and patrol again.
Looking around last second before she crossed a road, she frowned deeply when one of her bugs was shifted around by some unseen force in the alley nearby. Carefully, she moved a few more spiders and roaches into the area, trying to get a better image of what was there. There was a few minutes of shuffling, then a quiet cough.
"Hey, Bug Girl?" Taylor stiffened slightly, biting her lip to stop a shout, as the comparatively large fox rippled into view from nowhere. "Can you hear me?"
"Probably not, Pix." The other fox from the previous night put in, also appearing from nowhere. "Pretty sure bugs aren't as good with their senses as any of us are."
"Dangit." Shadow cursed lightly. "I was hoping to talk to her." Slowly, Taylor started moving her bugs about to get a better look at the two, drawing more and more bugs into the area, before arranging them into words.
Yes I can hear you.
"Oh!" Shadow barked. "You can hear us. Sweet! Hey Bug Girl, could we talk to you?" Taylor blinked.
Will patrol tonight. Meet then.
"Sure!" She got the impression that the fox was grinning. "Seeya then!" The two vanished, making Taylor raise an eyebrow before shrugging and continuing to walk towards her home.
She was still pretty confused by the foxes, but at least she was likely to get some answers now.
"That was a bit mean, Pix." Eon scolded lightly as they left the alley. "You've probably confused her."
"I just want to talk with her later, Eon." She grinned, bouncing about. "We'll still have to find her later too." The Vulpix went contemplative. "Maybe we should try and find where she tends to hang about, so we could set up meeting places there." Eon sighed.
"Shadow, did you even listen to Tattletale's lecture on the Unwritten Rules?"
"Of course I did." She looked back at him, offended. "But they're unwritten, so they're unofficial, and besides if we end up working with Bug Girl then we'd need places we could meet up in the city to save her having to walk to our base all the time." Eon blinked, then nodded.
"Makes sense. Sorry, thought you meant before we see if she wants to work with us." Shadow snorted.
"Heh. Nah, I wouldn't do that. Those rules're obviously there for a reason, so we should probably follow them." She snorted again. "Even if they're really stupid. I mean, this entire world relies on a mask and people's unwillingness to 'out' the person behind it to function right. All it'd take is one guy with too much knowledge in stuff they shouldn't know, and everyone'd be screwed." She looked up at the sky for a moment, sighing. "Everything's way simpler back home. Famous people are famous, and teams get mission requests. Unless there's a stupid crisis, no-one's really in that much danger."
"I know what you mean, Pix." Eon patted her head gently. "C'mon, let's see if we can find one of those dang libraries about."
"Alright." The two of them pattered off, Shadow staying quite close to Eon as they made their way through the crowd on what seemed to be the main street of the city.
"Found one!" Shadow called, pushing off of the wall and away from the building she'd been sniffing at.
"Finally." Eon growled. "Seriously, how was it so hard to find a library in this city?"
"Dunno. Maybe there's just not that many libraries?" Shadow shrugged. "Or we just got really unlucky and started on the exact opposite side of the city to where they all are?"
"One of them, sure." Eon tapped her side, herding her towards an alleyway. "Let's go put up some sort of human illusion so we can go in."
"Sure." Shadow yawned slightly. "Urgh. Tired."
"Really?"
"A bit, yeah." She yawned again, shaking herself. "No idea why. Anyway, can you do human as an illusion for a long time?"
"Well, I can do Lucario and Gardevoir, and I doubt it's much different to that." Eon shrugged, flicking his tails. "So let me put this one up, then I'll drop the other illusions we need to get rid of."
"I really want to learn how to layer illusions like that." Shadow muttered jealously.
"You'll get there in time, little Pix." Eon grinned. "Anyway, done. Come on, let's go and look up what we need."
"Sure." Shadow, now under the illusion of a fairly nondescript teenage girl, nodded. Eon was using the form of a just as stereotypical teenage boy, both of the illusions made up of different people they'd come across while wandering around invisibly. The Vulpix made her way back out of the alley, the illusion duly following her path while Eon and his illusions did the same. Both of them quietly made their way into the library, greeting the human on the desk with a low voice before heading over to the computers. Eon's illusion sat down while the Ninetales himself jumped into the chair and peered at the unfamiliar screen, while Shadow went to sniff at the bookshelves with her illusion in tow. "Some of these look really interesting, I might have to figure out some way of borrowing some."
"Be careful what you say, Shadow." Eon muttered, pushing a button on the monitor and smiling to himself when it turned on. "Remember the illusions."
"Sorry." She winced, coming back over to look over his shoulder as he carefully moved the mouse about, trying to figure out how it all worked.
"And don't forget that you don't actually exist as a person here."
"I know." Shadow hummed, while Eon made his way onto the internet and waited for it to load. "Hey, maybe Bug Girl could help us."
"Maybe, Shadow." Eon grimaced, typing his search into the bar and pushing the button labelled enter, then sighing softly when he was rewarded with more loading. "These things are more complicated than I realised."
"Didn't Tattletale say we should get phones?" She checked idly. "We'd probably have to ask for help there too, unless these Capes can normally go and buy things from shops."
"I somehow doubt it is, Shadow." Eon muttered, as the screen popped up with his search results. "Since Capes apparently rely on a secret identity so much, I doubt many of them go shopping in those identities."
"It's still really silly, though." She huffed, resting her front paws on the desk so she could see the computer screen.
"You've said." Eon sighed, frowning at the results before shrugging and picking the first one on the screen to click. "Now, let's see what Tattletale was implying earlier…"
Nearly an hour of reading later, the two Pokemon wandered out of the library again, sparing a distracted nod for the librarian before heading a little ways down the slightly clearer road and slipping into an alley. It only took a few moments for Eon to reset all of the illusions to the original invisible-inaudible combination the two had been using before they'd found the library.
"Well then." He tried to begin, before pausing.
"That was something." Shadow attempted, also falling silent. For a little while, the two of them just sat there, looking up at the slowly darkening sky- it was about four in the afternoon if he had to guess, and being April the sun was going down fairly slowly, so they still had plenty of time to burn before night came around- and thinking.
"I believe I understand what Tattletale meant about our team name. And what she was smirking about when she recommended that we go and do some research into things surrounding kitsune and Inari in this world." Eon finally managed, some three minutes later. "And I also get the feeling that Tattletale finds this sort of thing far more amusing than most should."
"Yeah." Shadow sighed. "Sorta getting that impression as well, Eon." She suddenly giggled, making Eon raise an eyebrow and look at her in confusion. "Hey, think of it this way; we kinda are messengers from a god, right? I mean, Hoopa kinda counts… I think. He's a Mythical Pokemon, anyway, so it's probably close enough." Eon stared at her for a moment, then started laughing.
"Oh, this will be fun." He grinned widely. Shadow cocked her head.
"What?"
"The world thinks- or will think, once people start seeing us without getting the full story- that the both of us are messengers of a god, right?" His eyes sparkled slightly as all nine tails swept back and forth. "Why don't we give them exactly that impression?"
"And pretend to be god messengers?" Shadow asked. "Huh. Could be fun."
"As you said, it's not like it's exactly a lie, is it?" Eon chuckled. "So why not play along with it? It's what we do, after all."
"I guess, yeah." Shadow grinned back at the elder fox. "Tattletale knows the truth, though, and she's probably told her team about it as well."
"And we'll have to tell the Bug Girl if she wants to join the team." Eon agreed. "But other than that, it's probably not gonna get anywhere. And from what Tattletale said about this PHO thing, people'll probably start to speculate the second we get brought into the public eye." Eon huffed slightly. "It'll be the old days all over again." Shadow nuzzled against his chest.
"Hey, it won't get that bad, I'm sure." The Vulpix assured.
"The reactions are likely to be either awe or fear." Eon countered. "Which is near enough the same as last time."
"To be fair, though, I'm pretty sure the awe outweighed the fear by kinda a bit." She smiled. "C'mon, it'll be fine. Besides, if people end up worshipping us, or it gets too bad, we'll just come out with the truth, right?"
"Sure thing, little pix." The shiny Ninetales nodded. "If it all goes well, we'll just bring it up some other time, but for now we let people think what they like."
"Yup!" Shadow bounced, glad her friend had cheered up slightly. "Now c'mon, let's go back to the den! We should take a nap before we go find Bug Girl later tonight."
"We really should've tried to set up some sort of meeting point for her." Eon sighed, partly at the short-sightedness of not doing so, and partly at his teammate's enthusiasm. I swear, she can bounce back from the oddest situations like it's nothing.
"Eh, I'm sure we'll find her." She shrugged, hopping back and forth near the entrance of the alley. "Now come on, Eon."
"Alright, alright." He sighed again, following his little friend. "Let's get back."
Taylor stood alone on a rooftop, carefully directing her bugs to scan the area. She wasn't far from where the two vulpines had been earlier today, when they'd spoken to her bugs in the alleyway, but she was still using every bug in her range to scan the area in an attempt to find them, simply because she wasn't entirely sure they would be able to find their way back.
She wouldn't say that they definitely couldn't, given that they'd managed to figure out that she was controlling and use them to talk to her- if only barely, given how hard it was to listen or see using insect senses. Still, though, Taylor wanted to make sure she found them if they came anywhere near her, so she could guide them over and talk with them.
Naturally, Taylor was curious about the sudden appearance of the pair, since they'd just shown up in the middle of her fight, and right now she couldn't help but want to see them again. Partly to thank them, and partly just because things had been eating at her all day that she really wanted answering.
Like the whole god thing, for one.
Pausing as she noticed something with one of her bugs, Taylor carefully scanned that area, bringing a small army of cockroaches out from under a nearby dumpster to help her build a picture of the area her spider was in.
"Hello?" A quiet and familiar voice called. Taylor brightened slightly, moving her bugs in response.
Hello.
"Hi there Bug Girl." Shadow greeted lowly, suddenly appearing in front of them. Despite herself, she twitched in surprise. "How're you doing?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.
Alright why.
"Just wondering." The blurry shape looked up and sniffed the air. "Where are you? Eon's trying to find you with the smell right now, but it's kinda hard with all the bugs copying it." Slightly confused as to what the littler fox meant, Taylor began moving the single firefly she had in her possession towards the two of them.
Bringing firefly follow when there.
"Ok, no problem." Shadow nodded. "Hey Eon, Bug Girl's bringing a firefly over to us so she can guide us to her, so you can stop trying to figure out her scent now."
"Alright, Shadow." A larger grey form walked into view as well, seating himself on the ground and brushing all nine tails around his paws, while he seemed to look down his nose at her bugs. "Hello. How're you doing right now? Recovering well from last night?"
Yes much better didnt get hurt much anyway. Thank you.
"You're welcome." Eon seemed to smile- Taylor couldn't really tell, given how blurry the view was- before flicking an ear. "Out of curiosity, what made you think it would be a good idea to fight that Lung guy, anyway?"
"Yeah, seems a bit silly to fight a fire user with bugs." Shadow opined. "I mean, I'm sure you could do it, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to." Taylor paused, thinking for a moment, then took notice of where the firefly she was guiding was.
Follow fly talk in person.
"Alright, no biggy." Shadow smiled. She looked around, obviously spotting the bug as she stood, shaking out her fur and tails, before pattering over to it. Eon followed after, and Taylor led them silently towards her position on the rooftop, the two foxes managing to make themselves go unnoticed by the people still wandering the streets- even this late, and even in Brockton Bay, there were a few.
A Stranger effect of some kind? Taylor thought.
It was only a few minutes later when the sound of claws on brick caught her attention, making Taylor turn around to greet the two, her firefly landing on her hair before going dark and burrowing in among the other bugs she'd placed there for quick access.
"Hiya!" Shadow greeted, shaking her head as she reached the top of the building. "Nice to see ya again, Bug Girl!"
"Like Shadow said." Eon nodded, bounding up next to her in a much more graceful fashion, grey fur blending in surprisingly well against the night yet still shimmering in the starlight. "It's nice to see you on better terms, however." He sniffed at the air, Shadow inching slightly closer and doing the same. "You're healing well, though. That's good, we were worried we'd gotten to you a bit late."
"No, you got there on time. I mainly stepped in because I thought he was trying to kill kids, but I probably should've thought more." Taylor smiled, before realising that the mask would hide her facial expressions, need to remember that, "And thank you for stepping in to help me." Even if I don't understand why.
"No problem!" Shadow grinned in return, small, pointed teeth glinting, while Eon peered at her down his nose. "We're a Rescue Team, so it's our job to help people!"
"A Rescue Team?" Taylor frowned. "What do you mean?" Eon sighed.
"That's part of what we want to talk to you about." The two moved closer, Eon sitting down and sweeping his tails around his paws while Shadow just lay on her stomach, stretching out a bit as she did. "We figured we owed you an explanation after last night. We gave one to Tattletale this morning as well, so we thought we should do the same for you."
"Y'know, since you're probably a bit confused about us jumping in to save you and all." Shadow added.
"I am a bit." She admitted, slowly sinking down to their level. Even sitting, she was somewhat taller than Eon, though both of the foxes had a sort of presence about them that made them seem much larger than they were. "I… did do a bit of research, though. While I was at school." She chewed her lip, reluctant to continue, then spat it out. "Are you really kitsune? Like, Inari kitsune?" For some odd reason, this made Eon bark out a laugh, while Shadow's eyes lit up as she stared at her friend.
"Huh." She muttered. "Guess you weren't wrong about what people'd think."
"Well, they don't know." Eon smirked, shooting a glance at her before looking back at Taylor. "Not quite. Let us explain, it'll make sense then." Taylor looked between the two vulpines, focusing on the grey one as he began talking.
It went on for quite some time.
Taylor gaped between them.
"Huh."
"Yeah, it is that." Shadow snickered, apparently finding her moment of mental incomprehension amusing.
"I mean… huh." She tried again, then shook herself, absently pushing her confusion into her bugs and making them run about in her hair. "I don't know if 'creatures from another world who came here for an unknown reason and happened to find me' is better or worse than 'messengers from a Japanese god showed up and interrupted my fight and saved my life to leave a message for me and-or my opponent.'"She said, making the others snort.
"When you put it like that, I'm not sure either." Eon murmured, avidly watching her hair. "I wonder what you happen if you got close to an Ariados or something similar…"
"Pardon?"
"Oh, nothing. Just a thought." He shook his head, Shadow smiling slightly, and gave Taylor a look-over. "So, any other questions?"
"No, I think we got them all." She decided. "I might think of some new ones later, but for now I'm good."
"Alright." Eon smiled at her. "Now, I know Shadow had something she wanted to ask you…"
"Hm? Oh, yeah!" Shadow grinned, leaping up from the roof and shaking herself. "Bleh, dust."
"Should've thought of that before you lay down." She stuck her tongue out at him, making Taylor giggle, before looking back up at the masked girl.
"Wanna join our team?" She asked. Taylor spluttered, then gaped.
"Sorry, what?"
"Want to join the team?" She asked again, sitting down and raising a paw to her badge. "I'm not sure where we'd get a badge like this one, but I don't think it works here anyway, since we're not exactly at home, but we could think of something. Then we could work together, like the Undersiders did, or like the Wards people apparently do." Taylor nodded faintly, still surprised.
"Why me, though?" She said, bewildered.
"Why not you?" Shadow returned, cocking her head in honest confusion. "I mean, you're the only other one who knows all this, and we couldn't really go poach Tattletale from her team, that'd be a bit rude and they're friends anyway. Most of our team is back home, and while we might be able to ask Hoopla-"
"Hoopa!"
"To bring them over, they're all busy with their own lives and probably taking missions on behalf of our team during our trip." Shadow finished, completely ignoring Eon's exasperated bark. "So I spoke to Eon, and he agreed. It takes a lot of courage to try and fight a dragon, especially when you're not very strong against their abilities…" She trailed off for a moment, muttering angrily under her breath about Druddigon and angry Gible, much to Taylor's confusion, before smiling again. "So we could be a team, and work together to fight crime and outlaws, and maybe we could try and set up something silly with the Undersiders. Tattletale suggested that bit, since she thought it might be helpful for us to get a reputation with the local heroes in a bit more of a public fashion."
"I'm almost certain she's only suggesting it because it would give her some leverage over us that she could use." Eon said drily, flicking his tails slightly.
"Eh, whatever, it'd probably work." Shadow waved him off, pawing at her scarf again. "So, whaddya say, Bug Girl? Fancy joining Team Inari and trolling the world with us?" Taylor looked down at her for a moment, then across at Eon, waiting patiently with a red-eyed gaze.
I could say no, she thought. Say no, and just do the solo hero thing I was sort of planning on doing. The idea wasn't too off-putting; she'd already been resigned to doing it anyway, unless she could get into the Wards. But it would also mean a bigger risk; no team mates to watch her back or help her if she got injured, a bigger chance of being forcibly 'recruited' by one of the gangs, and she'd be on her own.
She'd honestly had enough of being on her own, after Winslow.
Taylor was pretty sure she'd already made her mind up the second she'd been asked, and held out her hand. "Sure. Let's work together and mess with people. Should be fun."
"Great." Shadow beamed, placing her paw on her palm. "My name's Shadow, the second-in-command of Team Inari."
"And I'm Eon, team leader." The grey Ninetales added, shaking her hand with a paw as well. "What's your name?" Taylor grinned widely.
"I'll tell you my real name later, somewhere more private," she replied, "But you can call me Swarm."
Eon sighed. "Yes, Shadow?"
"I'm bboooorrrreeeddd." The little Vulpix whined. "Where the hell are the library's in this city?"
"I don't know, Shadow." Eon sighed again, casually tugging her closer to his side to make sure she didn't run into the person they were passing in the other direction. "I don't know the layout of this city either, remember?"
"I know..." She huffed. "But still, how could we get through this much of the city and not run into a single library?"
"...Yeah, that is a little ridiculous." He nodded. "You don't smell anything?"
"Nope, and I know you don't either, Eon." Shadow grumped, looking around again. "There's just humans everywhere. Some of the shops look pretty cool, though." Eon glanced over, seeing her looking into a window of a nearby building, one filled with colourful clothes.
"I suppose." The Ninetales sighed. "Though I dunno why you're looking."
"Use them for illusions." She explained, moving along. "We might need 'em." Eon raised an eyebrow at her, then shot a speculative look at the window again and following her.
"Fair enough." Eon nodded. "Anything interesting?"
"Eh, some of it." Shadow shrugged. "Looks cool and all, but I don't really see the point in a lot of it."
"Hm..." Eon said non-commentally. "How're your illusions doing?" He asked instead.
"Ok, I think." She grinned. "I've been working pretty hard at them." Looking around, Eon nodded towards an alley that smelt abandoned.
"Want to show me?"
"Sure!" Shadow pattered down the alley, her tails waving in anticipation, while Eon padded after her in curiosity. "Alright," she turned, looking at him. "Whaddya want to see first?"
"Anything you want." He shrugged. Shadow nodded, chewing her lip.
"Right." Closing her eyes, she waved her tails back and forth, focusing. A second Ninetales, one the normal golden colour, flickered into being next to her, breathing steadily as it looked at Eon. The shiny Ninetales' eyes widened, and he carefully circled it, watching the illusion move to track him with its eyes.
"...Impressive." He said slowly. "Very impressive." Shadow blushed, pawing at her neck.
"I've been watching how you move a lot." She explained. "It's one I've been working on for ages."
"You do all this through observation?" He asked.
"Mhm. I've done it with some of the others in the Guild and around town, too. It's... difficult," Shadow admitted, "Even Pokemon you'd expect to move the same like Stantler and Sawsbuck have loads of little differences to follow." She waved her tails again, the Ninetales copy moved its jaw for a moment.
"This was the hardest part, though." It said, in Shadow's voice. Eon gaped.
"Sounds too?" He stared, eyes wide.
"Yeah." The Vulpix coughed, her illusion stilling aside from its breathing. "Trying to throw my voice was hard at first. Then I figured out how to make the illusion of my voice. It's weird, and it took a while to make it sound right- I had Chatot help me with it- but I've got it now." She looked down. "Can't make it sound any different, though."
"Shadow, that's still very impressive." Eon smiled proudly. "What else can you do?" The Ninetales vanished into the air, and Shadow's fur changed to a dark purple, with the fur on her tail turning black and her feet grey.
"Colour changing as well." She grinned, stepping backwards into the shadow of a dumpster. "Figured it'd be useful to hide with, now we're somewhere else." Eon nodded, focusing his own illusion. His grey fur went completely black, with dark grey tail tips, and smiled.
"Yeah, it probably would be a good idea." Eon replied, stepping out and dropping the illusion again. He quickly checked the invisibility one, as well as the one that was keeping them from being heard, while Shadow moved out.
"Mhm." She pawed at the edge of her scarf again, messing with the Rescue Badge proudly pinned there. "I've been messing with projections, mostly. Figured that if we can scare people off, we can avoid fighting too much here."
"Good idea, little kit." Eon stretched. "Now, want to keep going?"
"Sure." Shadow took a step forward, then froze, sniffing. "Huh?"
"What's up?" The Ninetales took a step forward.
"Shush!" Shadow snapped, sniffing around. "Something's weird."
"How?" Eon didn't move as the little Vulpix walked slowly around the area, focusing on a small spider on the wall.
"This spider." She said softly, careful not to startle it. "Something's wrong with it."
"What?" Eon shifted, leaning closer.
"I'm... not sure." She admitted. "It smells... wrong, though." Eon raised an eyebrow, then sniffed.
"Huh." He frowned. "You're right." Sniffing at the bug again, he noted the scent that seemed to cling to it below the normal smell that bugs had. That smells oddly familiar... he mused to himself.
"It smells kinda like..." Shadow paused, eyes suddenly wide. "The Bug Girl from last night." Eon's eyes widened as well, and he sniffed again.
"It is!" The Ninetales barked, surprised.
"Is she nearby, do you think?"
"Probably." Eon nodded. "We don't know how far her powers can stretch, but then again she could've just come through here."
"I don't think so." Shadow frowned. "The smell's too recent. It's kinda like she's exactly here, not just been here before." The little Vulpix brightened. "Hey, let's go find her and say hello!"
"Shadow, wait!" Eon sighed loudly. "Remember what Tattletale said about the Rules."
"Don't say hi to the Capes if they're not in costume, even if you know them." She nodded. "I know. I just wanna see if she's around."
"Alright." He sighed again at his younger partner, then followed her out of the alley. "But no interacting with her if she's out of costume."
"I know, Eon." Shadow grumbled, exasperated.
"Just making sure." The larger vulpine shook himself carefully. "Now, second point. Any idea how to find her?" She paused, thinking.
"No idea." Shadow admitted. Eon snorted.
"Thought not."
Taylor sighed miserably as she glanced at the nearest window. Mentally, she noticed a few of the bugs in her range skittering about strangely as something passed them by, but the vision on her bugs was still too blurry for her to properly make anything out, so she ignored it and continued walking.
She wanted to go out in costume again.
She'd enjoyed the night before, once the absolute terror of fighting against Lung had worn off. The feeling of doing something, even just patrolling the rooftops, after that shitty day at school, had been great. She wanted to do it again.
And maybe she'd get lucky enough to run into the Undersiders again. They'd seemed nice, even if they were villains, and she wouldn't mind talking with them again.
Even Tattletale. She'd seemed like she was alright, though Taylor knew that their interaction had been shaded a bit by everything that'd gone on before, but she seemed like she'd be alright to talk to on occasion.
And then there were the foxes.
Taylor frowned, pausing at a display to think. The foxes had been... strange, to say the very least. Shadow and Eon. A pair of kitsune, apparently, one with six tails and one white one with nine. From what she'd read- assuming that she did her best to ignore the contradicting stories she'd found while looking- that meant that Shadow was the younger one, but still about six hundred years old and would be incredibly powerful, while Eon was a lot older, at least a millennium at a guess, and even more powerful.
She wondered why they'd never intervened with the Endbringers before. Maybe they hadn't been able to leave; given that she'd seen that they were apparently messengers of Inari, a Japanese God, she wouldn't be too surprised.
Taylor hoped to see them again as well. It'd be interesting to ask them to tell her stories, and maybe she could confirm that they were actually godly messengers of some kind.
And of course, ask them why they'd intervened against Lung for her.
That, in particular, was something that'd been creeping in the back of her mind since she'd read about it earlier that day. Even the actions of the Trio hadn't been able to knock the foxes from her thoughts. The fact that the two had fought against Lung for her- well, that Shadow had put Lung down for her, was incredible to her. She was just Taylor, and they were- probably- god-level creatures. Why would they fight for her?
Taylor shook her head. There's no way they were actually fighting for me. They'd probably come to deliver some kind of message to Lung by defeating him, and saving my life was just a side effect of it all. She began walking back towards her house, planning to get as much of her homework done as possible so she'd be able to go out later and patrol again.
Looking around last second before she crossed a road, she frowned deeply when one of her bugs was shifted around by some unseen force in the alley nearby. Carefully, she moved a few more spiders and roaches into the area, trying to get a better image of what was there. There was a few minutes of shuffling, then a quiet cough.
"Hey, Bug Girl?" Taylor stiffened slightly, biting her lip to stop a shout, as the comparatively large fox rippled into view from nowhere. "Can you hear me?"
"Probably not, Pix." The other fox from the previous night put in, also appearing from nowhere. "Pretty sure bugs aren't as good with their senses as any of us are."
"Dangit." Shadow cursed lightly. "I was hoping to talk to her." Slowly, Taylor started moving her bugs about to get a better look at the two, drawing more and more bugs into the area, before arranging them into words.
Yes I can hear you.
"Oh!" Shadow barked. "You can hear us. Sweet! Hey Bug Girl, could we talk to you?" Taylor blinked.
Will patrol tonight. Meet then.
"Sure!" She got the impression that the fox was grinning. "Seeya then!" The two vanished, making Taylor raise an eyebrow before shrugging and continuing to walk towards her home.
She was still pretty confused by the foxes, but at least she was likely to get some answers now.
"That was a bit mean, Pix." Eon scolded lightly as they left the alley. "You've probably confused her."
"I just want to talk with her later, Eon." She grinned, bouncing about. "We'll still have to find her later too." The Vulpix went contemplative. "Maybe we should try and find where she tends to hang about, so we could set up meeting places there." Eon sighed.
"Shadow, did you even listen to Tattletale's lecture on the Unwritten Rules?"
"Of course I did." She looked back at him, offended. "But they're unwritten, so they're unofficial, and besides if we end up working with Bug Girl then we'd need places we could meet up in the city to save her having to walk to our base all the time." Eon blinked, then nodded.
"Makes sense. Sorry, thought you meant before we see if she wants to work with us." Shadow snorted.
"Heh. Nah, I wouldn't do that. Those rules're obviously there for a reason, so we should probably follow them." She snorted again. "Even if they're really stupid. I mean, this entire world relies on a mask and people's unwillingness to 'out' the person behind it to function right. All it'd take is one guy with too much knowledge in stuff they shouldn't know, and everyone'd be screwed." She looked up at the sky for a moment, sighing. "Everything's way simpler back home. Famous people are famous, and teams get mission requests. Unless there's a stupid crisis, no-one's really in that much danger."
"I know what you mean, Pix." Eon patted her head gently. "C'mon, let's see if we can find one of those dang libraries about."
"Alright." The two of them pattered off, Shadow staying quite close to Eon as they made their way through the crowd on what seemed to be the main street of the city.
"Found one!" Shadow called, pushing off of the wall and away from the building she'd been sniffing at.
"Finally." Eon growled. "Seriously, how was it so hard to find a library in this city?"
"Dunno. Maybe there's just not that many libraries?" Shadow shrugged. "Or we just got really unlucky and started on the exact opposite side of the city to where they all are?"
"One of them, sure." Eon tapped her side, herding her towards an alleyway. "Let's go put up some sort of human illusion so we can go in."
"Sure." Shadow yawned slightly. "Urgh. Tired."
"Really?"
"A bit, yeah." She yawned again, shaking herself. "No idea why. Anyway, can you do human as an illusion for a long time?"
"Well, I can do Lucario and Gardevoir, and I doubt it's much different to that." Eon shrugged, flicking his tails. "So let me put this one up, then I'll drop the other illusions we need to get rid of."
"I really want to learn how to layer illusions like that." Shadow muttered jealously.
"You'll get there in time, little Pix." Eon grinned. "Anyway, done. Come on, let's go and look up what we need."
"Sure." Shadow, now under the illusion of a fairly nondescript teenage girl, nodded. Eon was using the form of a just as stereotypical teenage boy, both of the illusions made up of different people they'd come across while wandering around invisibly. The Vulpix made her way back out of the alley, the illusion duly following her path while Eon and his illusions did the same. Both of them quietly made their way into the library, greeting the human on the desk with a low voice before heading over to the computers. Eon's illusion sat down while the Ninetales himself jumped into the chair and peered at the unfamiliar screen, while Shadow went to sniff at the bookshelves with her illusion in tow. "Some of these look really interesting, I might have to figure out some way of borrowing some."
"Be careful what you say, Shadow." Eon muttered, pushing a button on the monitor and smiling to himself when it turned on. "Remember the illusions."
"Sorry." She winced, coming back over to look over his shoulder as he carefully moved the mouse about, trying to figure out how it all worked.
"And don't forget that you don't actually exist as a person here."
"I know." Shadow hummed, while Eon made his way onto the internet and waited for it to load. "Hey, maybe Bug Girl could help us."
"Maybe, Shadow." Eon grimaced, typing his search into the bar and pushing the button labelled enter, then sighing softly when he was rewarded with more loading. "These things are more complicated than I realised."
"Didn't Tattletale say we should get phones?" She checked idly. "We'd probably have to ask for help there too, unless these Capes can normally go and buy things from shops."
"I somehow doubt it is, Shadow." Eon muttered, as the screen popped up with his search results. "Since Capes apparently rely on a secret identity so much, I doubt many of them go shopping in those identities."
"It's still really silly, though." She huffed, resting her front paws on the desk so she could see the computer screen.
"You've said." Eon sighed, frowning at the results before shrugging and picking the first one on the screen to click. "Now, let's see what Tattletale was implying earlier…"
Nearly an hour of reading later, the two Pokemon wandered out of the library again, sparing a distracted nod for the librarian before heading a little ways down the slightly clearer road and slipping into an alley. It only took a few moments for Eon to reset all of the illusions to the original invisible-inaudible combination the two had been using before they'd found the library.
"Well then." He tried to begin, before pausing.
"That was something." Shadow attempted, also falling silent. For a little while, the two of them just sat there, looking up at the slowly darkening sky- it was about four in the afternoon if he had to guess, and being April the sun was going down fairly slowly, so they still had plenty of time to burn before night came around- and thinking.
"I believe I understand what Tattletale meant about our team name. And what she was smirking about when she recommended that we go and do some research into things surrounding kitsune and Inari in this world." Eon finally managed, some three minutes later. "And I also get the feeling that Tattletale finds this sort of thing far more amusing than most should."
"Yeah." Shadow sighed. "Sorta getting that impression as well, Eon." She suddenly giggled, making Eon raise an eyebrow and look at her in confusion. "Hey, think of it this way; we kinda are messengers from a god, right? I mean, Hoopa kinda counts… I think. He's a Mythical Pokemon, anyway, so it's probably close enough." Eon stared at her for a moment, then started laughing.
"Oh, this will be fun." He grinned widely. Shadow cocked her head.
"What?"
"The world thinks- or will think, once people start seeing us without getting the full story- that the both of us are messengers of a god, right?" His eyes sparkled slightly as all nine tails swept back and forth. "Why don't we give them exactly that impression?"
"And pretend to be god messengers?" Shadow asked. "Huh. Could be fun."
"As you said, it's not like it's exactly a lie, is it?" Eon chuckled. "So why not play along with it? It's what we do, after all."
"I guess, yeah." Shadow grinned back at the elder fox. "Tattletale knows the truth, though, and she's probably told her team about it as well."
"And we'll have to tell the Bug Girl if she wants to join the team." Eon agreed. "But other than that, it's probably not gonna get anywhere. And from what Tattletale said about this PHO thing, people'll probably start to speculate the second we get brought into the public eye." Eon huffed slightly. "It'll be the old days all over again." Shadow nuzzled against his chest.
"Hey, it won't get that bad, I'm sure." The Vulpix assured.
"The reactions are likely to be either awe or fear." Eon countered. "Which is near enough the same as last time."
"To be fair, though, I'm pretty sure the awe outweighed the fear by kinda a bit." She smiled. "C'mon, it'll be fine. Besides, if people end up worshipping us, or it gets too bad, we'll just come out with the truth, right?"
"Sure thing, little pix." The shiny Ninetales nodded. "If it all goes well, we'll just bring it up some other time, but for now we let people think what they like."
"Yup!" Shadow bounced, glad her friend had cheered up slightly. "Now c'mon, let's go back to the den! We should take a nap before we go find Bug Girl later tonight."
"We really should've tried to set up some sort of meeting point for her." Eon sighed, partly at the short-sightedness of not doing so, and partly at his teammate's enthusiasm. I swear, she can bounce back from the oddest situations like it's nothing.
"Eh, I'm sure we'll find her." She shrugged, hopping back and forth near the entrance of the alley. "Now come on, Eon."
"Alright, alright." He sighed again, following his little friend. "Let's get back."
Taylor stood alone on a rooftop, carefully directing her bugs to scan the area. She wasn't far from where the two vulpines had been earlier today, when they'd spoken to her bugs in the alleyway, but she was still using every bug in her range to scan the area in an attempt to find them, simply because she wasn't entirely sure they would be able to find their way back.
She wouldn't say that they definitely couldn't, given that they'd managed to figure out that she was controlling and use them to talk to her- if only barely, given how hard it was to listen or see using insect senses. Still, though, Taylor wanted to make sure she found them if they came anywhere near her, so she could guide them over and talk with them.
Naturally, Taylor was curious about the sudden appearance of the pair, since they'd just shown up in the middle of her fight, and right now she couldn't help but want to see them again. Partly to thank them, and partly just because things had been eating at her all day that she really wanted answering.
Like the whole god thing, for one.
Pausing as she noticed something with one of her bugs, Taylor carefully scanned that area, bringing a small army of cockroaches out from under a nearby dumpster to help her build a picture of the area her spider was in.
"Hello?" A quiet and familiar voice called. Taylor brightened slightly, moving her bugs in response.
Hello.
"Hi there Bug Girl." Shadow greeted lowly, suddenly appearing in front of them. Despite herself, she twitched in surprise. "How're you doing?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.
Alright why.
"Just wondering." The blurry shape looked up and sniffed the air. "Where are you? Eon's trying to find you with the smell right now, but it's kinda hard with all the bugs copying it." Slightly confused as to what the littler fox meant, Taylor began moving the single firefly she had in her possession towards the two of them.
Bringing firefly follow when there.
"Ok, no problem." Shadow nodded. "Hey Eon, Bug Girl's bringing a firefly over to us so she can guide us to her, so you can stop trying to figure out her scent now."
"Alright, Shadow." A larger grey form walked into view as well, seating himself on the ground and brushing all nine tails around his paws, while he seemed to look down his nose at her bugs. "Hello. How're you doing right now? Recovering well from last night?"
Yes much better didnt get hurt much anyway. Thank you.
"You're welcome." Eon seemed to smile- Taylor couldn't really tell, given how blurry the view was- before flicking an ear. "Out of curiosity, what made you think it would be a good idea to fight that Lung guy, anyway?"
"Yeah, seems a bit silly to fight a fire user with bugs." Shadow opined. "I mean, I'm sure you could do it, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to." Taylor paused, thinking for a moment, then took notice of where the firefly she was guiding was.
Follow fly talk in person.
"Alright, no biggy." Shadow smiled. She looked around, obviously spotting the bug as she stood, shaking out her fur and tails, before pattering over to it. Eon followed after, and Taylor led them silently towards her position on the rooftop, the two foxes managing to make themselves go unnoticed by the people still wandering the streets- even this late, and even in Brockton Bay, there were a few.
A Stranger effect of some kind? Taylor thought.
It was only a few minutes later when the sound of claws on brick caught her attention, making Taylor turn around to greet the two, her firefly landing on her hair before going dark and burrowing in among the other bugs she'd placed there for quick access.
"Hiya!" Shadow greeted, shaking her head as she reached the top of the building. "Nice to see ya again, Bug Girl!"
"Like Shadow said." Eon nodded, bounding up next to her in a much more graceful fashion, grey fur blending in surprisingly well against the night yet still shimmering in the starlight. "It's nice to see you on better terms, however." He sniffed at the air, Shadow inching slightly closer and doing the same. "You're healing well, though. That's good, we were worried we'd gotten to you a bit late."
"No, you got there on time. I mainly stepped in because I thought he was trying to kill kids, but I probably should've thought more." Taylor smiled, before realising that the mask would hide her facial expressions, need to remember that, "And thank you for stepping in to help me." Even if I don't understand why.
"No problem!" Shadow grinned in return, small, pointed teeth glinting, while Eon peered at her down his nose. "We're a Rescue Team, so it's our job to help people!"
"A Rescue Team?" Taylor frowned. "What do you mean?" Eon sighed.
"That's part of what we want to talk to you about." The two moved closer, Eon sitting down and sweeping his tails around his paws while Shadow just lay on her stomach, stretching out a bit as she did. "We figured we owed you an explanation after last night. We gave one to Tattletale this morning as well, so we thought we should do the same for you."
"Y'know, since you're probably a bit confused about us jumping in to save you and all." Shadow added.
"I am a bit." She admitted, slowly sinking down to their level. Even sitting, she was somewhat taller than Eon, though both of the foxes had a sort of presence about them that made them seem much larger than they were. "I… did do a bit of research, though. While I was at school." She chewed her lip, reluctant to continue, then spat it out. "Are you really kitsune? Like, Inari kitsune?" For some odd reason, this made Eon bark out a laugh, while Shadow's eyes lit up as she stared at her friend.
"Huh." She muttered. "Guess you weren't wrong about what people'd think."
"Well, they don't know." Eon smirked, shooting a glance at her before looking back at Taylor. "Not quite. Let us explain, it'll make sense then." Taylor looked between the two vulpines, focusing on the grey one as he began talking.
It went on for quite some time.
Taylor gaped between them.
"Huh."
"Yeah, it is that." Shadow snickered, apparently finding her moment of mental incomprehension amusing.
"I mean… huh." She tried again, then shook herself, absently pushing her confusion into her bugs and making them run about in her hair. "I don't know if 'creatures from another world who came here for an unknown reason and happened to find me' is better or worse than 'messengers from a Japanese god showed up and interrupted my fight and saved my life to leave a message for me and-or my opponent.'"She said, making the others snort.
"When you put it like that, I'm not sure either." Eon murmured, avidly watching her hair. "I wonder what you happen if you got close to an Ariados or something similar…"
"Pardon?"
"Oh, nothing. Just a thought." He shook his head, Shadow smiling slightly, and gave Taylor a look-over. "So, any other questions?"
"No, I think we got them all." She decided. "I might think of some new ones later, but for now I'm good."
"Alright." Eon smiled at her. "Now, I know Shadow had something she wanted to ask you…"
"Hm? Oh, yeah!" Shadow grinned, leaping up from the roof and shaking herself. "Bleh, dust."
"Should've thought of that before you lay down." She stuck her tongue out at him, making Taylor giggle, before looking back up at the masked girl.
"Wanna join our team?" She asked. Taylor spluttered, then gaped.
"Sorry, what?"
"Want to join the team?" She asked again, sitting down and raising a paw to her badge. "I'm not sure where we'd get a badge like this one, but I don't think it works here anyway, since we're not exactly at home, but we could think of something. Then we could work together, like the Undersiders did, or like the Wards people apparently do." Taylor nodded faintly, still surprised.
"Why me, though?" She said, bewildered.
"Why not you?" Shadow returned, cocking her head in honest confusion. "I mean, you're the only other one who knows all this, and we couldn't really go poach Tattletale from her team, that'd be a bit rude and they're friends anyway. Most of our team is back home, and while we might be able to ask Hoopla-"
"Hoopa!"
"To bring them over, they're all busy with their own lives and probably taking missions on behalf of our team during our trip." Shadow finished, completely ignoring Eon's exasperated bark. "So I spoke to Eon, and he agreed. It takes a lot of courage to try and fight a dragon, especially when you're not very strong against their abilities…" She trailed off for a moment, muttering angrily under her breath about Druddigon and angry Gible, much to Taylor's confusion, before smiling again. "So we could be a team, and work together to fight crime and outlaws, and maybe we could try and set up something silly with the Undersiders. Tattletale suggested that bit, since she thought it might be helpful for us to get a reputation with the local heroes in a bit more of a public fashion."
"I'm almost certain she's only suggesting it because it would give her some leverage over us that she could use." Eon said drily, flicking his tails slightly.
"Eh, whatever, it'd probably work." Shadow waved him off, pawing at her scarf again. "So, whaddya say, Bug Girl? Fancy joining Team Inari and trolling the world with us?" Taylor looked down at her for a moment, then across at Eon, waiting patiently with a red-eyed gaze.
I could say no, she thought. Say no, and just do the solo hero thing I was sort of planning on doing. The idea wasn't too off-putting; she'd already been resigned to doing it anyway, unless she could get into the Wards. But it would also mean a bigger risk; no team mates to watch her back or help her if she got injured, a bigger chance of being forcibly 'recruited' by one of the gangs, and she'd be on her own.
She'd honestly had enough of being on her own, after Winslow.
Taylor was pretty sure she'd already made her mind up the second she'd been asked, and held out her hand. "Sure. Let's work together and mess with people. Should be fun."
"Great." Shadow beamed, placing her paw on her palm. "My name's Shadow, the second-in-command of Team Inari."
"And I'm Eon, team leader." The grey Ninetales added, shaking her hand with a paw as well. "What's your name?" Taylor grinned widely.
"I'll tell you my real name later, somewhere more private," she replied, "But you can call me Swarm."
Chapter 5- Chatting, patrolling, and raiding
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
"Well then, Swarm," Eon smiled lightly, "What do Capes normally do on this world?"
"Patrols, I think." She replied, standing and stretching. "Just wander around and look for crimes to stop."
"Hmm." The Ninetales huffed, standing as well and shaking himself, fur rippling in the movement. "Well, I think it's a bit late for that, don't you?" He turned his head skyward, looking at the moon. "We've been talking for something like three hours, I reckon."
"Oh, hell." Swarm muttered. "It must be what, two in the morning?"
"Something like that." Shadow nodded, shaking herself out. "Do you want to try for a patrol of some kind?"
"No… no, I think it's best we don't." She decided, after a moment. "To be honest, I'm still a bit distracted from everything you've told me. I wouldn't really want to risk that on trying to fight someone."
"Makes sense." Eon nodded. "So, we should try and do another couple of things instead."
"Like what?"
"Well, a meeting place, for one." Shadow told her. "A team needs a place they can meet up, either to share information or go out together."
"That makes sense." The Cape admitted. "It'd be a bit annoying trying to find each other all the time."
"We have got a base set up," Eon said, "But it's quite a ways out of the city, so it might be a bit awkward trying to meet up there."
"How far?"
"I'm not exactly sure, we didn't really measure, but there's a nice grove a ways away. There's a few willow trees, and we used them to make a hideout."
"Could we go there now, do you think?" Swarm asked. "I'll need to be back home sort of soon, because it's Tuesday and I have school tomorrow, but I can go until four or so."
"Is that enough sleep?" Shadow seemed a little sceptical. "I mean, that can't be very much."
"It's about three hours, I'll cope." She shrugged. "Besides, school's a bit of a wreck at the best of times, so I don't really care anyway." Eon and Shadow traded glances, then shrugged as well.
"Alright. We'll head back down to ground level, and I'll put the invisibility and inaudibility illusions back up. It'll be easier to avoid people then, especially since we're not really looking for trouble tonight." The elder explained. "Though if we run into something we should help."
"No argument there." Swarm muttered.
"Tattletale filled us in on a lot of the situation in the city right now," he continued, pretending he hadn't heard her, "So we know a lot of what to expect. Hopefully we don't run into anyone too dangerous on the way over."
"Famous last words." She snorted, going over to a fire ladder on the side of the building, both Pokemon following her. "This is Brockton Bay, something always goes dangerous here." Shadow snickered.
"Oh, have we got some stories for you, Swarm." She said, crouching down in preparation to jump. "Trust me, we've had some experiences with danger." Swarm seemed to smile, swinging herself onto the ladder.
"I'm looking forward to it."
"This is where we've set up our base." Eon announced, stepping into the clearing through one of the willows. Long tails kept the branches out of the way, letting his two partners through as well, and he smiled up at the only masked member of the group. "There's no-one anywhere nearby, and I'm gonna be setting a bunch of illusions up over the next few days, so no-one can find it even when we're gone. At the moment, it's only invisible and only when I'm here, but the prep kit has some stuff I can use."
"Pardon?" Swarm asked, confused. Eon barked out a laugh.
"It's a trick I learned from a Zoroark, a few months back. He used little gems to anchor illusions too, and he ended up teaching me how to do it. It's his signature move, but mostly because he's never found someone else with the potential to learn it."
"And it took you the better part of the time we were at home, too." Shadow put in. "He basically went on vacation from missions for a while to try getting it down."
"It's a useful trick, though." Eon retorted, tapping her head. "When I've got it all set up here, no-one's ever gonna find this place."
"What will they do?" Swarm questioned, interrupting the mini argument.
"Invisibility, inaudibility, which is mostly useful when we're here, a few fake Pokemon that'll appear to attack to drive people off if they get too close, some actual animals, and an automatic avoidance field." Eon listed. "I've tested that last one a lot, and as long as you don't know it's there, you won't resist it." Shadow snorted, muttering lowly.
"He tested it with me." She grumbled softly. "I was refusing to go anywhere near the base all day because of it."
"Once she knew it was there, though, she could fight back against the feelings." Eon told her. "I'll make sure anyone who needs to get near knows, just so they can do the same."
"That's really impressive." The Cape muttered. "A sort of Master-Shaker field… I don't know of anyone who can do something like that." Eon smiled.
"Well, anyway," he said, gaining her attention again, "We're in a perfectly private place, and no-one's going to find us, Swarm, so what's your actual name?" The girl hesitated slightly, then reached up and pulled off her mask, revealing a somewhat plain girl with brown eyes and a wide mouth.
"Taylor." She said quietly. "Taylor Hebert."
"Nice to have you with us, Taylor." Eon smiled again, offering his paw once more. She took it in her off hand-
Trudging through a building, head down, looking at the floor through black glasses.
Three girls, laughing and teasing, while the rest of the school watched on.
Approaching a locker, a foul smell, opening it.
Seeing the mess inside, retching, being pushed, the slam of metal on metal, the click of a lock.
Screaming for help as things crawled about her.
Blackness.
-and shook again.
"Thank you for offering to let me join." She replied quietly.
"Hey, you were really cool last night, and I'm sure you'll be super helpful at super-heroing." Shadow beamed, tapping her paw on top of their joined hands. "I mean, what sort of stuff can you do with bugs, anyway? I know Vespiquen commands a little bug horde, but I'm not really sure what she does, aside from healing and some defence."
"I normally use stinging insects," Taylor explained, squinting a little. "I have Epi-pens and stuff in case of allergies, since I use spiders and wasps a lot."
"Epi-pens?" Shadow asked, turning her head.
"They stop allergic reactions to things. Some sort of injection. I don't really know much more, sorry." She shrugged. "Anyway, it's what I was doing against Lung; using poisonous spiders to try and overcome his regeneration."
"That's pretty good." Eon told her, recovering from the sudden vision. "And we saw earlier you can hear through them-"
"Only when I have a lot of bugs in one area." She corrected. "Bug senses are really bad, so I can't see or hear anything unless I've got tons of bugs to use."
"Can you make illusions with them?" Eon and Taylor both looked down at Shadow, confused. "It's something I saw before, working with another team." She explained herself, sitting down. "Remember, back when the Guild was putting together that expedition, and wanted a few more experienced outsiders to join?"
"Yeah, I remember." Eon nodded. "Taylor, I'll tell you that story later on."
"Alright." Taylor agreed, sitting down next to her.
"Well, I ended up working with one of the other teams, while Eon was chattering away with a few people." She smirked at Eon, who groaned. "And there was a Vespiquen there, too. She used to use her mini hive to make shapes in the air, like we do with our illusions, to trick other Pokemon into going after them instead of her and her team."
"That's… huh." Taylor pursed her lips. "I didn't think of doing that. I mean, I've thought of using bugs as a distraction, but not to mimic someone as bait."
"I can do something similar." Shadow told her. With a frown of focus, a golden Ninetales appeared next to them, and she replicated the trick she'd shown Eon the day before.
"I make them talk too, but it's difficult." The Ninetales said. "It's sort of similar to the inaudibility illusion, but I'm almost moving the sound I make to the illusion." Shadow made the illusion vanish, coughing again.
"But it's kinda difficult, and I can't keep it up for long." She added. "It's something I only learned to do very recently- like, about a week before we came here. I'm gonna keep practising, though, it might be useful now that we're in another world. Still, maybe you could do something with your bugs, like make them in the shape of people to lure bad guys around?"
"I could probably manage…" Taylor chewed her lip for a moment, seeming introspective. A moment later, bugs began crawling out from the trees and into the clearing, making a pool near to Taylor, before suddenly rising up from the ground and creating a loose shape of a person. "I don't really have enough bugs to do anything more than that." She frowned.
"But you could." Eon smirked. "We get more bugs, make the clouds a lot darker… people would never know if it's you or a fake. That'll help keep you safe when we work."
"You think I'd be in danger?"
"We're fighting criminals, we're always in danger." Shadow remarked. "Better to trick the crap out of them and stay safe, right?"
"I guess, yeah." She sighed. "Wish I'd thought of this last night…"
"Eh, you're alive, which is all that matters." Eon assured her. "What else… right, we need to see about getting you a badge."
"What?"
"A badge, like this one." Shadow pointed at the pin on her scarf. "All Rescue Teams and Exploration Teams back home have one, and we use it to send the people we've been sent to rescue home, the criminals back to a base for the authorities, and get ourselves out of dungeons if we're having trouble." She smiled. "Of course, that won't work here, but it'll work well as a group identifier for other people in the city."
"That… makes sense." Taylor said softly. "But I wouldn't have the money to get one, and I know you don't. You've only been here a few days, after all."
"Just over a day, yes." Eon nodded. "But here's the thing; while you have school, we can be out roaming the city. We don't have a human civilian identity, so there'd be no paper trails to one of us getting the badge made, and we can probably sniff out gang hideouts and rob them invisibly." Eon nodded towards the hideout, where the Treasure Bag was hidden. "The bag we take on dungeon explorations is strangely large. We could take and hide money in there, bring it back to the base, then use it as we need it. Since we can just use illusions to hide what we really look like, we can do any sort of shopping with a different face each time, which will help."
"That… yeah." Taylor nodded in turn. "That makes sense." Quietly, she yawned.
"Would you like us to walk you back to your house?" Eon offered, seeing that the girl was tired.
"Sure, but we need to be careful." She warned, standing. "My dad doesn't know I'm a Cape."
"Why wouldn't you tell him?" Shadow asked. "Or your mom?"
"My mom died two years ago. Nearly three, now." Taylor said quietly. "Dad and I drifted apart since then."
"I'm sorry." Eon softly apologised. Taylor shrugged.
"Nothing for you to be sorry for." She pulled her mask back over her face, tugging her brown, wavy hair out of the back and swarming it with bugs again.
"Hey, while we walk, let me tell you about that thing on the expedition!" Shadow cheered, trying to bring the atmosphere back up. 'Swarm' looked down, interested, while Eon groaned.
"No, Shadow!" He pleaded. "Please!"
"Nuh-uh." She smirked, trotting alongside their new teammate. "Anyway, while we were on the trip, one of the Vespiquen's teammates, a Delcatty- it looks like this," Shadow formed an illusion of the purple and tan cat, letting it wander next to them for a moment before fading, "Caught Eon's eye. So, for practically the whole trip, Eon's mooning over this pretty little cat…"
Taylor slipped in through the back door, carefully locking it behind her and making her way upstairs. Reaching her room, she slipped out of her costume and hid it in the bottom of her wardrobe, before looking out of her window and over to the back yard. The white-grey form of Eon caught her eye for a moment, and he waved a blue-tipped tail at her before shimmering out of sight. Taylor spent a few minutes looking still, hoping to spot Shadow as well, before giving up and closing the blind, lying flat on the bed and staring at the ceiling in deep thought.
During their walk back, Taylor had ended up telling Shadow and Eon where her school was, among the general chat of the slow pace, which they'd set in order to avoid disturbing the illusion. Eventually they'd had to quieten down to near silence as well, to make sure no-one could hear them, but they'd still spoken slightly with each other, making plans to meet up the next night and go on a proper patrol. They'd even had the idea of doing a few afternoon ones, once they had a bit more time on their hands, or perhaps doing them on weekends and roaming the city all day. Taylor had liked both ideas, and they'd set up their meeting point at a clothing store very near to Taylor's house, which they'd passed on the way. It was a very nice place, despite not being on the ever-popular Boardwalk, and Taylor had often wished she could afford to go in there.
She made a mental note to drop by the shops and pick up some burner phones the next day as well. She had the money for it- barely- and she'd been planning to do it anyway so that she could call in crimes when necessary.
Stifling a yawn, Taylor took out her contact lenses- she was glad she'd been able to afford them recently so she could go out in costume more easily, even though she still preferred her glasses most of the time- and rolled over to try and get some sleep before school the next day.
"What was it like this time, Eon?" Shadow asked softly as they stealthy made their way through an alley. The little Vulpix had noticed Eon going through another one of his visions when he'd taken Taylor's hand in the clearing, and had moved quickly to distract the girl while her friend and partner recovered from the dizzy spell that always came with the visions.
"I'm… not sure." Eon muttered, thinking back. The vision had been a little distorted, especially towards the end of it, which was different to the usual clarity of his flashes into the future or the past of whatever triggered them. Eon had a good memory, however, and he always made it a point to commit whatever he saw to his mind, which gave him time to think later on. "You remember how Tattletale said Triggers are always traumatic?"
"Yeah." Shadow nodded, looking miserable. "I hate to think that Ta- Swarm when through one."
"I think I saw her Trigger." He told her. "She… she was shoved in a locker full of waste. I'm not sure how long she was in there, I think she passed out after a while."
"Or you only saw up to her Trigger. Tattletale said people pass out when it happens." Shadow pointed out with a scowl. "Damn. How the hell could that happen? I would've thought schools would be better than that."
"I'd assume so as well." Eon growled. "It's not like we could bring it up, though. People don't talk about their Triggers."
"Invisibility." Eon paused mid-step, looking down at his friend. "We can make ourselves invisible and sneak about the school tomorrow, try and see what's going on."
"We're not going to be able to look at records, you know." Shadow scoffed.
"Of course I know that. If we had Porygon here, I might try for it, or Rotom, but not as us. But we can still sneak around the school a bit and see what's going on in there, and what it's like for Swarm." Shadow huffed angrily. "I don't like that she's so dismissive of her work."
"Neither do I." Eon admitted. "Fine. Would you be alright to go in on your own, Shadow? You're smaller than me, so you could slip around easier. Not to mention the tails."
"Yeah, we probably don't want to accidentally curse most the school by them stepping on your tails." Shadow snorted. "Or trip them up, or something. But yeah, I can do it. Not sure if I can hold an invisibility-inaudibility cloak for that long, but I can do camouflage and stay in the shadows or something."
"Either way, maybe don't stop about for too long, so that you don't end up straining yourself and losing the cloak." Eon suggested. "We don't want to get caught."
"No, I'd rather our public debut was doing something cool, thanks." Shadow agreed. "I'll slip in a bit after the big morning rush- there's gotta be one of those, right?- and snoop around for a bit. I'm sure I can find something."
"Give it a bit more time, maybe in a couple of days. We need to set up first. After that, then as long as you're careful you can go." He sighed. "Now c'mon, let's get back and catch a few hours of sleep before tomorrow."
"Alright." They walked in silence until they were almost in the clearing. "Hey Eon?"
"Mh?"
"Are you alright? You don't normally have many visions super-close, do you? Has something happened?"
"Maybe it's just because we're on another world, Shadow." Eon shrugged, the movement rippling, and ducked under the branches. "Remember we were told that the Scream worked more often in the past than in the future, so maybe it's something similar."
"I hope so. They're useful, but they can be a pain and really distracting."
"Don't I know it, little pix."
Later that afternoon, around seven, Taylor met up with the two of them outside the shop. She was in costume, and had slipped carefully into an alleyway a few minutes before, waiting for her teammates to show up. Both of them arrived after about ten minutes, Eon under an invisibility-inaudibility illusion set and Shadow hidden by a change in colour to something far darker than her normal orange-red-and-cream colour scheme.
"Ready to go, Swarm?" Shadow grinned, patting her leg in greeting.
"As ready as I can be." She nodded with a slight smile. "What's the plan?"
"Mostly just run about, see if we can catch anything." Eon explained, curling his tails over his back with an unhappy look at the ground. "I'd like to see if we can find a few of these gang hideouts too, maybe some of those… heck, what're they called? The one Lung ran."
"ABB?"
"Yeah, ABB. They don't have their dragon around, so now would be a good time to hit them, I think."
"Maybe." Swarm nodded. "What's that?" She pointed. Eon looked backwards at the brown bag he had attached carefully to his back.
"Treasure Bag." He told her. "Anything we might grab from gang dens can go in here. That's the normal rules of engagement back home when dealing with criminals. I've got paper in here too, I brought some with us when we came, so we can write a note to the local police if we find anything that needs to be handed in."
"That's fair." She bit her lip. "I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about just… taking the money, though. I mean… a lot of it's probably stolen, or drug money, or something."
"True, but we can't really trace any paper or coin back to people, can we?" Eon reasoned. "We'll make sure any of those plastic things make their way to the police as well, I'm sure they can find the owners of the things."
"Yeah, probably." Swarm inhaled deeply, then let out a sharp breath. "So, are we going undercover, or what?"
"Invisible." Eon told her. "I figured you wouldn't want people staring at us while we're running around."
"It'll happen eventually, but thank you." She said sincerely. "What do I need to do?"
"Just stay close and quiet, that's all. It's not too difficult to cloak more than one person, I do it with Shadow all the time, but it is a bit of a strain if I need to keep adjusting things to make sure no-one notices."
"What about you, Shadow?" The Cape asked the Vulpix, who was wandering the alley and sniffing the air.
"I'm going camouflage, so I'll be in charge of scouting in front of us a bit." She explained, fiddling with her illusion slightly as she did so and coming out at a slightly better blend of black and grey that hid her better in the still fading twilight. "When you're able to see and hear more with your bugs, I'll hand that job over to you, but right now it's easier for me to do it."
"That's fair. Be careful." Swarm reached behind her into the compartment she'd fashion into the back of her costume, taking out a pair of burner phones. "Here, I went and grabbed a few today after school. Cost a bit, but I can handle it." Eon smiled, taking the phone gently in a psychic grip- which made Taylor flinch, having forgotten that particular power- and looking at it for a moment before putting it in his bag.
"Thank you, Swarm. That's helpful, I'd forgotten that we might need these and don't have any money to get them right now anyway." Eon said. "We'll pay you back soon enough, I'm sure."
"Yeah." Swarm nodded. "I hope so."
"Come on." Eon straightened, waving his tails. "We're cloaked. Shadow, off you go. We'll be right behind you."
"Got it, Eon." The camouflaged form of the Vulpix nodded in the fading light, then vanished out of the alleyway in a blur. Eon and Swarm followed soon after, completely invisible, watching the dark form dart in and out of shadows, never staying in one place for very long and avoiding every beam of light with careful expertise. Swarm kept watching with her bugs, twitching every time someone got too close to Shadow, and only relaxing when they moved away.
"Calm down." Eon murmured. "Shadow's trained for this sort of stuff. She's good enough even normally, let along in black and grey. She'll be fine."
"I have to admit, I wouldn't expect her to be good at stealth," Swarm admitted lowly. "Given how enthusiastic she is."
"She always claims it's a good way to throw opponents off. If you're loud and bouncy, you couldn't possibly be a spy of any kind, because she draws too much attention." Eon chuckled. "I think she just wanted to prove to me that she could be serious if she wanted to be."
"Well, she does it really well." She smiled. "I wonder if we'll find something."
"Somehow I don't doubt it."
In the end, it only took a half an hour for them to stumble across trouble.
"A mugging." Shadow explained lowly, having spotted it in the alleyway and darted back to where she knew they were to explain. "Only one person, with a knife. The girl he's after is on the ground right now, and the guy smells kinda funny."
"He might be a Merchant, they're normally drugged up on something." Swarm advised.
"How do we handle this?" Eon asked.
"Swarm can distract him with bugs. Try not to have him close his eyes, I'm gonna try and Hypnosis him. Then we can call it in." Shadow explained.
"Can you manage that, Swarm?"
"Yeah, I can." The bug user straightened. "Not as bad as Lung, at least." Eon snorted.
"No, I suppose not. Go on, begin. I'll drop our illusions once we get into the alley more." Swarm nodded, gathering her bugs, while Shadow darted back into the mouth of the alleyway, where the mugging was taking place. A moment later, a spider crawled up his leg and bit down, making him yelp loudly and jump, holding his leg and nearly stabbing himself in the process. A small army of bugs appeared and swarmed him, keeping the man distracted while the woman carefully stood and backed away. Shadow crept forwards, dropping her illusion of dark colours, and grinned widely, setting up her attack.
"Hi there!"
"Gah!" The man jumped, eyes suddenly wide, as the bugs backed off. "Oh fuck, a… Cape…" Shadow kept eye contact with the would-be mugger as he began swaying, then fell over asleep. Swarm moved her bugs away, back into the shade of the alley, and Shadow leaned forward, cancelling her attack.
"Huh. That was easier than I expected. Normally takes longer than that." She mused.
"It was well done, though." Eon complemented, both of her teammates arriving and dropping into view. "Good job working together." The Ninetales stepped around the man towards the woman he'd tried to mug. "Are you alright, ma'am?"
"I'll be fine." She said, looking somewhat shaky and gripping her purse. "Thank you for your help."
"We were in the area, and it's what we do." Eon smiled, offering her his paw. "I'm Eon, the little one in Shadow and that's Swarm back there." He turned his head, nodding to each of them in turn. "Swarm, you calling this in?"
"Will do, Eon." The bug Cape nodded, taking out her phone. Eon and Shadow both ignored her quiet report into the device, instead giving the woman an once-over.
"He didn't hurt you at all, did he?" Shadow asked quickly, padding over.
"No, I'm fine." She repeated. "Thank you for your help."
"Like Eon said, it's no trouble." The little Vulpix grinned. "Hey, Eon, Swarm, what's actually the procedure for this? We stick around and talk to the police, right?"
"Presumably."
"We'll all have to give statements, most likely." The woman put in. "Whenever they get here."
"They're on their way, they said." Swarm told them, closing the phone and storing it. "I'll keep an eye out, though."
"Thank you, Swarm." Eon nodded. He glanced down at the mugger, sniffing a few times. "I think you were right, by the way. He's definitely on something. Several somethings, if I had to guess."
"Merchants." The bug user sighed. "They're annoying."
"From what you've said, all of the gangs can be annoying."
"True." She snorted. All four of them milled around for a moment, Eon and Swarm idly talking while Shadow and the woman stayed quiet, until Swarm looked towards the entrance of the alley. "They're here, or they will be in a moment." The sharp ears of both vulpines picked up the whine of the engine and sirens, and Eon lead the way out. Shadow lingered at the very back, watching the Merchant carefully, while the police stepped out of the car. They immediately stared at Eon, who seated himself carefully on the ground and swept his tails around his paws, but professionalism quickly took over and they started interviewing the four. Swarm lead them over to the knocked out mugger, who was quickly woken and arrested. Everyone went their own ways minutes later, the trio of heroes ducking back into the alleyway to set everything back up.
"That was surprisingly quick." Eon noted, shaking his head.
"Yeah, back home the officers practically ask for a step by step tour of the entire dungeon chase." Shadow grumbled.
"A lot of the officers here are kind of overworked." Swarm told them. "And it's just one mugger, so they probably weren't too interested in getting a step by step. Besides, I think the four of us covered things pretty well, don't you?"
"Yeah, I guess." Eon gave Swarm a long look. "You did very well there, given that it was your first time really working with us." She shrugged.
"I just followed Shadow's plan." She demurred, embarrassed.
"Either way, you did well." Eon looked back at Shadow, whose fur was now dark again. "Come on, let's get moving again. Maybe we can hit a supply and get your money for pay back."
"That'd be nice. Thank you."
"You're our teammate now, it's our job." Shadow grinned, before fading into the background and making her way out of the alley.
In total, the group found another two muggings and a gang house that they were fairly sure belonged to the ABB in the four hours they decided to patrol.
"What do we do about the gang building?" Swarm asked softly, as all three perched on a rooftop overlooking it.
"Can you tell how many people are in there right now?" Eon asked in response. "We can decide then." Swarm went silent for a few minutes directing her bugs around, then nodded.
"There's seven guys in there, all of them are in one room, except for one, who's in the same room as the money, drugs and weapons." She told him. "The rest are in the next room over."
"Shadow, could you slip into there, grab things and get out again?"
"I could do that, no problem. The main thing would be carrying stuff, I don't think I can managed properly with the bag." She gave the building another look. "Let's see…"
"I could go in, I suppose." Eon mused idly. "You two could stay hidden well enough, and I can do my double-cloak trick and avoid just about everyone."
"Or we could just leave it." Swarm suggested nervously. "I mean, I know Lung's not around, but they still have Oni Lee, and he's pretty dangerous." Eon looked up at her, slowly moving his tails.
"No-one would notice me." He promised. "We'd be safe." All three of them stayed still for a moment, then Shadow stepped back, acknowledging that this argument was between the two others.
"Be safe, and be quick, please." She finally requested, backing down and crouching next to Shadow.
"I will." Eon flicked his tails, vanishing from sight, and silently made his way down to ground level. Sneaking around the corner of the building and finding a locked door, he sniffed around for a moment before frowning. Picking up a can with some mental effort, he threw it, making it clatter on the ground. There was the vague sound of voices talking within, before two of the gang members came outside, guns held at the ready. They walked straight out of the building, right past the cloaked Eon, who slipped inside with a suppressed snort. Honestly, he thought to himself, quickly making his way through the building- apparently a remodelled warehouse, and almost definitely not what the plans for the building would say it looked like- towards the money, you didn't even think to leave someone standing in the doorway to make sure no-one could slip in? I mean, wouldn't have really worked with me anyway, but you'd think that people guarding the money stash would be a bit more vigilant, especially since their boss just got taken out.
Ignoring the idiocy of the ABB members, since all it was doing was making things easier for him, Eon sniffed the air as he walked, keeping to the walls and carefully curling his tails to make it less likely that someone would trip over him. Luckily, it appeared that the only two alert guards in the building had gone out of the door after Eon's distraction, since the Ninetales could hear people talking in one of the other rooms nearby. Nudging open the door that had the smell of paper money behind it, as well as similar drugs to the one the Merchants had apparently been on and a mess of unfamiliar scents, Eon put up another illusion that made the door appear shut, then pushed the door almost closed anyway just to be safe.
Then he turned around.
Wow. Eon thought, slowly pacing around the outskirts of the pile. That's an awful lot of money. Deciding not to waste any more time, since he didn't think the guards would be distracted much longer, he began heaping some of the money into his bag, careful not to take enough to be noticed. A few times he stepped back, evaluating the pile, before he decided on the third time that he had enough money and that it wouldn't be quickly noticed. Closing the Bag psychically, Eon crept out of the room again, barely managing to close the door properly and dispel the illusion over it when a pair of males, quite young and obviously of Asian descent, came around the corner talking lowly in a language Eon didn't recognise. He pressed himself against the wall and moved along, sliding past the two, and bolted for the exit, making as little noise as possible so as not to strain the illusion too much.
The front door was closed, but not properly locked, Eon discovered, and after a few moments of messing with the handle the door opened, letting Eon make his way out. He pushed it closed behind him and ran back to the building his teammates were hiding on, dropping the illusion and putting back a much wider version once he was next to them.
"Did it go ok?" Shadow asked. "Swarm said she saw a couple of people leaving for a little while around the other side." Eon nodded.
"I caused a distraction to get in. They're really idiots, it looks like. I didn't count how much I got, but it was quite a lot. We'll have a proper look when we get back to the base." Swarm nodded, visibly relaxing, and glanced skywards.
"It's about midnight, I think, so do you want to head back or keep going?"
"Head back." Shadow decided, before Eon could even get a word in. "You didn't get much sleep last night anyway, I can tell, and while Eon and I are used to it from our explorations, you're not yet." Eon glared slightly at Shadow, making her shut up, before chuckling and nodding.
"I was thinking the same. We'll walk you back again tonight, then head back to the base ourselves and hide everything. I'll do a proper inventory tomorrow morning, then we can meet up tomorrow night for another patrol."
"Ok." Swarm agreed. All three of them stood and stretched, before heading back to the ground and making their way through the alleyways under the cover of the illusions. They didn't run into any more trouble, but a few blocks from her house Swarm stopped them. "I need to take the battery out of this phone, make sure it can't be tracked." She explained, pulling it from her pocket.
"We'll take it back to base with us as well. I'm hiding our stuff a little ways away, or at least some of it. Phones and stuff can go in one place, so even if they do get tracked no-one will find the rest of it, some of our money and stuff in another place, and the rest of it in a third." Eon told her. Swarm nodded, handing the pieces to him.
"That's clever."
"It's not exactly our first time roughing it, though we normally have access to the storage back home, which no-one in their right or wrong minds would try and steal from. Same with the bank, but we can't access that on the field, so we hide things in camp when we have to." Eon smiled, putting them away. "Now come on, let's get back into your house. You need to get in before changing, right?"
"Yeah, but we have a little shed at the bottom of the garden that I've hidden a change of clothes in for absolute emergencies, just in case I get back and dad's still awake."
"You might want to leave a change of clothes with us as well, in case there's an emergency and you can't get home to change at all." Shadow opined. "Maybe you could make a spare costume too, and leave that at the base as well so if you need to costume up during the day you can just come to us. Or if this one gets damaged you have a spare that's easy enough to get to."
"It took me four months to make this costume, though."
"A lot of that was probably designing it, right? You know what you're doing this time, so it could be a lot faster." Swarm nodded.
"Yeah, that's true." She smiled at Shadow. "Alright, I'll start work on that… probably tomorrow. Thank you, and goodnight."
"Goodnight, Swarm." The trio parted, Shadow and Eon making their way back and watching as the Cape slipped through the fence and made her way into her house. They listened for a while, trying to see if anyone spoke from inside, but after hearing nothing for about five minutes they set off towards their own base, walking silently and carefully until they reached the city limits.
"That was… kinda fun." Shadow stated, looking up and left at Eon. "Don'tcha think?"
"It was." Eon agreed. "Different to our normal duties, that's for certain. And this city… it's a mess, sure, but it's an interesting mess. It might even be one we can clear up, at least a little."
"I'd like some help from our other team members if we went against some of the big ones, though." She said nervously. "Not just Swarm, but some of the ones from home too, like Vespiquen and Dragonite, or maybe someone like Mesprit and Uxie and Azelf if they were willing. Some of these guys are scary, and we're not really best suited for direct attack on our own."
"We can do it, though." Eon smirked. "Especially given your… eccentric family tree." Shadow chuckled.
"I suppose, yeah." The little vulpine yawned, blinking. "Huh. That illusion must've took more energy than I realised."
"C'mon, pix." Eon said. "Let's get back and rest."
"No argument from me." She nodded, trotting beside him.
"Patrols, I think." She replied, standing and stretching. "Just wander around and look for crimes to stop."
"Hmm." The Ninetales huffed, standing as well and shaking himself, fur rippling in the movement. "Well, I think it's a bit late for that, don't you?" He turned his head skyward, looking at the moon. "We've been talking for something like three hours, I reckon."
"Oh, hell." Swarm muttered. "It must be what, two in the morning?"
"Something like that." Shadow nodded, shaking herself out. "Do you want to try for a patrol of some kind?"
"No… no, I think it's best we don't." She decided, after a moment. "To be honest, I'm still a bit distracted from everything you've told me. I wouldn't really want to risk that on trying to fight someone."
"Makes sense." Eon nodded. "So, we should try and do another couple of things instead."
"Like what?"
"Well, a meeting place, for one." Shadow told her. "A team needs a place they can meet up, either to share information or go out together."
"That makes sense." The Cape admitted. "It'd be a bit annoying trying to find each other all the time."
"We have got a base set up," Eon said, "But it's quite a ways out of the city, so it might be a bit awkward trying to meet up there."
"How far?"
"I'm not exactly sure, we didn't really measure, but there's a nice grove a ways away. There's a few willow trees, and we used them to make a hideout."
"Could we go there now, do you think?" Swarm asked. "I'll need to be back home sort of soon, because it's Tuesday and I have school tomorrow, but I can go until four or so."
"Is that enough sleep?" Shadow seemed a little sceptical. "I mean, that can't be very much."
"It's about three hours, I'll cope." She shrugged. "Besides, school's a bit of a wreck at the best of times, so I don't really care anyway." Eon and Shadow traded glances, then shrugged as well.
"Alright. We'll head back down to ground level, and I'll put the invisibility and inaudibility illusions back up. It'll be easier to avoid people then, especially since we're not really looking for trouble tonight." The elder explained. "Though if we run into something we should help."
"No argument there." Swarm muttered.
"Tattletale filled us in on a lot of the situation in the city right now," he continued, pretending he hadn't heard her, "So we know a lot of what to expect. Hopefully we don't run into anyone too dangerous on the way over."
"Famous last words." She snorted, going over to a fire ladder on the side of the building, both Pokemon following her. "This is Brockton Bay, something always goes dangerous here." Shadow snickered.
"Oh, have we got some stories for you, Swarm." She said, crouching down in preparation to jump. "Trust me, we've had some experiences with danger." Swarm seemed to smile, swinging herself onto the ladder.
"I'm looking forward to it."
"This is where we've set up our base." Eon announced, stepping into the clearing through one of the willows. Long tails kept the branches out of the way, letting his two partners through as well, and he smiled up at the only masked member of the group. "There's no-one anywhere nearby, and I'm gonna be setting a bunch of illusions up over the next few days, so no-one can find it even when we're gone. At the moment, it's only invisible and only when I'm here, but the prep kit has some stuff I can use."
"Pardon?" Swarm asked, confused. Eon barked out a laugh.
"It's a trick I learned from a Zoroark, a few months back. He used little gems to anchor illusions too, and he ended up teaching me how to do it. It's his signature move, but mostly because he's never found someone else with the potential to learn it."
"And it took you the better part of the time we were at home, too." Shadow put in. "He basically went on vacation from missions for a while to try getting it down."
"It's a useful trick, though." Eon retorted, tapping her head. "When I've got it all set up here, no-one's ever gonna find this place."
"What will they do?" Swarm questioned, interrupting the mini argument.
"Invisibility, inaudibility, which is mostly useful when we're here, a few fake Pokemon that'll appear to attack to drive people off if they get too close, some actual animals, and an automatic avoidance field." Eon listed. "I've tested that last one a lot, and as long as you don't know it's there, you won't resist it." Shadow snorted, muttering lowly.
"He tested it with me." She grumbled softly. "I was refusing to go anywhere near the base all day because of it."
"Once she knew it was there, though, she could fight back against the feelings." Eon told her. "I'll make sure anyone who needs to get near knows, just so they can do the same."
"That's really impressive." The Cape muttered. "A sort of Master-Shaker field… I don't know of anyone who can do something like that." Eon smiled.
"Well, anyway," he said, gaining her attention again, "We're in a perfectly private place, and no-one's going to find us, Swarm, so what's your actual name?" The girl hesitated slightly, then reached up and pulled off her mask, revealing a somewhat plain girl with brown eyes and a wide mouth.
"Taylor." She said quietly. "Taylor Hebert."
"Nice to have you with us, Taylor." Eon smiled again, offering his paw once more. She took it in her off hand-
Trudging through a building, head down, looking at the floor through black glasses.
Three girls, laughing and teasing, while the rest of the school watched on.
Approaching a locker, a foul smell, opening it.
Seeing the mess inside, retching, being pushed, the slam of metal on metal, the click of a lock.
Screaming for help as things crawled about her.
Blackness.
-and shook again.
"Thank you for offering to let me join." She replied quietly.
"Hey, you were really cool last night, and I'm sure you'll be super helpful at super-heroing." Shadow beamed, tapping her paw on top of their joined hands. "I mean, what sort of stuff can you do with bugs, anyway? I know Vespiquen commands a little bug horde, but I'm not really sure what she does, aside from healing and some defence."
"I normally use stinging insects," Taylor explained, squinting a little. "I have Epi-pens and stuff in case of allergies, since I use spiders and wasps a lot."
"Epi-pens?" Shadow asked, turning her head.
"They stop allergic reactions to things. Some sort of injection. I don't really know much more, sorry." She shrugged. "Anyway, it's what I was doing against Lung; using poisonous spiders to try and overcome his regeneration."
"That's pretty good." Eon told her, recovering from the sudden vision. "And we saw earlier you can hear through them-"
"Only when I have a lot of bugs in one area." She corrected. "Bug senses are really bad, so I can't see or hear anything unless I've got tons of bugs to use."
"Can you make illusions with them?" Eon and Taylor both looked down at Shadow, confused. "It's something I saw before, working with another team." She explained herself, sitting down. "Remember, back when the Guild was putting together that expedition, and wanted a few more experienced outsiders to join?"
"Yeah, I remember." Eon nodded. "Taylor, I'll tell you that story later on."
"Alright." Taylor agreed, sitting down next to her.
"Well, I ended up working with one of the other teams, while Eon was chattering away with a few people." She smirked at Eon, who groaned. "And there was a Vespiquen there, too. She used to use her mini hive to make shapes in the air, like we do with our illusions, to trick other Pokemon into going after them instead of her and her team."
"That's… huh." Taylor pursed her lips. "I didn't think of doing that. I mean, I've thought of using bugs as a distraction, but not to mimic someone as bait."
"I can do something similar." Shadow told her. With a frown of focus, a golden Ninetales appeared next to them, and she replicated the trick she'd shown Eon the day before.
"I make them talk too, but it's difficult." The Ninetales said. "It's sort of similar to the inaudibility illusion, but I'm almost moving the sound I make to the illusion." Shadow made the illusion vanish, coughing again.
"But it's kinda difficult, and I can't keep it up for long." She added. "It's something I only learned to do very recently- like, about a week before we came here. I'm gonna keep practising, though, it might be useful now that we're in another world. Still, maybe you could do something with your bugs, like make them in the shape of people to lure bad guys around?"
"I could probably manage…" Taylor chewed her lip for a moment, seeming introspective. A moment later, bugs began crawling out from the trees and into the clearing, making a pool near to Taylor, before suddenly rising up from the ground and creating a loose shape of a person. "I don't really have enough bugs to do anything more than that." She frowned.
"But you could." Eon smirked. "We get more bugs, make the clouds a lot darker… people would never know if it's you or a fake. That'll help keep you safe when we work."
"You think I'd be in danger?"
"We're fighting criminals, we're always in danger." Shadow remarked. "Better to trick the crap out of them and stay safe, right?"
"I guess, yeah." She sighed. "Wish I'd thought of this last night…"
"Eh, you're alive, which is all that matters." Eon assured her. "What else… right, we need to see about getting you a badge."
"What?"
"A badge, like this one." Shadow pointed at the pin on her scarf. "All Rescue Teams and Exploration Teams back home have one, and we use it to send the people we've been sent to rescue home, the criminals back to a base for the authorities, and get ourselves out of dungeons if we're having trouble." She smiled. "Of course, that won't work here, but it'll work well as a group identifier for other people in the city."
"That… makes sense." Taylor said softly. "But I wouldn't have the money to get one, and I know you don't. You've only been here a few days, after all."
"Just over a day, yes." Eon nodded. "But here's the thing; while you have school, we can be out roaming the city. We don't have a human civilian identity, so there'd be no paper trails to one of us getting the badge made, and we can probably sniff out gang hideouts and rob them invisibly." Eon nodded towards the hideout, where the Treasure Bag was hidden. "The bag we take on dungeon explorations is strangely large. We could take and hide money in there, bring it back to the base, then use it as we need it. Since we can just use illusions to hide what we really look like, we can do any sort of shopping with a different face each time, which will help."
"That… yeah." Taylor nodded in turn. "That makes sense." Quietly, she yawned.
"Would you like us to walk you back to your house?" Eon offered, seeing that the girl was tired.
"Sure, but we need to be careful." She warned, standing. "My dad doesn't know I'm a Cape."
"Why wouldn't you tell him?" Shadow asked. "Or your mom?"
"My mom died two years ago. Nearly three, now." Taylor said quietly. "Dad and I drifted apart since then."
"I'm sorry." Eon softly apologised. Taylor shrugged.
"Nothing for you to be sorry for." She pulled her mask back over her face, tugging her brown, wavy hair out of the back and swarming it with bugs again.
"Hey, while we walk, let me tell you about that thing on the expedition!" Shadow cheered, trying to bring the atmosphere back up. 'Swarm' looked down, interested, while Eon groaned.
"No, Shadow!" He pleaded. "Please!"
"Nuh-uh." She smirked, trotting alongside their new teammate. "Anyway, while we were on the trip, one of the Vespiquen's teammates, a Delcatty- it looks like this," Shadow formed an illusion of the purple and tan cat, letting it wander next to them for a moment before fading, "Caught Eon's eye. So, for practically the whole trip, Eon's mooning over this pretty little cat…"
Taylor slipped in through the back door, carefully locking it behind her and making her way upstairs. Reaching her room, she slipped out of her costume and hid it in the bottom of her wardrobe, before looking out of her window and over to the back yard. The white-grey form of Eon caught her eye for a moment, and he waved a blue-tipped tail at her before shimmering out of sight. Taylor spent a few minutes looking still, hoping to spot Shadow as well, before giving up and closing the blind, lying flat on the bed and staring at the ceiling in deep thought.
During their walk back, Taylor had ended up telling Shadow and Eon where her school was, among the general chat of the slow pace, which they'd set in order to avoid disturbing the illusion. Eventually they'd had to quieten down to near silence as well, to make sure no-one could hear them, but they'd still spoken slightly with each other, making plans to meet up the next night and go on a proper patrol. They'd even had the idea of doing a few afternoon ones, once they had a bit more time on their hands, or perhaps doing them on weekends and roaming the city all day. Taylor had liked both ideas, and they'd set up their meeting point at a clothing store very near to Taylor's house, which they'd passed on the way. It was a very nice place, despite not being on the ever-popular Boardwalk, and Taylor had often wished she could afford to go in there.
She made a mental note to drop by the shops and pick up some burner phones the next day as well. She had the money for it- barely- and she'd been planning to do it anyway so that she could call in crimes when necessary.
Stifling a yawn, Taylor took out her contact lenses- she was glad she'd been able to afford them recently so she could go out in costume more easily, even though she still preferred her glasses most of the time- and rolled over to try and get some sleep before school the next day.
"What was it like this time, Eon?" Shadow asked softly as they stealthy made their way through an alley. The little Vulpix had noticed Eon going through another one of his visions when he'd taken Taylor's hand in the clearing, and had moved quickly to distract the girl while her friend and partner recovered from the dizzy spell that always came with the visions.
"I'm… not sure." Eon muttered, thinking back. The vision had been a little distorted, especially towards the end of it, which was different to the usual clarity of his flashes into the future or the past of whatever triggered them. Eon had a good memory, however, and he always made it a point to commit whatever he saw to his mind, which gave him time to think later on. "You remember how Tattletale said Triggers are always traumatic?"
"Yeah." Shadow nodded, looking miserable. "I hate to think that Ta- Swarm when through one."
"I think I saw her Trigger." He told her. "She… she was shoved in a locker full of waste. I'm not sure how long she was in there, I think she passed out after a while."
"Or you only saw up to her Trigger. Tattletale said people pass out when it happens." Shadow pointed out with a scowl. "Damn. How the hell could that happen? I would've thought schools would be better than that."
"I'd assume so as well." Eon growled. "It's not like we could bring it up, though. People don't talk about their Triggers."
"Invisibility." Eon paused mid-step, looking down at his friend. "We can make ourselves invisible and sneak about the school tomorrow, try and see what's going on."
"We're not going to be able to look at records, you know." Shadow scoffed.
"Of course I know that. If we had Porygon here, I might try for it, or Rotom, but not as us. But we can still sneak around the school a bit and see what's going on in there, and what it's like for Swarm." Shadow huffed angrily. "I don't like that she's so dismissive of her work."
"Neither do I." Eon admitted. "Fine. Would you be alright to go in on your own, Shadow? You're smaller than me, so you could slip around easier. Not to mention the tails."
"Yeah, we probably don't want to accidentally curse most the school by them stepping on your tails." Shadow snorted. "Or trip them up, or something. But yeah, I can do it. Not sure if I can hold an invisibility-inaudibility cloak for that long, but I can do camouflage and stay in the shadows or something."
"Either way, maybe don't stop about for too long, so that you don't end up straining yourself and losing the cloak." Eon suggested. "We don't want to get caught."
"No, I'd rather our public debut was doing something cool, thanks." Shadow agreed. "I'll slip in a bit after the big morning rush- there's gotta be one of those, right?- and snoop around for a bit. I'm sure I can find something."
"Give it a bit more time, maybe in a couple of days. We need to set up first. After that, then as long as you're careful you can go." He sighed. "Now c'mon, let's get back and catch a few hours of sleep before tomorrow."
"Alright." They walked in silence until they were almost in the clearing. "Hey Eon?"
"Mh?"
"Are you alright? You don't normally have many visions super-close, do you? Has something happened?"
"Maybe it's just because we're on another world, Shadow." Eon shrugged, the movement rippling, and ducked under the branches. "Remember we were told that the Scream worked more often in the past than in the future, so maybe it's something similar."
"I hope so. They're useful, but they can be a pain and really distracting."
"Don't I know it, little pix."
Later that afternoon, around seven, Taylor met up with the two of them outside the shop. She was in costume, and had slipped carefully into an alleyway a few minutes before, waiting for her teammates to show up. Both of them arrived after about ten minutes, Eon under an invisibility-inaudibility illusion set and Shadow hidden by a change in colour to something far darker than her normal orange-red-and-cream colour scheme.
"Ready to go, Swarm?" Shadow grinned, patting her leg in greeting.
"As ready as I can be." She nodded with a slight smile. "What's the plan?"
"Mostly just run about, see if we can catch anything." Eon explained, curling his tails over his back with an unhappy look at the ground. "I'd like to see if we can find a few of these gang hideouts too, maybe some of those… heck, what're they called? The one Lung ran."
"ABB?"
"Yeah, ABB. They don't have their dragon around, so now would be a good time to hit them, I think."
"Maybe." Swarm nodded. "What's that?" She pointed. Eon looked backwards at the brown bag he had attached carefully to his back.
"Treasure Bag." He told her. "Anything we might grab from gang dens can go in here. That's the normal rules of engagement back home when dealing with criminals. I've got paper in here too, I brought some with us when we came, so we can write a note to the local police if we find anything that needs to be handed in."
"That's fair." She bit her lip. "I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about just… taking the money, though. I mean… a lot of it's probably stolen, or drug money, or something."
"True, but we can't really trace any paper or coin back to people, can we?" Eon reasoned. "We'll make sure any of those plastic things make their way to the police as well, I'm sure they can find the owners of the things."
"Yeah, probably." Swarm inhaled deeply, then let out a sharp breath. "So, are we going undercover, or what?"
"Invisible." Eon told her. "I figured you wouldn't want people staring at us while we're running around."
"It'll happen eventually, but thank you." She said sincerely. "What do I need to do?"
"Just stay close and quiet, that's all. It's not too difficult to cloak more than one person, I do it with Shadow all the time, but it is a bit of a strain if I need to keep adjusting things to make sure no-one notices."
"What about you, Shadow?" The Cape asked the Vulpix, who was wandering the alley and sniffing the air.
"I'm going camouflage, so I'll be in charge of scouting in front of us a bit." She explained, fiddling with her illusion slightly as she did so and coming out at a slightly better blend of black and grey that hid her better in the still fading twilight. "When you're able to see and hear more with your bugs, I'll hand that job over to you, but right now it's easier for me to do it."
"That's fair. Be careful." Swarm reached behind her into the compartment she'd fashion into the back of her costume, taking out a pair of burner phones. "Here, I went and grabbed a few today after school. Cost a bit, but I can handle it." Eon smiled, taking the phone gently in a psychic grip- which made Taylor flinch, having forgotten that particular power- and looking at it for a moment before putting it in his bag.
"Thank you, Swarm. That's helpful, I'd forgotten that we might need these and don't have any money to get them right now anyway." Eon said. "We'll pay you back soon enough, I'm sure."
"Yeah." Swarm nodded. "I hope so."
"Come on." Eon straightened, waving his tails. "We're cloaked. Shadow, off you go. We'll be right behind you."
"Got it, Eon." The camouflaged form of the Vulpix nodded in the fading light, then vanished out of the alleyway in a blur. Eon and Swarm followed soon after, completely invisible, watching the dark form dart in and out of shadows, never staying in one place for very long and avoiding every beam of light with careful expertise. Swarm kept watching with her bugs, twitching every time someone got too close to Shadow, and only relaxing when they moved away.
"Calm down." Eon murmured. "Shadow's trained for this sort of stuff. She's good enough even normally, let along in black and grey. She'll be fine."
"I have to admit, I wouldn't expect her to be good at stealth," Swarm admitted lowly. "Given how enthusiastic she is."
"She always claims it's a good way to throw opponents off. If you're loud and bouncy, you couldn't possibly be a spy of any kind, because she draws too much attention." Eon chuckled. "I think she just wanted to prove to me that she could be serious if she wanted to be."
"Well, she does it really well." She smiled. "I wonder if we'll find something."
"Somehow I don't doubt it."
In the end, it only took a half an hour for them to stumble across trouble.
"A mugging." Shadow explained lowly, having spotted it in the alleyway and darted back to where she knew they were to explain. "Only one person, with a knife. The girl he's after is on the ground right now, and the guy smells kinda funny."
"He might be a Merchant, they're normally drugged up on something." Swarm advised.
"How do we handle this?" Eon asked.
"Swarm can distract him with bugs. Try not to have him close his eyes, I'm gonna try and Hypnosis him. Then we can call it in." Shadow explained.
"Can you manage that, Swarm?"
"Yeah, I can." The bug user straightened. "Not as bad as Lung, at least." Eon snorted.
"No, I suppose not. Go on, begin. I'll drop our illusions once we get into the alley more." Swarm nodded, gathering her bugs, while Shadow darted back into the mouth of the alleyway, where the mugging was taking place. A moment later, a spider crawled up his leg and bit down, making him yelp loudly and jump, holding his leg and nearly stabbing himself in the process. A small army of bugs appeared and swarmed him, keeping the man distracted while the woman carefully stood and backed away. Shadow crept forwards, dropping her illusion of dark colours, and grinned widely, setting up her attack.
"Hi there!"
"Gah!" The man jumped, eyes suddenly wide, as the bugs backed off. "Oh fuck, a… Cape…" Shadow kept eye contact with the would-be mugger as he began swaying, then fell over asleep. Swarm moved her bugs away, back into the shade of the alley, and Shadow leaned forward, cancelling her attack.
"Huh. That was easier than I expected. Normally takes longer than that." She mused.
"It was well done, though." Eon complemented, both of her teammates arriving and dropping into view. "Good job working together." The Ninetales stepped around the man towards the woman he'd tried to mug. "Are you alright, ma'am?"
"I'll be fine." She said, looking somewhat shaky and gripping her purse. "Thank you for your help."
"We were in the area, and it's what we do." Eon smiled, offering her his paw. "I'm Eon, the little one in Shadow and that's Swarm back there." He turned his head, nodding to each of them in turn. "Swarm, you calling this in?"
"Will do, Eon." The bug Cape nodded, taking out her phone. Eon and Shadow both ignored her quiet report into the device, instead giving the woman an once-over.
"He didn't hurt you at all, did he?" Shadow asked quickly, padding over.
"No, I'm fine." She repeated. "Thank you for your help."
"Like Eon said, it's no trouble." The little Vulpix grinned. "Hey, Eon, Swarm, what's actually the procedure for this? We stick around and talk to the police, right?"
"Presumably."
"We'll all have to give statements, most likely." The woman put in. "Whenever they get here."
"They're on their way, they said." Swarm told them, closing the phone and storing it. "I'll keep an eye out, though."
"Thank you, Swarm." Eon nodded. He glanced down at the mugger, sniffing a few times. "I think you were right, by the way. He's definitely on something. Several somethings, if I had to guess."
"Merchants." The bug user sighed. "They're annoying."
"From what you've said, all of the gangs can be annoying."
"True." She snorted. All four of them milled around for a moment, Eon and Swarm idly talking while Shadow and the woman stayed quiet, until Swarm looked towards the entrance of the alley. "They're here, or they will be in a moment." The sharp ears of both vulpines picked up the whine of the engine and sirens, and Eon lead the way out. Shadow lingered at the very back, watching the Merchant carefully, while the police stepped out of the car. They immediately stared at Eon, who seated himself carefully on the ground and swept his tails around his paws, but professionalism quickly took over and they started interviewing the four. Swarm lead them over to the knocked out mugger, who was quickly woken and arrested. Everyone went their own ways minutes later, the trio of heroes ducking back into the alleyway to set everything back up.
"That was surprisingly quick." Eon noted, shaking his head.
"Yeah, back home the officers practically ask for a step by step tour of the entire dungeon chase." Shadow grumbled.
"A lot of the officers here are kind of overworked." Swarm told them. "And it's just one mugger, so they probably weren't too interested in getting a step by step. Besides, I think the four of us covered things pretty well, don't you?"
"Yeah, I guess." Eon gave Swarm a long look. "You did very well there, given that it was your first time really working with us." She shrugged.
"I just followed Shadow's plan." She demurred, embarrassed.
"Either way, you did well." Eon looked back at Shadow, whose fur was now dark again. "Come on, let's get moving again. Maybe we can hit a supply and get your money for pay back."
"That'd be nice. Thank you."
"You're our teammate now, it's our job." Shadow grinned, before fading into the background and making her way out of the alley.
In total, the group found another two muggings and a gang house that they were fairly sure belonged to the ABB in the four hours they decided to patrol.
"What do we do about the gang building?" Swarm asked softly, as all three perched on a rooftop overlooking it.
"Can you tell how many people are in there right now?" Eon asked in response. "We can decide then." Swarm went silent for a few minutes directing her bugs around, then nodded.
"There's seven guys in there, all of them are in one room, except for one, who's in the same room as the money, drugs and weapons." She told him. "The rest are in the next room over."
"Shadow, could you slip into there, grab things and get out again?"
"I could do that, no problem. The main thing would be carrying stuff, I don't think I can managed properly with the bag." She gave the building another look. "Let's see…"
"I could go in, I suppose." Eon mused idly. "You two could stay hidden well enough, and I can do my double-cloak trick and avoid just about everyone."
"Or we could just leave it." Swarm suggested nervously. "I mean, I know Lung's not around, but they still have Oni Lee, and he's pretty dangerous." Eon looked up at her, slowly moving his tails.
"No-one would notice me." He promised. "We'd be safe." All three of them stayed still for a moment, then Shadow stepped back, acknowledging that this argument was between the two others.
"Be safe, and be quick, please." She finally requested, backing down and crouching next to Shadow.
"I will." Eon flicked his tails, vanishing from sight, and silently made his way down to ground level. Sneaking around the corner of the building and finding a locked door, he sniffed around for a moment before frowning. Picking up a can with some mental effort, he threw it, making it clatter on the ground. There was the vague sound of voices talking within, before two of the gang members came outside, guns held at the ready. They walked straight out of the building, right past the cloaked Eon, who slipped inside with a suppressed snort. Honestly, he thought to himself, quickly making his way through the building- apparently a remodelled warehouse, and almost definitely not what the plans for the building would say it looked like- towards the money, you didn't even think to leave someone standing in the doorway to make sure no-one could slip in? I mean, wouldn't have really worked with me anyway, but you'd think that people guarding the money stash would be a bit more vigilant, especially since their boss just got taken out.
Ignoring the idiocy of the ABB members, since all it was doing was making things easier for him, Eon sniffed the air as he walked, keeping to the walls and carefully curling his tails to make it less likely that someone would trip over him. Luckily, it appeared that the only two alert guards in the building had gone out of the door after Eon's distraction, since the Ninetales could hear people talking in one of the other rooms nearby. Nudging open the door that had the smell of paper money behind it, as well as similar drugs to the one the Merchants had apparently been on and a mess of unfamiliar scents, Eon put up another illusion that made the door appear shut, then pushed the door almost closed anyway just to be safe.
Then he turned around.
Wow. Eon thought, slowly pacing around the outskirts of the pile. That's an awful lot of money. Deciding not to waste any more time, since he didn't think the guards would be distracted much longer, he began heaping some of the money into his bag, careful not to take enough to be noticed. A few times he stepped back, evaluating the pile, before he decided on the third time that he had enough money and that it wouldn't be quickly noticed. Closing the Bag psychically, Eon crept out of the room again, barely managing to close the door properly and dispel the illusion over it when a pair of males, quite young and obviously of Asian descent, came around the corner talking lowly in a language Eon didn't recognise. He pressed himself against the wall and moved along, sliding past the two, and bolted for the exit, making as little noise as possible so as not to strain the illusion too much.
The front door was closed, but not properly locked, Eon discovered, and after a few moments of messing with the handle the door opened, letting Eon make his way out. He pushed it closed behind him and ran back to the building his teammates were hiding on, dropping the illusion and putting back a much wider version once he was next to them.
"Did it go ok?" Shadow asked. "Swarm said she saw a couple of people leaving for a little while around the other side." Eon nodded.
"I caused a distraction to get in. They're really idiots, it looks like. I didn't count how much I got, but it was quite a lot. We'll have a proper look when we get back to the base." Swarm nodded, visibly relaxing, and glanced skywards.
"It's about midnight, I think, so do you want to head back or keep going?"
"Head back." Shadow decided, before Eon could even get a word in. "You didn't get much sleep last night anyway, I can tell, and while Eon and I are used to it from our explorations, you're not yet." Eon glared slightly at Shadow, making her shut up, before chuckling and nodding.
"I was thinking the same. We'll walk you back again tonight, then head back to the base ourselves and hide everything. I'll do a proper inventory tomorrow morning, then we can meet up tomorrow night for another patrol."
"Ok." Swarm agreed. All three of them stood and stretched, before heading back to the ground and making their way through the alleyways under the cover of the illusions. They didn't run into any more trouble, but a few blocks from her house Swarm stopped them. "I need to take the battery out of this phone, make sure it can't be tracked." She explained, pulling it from her pocket.
"We'll take it back to base with us as well. I'm hiding our stuff a little ways away, or at least some of it. Phones and stuff can go in one place, so even if they do get tracked no-one will find the rest of it, some of our money and stuff in another place, and the rest of it in a third." Eon told her. Swarm nodded, handing the pieces to him.
"That's clever."
"It's not exactly our first time roughing it, though we normally have access to the storage back home, which no-one in their right or wrong minds would try and steal from. Same with the bank, but we can't access that on the field, so we hide things in camp when we have to." Eon smiled, putting them away. "Now come on, let's get back into your house. You need to get in before changing, right?"
"Yeah, but we have a little shed at the bottom of the garden that I've hidden a change of clothes in for absolute emergencies, just in case I get back and dad's still awake."
"You might want to leave a change of clothes with us as well, in case there's an emergency and you can't get home to change at all." Shadow opined. "Maybe you could make a spare costume too, and leave that at the base as well so if you need to costume up during the day you can just come to us. Or if this one gets damaged you have a spare that's easy enough to get to."
"It took me four months to make this costume, though."
"A lot of that was probably designing it, right? You know what you're doing this time, so it could be a lot faster." Swarm nodded.
"Yeah, that's true." She smiled at Shadow. "Alright, I'll start work on that… probably tomorrow. Thank you, and goodnight."
"Goodnight, Swarm." The trio parted, Shadow and Eon making their way back and watching as the Cape slipped through the fence and made her way into her house. They listened for a while, trying to see if anyone spoke from inside, but after hearing nothing for about five minutes they set off towards their own base, walking silently and carefully until they reached the city limits.
"That was… kinda fun." Shadow stated, looking up and left at Eon. "Don'tcha think?"
"It was." Eon agreed. "Different to our normal duties, that's for certain. And this city… it's a mess, sure, but it's an interesting mess. It might even be one we can clear up, at least a little."
"I'd like some help from our other team members if we went against some of the big ones, though." She said nervously. "Not just Swarm, but some of the ones from home too, like Vespiquen and Dragonite, or maybe someone like Mesprit and Uxie and Azelf if they were willing. Some of these guys are scary, and we're not really best suited for direct attack on our own."
"We can do it, though." Eon smirked. "Especially given your… eccentric family tree." Shadow chuckled.
"I suppose, yeah." The little vulpine yawned, blinking. "Huh. That illusion must've took more energy than I realised."
"C'mon, pix." Eon said. "Let's get back and rest."
"No argument from me." She nodded, trotting beside him.
Chapter 6- Schooling, sneaking, and speaking
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Shadow slowly crept along the side of the building, keeping to the shadows as she did. She had an illusion up to change her colouring to a grey-black, making it much harder to see her through the darkness, and was being careful not to knock anyone or make too much noise.
"That's the place?" She muttered to herself, disgusted. "What a dump."
She'd managed to persuade Eon that she could handle the building herself, so he had stayed at their new base and worked on setting up the guards for it to keep it safe while they were gone. As a trade-off, Shadow was also going to try and get a bit of insight into the security of the place, so that she and Eon could sneak back in during one of the nights where they could have Taylor take a day off and snoop about to find something interesting.
Shadow's extremely good senses picked up the shrill ringing of a bell from inside the mess of a place across the street, and she paused, picking a moment where nothing was going on on the road to cloak herself and make a run for it. Stopping in the shadows of the building, she dropped the cloak and went back to the dark colour scheme, watching with interest as people began making their way in. From their talk with Tattletale the day before, she recognised that a number of them wore gang signs, and sighed softly at the obvious divide between groups.
Spotting a tall figure with long brown hair, Shadow immediately began tracking her movements, slowly inching her way around as she did. Taylor was wearing glasses now, the difference surprising but not incredible, and had her head down towards the floor. As she passed, Shadow listened closely, hearing jeers from just about every person, along with the high pitched giggling of a group of girls. One with red hair stepped from the group, and Taylor stiffened. A black skinned girl stepped up as well, and both of them began speaking to Taylor, the red head's body language mocking and the black girl's irate.
Cursing softly that she couldn't hear what was being said, Shadow weighed up her options for a moment, then cloaked fully and tracked closer to them.
"Honestly, Hebert, you shouldn't even be here." The red head smirked. "Just go away like the little girl you are."
"Fuck off, Emma." Taylor snapped, making Shadow's eyes widen. Apparently the girls were just as taken aback, and the group let Taylor pass by them. For a moment, Shadow thought that would be everything, but the black girl suddenly charged Taylor, aiming a punch at her back. Her new friend hit the ground hard, though her glasses seemed alright, and Shadow stifled a gasp.
"Watch your mouth, bitch." The black girl snarled, before turning to the crowd. "The fuck you all looking at?" The crowd quickly moved along, and Shadow had to do some careful dodging around them as they left. The red head, Emma, put her hand on the other's shoulder.
"Come on, Sophia, let's let Taylor cry in peace." She requested. "We might as well leave her with a little bit of dignity."
"Fine." Sophia and Emma wandered into the school, soon leaving the entire yard empty, aside from Taylor herself. Shadow looked around the area, then crept forwards and dropped her cloak.
"Taylor?" Shadow asked softly.
"Shadow?" The bug user seemed surprised. "What're you doing here? Where's Eon?"
"I was sneaking about, having a look around, and I spotted what was going on." She explained. "Eon's at the base, adding to the protections. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." She muttered, pushing herself up and rubbing her arms, where she'd scraped them in the fall. "I've had worse."
"Do you want to come back to base with me? You could skip today if you wanted." Shadow offered, stepping back a little and looking around again. Taylor looked down at her, then up at the school, biting her lip.
"You know what? Sure." She stood, fiddling with her backpack for a moment. "Let me go home first, dad'll have gone by now, and I'll grab some stuff. Fuck this place." She turned sharply, a few flies buzzing around her with irritation, and started off down the street. Shadow followed silently, cloaking herself as they hit the brighter main street and dropping into the alleyways as soon as she could.
"I'll meet you there." Shadow whispered, knowing Taylor would hear it. The brunette nodded, letting Shadow take off through the back streets towards Taylor's house, while the Cape herself stayed mostly on the better roads while going the same way.
Shadow ended up taking slightly longer than Taylor to get to the building; while the alleyways were faster, it was also easier for her to get lost and she'd ended up having to turn around a few times. She'd also had to be careful to stay in the shadows of the alley, keeping hidden and quiet to avoid people finding her, which made her own trip take a little while longer than Taylor's did. When she arrived, she found the back gate slightly ajar, so she slipped through there and nudged it closed behind her. The back door was almost wide open, and Shadow could hear the sounds of a single person moving within. Entering the house, she looked around curiously, smelling the scent of Taylor all over the place, as well as someone else who smelled similar to Taylor.
Shadow assumed that was her dad.
"Up here, Shadow!" Taylor called down the stairs. "Come on, no-one else is here."
"Coming!" She replied quietly, dropping her colour illusion fully as she bounced her way up the steps. "What's up?" She asked.
"I set some of my spiders to work on my second costume this morning." She explained. "Well, last night, technically. I made a little flap on my main costume for the badge, we can pin it on there and I don't think it'll come off if we do, so I did that this morning before I left, then put them back onto the costume." Taylor lifted her full costume, now with a little flap on the front as she'd said, then folded it up and put it to one side. "They managed to do a lot of it overnight, but there's not much more on there now." She lifted up a piece of yellow-grey material, very different to the grey of her actual costume, and pulled at it a little while the spiders crawled across it, weaving. "I'll bring it with me and have them keep working on it, if that's ok." Taylor glanced over her shoulder at Shadow, who was sitting to one side and keenly watching the spiders move about.
"Yeah, that's fine." She smiled slightly. "Eon won't mind, and I don't either. Maybe you'll be able to pick up more spiders in the woods that you can use to weave it."
"Maybe, it was kind of good luck that I even found this many in the first place. It was winter when I got my powers, so spiders and other bugs were a bit hard to find and collect."
"Where do you put them, in those boxes?"
"The spiders, yeah. The other bugs go into jars and stuff, or I leave them outside but nearby. I mostly use them to feed the spiders, though. I let the bees and wasps and all them do whatever they want, and just call them to use when I go out."
"That makes sense. No need to mess with the ecosystem any more than people's powers seem to already." Shadow smiled. "Are you using that bag, by the way?" Taylor nodded.
"Yeah. I'll just take all my stuff out of it and put some clothes and things in to bring with me. Am I putting on my costume?"
"If you want. Just I can't do invisibility for us both for a long time, so we'll be walking out of the city in plain view."
"No costume, then." Taylor decided. She went over to her bed and turned the back over, letting all her books fall into a pile, before folding the costume and putting it in. The rest of the clothes she was bringing went on top of it, and the piece of the new costume went over that, spiders still crawling back and forth on it. "Alright, let's go." Shadow stood and turned, heading quickly down the stairs and out of the door.
"Once Eon's done with everything back at base, we'll have to try and persuade him to do another patrol." She said.
"What, now?"
"Yeah." She flicked her tails back and forth while Taylor locked the door behind them. "I mean, Eon can do the cloak for you and him just as well in the day as he can in the night, though my normal scouting cloak would be a bit awkward since it's brighter, but I can make do. Don't think I can hold a full invisibility-inaudibility cloak for that long, but I can definitely fiddle with my normal stuff enough to hide pretty well." As she spoke, Shadow rippled back into the mentioned colours, hidden surprisingly well even in the daylight, and the two stepped out of the back yard together.
"Out of curiosity, Shadow, why were you even at Winslow?" Taylor asked quietly as they walked.
"Curious about the school, wanted to have a look round." She shrugged. "You seemed bored with the place and didn't care much the other night, so I wanted to know a bit more. Eon wanted to take a look-see too, but I was gonna go first and look during the day, since I'm smaller so it's less likely someone would notice me. Plus Eon's tails are kinda long, so it'd be harder for him to get around people without them stepping on them. I was gonna get a handle on the security and all that-" Taylor barked out a laugh.
"What security? I don't think any of the cameras in that building have worked since Scion showed up. They probably didn't work before then, either."
"It's that bad?" Shadow raised an eyebrow at her, peering out of the shadows of the building she was next to.
"It's pretty bad. I don't even think they lock the doors at night, it's that bad." She snorted. "Then again, there's nothing in the damn place that'd be worth stealing anyway, so they probably feel secure enough not to bother."
"That's... sad." She mused. "Is this city really that big of a mess?"
"There's gangs everywhere, the PRT and Protectorate barely help out with it all where it matters, and the city's too poor to really try and fix it up." Taylor said bluntly. "Yes, it's that much of a mess."
"Then I guess we've gotta clean it up, then, haven't we?" Shadow smirked. "Pretty sure we can do that. We're powerful, after all." Taylor laughed quietly, turning into an alleyway they both knew was abandoned and cutting across the city.
"Yeah. I suppose we are, aren't we?" She smiled slightly at the Vulpix. "Thanks, Shadow."
"No problem, Taylor." They walked quietly together for a half hour longer, before ducking into the woods near the base. "Y'know, we're gonna need to tell Eon why you're here."
"Mm."
"Want me to do it?"
"No, it's ok. I should probably tell you what's going on there anyway. You're my teammates- and besides, if I end up skipping out again, I'd be coming to you anyway." Taylor shrugged, mindful of the bag on her back, as Shadow dropped out of her darkening illusion, going back to her normal orange-red-cream colouring and shaking herself.
"That always feels weird to do, like ink... anyway, that's fine. I don't mind, and Eon won't either, I don't think. We can do some daytime patrols when you're not at school, after all."
"That... could be fun." She said slowly. "Won't it be awkward for you, though? I mean, everyone'd stare at you, wouldn't they?"
"Eh, 'snot like we aren't used to it." Shadow shrugged, flicking her tails. "Eon especially, since he's shiny and was new and was kinda weird because of the whole amnesia thing, but I got a few as well for being his teammate. Then we got kinda famous, and it got a bit more looks from people." She spotted Taylor's confusion, and grinned. "I don't look all that powerful, in the end. I'm mostly good because of my family tree- it's a bit of a weird mess, to be honest. I have a lot of different Pokemon lines in my family, and it gives me access to some kinda cool stuff. Which is good, 'cause it means I can hold my own in trouble, and I've been tutoring Eon in some of them as well. They can be really powerful, Ninetales, but a Vulpix is just as good, at least when you've got a lot of stuff to use."
"And you're a lot smaller, which helps with things like just now, I suppose." Taylor mused, before flinching heavily. "Um, Shadow, maybe we should go a different way. Like back to the city. We could wait for Eon there, right?"
"I mean, I guess, but why?" She asked, cocking her head. "The base is just this way, it's not that far, we can just go there and wait with Eon." She trotted past Taylor, then recoiled. "Whoa! That..."
"Yeah. Can we just go another way, please?" Taylor asked nervously, the bugs in the air around her buzzing aggravatedly.
"Taylor, it's just the repulsion illusion. Y'know, the one Eon mentioned yesterday?" As she spoke, Shadow could feel the effects of the illusion lessening, not able to take proper effect now that she recognised what it was. "There's nothing dangerous actually here... well, aside from us, I suppose. C'mon, let's just go get to Eon, then we can chat for a bit and go on patrol later this afternoon or something." Shadow meandered at the border of the illusion for a few moments, while Taylor gathered up her courage to pass by.
"Whoa." She muttered, shivering. "That's... really weird. Like... I didn't want to pass until you told me what it is." She glanced around, her bugs moving as she did. "It still feels like something's waiting to jump out at me."
"Yeah, that's the effects of the field." Shadow grinned. "You get used to it after a while in them. Plus once we get farther in, the feeling goes away."
"Why?" Taylor asked, braving another few steps. "Wouldn't it make sense for the feeling of doom to get stronger the closer you get to the base?"
"Eon does set it up like that. He'll do it later, probably, but he always keys me into things like this."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that I'm immune to the effects after a certain distance." She explained, smiling up. "He'll add you as well, obviously. It's a bonus of the keystone thing he does. Most of the times illusions don't work like that. I think it's a Ninetales thing, and Zoroark have the ability to put only one person under a full illusion." Shadow shrugged. "I dunno how it works. I just learn my illusions from Eon, and I'll mess with them as I need to."
"That's fair enough, I guess." Taylor nodded. "I mean, I don't exactly know how my powers work, after all, and I doubt most people do."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you should definitely try and learn as much about your abilities as possible so you can use them well." Eon put in, appearing from the trees with a slight rustle of leaves. "Otherwise you might end up using your powers ineffectively, which can really suck when it comes down to it."
"Hey Eon!" Shadow grinned, bouncing over to him. "Where'd you come from? Why're you here?"
"I was just setting some of the other things up, and heard both of you run into the repulsion illusion." He shrugged. "I thought that I'd come say hello." He curled a tail around Shadow, tapping her on the nose. "Y'know, when I said 'look around the school for cameras and interesting things' I didn't mean 'find and kidnap Taylor from school', Shadow."
"I didn't mean to!" She defended sharply. "Taylor was getting picked on, so I went and asked if she was ok, then asked if she wanted to skip. She said yeah." Eon looked up at Taylor, who fidgeted. There were a few red scrapes along the side of her face from her fall, and a couple on the palms of her hands, and he nodded.
"That's fine. I was just wondering." He grinned. "So, what's the plan now that you've borrowed Taylor for the day, Shadow?"
"I dunno." Shadow shrugged. "Taylor's gonna work more on her costume, I think. And she brought some stuff to leave here with us."
"Then I guess we'll be making some storage places for them, won't we?" The Ninetales said, turning. "I've just finished fine tuning everything on the illusion front. I borrowed a few Zoroark methods, so I don't need to be too close to the illusions to be powering them, which is good."
"Cool. I didn't know you could do that." The Vulpix looked up at him with some awe. "You are going to teach me to do that, right?"
"Eventually, when you're got some more skill with your illusions." Eon's tone turned slightly teasing. "After all, you can't do invisibility right yet, and that's fairly simple."
"I can do it!" Shadow replied sharply. "Just not for very long. It's hard." Eon patted her head.
"You'll get there, Shadow." He told her. "Just keep practising." Shadow frowned, and a moment later the air rippled slightly.
"Ok!" The apparently empty space where she had been said cheerfully. Eon sighed, looking up at Taylor, who hid a grin behind her hand and looked away.
"Why yes, she is like this often." He groaned tiredly. "I swear, after a year and a half you'd think I'd've either gotten used to it or she'd've grown out of it, but nope!"
"I like it." Taylor said quietly. "It's funny. Nice, considering…" She trailed off. Eon waited politely for a moment to see if she was going to continue, then coughed.
"Well, it'll probably get annoying eventually. I'm not sure when that happened for me, but possibly it was after Shadow walked blindly into the end of a dungeon after we'd just fought through multiple floors, making jokes about it not getting worse, before making a rather rude one and causing the Mightyena that'd made the place their territory to get offended and jump us." He groaned. "And Mightyena look like this, and there were about six of them." The illusion of the large-ish black-and-grey hyena Pokemon flickered into being, making Taylor glance over it and wince.
"Yeah, that looks a bit scary."
"I said I was sorry!" Shadow barked, reappearing and slashing at the Mightyena illusion with a claw. "You're the one who keeps bringing it up!"
"Because you started it, silly!" He grumbled, swiping playfully at her. "Anyway, come on, we're here. Let Taylor settle down, you're coming to help me grab some stuff to make some boxes for Taylor to leave her things in."
"No problem." Shadow grinned up at the much taller girl. "You'll be ok on your own, right?"
"I'll be fine." Taylor said awkwardly, looking around the clearing they'd just entered. "You've said no-one can get in here, and I've got my bugs if something does happen. I'll just keep my spiders working on my costume."
"Don't forget that you can call us if you need help with something, Taylor." Eon reminded her, watching her carefully as she moved to sit next to the willow tree that the base they'd created was hidden under, putting her bag on the ground next to her and pulling out the spider-covered cloth.
"I- right." She smiled. "Sure. I'll keep some flying bugs around that I can use to get you if you're needed. There's enough bugs in the area that I should be able to find you easily." Eon nodded, then followed Shadow, who'd already run off into the forest to find some bits that they could use.
"Think this is enough?" Shadow asked, dropping a few more branches of willowy wood onto the pile the two had been building.
"Probably." Eon shrugged. "We don't really need that much space, so this should be fine after a bit of work."
"Should we take it back, then? We could work on it in the base, or near it." Eon gazed at Shadow, evaluative.
"You just want to be close to Taylor, don't you?" He asked gently. She chuckled, pawing at the ground.
"A bit, yeah. I'm pretty sure she's been getting picked on a lot worse than I saw earlier. I don't really want her to be on her own." Eon huffed.
"I doubt she'd be in trouble out here, it's pretty safe and remote, but I get your meaning. C'mon, pix, let's get moving." Carefully, the two of them lifted the entire pile of wood with a psychic grip, moving it in the direction of the den they'd made.
"Wow, that's a lot of branches." Taylor mused, looking up from the work her spiders were doing. It was a little larger than it had been before, which made sense given how few spiders she had to work with, but looked like it was doing well.
"We're hoping it'll be enough to make a fairly large storage box for you to leave your clothes and stuff in." Eon told her. "I'll grab more and make a safety box as well, so I can hide the money and other stuff a little farther away from here, which should let me drop some more protections on it that I can't really do around the base, unless I don't want anyone to find it ever."
"… You know, that still makes it sound like some kind of weird fantasy book." Taylor said softly, after a few moments of private thought. "You can cast illusion spells and make protections out of them… it's not really what I would've expected with illusions. I'd've thought that you could only make them close to you." She snorted. "Then again, this isn't exactly how I thought I'd begin my superhero career, either."
"I suppose not." Eon grinned. "And you'd be right about the illusion thing. While I don't really know how the stones work, they basically act as a repeater for the illusion. I create the illusion while I'm here, and these stones repeat the illusion again and again, even when I'm not around, to basically make it as permanent as they can hold a charge for."
"Zoroark are weird." Shadow observed, to nods. Taylor sighed slightly, then glanced upwards through a gap in the trees.
"I think it's about… ten, eleven o'clock right now?" She guessed. "So I'd like to go and get some food soon enough, then maybe we could all patrol together a bit after that?" Her voice had a hopeful tinge to it in the end, and Eon thought it over for a minute before nodding.
"Sure, we can do that. I never did get around to counting that money we… 'acquired' yesterday, but you can take some of that and get… well, whatever you want, to be honest." Eon licked his lips. "Maybe get us something as well. Dunno what's sold in this city, but we could probably find something."
"I could do that, sure." Taylor smiled a little. "Where's the money? I'll take a look at that for you if you'd like. I'm not doing much aside from staring at the spiders, and they can direct themselves."
"I left it in the den for now." Eon explained, lifting two branches in his grasp and knotting them together. Shadow did the same, making the frame of a base to their box, and frowned heavily as she fiddled with it to let her grasp a third, weaving it in. "It's safe enough in there, after all, since no-one but us can find it. I'm... pretty sure the phones can't be tracked, they're both off and I took the batteries out, but I put them a little further away from here just in case."
"Alright." Taylor pushed herself off the ground, stretching, before ducking under the willow tree Eon gestured to and crawling into the elegantly woven box-house. "It's nice in here," she called out to them, looking around.
It hadn't exactly been made with the almost six foot tall human in mind, so Taylor found herself ducking somewhat to make her way around, but it was still over five feet high, reaching a little over six in the centre of the domed top. It was very large too, surprisingly so given that it was hidden under a tree, but Taylor had the suspicion that it was mostly, or at the very least partly, underground, which would make sense. There was a bit at the back that was lower down than the rest, which held a large tangle of leaves and fluff of some kind. Taylor poked it experimentally, finding that it felt a bit like wool, which she thought was odd, but didn't question. The rest of the upper part of the room was made up of empty space, and a trio of boxes along the left-hand wall. It felt a little sad, but Eon and Shadow had only been there for a few days.
Taylor privately contemplated making a blanket or something to put in the room so that it didn't look so empty.
Going over to the boxes on the side, she carefully lifted the first one, peering inside it with the light streaming from the gaps in the walls and the doorway, spotting after a moment the paper money bundled in there.
"Is this all of it?" She shouted out, closing the lid on the box and looking speculatively at it for a moment.
"It's all in one box, yes!" Eon called back. "Do you need help bringing it out?"
"I think I can manage!" Taylor told him, grabbing the sides of the boxes using the slightly stuck-out handles on there and half carrying, half dragging it out of the den and into the clearing proper. "That's a bit heavier than I was expecting."
"I did pick up quite a lot of money, though I'm not sure exactly how many of the bundles, or how much those bundles were. I just picked a few with different numbers on them and tried not to make it look obvious that they'd been robbed." Eon told her, carefully continuing the weaving with Shadow. The thing had already become a small tray, which impressed Taylor for a few moments as she stopped to watch.
"You know, there's the new Cape in the Bay called Parian." Taylor said idly. "She'd probably find what you do quite interesting."
"Oh?" Shadow cocked her head, then froze as it caused the structure to wobble. "Why's that?"
"She's apparently some kind of cloth kinetic. Her debut involved giant teddy bears, I heard."
"That is neat." Shadow said approvingly, wagging her tails. "I want to go see that. Does she do shows?"
"I think she makes costumes for Parahumans…" Taylor facepalmed. "Which I could do for this second one rather than do it myself. Stupid." Eon and Shadow barked out a laugh.
"Doing it yourself has an element of secrecy to it, though." Eon pointed out. "But we could go and talk to her sometime, I think. Perhaps she'd be willing to buy some spider silk at a very cheap price, compared to the normal market?"
"Is that legal?"
"Does it matter?" Shadow retorted. "We nicked that money from the ABB, so selling spider silk to this Parian Cape is at least more legal than that, right?"
"True." Taylor accepted. "I'll have to see if I can find her contact information somewhere. We can make an offer that way." She looked down at the box, pulling the lid off again. "Not that we'll need the money for a while, at least. Nice to have it legally, but eh." Pulling the bundles out in large stacks, she paused for a moment. "This might take a while to count."
A few hours later, Taylor had finished totalling up the money they'd acquired, and the two foxes had completed the box. They'd carefully left it by the side of the den under the willow tree, Eon explaining to Taylor that they'd move it in later when she'd given them a curious look.
"Christ." The bug controller sighed sharply, staring at the pile of money. "That's a little more than ten thousand dollars there."
"That's… a lot." Shadow blinked. "Huh."
"Yeah." Taylor shook her head, piling it back into the wooden box again, keeping about fifty dollars on the side, and hefted the lid back onto the top again. "Well, at least we have a fair bit on money to use. Want to go and get lunch? There's a burger place that's quite nice, and fairly cheap as well, I've been a few times before."
"Sounds like a good idea." Eon nodded. "Let's put the box back in the den, and move your one in while we're at it. Can you sort your clothes and things yourself?"
"Sure." Taylor lifted her backpack from where it had been sitting for the last five or so hours, heading over to the box and taking the lid off. For a minute she just looked, then pulled everything out of her bag and dropped it in there, only pausing to make sure it stayed folded and somewhat neat. "I'll fix that later, after we get those burgers. How are you two coming?"
"We'll be in human illusions." Eon explained. "Invisible, some inaudibility, since we'll still need to talk to you and others at some point, but we'll have human images walking next to you that we can use to look normal."
"And eating?"
"We'll just slip into some corner somewhere and eat it, of course." Eon smiled at her. "Don't worry, it'll go fine. Bring your costume too, we could slip out on a patrol too if you'd like." Taylor smiled a bit wider at that.
"Sure. I'm a bit worried about doing it in daylight, but we've already debuted yesterday night, so I'm sure we're online already. I was going to look in Computer Science, but…" She shrugged, unbothered. "But it's not like it wouldn't be interesting."
"We'll be stared at quite a bit." Eon warned.
"I get stared at all the time in school, along with the accompanying gossip. I'm used to it." Taylor turned and started to pull the box of money back into the den, which Eon moved to help with after a moment of startled contemplation, while Shadow carefully used her own budding power to take Taylor's things in for her.
"When we go on patrol, we'll arrange to leave your bag somewhere we can find it again." Eon said, after they'd put the box back on the side and placed Taylor's own next to it. "If you want to try the more dangerous method, we can go invisible and leave it in your back yard before we patrol, but it might get spotted if your father get's back before you do."
"I… think that might be the best option, still." She decided slowly. "Dad… tends to work late. The Docks are a mess, and he's always trying really hard to keep his people in jobs… and he never really got over mom dying, either." Her voice was a lot quieter at the end, and Shadow nuzzled into her hip in sympathy.
"I see…" Eon quietly muttered, plotting mentally. "So, burgers and a patrol, then?" He continued, changing the subject.
"Sure." Taylor smiled, picking up her bag again and checking on her costume, before looking at the spiders. "I'll take these with me as well, so they can keep working, and I'll stop into my house and put them away when we leave for patrol."
"Alright." The three of them made their way back out, then paused, looking at the money.
"Huh."
"Huh indeed, Shadow." Eon frowned.
"Aren't those the same type of badges you have, Eon?" Taylor checked, pulling a couple of flies from the area and having them lift up one of said badges. "It looks the same, anyway."
"It is the same. Turn it?" The badge was turned, and Eon took it carefully in his psychic grasp, letting the flies fly away. "See, it's got Inari carved into the back, here. It's in footprint runes, which is the traditional sort of written language for us, but it's the same as the symbols on ours." To prove it, Shadow took her badge off her scarf and held it up next to it, letting Taylor see that they were identical. "I assume it's for you."
"Why's there two, then?"
"One for each costume?" Shadow suggested, pinning hers back on. "Would make sense. One on the costume you keep at home, one for the costume you leave here. Then you wouldn't have to worry about taking it off to put it on the other costume, or putting it in your pocket and forgetting about it and getting outed."
"Yeah, that makes sense." Taylor nodded. "Hang on, let me pin one on this… should I leave the other here?"
"I'll put it in with your other stuff for you." Shadow offered, picking it up and trotting back into the base. Taylor crouched down, opening her bag again and unfolding her costume to pin the badge onto the flap she'd made, before putting it all away along with the money that Eon handed her a moment after and calling her spiders and their weaving to her.
"Right. Let's go get burgers, then we'll go have some fun." Taylor grinned, letting Eon lead the way.
"That's the place?" She muttered to herself, disgusted. "What a dump."
She'd managed to persuade Eon that she could handle the building herself, so he had stayed at their new base and worked on setting up the guards for it to keep it safe while they were gone. As a trade-off, Shadow was also going to try and get a bit of insight into the security of the place, so that she and Eon could sneak back in during one of the nights where they could have Taylor take a day off and snoop about to find something interesting.
Shadow's extremely good senses picked up the shrill ringing of a bell from inside the mess of a place across the street, and she paused, picking a moment where nothing was going on on the road to cloak herself and make a run for it. Stopping in the shadows of the building, she dropped the cloak and went back to the dark colour scheme, watching with interest as people began making their way in. From their talk with Tattletale the day before, she recognised that a number of them wore gang signs, and sighed softly at the obvious divide between groups.
Spotting a tall figure with long brown hair, Shadow immediately began tracking her movements, slowly inching her way around as she did. Taylor was wearing glasses now, the difference surprising but not incredible, and had her head down towards the floor. As she passed, Shadow listened closely, hearing jeers from just about every person, along with the high pitched giggling of a group of girls. One with red hair stepped from the group, and Taylor stiffened. A black skinned girl stepped up as well, and both of them began speaking to Taylor, the red head's body language mocking and the black girl's irate.
Cursing softly that she couldn't hear what was being said, Shadow weighed up her options for a moment, then cloaked fully and tracked closer to them.
"Honestly, Hebert, you shouldn't even be here." The red head smirked. "Just go away like the little girl you are."
"Fuck off, Emma." Taylor snapped, making Shadow's eyes widen. Apparently the girls were just as taken aback, and the group let Taylor pass by them. For a moment, Shadow thought that would be everything, but the black girl suddenly charged Taylor, aiming a punch at her back. Her new friend hit the ground hard, though her glasses seemed alright, and Shadow stifled a gasp.
"Watch your mouth, bitch." The black girl snarled, before turning to the crowd. "The fuck you all looking at?" The crowd quickly moved along, and Shadow had to do some careful dodging around them as they left. The red head, Emma, put her hand on the other's shoulder.
"Come on, Sophia, let's let Taylor cry in peace." She requested. "We might as well leave her with a little bit of dignity."
"Fine." Sophia and Emma wandered into the school, soon leaving the entire yard empty, aside from Taylor herself. Shadow looked around the area, then crept forwards and dropped her cloak.
"Taylor?" Shadow asked softly.
"Shadow?" The bug user seemed surprised. "What're you doing here? Where's Eon?"
"I was sneaking about, having a look around, and I spotted what was going on." She explained. "Eon's at the base, adding to the protections. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." She muttered, pushing herself up and rubbing her arms, where she'd scraped them in the fall. "I've had worse."
"Do you want to come back to base with me? You could skip today if you wanted." Shadow offered, stepping back a little and looking around again. Taylor looked down at her, then up at the school, biting her lip.
"You know what? Sure." She stood, fiddling with her backpack for a moment. "Let me go home first, dad'll have gone by now, and I'll grab some stuff. Fuck this place." She turned sharply, a few flies buzzing around her with irritation, and started off down the street. Shadow followed silently, cloaking herself as they hit the brighter main street and dropping into the alleyways as soon as she could.
"I'll meet you there." Shadow whispered, knowing Taylor would hear it. The brunette nodded, letting Shadow take off through the back streets towards Taylor's house, while the Cape herself stayed mostly on the better roads while going the same way.
Shadow ended up taking slightly longer than Taylor to get to the building; while the alleyways were faster, it was also easier for her to get lost and she'd ended up having to turn around a few times. She'd also had to be careful to stay in the shadows of the alley, keeping hidden and quiet to avoid people finding her, which made her own trip take a little while longer than Taylor's did. When she arrived, she found the back gate slightly ajar, so she slipped through there and nudged it closed behind her. The back door was almost wide open, and Shadow could hear the sounds of a single person moving within. Entering the house, she looked around curiously, smelling the scent of Taylor all over the place, as well as someone else who smelled similar to Taylor.
Shadow assumed that was her dad.
"Up here, Shadow!" Taylor called down the stairs. "Come on, no-one else is here."
"Coming!" She replied quietly, dropping her colour illusion fully as she bounced her way up the steps. "What's up?" She asked.
"I set some of my spiders to work on my second costume this morning." She explained. "Well, last night, technically. I made a little flap on my main costume for the badge, we can pin it on there and I don't think it'll come off if we do, so I did that this morning before I left, then put them back onto the costume." Taylor lifted her full costume, now with a little flap on the front as she'd said, then folded it up and put it to one side. "They managed to do a lot of it overnight, but there's not much more on there now." She lifted up a piece of yellow-grey material, very different to the grey of her actual costume, and pulled at it a little while the spiders crawled across it, weaving. "I'll bring it with me and have them keep working on it, if that's ok." Taylor glanced over her shoulder at Shadow, who was sitting to one side and keenly watching the spiders move about.
"Yeah, that's fine." She smiled slightly. "Eon won't mind, and I don't either. Maybe you'll be able to pick up more spiders in the woods that you can use to weave it."
"Maybe, it was kind of good luck that I even found this many in the first place. It was winter when I got my powers, so spiders and other bugs were a bit hard to find and collect."
"Where do you put them, in those boxes?"
"The spiders, yeah. The other bugs go into jars and stuff, or I leave them outside but nearby. I mostly use them to feed the spiders, though. I let the bees and wasps and all them do whatever they want, and just call them to use when I go out."
"That makes sense. No need to mess with the ecosystem any more than people's powers seem to already." Shadow smiled. "Are you using that bag, by the way?" Taylor nodded.
"Yeah. I'll just take all my stuff out of it and put some clothes and things in to bring with me. Am I putting on my costume?"
"If you want. Just I can't do invisibility for us both for a long time, so we'll be walking out of the city in plain view."
"No costume, then." Taylor decided. She went over to her bed and turned the back over, letting all her books fall into a pile, before folding the costume and putting it in. The rest of the clothes she was bringing went on top of it, and the piece of the new costume went over that, spiders still crawling back and forth on it. "Alright, let's go." Shadow stood and turned, heading quickly down the stairs and out of the door.
"Once Eon's done with everything back at base, we'll have to try and persuade him to do another patrol." She said.
"What, now?"
"Yeah." She flicked her tails back and forth while Taylor locked the door behind them. "I mean, Eon can do the cloak for you and him just as well in the day as he can in the night, though my normal scouting cloak would be a bit awkward since it's brighter, but I can make do. Don't think I can hold a full invisibility-inaudibility cloak for that long, but I can definitely fiddle with my normal stuff enough to hide pretty well." As she spoke, Shadow rippled back into the mentioned colours, hidden surprisingly well even in the daylight, and the two stepped out of the back yard together.
"Out of curiosity, Shadow, why were you even at Winslow?" Taylor asked quietly as they walked.
"Curious about the school, wanted to have a look round." She shrugged. "You seemed bored with the place and didn't care much the other night, so I wanted to know a bit more. Eon wanted to take a look-see too, but I was gonna go first and look during the day, since I'm smaller so it's less likely someone would notice me. Plus Eon's tails are kinda long, so it'd be harder for him to get around people without them stepping on them. I was gonna get a handle on the security and all that-" Taylor barked out a laugh.
"What security? I don't think any of the cameras in that building have worked since Scion showed up. They probably didn't work before then, either."
"It's that bad?" Shadow raised an eyebrow at her, peering out of the shadows of the building she was next to.
"It's pretty bad. I don't even think they lock the doors at night, it's that bad." She snorted. "Then again, there's nothing in the damn place that'd be worth stealing anyway, so they probably feel secure enough not to bother."
"That's... sad." She mused. "Is this city really that big of a mess?"
"There's gangs everywhere, the PRT and Protectorate barely help out with it all where it matters, and the city's too poor to really try and fix it up." Taylor said bluntly. "Yes, it's that much of a mess."
"Then I guess we've gotta clean it up, then, haven't we?" Shadow smirked. "Pretty sure we can do that. We're powerful, after all." Taylor laughed quietly, turning into an alleyway they both knew was abandoned and cutting across the city.
"Yeah. I suppose we are, aren't we?" She smiled slightly at the Vulpix. "Thanks, Shadow."
"No problem, Taylor." They walked quietly together for a half hour longer, before ducking into the woods near the base. "Y'know, we're gonna need to tell Eon why you're here."
"Mm."
"Want me to do it?"
"No, it's ok. I should probably tell you what's going on there anyway. You're my teammates- and besides, if I end up skipping out again, I'd be coming to you anyway." Taylor shrugged, mindful of the bag on her back, as Shadow dropped out of her darkening illusion, going back to her normal orange-red-cream colouring and shaking herself.
"That always feels weird to do, like ink... anyway, that's fine. I don't mind, and Eon won't either, I don't think. We can do some daytime patrols when you're not at school, after all."
"That... could be fun." She said slowly. "Won't it be awkward for you, though? I mean, everyone'd stare at you, wouldn't they?"
"Eh, 'snot like we aren't used to it." Shadow shrugged, flicking her tails. "Eon especially, since he's shiny and was new and was kinda weird because of the whole amnesia thing, but I got a few as well for being his teammate. Then we got kinda famous, and it got a bit more looks from people." She spotted Taylor's confusion, and grinned. "I don't look all that powerful, in the end. I'm mostly good because of my family tree- it's a bit of a weird mess, to be honest. I have a lot of different Pokemon lines in my family, and it gives me access to some kinda cool stuff. Which is good, 'cause it means I can hold my own in trouble, and I've been tutoring Eon in some of them as well. They can be really powerful, Ninetales, but a Vulpix is just as good, at least when you've got a lot of stuff to use."
"And you're a lot smaller, which helps with things like just now, I suppose." Taylor mused, before flinching heavily. "Um, Shadow, maybe we should go a different way. Like back to the city. We could wait for Eon there, right?"
"I mean, I guess, but why?" She asked, cocking her head. "The base is just this way, it's not that far, we can just go there and wait with Eon." She trotted past Taylor, then recoiled. "Whoa! That..."
"Yeah. Can we just go another way, please?" Taylor asked nervously, the bugs in the air around her buzzing aggravatedly.
"Taylor, it's just the repulsion illusion. Y'know, the one Eon mentioned yesterday?" As she spoke, Shadow could feel the effects of the illusion lessening, not able to take proper effect now that she recognised what it was. "There's nothing dangerous actually here... well, aside from us, I suppose. C'mon, let's just go get to Eon, then we can chat for a bit and go on patrol later this afternoon or something." Shadow meandered at the border of the illusion for a few moments, while Taylor gathered up her courage to pass by.
"Whoa." She muttered, shivering. "That's... really weird. Like... I didn't want to pass until you told me what it is." She glanced around, her bugs moving as she did. "It still feels like something's waiting to jump out at me."
"Yeah, that's the effects of the field." Shadow grinned. "You get used to it after a while in them. Plus once we get farther in, the feeling goes away."
"Why?" Taylor asked, braving another few steps. "Wouldn't it make sense for the feeling of doom to get stronger the closer you get to the base?"
"Eon does set it up like that. He'll do it later, probably, but he always keys me into things like this."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that I'm immune to the effects after a certain distance." She explained, smiling up. "He'll add you as well, obviously. It's a bonus of the keystone thing he does. Most of the times illusions don't work like that. I think it's a Ninetales thing, and Zoroark have the ability to put only one person under a full illusion." Shadow shrugged. "I dunno how it works. I just learn my illusions from Eon, and I'll mess with them as I need to."
"That's fair enough, I guess." Taylor nodded. "I mean, I don't exactly know how my powers work, after all, and I doubt most people do."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you should definitely try and learn as much about your abilities as possible so you can use them well." Eon put in, appearing from the trees with a slight rustle of leaves. "Otherwise you might end up using your powers ineffectively, which can really suck when it comes down to it."
"Hey Eon!" Shadow grinned, bouncing over to him. "Where'd you come from? Why're you here?"
"I was just setting some of the other things up, and heard both of you run into the repulsion illusion." He shrugged. "I thought that I'd come say hello." He curled a tail around Shadow, tapping her on the nose. "Y'know, when I said 'look around the school for cameras and interesting things' I didn't mean 'find and kidnap Taylor from school', Shadow."
"I didn't mean to!" She defended sharply. "Taylor was getting picked on, so I went and asked if she was ok, then asked if she wanted to skip. She said yeah." Eon looked up at Taylor, who fidgeted. There were a few red scrapes along the side of her face from her fall, and a couple on the palms of her hands, and he nodded.
"That's fine. I was just wondering." He grinned. "So, what's the plan now that you've borrowed Taylor for the day, Shadow?"
"I dunno." Shadow shrugged. "Taylor's gonna work more on her costume, I think. And she brought some stuff to leave here with us."
"Then I guess we'll be making some storage places for them, won't we?" The Ninetales said, turning. "I've just finished fine tuning everything on the illusion front. I borrowed a few Zoroark methods, so I don't need to be too close to the illusions to be powering them, which is good."
"Cool. I didn't know you could do that." The Vulpix looked up at him with some awe. "You are going to teach me to do that, right?"
"Eventually, when you're got some more skill with your illusions." Eon's tone turned slightly teasing. "After all, you can't do invisibility right yet, and that's fairly simple."
"I can do it!" Shadow replied sharply. "Just not for very long. It's hard." Eon patted her head.
"You'll get there, Shadow." He told her. "Just keep practising." Shadow frowned, and a moment later the air rippled slightly.
"Ok!" The apparently empty space where she had been said cheerfully. Eon sighed, looking up at Taylor, who hid a grin behind her hand and looked away.
"Why yes, she is like this often." He groaned tiredly. "I swear, after a year and a half you'd think I'd've either gotten used to it or she'd've grown out of it, but nope!"
"I like it." Taylor said quietly. "It's funny. Nice, considering…" She trailed off. Eon waited politely for a moment to see if she was going to continue, then coughed.
"Well, it'll probably get annoying eventually. I'm not sure when that happened for me, but possibly it was after Shadow walked blindly into the end of a dungeon after we'd just fought through multiple floors, making jokes about it not getting worse, before making a rather rude one and causing the Mightyena that'd made the place their territory to get offended and jump us." He groaned. "And Mightyena look like this, and there were about six of them." The illusion of the large-ish black-and-grey hyena Pokemon flickered into being, making Taylor glance over it and wince.
"Yeah, that looks a bit scary."
"I said I was sorry!" Shadow barked, reappearing and slashing at the Mightyena illusion with a claw. "You're the one who keeps bringing it up!"
"Because you started it, silly!" He grumbled, swiping playfully at her. "Anyway, come on, we're here. Let Taylor settle down, you're coming to help me grab some stuff to make some boxes for Taylor to leave her things in."
"No problem." Shadow grinned up at the much taller girl. "You'll be ok on your own, right?"
"I'll be fine." Taylor said awkwardly, looking around the clearing they'd just entered. "You've said no-one can get in here, and I've got my bugs if something does happen. I'll just keep my spiders working on my costume."
"Don't forget that you can call us if you need help with something, Taylor." Eon reminded her, watching her carefully as she moved to sit next to the willow tree that the base they'd created was hidden under, putting her bag on the ground next to her and pulling out the spider-covered cloth.
"I- right." She smiled. "Sure. I'll keep some flying bugs around that I can use to get you if you're needed. There's enough bugs in the area that I should be able to find you easily." Eon nodded, then followed Shadow, who'd already run off into the forest to find some bits that they could use.
"Think this is enough?" Shadow asked, dropping a few more branches of willowy wood onto the pile the two had been building.
"Probably." Eon shrugged. "We don't really need that much space, so this should be fine after a bit of work."
"Should we take it back, then? We could work on it in the base, or near it." Eon gazed at Shadow, evaluative.
"You just want to be close to Taylor, don't you?" He asked gently. She chuckled, pawing at the ground.
"A bit, yeah. I'm pretty sure she's been getting picked on a lot worse than I saw earlier. I don't really want her to be on her own." Eon huffed.
"I doubt she'd be in trouble out here, it's pretty safe and remote, but I get your meaning. C'mon, pix, let's get moving." Carefully, the two of them lifted the entire pile of wood with a psychic grip, moving it in the direction of the den they'd made.
"Wow, that's a lot of branches." Taylor mused, looking up from the work her spiders were doing. It was a little larger than it had been before, which made sense given how few spiders she had to work with, but looked like it was doing well.
"We're hoping it'll be enough to make a fairly large storage box for you to leave your clothes and stuff in." Eon told her. "I'll grab more and make a safety box as well, so I can hide the money and other stuff a little farther away from here, which should let me drop some more protections on it that I can't really do around the base, unless I don't want anyone to find it ever."
"… You know, that still makes it sound like some kind of weird fantasy book." Taylor said softly, after a few moments of private thought. "You can cast illusion spells and make protections out of them… it's not really what I would've expected with illusions. I'd've thought that you could only make them close to you." She snorted. "Then again, this isn't exactly how I thought I'd begin my superhero career, either."
"I suppose not." Eon grinned. "And you'd be right about the illusion thing. While I don't really know how the stones work, they basically act as a repeater for the illusion. I create the illusion while I'm here, and these stones repeat the illusion again and again, even when I'm not around, to basically make it as permanent as they can hold a charge for."
"Zoroark are weird." Shadow observed, to nods. Taylor sighed slightly, then glanced upwards through a gap in the trees.
"I think it's about… ten, eleven o'clock right now?" She guessed. "So I'd like to go and get some food soon enough, then maybe we could all patrol together a bit after that?" Her voice had a hopeful tinge to it in the end, and Eon thought it over for a minute before nodding.
"Sure, we can do that. I never did get around to counting that money we… 'acquired' yesterday, but you can take some of that and get… well, whatever you want, to be honest." Eon licked his lips. "Maybe get us something as well. Dunno what's sold in this city, but we could probably find something."
"I could do that, sure." Taylor smiled a little. "Where's the money? I'll take a look at that for you if you'd like. I'm not doing much aside from staring at the spiders, and they can direct themselves."
"I left it in the den for now." Eon explained, lifting two branches in his grasp and knotting them together. Shadow did the same, making the frame of a base to their box, and frowned heavily as she fiddled with it to let her grasp a third, weaving it in. "It's safe enough in there, after all, since no-one but us can find it. I'm... pretty sure the phones can't be tracked, they're both off and I took the batteries out, but I put them a little further away from here just in case."
"Alright." Taylor pushed herself off the ground, stretching, before ducking under the willow tree Eon gestured to and crawling into the elegantly woven box-house. "It's nice in here," she called out to them, looking around.
It hadn't exactly been made with the almost six foot tall human in mind, so Taylor found herself ducking somewhat to make her way around, but it was still over five feet high, reaching a little over six in the centre of the domed top. It was very large too, surprisingly so given that it was hidden under a tree, but Taylor had the suspicion that it was mostly, or at the very least partly, underground, which would make sense. There was a bit at the back that was lower down than the rest, which held a large tangle of leaves and fluff of some kind. Taylor poked it experimentally, finding that it felt a bit like wool, which she thought was odd, but didn't question. The rest of the upper part of the room was made up of empty space, and a trio of boxes along the left-hand wall. It felt a little sad, but Eon and Shadow had only been there for a few days.
Taylor privately contemplated making a blanket or something to put in the room so that it didn't look so empty.
Going over to the boxes on the side, she carefully lifted the first one, peering inside it with the light streaming from the gaps in the walls and the doorway, spotting after a moment the paper money bundled in there.
"Is this all of it?" She shouted out, closing the lid on the box and looking speculatively at it for a moment.
"It's all in one box, yes!" Eon called back. "Do you need help bringing it out?"
"I think I can manage!" Taylor told him, grabbing the sides of the boxes using the slightly stuck-out handles on there and half carrying, half dragging it out of the den and into the clearing proper. "That's a bit heavier than I was expecting."
"I did pick up quite a lot of money, though I'm not sure exactly how many of the bundles, or how much those bundles were. I just picked a few with different numbers on them and tried not to make it look obvious that they'd been robbed." Eon told her, carefully continuing the weaving with Shadow. The thing had already become a small tray, which impressed Taylor for a few moments as she stopped to watch.
"You know, there's the new Cape in the Bay called Parian." Taylor said idly. "She'd probably find what you do quite interesting."
"Oh?" Shadow cocked her head, then froze as it caused the structure to wobble. "Why's that?"
"She's apparently some kind of cloth kinetic. Her debut involved giant teddy bears, I heard."
"That is neat." Shadow said approvingly, wagging her tails. "I want to go see that. Does she do shows?"
"I think she makes costumes for Parahumans…" Taylor facepalmed. "Which I could do for this second one rather than do it myself. Stupid." Eon and Shadow barked out a laugh.
"Doing it yourself has an element of secrecy to it, though." Eon pointed out. "But we could go and talk to her sometime, I think. Perhaps she'd be willing to buy some spider silk at a very cheap price, compared to the normal market?"
"Is that legal?"
"Does it matter?" Shadow retorted. "We nicked that money from the ABB, so selling spider silk to this Parian Cape is at least more legal than that, right?"
"True." Taylor accepted. "I'll have to see if I can find her contact information somewhere. We can make an offer that way." She looked down at the box, pulling the lid off again. "Not that we'll need the money for a while, at least. Nice to have it legally, but eh." Pulling the bundles out in large stacks, she paused for a moment. "This might take a while to count."
A few hours later, Taylor had finished totalling up the money they'd acquired, and the two foxes had completed the box. They'd carefully left it by the side of the den under the willow tree, Eon explaining to Taylor that they'd move it in later when she'd given them a curious look.
"Christ." The bug controller sighed sharply, staring at the pile of money. "That's a little more than ten thousand dollars there."
"That's… a lot." Shadow blinked. "Huh."
"Yeah." Taylor shook her head, piling it back into the wooden box again, keeping about fifty dollars on the side, and hefted the lid back onto the top again. "Well, at least we have a fair bit on money to use. Want to go and get lunch? There's a burger place that's quite nice, and fairly cheap as well, I've been a few times before."
"Sounds like a good idea." Eon nodded. "Let's put the box back in the den, and move your one in while we're at it. Can you sort your clothes and things yourself?"
"Sure." Taylor lifted her backpack from where it had been sitting for the last five or so hours, heading over to the box and taking the lid off. For a minute she just looked, then pulled everything out of her bag and dropped it in there, only pausing to make sure it stayed folded and somewhat neat. "I'll fix that later, after we get those burgers. How are you two coming?"
"We'll be in human illusions." Eon explained. "Invisible, some inaudibility, since we'll still need to talk to you and others at some point, but we'll have human images walking next to you that we can use to look normal."
"And eating?"
"We'll just slip into some corner somewhere and eat it, of course." Eon smiled at her. "Don't worry, it'll go fine. Bring your costume too, we could slip out on a patrol too if you'd like." Taylor smiled a bit wider at that.
"Sure. I'm a bit worried about doing it in daylight, but we've already debuted yesterday night, so I'm sure we're online already. I was going to look in Computer Science, but…" She shrugged, unbothered. "But it's not like it wouldn't be interesting."
"We'll be stared at quite a bit." Eon warned.
"I get stared at all the time in school, along with the accompanying gossip. I'm used to it." Taylor turned and started to pull the box of money back into the den, which Eon moved to help with after a moment of startled contemplation, while Shadow carefully used her own budding power to take Taylor's things in for her.
"When we go on patrol, we'll arrange to leave your bag somewhere we can find it again." Eon said, after they'd put the box back on the side and placed Taylor's own next to it. "If you want to try the more dangerous method, we can go invisible and leave it in your back yard before we patrol, but it might get spotted if your father get's back before you do."
"I… think that might be the best option, still." She decided slowly. "Dad… tends to work late. The Docks are a mess, and he's always trying really hard to keep his people in jobs… and he never really got over mom dying, either." Her voice was a lot quieter at the end, and Shadow nuzzled into her hip in sympathy.
"I see…" Eon quietly muttered, plotting mentally. "So, burgers and a patrol, then?" He continued, changing the subject.
"Sure." Taylor smiled, picking up her bag again and checking on her costume, before looking at the spiders. "I'll take these with me as well, so they can keep working, and I'll stop into my house and put them away when we leave for patrol."
"Alright." The three of them made their way back out, then paused, looking at the money.
"Huh."
"Huh indeed, Shadow." Eon frowned.
"Aren't those the same type of badges you have, Eon?" Taylor checked, pulling a couple of flies from the area and having them lift up one of said badges. "It looks the same, anyway."
"It is the same. Turn it?" The badge was turned, and Eon took it carefully in his psychic grasp, letting the flies fly away. "See, it's got Inari carved into the back, here. It's in footprint runes, which is the traditional sort of written language for us, but it's the same as the symbols on ours." To prove it, Shadow took her badge off her scarf and held it up next to it, letting Taylor see that they were identical. "I assume it's for you."
"Why's there two, then?"
"One for each costume?" Shadow suggested, pinning hers back on. "Would make sense. One on the costume you keep at home, one for the costume you leave here. Then you wouldn't have to worry about taking it off to put it on the other costume, or putting it in your pocket and forgetting about it and getting outed."
"Yeah, that makes sense." Taylor nodded. "Hang on, let me pin one on this… should I leave the other here?"
"I'll put it in with your other stuff for you." Shadow offered, picking it up and trotting back into the base. Taylor crouched down, opening her bag again and unfolding her costume to pin the badge onto the flap she'd made, before putting it all away along with the money that Eon handed her a moment after and calling her spiders and their weaving to her.
"Right. Let's go get burgers, then we'll go have some fun." Taylor grinned, letting Eon lead the way.
Chapter 7- Burgers, babbling, and banking
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Taylor carefully slipped out of Fugly Bobs carrying three take-away bags full of burgers and fries, joining the pair waiting outside for her.
"All done?" The man asked. He looked to be about nineteen, just over six feet tall with wiry muscles, dyed light blue hair and grey eyes. He looked slightly down at her, a tiny smile on his face, making her grin in return.
"Yeah. Three burgers and a lot of fries." She nodded, holding up the bags.
"C'mon, let's go find a place to eat, yeah?" The other girl of the trio bounced, arms folded under her chest and a wide, beaming grin on her face. She was more tanned than her male friend, looked to be around seventeen, and was much shorter than both her friends, only a little above five feet. Her hair was a vibrant red that looked almost bloody, and sparkling blue eyes darted about with excitement.
"We can go back to my place." Taylor offered, nodding to her. "It's not far, and I could do with putting my bag away anyway."
"Lead the way." The man told her, grasping the bouncing girl's shoulder to make her stand still. Taylor smiled at the display and nodded, turning on the spot and walking back past the burger store down the Boardwalk, planning on dropping into a few alleyways to make the trip shorter. Both of her friends followed, carefully slipping through the large crowds with a fluid ease, the crowds shifting unconsciously to avoid knocking into them, which she noticed with a slight smile.
Dropping into an alleyway, she went about half way through before stopping and turning to her friends, looking around with her bugs as she did so.
"It's empty." She told them, holding out two of the three bags. Both of them sagged in relief, before flickering and vanishing, Eon and Shadow flickering out of invisibility a second after.
"Thank Arceus for that." Eon huffed, shaking himself and examining the floor, before picking a spot that was marginally less dirty than the rest of the area to sit down on. "That was far more stressful than I was expecting it to be."
"Are you alright?" Taylor checked.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Eon flicked his tails, waving her off. "I could do with a bit of rest, and maybe a reminder next time I recommend trying to hold two Pokemon invisible and mostly inaudible while projecting two humans at the same time, but I'll be fine to patrol, if that's what you're asking."
"Well, I was more worried about you, but that's good too." Taylor admitted, as the Ninetales lifted the bags out of her grip and handed Shadow one of them. "Are you just going to go invisible for the rest of the trip back to mine, then?"
"That would probably be best." He nodded, as Shadow opened her bad and sniffed at it. "Way less strain than trying to hold all six of them at once." He sighed, lifting the burger from the bag. "Way less."
"I need to practise cloaking more." Shadow decided, through a mouthful of fries. "Pretty sure that'd make it easier, right?"
"It'd help, sure." Eon agreed, taking a cautious bite from his burger. "That's really nice, actually."
"I wouldn't recommend eating them too often," Taylor cautioned, through her own bite, "The stuff's known as 'heart attack in a bun' for a reason. Especially some of the bigger stuff. There's so much fat and grease that it's ridiculous."
"Nice on occasion, though." The three sat silently for a little while, just eating their way through the take-out, before Taylor hummed.
"Y'know, I've always been ok at cooking." She said slowly. "So maybe on some afternoons when dad's not around you guys could spend some time at mine. We'd have to listen out a bit, I guess, so that you don't get caught, but it'd be kinda fun, I think."
"Have you still not said anything to your father yet?" Eon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I got in late last night and the night before, and I didn't have the time this morning or yesterday." She shrugged. "Plus, well, I've been a Cape for a pretty long time now- four months- and I haven't said anything to him before now. It makes me feel… a little awkward, I guess, about bringing it up."
"But if you do tell your father, he might be able to help cover for you in things. Like if you need the day of school for Cape business, he'd be able to phone you in as sick instead of you just skipping like you did today. And we'd be able to come over your house more easily that way. Show up under an illusion, and we could drop it as soon as we get into your house, without needing to worry about listening out for your father showing up." Eon told her. Taylor frowned, biting her lip for a few moments, then nodding and taking the final bite of her burger and working her way through some of the fries.
"I'll… have to find a good time to talk about it." She finally said slowly. "Maybe a weekend, or a Friday afternoon where there's plenty of time for him to get used to it." Eon gave a nod, leaving it at that.
"So, are we gonna start moving?" Shadow's voice made both of them look down, where the smaller Vulpix was balancing the balled up paper bag on the end of her nose, sitting perfectly still. She'd barely moved even asking her question, though the ball wobbled for a moment before she stilled again.
"Are you finished already?" Eon blinked, a few fries hovering in midair. "Where did it all go?"
"I finished because I wasn't talking." She muttered, the ball wobbling again before she reached up to put a paw on it, moving to a better position at the same time. "And it went in my stomach, silly."
"Fair enough, I suppose." Eon chuckled. "We'll be done soon, so just wait a bit."
"Ok." Shadow almost huffed out a sigh, but seemed to remember her balancing act and the last moment and just settled for tapping her paw and sweeping her tails around a little. Taylor and Eon exchanged amused looks, quickly finishing the rest of their food and balling up their own bags as well.
"Alright, now we can go to mine." Taylor smiled.
"Good." Shadow did huff this time, blowing the ball off her nose, which Taylor snatched out of the air with a quick movement. Shadow looked impressed. "Nice reflexes. That was really fast." Taylor blushed.
"Thanks." The teen muttered, turning and leading the way out of the alleyway. "Come on, my house is a bit far from here, so we should probably try and get there soon so I can hide my stuff there. Then we can go patrolling in daylight for the first time."
"Are you looking forward to it?" Shadow asked, trotting after her. Eon took a moment to brush the dirt off his tails before he followed with a slight huff of irritation, planning on cleaning it up properly once they were in Taylor's hopefully empty house.
"A bit, yeah." Taylor nodded. "I mean, I'm nervous too, it's kinda strange and I know people'll stare, but I'm used to that."
"Oh, I'm not asking that. I mean if you're actually excited for it. A proper step into being a famous rescue team is always done with a high profile mission from someone, normally capturing a big name outlaw, or a Guild expedition where you find lost treasures or areas long forgotten." Taylor looked around and down, seeing a glitter of excitement in her eyes. "I guess it's not likely we'll encounter some big name, but we'll be properly in public and doing lots of work helping people. That's just as good."
"I would almost say it's better, Shadow." Eon put in, taking up Taylor's other side as they turned a corner into another empty alley. "After all, if your team is just known for being famous, you'll be respected for that alone, but people will likely be wary of you. They might not see you as just another Pokemon- or person, in this case- because they don't know about the ordinary stuff you do. If you were known for being quite normal before you were famous, on the other hand…"
"People would be more likely to approach you." Taylor finished, understanding where his speech was going. "Which makes sense for someone like you guys, doing missions, but less for something like a Cape team?"
"It's possible it'd be easier to find informants in groups." Eon elaborated. "You're known to be powerful and famous, but also approachable and keep your word, perhaps even pushing towards noble. That'll make it more likely that other people would be willing to approach with information- hold on." Eon paused, wrapping both himself and Shadow in a cloak again as they started getting near to the streets. "-Information that could help with capturing criminals or finding missing Pokemon that no-one knows exactly where they are."
"Interesting…" Taylor mused quietly, before the three of them walked out into a less crowded but still populated street and they had to fall silent again.
"Come in, dad's not here, I checked with my bugs." Taylor said softly, holding open the back door for them both. Eon huffed slightly at the idea of bringing the dirt in with them, while Shadow just carefully walked in, trying not to disturb anything. "Don't worry about dirt, Eon, I'll fix it afterwards, before we leave."
"Fine." He grumbled. "I didn't want to get you in trouble."
"It'll be alright. Will you be ok getting it off on your own? I'm going to my room to put my things away and put my costume on."
"Sure, we can manage. It's not the first time we've had situations with dirt, after all." Eon laughed, tails flicking in amusement. "We'll see you in a moment." Taylor nodded acceptingly and trooped up the stairs. Eon listened for the creak of the doors, then looked at Shadow, who was brushing at the base of her tails with her paws. "Be careful, Shadow." Eon said lowly, making her look up at him and pause her ministrations.
"What about?"
"We're hunting in daylight, in a crowded area. You can't hold invisibility very well, so you're relying on your colour change, and that's not necessarily gonna be good enough for this." He told her firmly. "Be careful with how you work today."
"I will, Eon." She nodded. "Don't worry. You and Taylor stay invisible, I'll just drop in and out of things." She pawed gently at the end of his tail. "You be safe too, ok?"
"We both will be." The grey Ninetales placed his paw on Shadow's head. "This world is a lot more dangerous than ours in many ways. No risks, ok?"
"Ok." The two of them turned to getting the dirt off their tails for the next minute or so, then curled up on the floor and waited for Taylor to make a reappearance, listening to the sounds of her moving around upstairs. Shadow pawed slightly at the end of her scarf, the badge above it shifting as she did, and chewed at her lip. "I'm a little scared."
"What of?" Eon blinked, cocking his head.
"Dunno." She shrugged. "Just, something. Something feels off, and I don't like it."
"I thought I was the one with the future sight." Eon chuckled. "But I'll take your word for it. Instinct's have gotten us through this stuff before."
"Like the expedition in Murky Oceans the Guild went on." Shadow recalled with a smile. "That was fun, but a little scary."
"True." Eon shuddered. "The fact that you picked up on the attack before it happened was really lucky. Especially given that damned Scream that came right before it. Thanks again, by the way."
"You've been thanking me about that every other week for the last eleven months." Shadow giggled. "You can let it go now."
"Let what go?" Taylor, now fully costumed up as Swarm, asked, entering the room.
"Oh, just a story from an expedition." Eon waved off, pushing himself up in the same movement. "I'll tell it to you some other time. Maybe this evening after our patrol's over?"
"Could be fun, sure." Swarm nodded, standing next to Shadow. Both vulpines cocked their heads.
"Your voice sounds different." Shadow noted.
"I was messing with insects when I had some spare time, trying to make voices with them." She told them. "I can't use them to talk or anything, and I'm not sure I ever really will, but I can make my voice sound really different like this. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, to be honest, it could've been really helpful for dealing with villains."
"And heroes. Sometimes the so-called 'good guys' can be just as bad." Eon said darkly, glaring at the wall.
"Another story for later," Shadow whispered, before saying louder, "I think you might've been too close to the problem? Sometimes me and Eon don't spot things we could do for ages, then when someone points it out it's all 'Oh, duh. Why didn't we think of that?'"
"Probably." Swarm hummed, a noise that sounded very odd with the dull hum of insects behind it. "Anyway, ready to leave?"
"One last thing." Eon said, looking between the two girls. "Be careful, both of you. Things in this city are dangerous, and we're going to be out in the public eye for the first time today. Neither of you can get hurt during this, please. Especially not you, Taylor. Shadow doesn't have to explain away random injuries to people. You will. Do your best not to get hurt, and stay near me. I'm keeping the both of us invisible, so you should be safe unless we get into a fight about something. Shadow, I'm trusting you to know your limits. Cloak when you have to, hide when you can, and by Arceus keep an eye out for trouble. Don't go running into something on accident that might get you hurt. This isn't back home, in a Dungeon. If you get seriously injured, you won't be teleported out back to a safe spot outside the dungeon, you'll be injured in front of a hostile enemy. Watch out."
"I will, Eon." Shadow promised. "I know things are different here. I'm not going to try something stupid and get hurt. I grew out of that phase pretty quickly as part of a Rescue Team." Eon studied her for a moment, then nodded, looking up at Swarm.
"I'll be careful too, Eon." She agreed. "I'm not as experienced as you are in exploring and rescuing, and I know that."
"Coulda fooled me, jumping in front of a dragon."
"I'll be careful, and listen to what you guys recommend." Swarm finished, ignoring Shadow's comment with the unfortunate ease of practise. "Just show me where to go, and I'll follow."
"Unless we get into a big fight, then I hope you can manage yourself without the team leader yelling instructions at you." Eon grinned.
"I think I can do that, yeah."
"Then come on. Let's get out of here to make sure we don't run into your father or something, we'll cloak outside and get moving. Would you like to make your way to the Boardwalk while in costume, and see what we can do?" He asked, letting Taylor lead the way out of her house and waiting for her to lock up. "Or should we just sulk in the alleys again and pick people off in the dark and dirt?"
"Why don't we do that, but move along towards the Boardwalk as we go?" Shadow suggested. "We can do a bit of both then, right?"
"Sounds fine to me." Swarm nodded her acceptance.
"Then we cloak up and start moving. We'll stick mostly to the alleys this time, so Shadow has an easier time avoiding being spotted." Eon told them, waving his tails. An illusion formed around the two larger members of the team, while the smallest changed her colours to something somewhat darker as they all padded out quietly, dipping into an alleyway at the first chance they got.
Nearly three quarters of an hour, and one attempted mugging later, the group of three huddled together under a much larger illusion near the Boardwalk.
"So, we're pretty near the Boardwalk. Swarm, you're our native. How do things normally look about here?"
"I don't normally spend too much time here, to be honest." She said uncomfortably. "Don't really have the money to spend on a lot of the shops here, and when I'd normally have the time to even look everyone else is out of school and wandering about, so I can't even get away from those people here." Eon nodded.
"Well, anything you can say, from your bugs or yourself?"
"There's a lot of back alleys and passages, so plenty of potential for a mugging or five. Lots of pretty expensive shops, so it's likely that there'd be some idiot willing to try a robbery." Swarm said.
"That's more likely to be teenage gang members, I'd think." Shadow guessed. "I know back home that robbing low profile high profile stuff is kinda a kiddy move, basically."
"Sorry, what?"
"Um, things that are low profile targets, like shops, but high profile because they're really popular or in really obvious areas with lots of people?" She explained, sounding a little confused herself. "It's a bit of a weird way to class something, but that's what we call it. It's a bit low level, too, mostly newish outlaws who've done enough stuff to think that they're really good, but aren't really that good at all."
"Alright, moving the lessons to later, anything with your bugs, Swarm?" Eon interrupted.
"Things mostly look ok, to be honest. I still don't have the best grasp on insect senses, but I can't hear or see anything nearby." She reported. "It's possible that since most of the teenagers in the gangs are still in school- assuming they aren't skipping, or just mega high in the Merchant's cases- things are gonna be a bit quiet for a while, since they aren't around."
"Perhaps, I suppose." Eon frowned. "And here I was hoping there'd be some way we could have a decent debut for the three of us."
About three blocks over, something exploded.
"Oh, nice one, Eon." Shadow groaned. "Of course you had to speak up, oh so great and brilliant leader."
"Quit your yapping, pix!" The Ninetales snapped, turning to Swarm. "What's happening over there?"
"Hold on, I'm getting bugs into the area so I can see." They waited a moment, where Eon's tails flicked impatiently, then Swarm continued, "Bank robbery. There's a lot of black smoke at the main entrance, and… I think I see most of the Wards there too, plus a white figure? There's a few dogs running about too… Pretty sure it's the Undersiders." Shadow frowned.
"Do we go after them?" She asked awkwardly. "I mean, we helped them the other day…"
"They're villains, and remember what Tattletale said about reputation." Eon returned. "This could be an easy chance for a debut."
"The Wards do seem to be struggling a bit. I think… Clockblocker and Aegis are in the wrong costumes, they're showing the others powers and the dog's going after Clockblocker, who hasn't been seriously hurt yet, so I'm pretty sure they've swapped costumes. Probably to try and fool the Undersiders, I don't think they know that Tattletale's a Thinker." Swarm reported. Eon nodded, grinning.
"Let's go offer a helping hand, shall we?"
Dennis cursed quietly as he stepped forwards, trying to get close enough to the fight between the giant dog and his team mate to freeze the huge thing and try to buy them a few moments of breathing space. Vicky and Missy were trying to fight a second one, with slightly better results, and Dean and Chris were fighting with Grue and Regent respectively. Bitch was on the side, calling commands to her dogs, and the final member, Tattletale, was nowhere to be seen. Dennis assumed she was inside with however many hostages they'd kept in the bank, but for now he just was trying to even the odds a bit against the Undersiders and their giant dogs.
They were really too smart for dogs, he grumbled mentally, taking another step closer and trying to find some sort of way to touch the dog. A moment later, he jumped and made a small, startled yelp that he hastily muffled.
"Hey there!" A cheery female voice said from his left. "Need some help?" Dennis looked around for a second, trying to spot the owner of the voice, before a flash of red-orange made him look down towards the ground.
And blink, since a two foot tall fox with six tails and a cuteness factor of around twenty-six was not what he expected to find.
"Only, you guys seem to be getting a bit beaten up." She continued, apparently ignoring his confusion. "So I was thinking that it looked like you needed some help."
"We, ah, yeah." He tried, trying to get his brain working again. "Yeah, we could do with some help. Only, um, what could you do?"
"A lot of things, really." She replied, not seeming offended- which Dennis was glad for, since he'd realised about a second after he said it that it could have been taken very badly. "And Eon can do a lot more, if he remembers to tone it down a bit." Her part- or interest- in the conversation apparently over, she took a few steps closer to the dog and ignored him in favour of looking at it.
A sigh made him twitch, then look over at his left again, finding a three foot tall fox with nine tales and an almost six foot tall human had appeared from nowhere.
"Well, she'll be doing that, I suppose." The fox sighed. "Swarm, can you handle the humans, please? I believe I'll be dealing with the other dog, since Shadow seems to have picked this one."
"No problem, Eon." The woman- Swarm- nodded, running her hand through her hair. Dennis mentally recoiled when it came away with some dozen spiders attached to it. "No-one's getting shot at inside the bank, at least."
"I know, I can hear it." Eon told her. "Come on, we might as well get moving." Nodding to Dennis on her way past, Swarm started making her way closer to the ongoing fights between Dean, Grue, Regent, and Chris, before throwing the spiders into the mix in a careful fashion, seemingly waiting for some unknown signal before she did. The fox, Eon, nodded at him as well, walking over to the dog Vicky and Missy were fighting. Dennis just watched, slightly dumbfounded and very confused, as he looked between the girl and the larger fox, before turning to look at the smaller one, Shadow.
"Hey!" She shouted, her voice lost over the growls of the dog. For a moment, her slowly wagging tails stilled, before the rightmost one flicked angrily. "HEY!" The dog froze, as did Carlos, before looking across and down at the fox, whose voice had suddenly become about four times louder and a lot more intimidating. "Thank you. Mr Superhero, you might want to look away…" Bemused, Dennis watched his friend stare at her, before doing a double take and looking away from her as fast as possible, finding one of the nearby buildings many times more interesting than whatever the fox was doing. "Thank you…" The dog continued staring at her, its eyes slowly getting more and more droopy, and it opened a heavily fanged mouth in a yawn.
"Bitch, get them out of here!" A new female voice made all of them jump, including Shadow, who lost her focus on the dog. Said animal began blinking slowly, seeming confused, before a shrill whistle from its owner caused it to jump to attention and run over, the dog that had been fighting Vicky and Missy, as well as Eon, doing the same. A blonde in a skin-tight purple-and-black costume came running out of the front of the bank, another of the huge animals following her. "Grue, Regent, time to go!" Both of them disengaged from their fights with some difficulty, having to also deal with the pile of bugs that had joined them courtesy of Swarm, and made their way over to the dogs, both girls already climbing onto one each.
"Swarm, stop them!" Eon barked, tails wavering in the air. A swarm of bugs rose up at the command, chasing towards the dogs in a terrifying fashion, while an ethereal purple aura blasted from the blue tail-tips of the fox, following after the bugs. Tattletale seemed to pale behind her mask, eyes wide, and Bitch whistled sharply. The dogs jerked off, making a running jump at the nearest building and scrambling up. The purple creation froze and dispelled, now lacking a target, while the bug cloud buzzed dangerously before Swarm twitched, clearly calling them back. Shadow growled, the sound making both Carlos and Dennis jump and Eon turn.
"Damn it." She scowled. "They got away."
"Do we go after them, Eon?" Swarm asked, the cloud of bugs forming at her back. Eon watched after them for a moment, frowning, then shook his head.
"No point. The dogs move far faster than you could, Swarm, and even Shadow and myself would be pushing it a bit." He replied. "They're probably already well enough away, and I reckon those dogs would hear if we gave chase." Shadow huffed, making Eon glance at her. "Oh, get over it, pix."
"Alright. It's been a while since that's happened, though." She grumbled, making her way over to the larger fox. "Normally bad guys fight to the bitter end, or just give up straight away. I miss our reputation already."
"It'll come back, Shadow." Eon grinned, patting her head for a moment. "At least this time we're familiar with the climb."
"True." She smiled, as Swarm coughed.
"Maybe instead of chattering on about your awesomeness, we should actually introduce ourselves to people?" She asked awkwardly, the swarm of bugs now dispersing completely.
"Ah, yes. Thanks, Swarm." Eon nodded, shaking his head. A plume of white-grey fur on his head waved with the motion, making Dennis blink and wonder how he'd missed noticing that before the movement, and how Eon had avoided it getting in the way in the fight, before the giant fox turned towards the group. "Apologies for ignoring you all, and for just jumping into your fights like we did. We felt you all could use some help." The Wards traded glances, then Carlos, as the leader, stepped forwards to respond.
"Thank you for joining in. You're right, we did need a bit of help. The Undersiders aren't really known for frontal assaults, so we weren't prepared for it. I wonder what changed this time."
"Who knows?" Eon shrugged, the motion rippling down his tails. "Maybe we'll find out someday, most likely we won't. No reason to dwell on it either way." He stepped forwards slightly, leaving his two team mates flanking him, and offered a paw. "Now, introductions. My name's Eon, the team leader, Shadow there is my second in command and Swarm's the newbie." Shadow gave a cheery wave to them all, sitting down as she did to wait out the conversation, while Swarm coolly nodded. Seeming slightly more confused, Carlos stepped closer and shook the offered paw.
"I'm Aegis, the Ward's leader, that's Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win, and Vista." He introduced them all in turn, Dennis and Missy giving polite waves while Gallant and Kid Win nodded. "Glory Girl was here, but she seems to have gone right now."
"She went inside the bank." Swarm told him. "Something about her sister?"
"Ah, yes. Panacea was in the bank at the time, so she's probably gone to go and make sure she's ok." Carlos winced. "Gallant, can you…?"
"Sure thing, Aegis." Dean nodded, walking past them and into the bank. Eon smiled slightly.
"Her worry is understandable. Family is important, after all." He said, taking his paw back. "So, what's the procedure for this now? I assume it'll be somewhat different to back home, or when we were dealing with muggers over the last few days."
"The police will be here any minute, console says, so we'll need to give statements to them. They'll take witness statements as well, so we'll probably be here a while."
"Understandable." The fox nodded. "Back home, the authorities have a tendency to take extremely detailed statements from every member of the team- or teams, as the case may be- and I was slightly surprised to see that didn't happen with those muggings."
"The police are a little stretched thin in this city." Carlos agreed. "They stick around for longer with the bigger crimes, of course."
"That certainly makes sense." Eon glanced over his shoulder at his two team mates. "Relax, you two. We've got some time before we need to be all formal and giving information." Shadow immediately slumped down slightly, her tails wrapping around her paws, while Swarm just shifted a little on the spot, folding her arms. Dennis took the opportunity to properly examine the three of them.
Eon was clearly the leader of the group, and not just because he'd introduced himself as such. Even being nearly two feet shorter than him and sitting down, the nine-tailed vulpine gave a sense of being completely aware of everything around him, almost unnervingly so. His red eyes were constantly scanning the area, even after telling his two partners to relax- an order that sounded oddly like a slightly rephrased 'stand down' to him- and two of the nine tails were twitching, like he was expecting to have to jump into action in a moment.
Dennis wondered what sort of hell the animal had came from to act like that. And why he'd never heard of a pair of foxes causing trouble and heroics, since they were apparently famous, from Shadow's earlier words.
Said smaller fox was now lying on the stomach, six tails curling around her right side to lie along her body, looking completely relaxed and at ease, in contrast to her leader. She was looking around at the building and people in the area, just like he was, but her attitude appeared to be more idly curiosity than waiting for a sudden attack from somewhere. She was looking at him and the rest of the Wards curiously as well, like they were an interesting puzzle she wanted to figure out, but she didn't seem at all hostile, which was nice.
Dennis was especially glad of that, since she'd managed to yell down that dog of Bitch's and probably would've taken it down if Tattletale hadn't intervened.
Swarm was probably the least interesting of the three, in his opinion. She didn't bother looking around, aside from shifting her head slightly, alternating her likely view between Eon, Shadow and the Wards, but for the most part remained basically still. She didn't seem to have any sort of emotions towards the situation at all, which Dennis found unnerving.
Taking a closer look at the brown-black hair, he could see varyingly sized spots of mainly black running up and down it, occasionally meeting each other before moving on. Dennis wondering what they were for a moment, then was reminded of the woman pulling a number of spiders from her hair when she went to join the fight and shivered slightly.
That was one Cape he wasn't going to enjoy having to be around, he felt.
Dennis' attention was drawn back to Shadow when he spotted Missy making her way over to her, the smaller fox looking up with her head cocked in interest.
"Hello there." Shadow smiled, pushing herself upwards into a seated position and offering her paw. "You're Vista, right?"
"That's me." Missy grinned in reply, gently shaking the paw. "It's nice to meet you. We could always do with more heroes, and you're… well, you're really cute." Shadow laughed.
"Thank you. I'm happy to see that people, no matter where they are, find me cute." She smirked. "And Eon and I've always been heroes. Sure, we did it differently to how you guys apparently do things here; rescues mostly, and finding lost items, but we've done our own fair share of criminal hunting deals as well." She looked back at the damaged bank, placing her paw on the floor again and looking a little disappointed. "Although it was always rare that something like this happened."
"How so?" Missy asked, sounding curious. "Did people not rob banks where you came from?"
"Not normally, no." Shadow was smirking again, looking up at Missy's face. "The people that run the banks are really capable of defending themselves, so most people wouldn't take the risk. Plus with the banks being in the middle of towns, and pretty much anyone in the town would help out against a thief, so it's really stupid to try robbing a bank in our place."
"That's interesting." Missy mused. "What about shops?"
"Same sort of thing, really. Marketplaces tend to have a lot of people in them, so it's a bit stupid to try and rob them. Most people have single items stolen, then they put out a request to have a team like ours go and find the item for them, since the dungeons where thieves normally run to can be really dangerous for someone unprepared."
"Dungeons?"
"They're strange places, the layout of them changes for every person or team that enters, so you're never in the same place twice- or rarely, at least. So teams like us get hired to go into those dungeons and get back the stolen items or arrest criminals." Shadow grinned. "They're pretty fun, though some of them can be a real pain to fight through. Some of the targets we've had to hunt down have been really difficult to deal with, assuming they didn't just quit."
"Why would they just quit?" Dennis butted in, suddenly curious. Shadow looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, and for a moment he worried that he'd offended her, but she just grinned harshly after a moment.
"Between my crazy family tree and the skills Eon's learned, from me and other teams, we're absolutely terrifying together. We can manage to fight off pretty much anything working with each other. Burns and Hexes, for example, are really good." She snickered, looking up and back at Swarm. "I wonder what sort of terror we'd make if you came along, Swarm."
"It could be fun, certainly." She buzzed, looking slightly down at her team mate. Shadow nodded, grinning.
"Vespiquen and Ariados would probably be glad to meet you, and you'll probably like them as well. They're really powerful, and really good at trap laying. They work well together."
"Police are here." Carlos interrupted, making the Wards straighten. Swarm stiffened slightly, while Shadow stood up and shook herself out, fur rippling everywhere as she did. Eon remained seated, looking across at the cars rolling up, before turning away and looking at the bank front instead. Dennis followed his gaze, spotting Dean walking out with Vicky and Amy, who spotted the police and hurried over. Dean joined the rest of the Wards in their group, Vicky stayed hovering next to her sister, who froze and stared at the two foxes. Eon and Shadow both ignored them, the female fox moving back to flank her leader again while Swarm stayed in the back.
Chris nudged Dennis, dragging his attention off of the unusual team and back to the police that were heading over to them, and threw a smile on his face.
Time to act serious and give a report.
A good half an hour later, with all of the statements now collected and the police driving away, the ones who'd spoken to the foxes looking somewhat confused, the group of heroes- and apparent heroes- were ready to depart. Most of the civilians who'd been in the bank, or nearby, had already left, getting bored waiting about with nothing interesting happening with the Capes. Which amused Dennis, given how quick they normally were to stop and watch Capes doing absolutely nothing.
Eon yawned, standing and shaking himself, making the group back away slightly to avoid being hit by one of his tails, and smiled.
"Well, I suppose we ought to be off." He announced, as Shadow and Swarm stepped up behind him. "I'm certain you all have other things to be doing, as do we."
"Ah, a question before you go?" Carlos asked, a little awkward.
"That was one." Eon smirked. "I assume you have a second?"
"Are either of you two Case 53's?"
"Pardon?"
"Case 53's. They're sometimes referred to as monster Capes, all of them are really different from humans, and they have a specific tattoo on them somewhere." Carlos explained, fumbling for a moment before holding out his phone with an image of the tattoo on its screen. "They all have complete memory loss too."
"Well, I can certainly say that isn't what we are. No tattoos, for one." Eon disagreed, closely examining the picture even so. "And no amnesia either."
"Ah. Alright, then." Carlos nodded, putting the phone away. "Sorry for asking, it's just procedure."
"Not a problem." Eon smiled. "A pleasure to meet you all."
"Thank you for helping my sister out." Amy suddenly said, sticking her hand out to the nine-tailed fox. Eon blinked, surprised, then gently placed his paw on it and shook.
"It's our job, madam." He replied. "We're happy to do it." Taking his paw back, he looked over his shoulder at his second-in-command and nodded to her. Shadow nodded back, running away from the group and slipping out of sight into an alley a moment later. "Now, good luck with the debrief I assume you'll all be going through when you return to your base, and farewell." He looked up at Swarm, who gave a nod to whatever question his eyes asked, and the pair vanished from sight. Vicky made a startled choking sound, apparently having been about to ask a question, while Amy just kept staring at where they had been. Dean looked around, confused.
"That's… weird." He mumbled. "I can still kind of feel them, but it feels more like they just teleported a really long way away. They just went all blurry."
"Huh." Chris said.
"Yeah." They all stood about for a minute, confused, before Carlos shook his head.
"Come on, back to base. That Eon was right about one thing, we need to go debrief now."
"Joy." Dennis deadpanned. "See you around, Vicky, Amy."
"Bye, Clock." Vicky waved. Amy muttered some kind of agreement, still looking about with confusion. The group started off, Missy bending space to get them on top of a nearby building before they began roof-hopping.
"They were kind of cute, though." The sole girl said absently, crunching space again and letting them all step through. "And Eon's fur looked really pretty, all shiny and glittery." The four boys blinked, meeting each other's eyes behind their respective masks, and rolled their eyes.
"Priorities, Vista." Dennis chuckled.
"How come you didn't ask us about the Case 53 thing?" Eon asked, once the group was suitably far enough away, under a unified cloak, and able to relax.
"I didn't think of it, and to be honest something told me you weren't one." Swarm shrugged. "The stuff you were saying against Lung made me think you really were from elsewhere. Or possibly a Master projection that're playing practical jokes on people."
"I see…" Eon mused, then looked at Shadow, who was sniffing about and looking bored. "Do you want to end the patrol and drop back at your home? Or should we go and find another safe house to try robbing?"
"Safe house!" Shadow perked up, cheering. Swarm chuckled.
"Sure, we can do that. I'll keep some bugs out looking for muggings and stuff, too."
"Attagirl, Swarm." He praised. "Alright. Team Inari, form up and we're off." Shadow's colours quickly faded to something more muted as she slipped away, and Eon tightened his grip on the cloak before he and Swarm followed her, walking through the alleyways of the city towards some of the warehouses, which they all thought were likely to have something hidden in them- if you knew where to look.
In his bag, out of sight, the Wonder Map began to glow slightly.
"Keep your phone on you tonight, Taylor." Eon recommended, several hours later. The girl in question was behind a screen made from her bugs, changing into a civilian outfit from the supply she'd brought with her to the base, while Eon and Shadow worked on emptying out the Treasure Bag, Eon removing things while Shadow moved them into the den. "I'll keep ours turned on too, but keep yours with you even if you take the battery out or turn it off."
"Why?" She asked, over the rustling of folding clothes.
"It's probably a good idea that we always have a way to contact each other, in case of an emergency." He told her, lifting the rolled up Map from the bottom of the bag, before shrugging and putting it back. "If something happens while you're in school, you're more likely to be able to find out more about it than us, so you can send us information. These things do more than just call, I think?"
"Yeah, they can text as well." Taylor agreed. "And I see what you mean. I'll just have to keep it hidden from dad; he doesn't like phones."
"Alright, then." The bug wall came down, revealing Taylor adjusting her glasses and shirt, and the grey Ninetales looked upwards at the sky, then over at the girl again. "We'll walk you back, like before. Shadow, come on."
"Holb om." She mumbled, dragging the bag into the den with the strap in her mouth. The Vulpix returned a moment later. "Right. Where're we going?"
"Taking Taylor back to her house." He repeated. "You ready to go, Taylor?"
"Just a sec." She pushed the last remains of her costume into her bag, then sealed it up and pulled it onto her back. "Ready."
"I wonder if your father's back." Shadow mused as they walked.
"I'll be able to tell once we get close enough to the house." Taylor replied. "There's enough bugs in my collection that I can hear pretty well."
"That's neat." Eon smiled. "Good for security too, so long as you're in range."
"They are, yeah. I have a lot of poisonous spiders in there."
"As long as they aren't in your hair."
"It's safe either way." Taylor shrugged, as the two foxes dropped into invisibility again. "So it's fine for me to do that. Like how you guys can apparently walk in fire and be mildly refreshed by it."
"It's nice, and so far seems to be confusing people that see it here." Eon responded. "Now, we're going quiet. We're still here though, I promise."
"Thanks Eon, Shadow."
"No worries!"
"Any time, Taylor."
The next morning, there was an explosion.
"All done?" The man asked. He looked to be about nineteen, just over six feet tall with wiry muscles, dyed light blue hair and grey eyes. He looked slightly down at her, a tiny smile on his face, making her grin in return.
"Yeah. Three burgers and a lot of fries." She nodded, holding up the bags.
"C'mon, let's go find a place to eat, yeah?" The other girl of the trio bounced, arms folded under her chest and a wide, beaming grin on her face. She was more tanned than her male friend, looked to be around seventeen, and was much shorter than both her friends, only a little above five feet. Her hair was a vibrant red that looked almost bloody, and sparkling blue eyes darted about with excitement.
"We can go back to my place." Taylor offered, nodding to her. "It's not far, and I could do with putting my bag away anyway."
"Lead the way." The man told her, grasping the bouncing girl's shoulder to make her stand still. Taylor smiled at the display and nodded, turning on the spot and walking back past the burger store down the Boardwalk, planning on dropping into a few alleyways to make the trip shorter. Both of her friends followed, carefully slipping through the large crowds with a fluid ease, the crowds shifting unconsciously to avoid knocking into them, which she noticed with a slight smile.
Dropping into an alleyway, she went about half way through before stopping and turning to her friends, looking around with her bugs as she did so.
"It's empty." She told them, holding out two of the three bags. Both of them sagged in relief, before flickering and vanishing, Eon and Shadow flickering out of invisibility a second after.
"Thank Arceus for that." Eon huffed, shaking himself and examining the floor, before picking a spot that was marginally less dirty than the rest of the area to sit down on. "That was far more stressful than I was expecting it to be."
"Are you alright?" Taylor checked.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Eon flicked his tails, waving her off. "I could do with a bit of rest, and maybe a reminder next time I recommend trying to hold two Pokemon invisible and mostly inaudible while projecting two humans at the same time, but I'll be fine to patrol, if that's what you're asking."
"Well, I was more worried about you, but that's good too." Taylor admitted, as the Ninetales lifted the bags out of her grip and handed Shadow one of them. "Are you just going to go invisible for the rest of the trip back to mine, then?"
"That would probably be best." He nodded, as Shadow opened her bad and sniffed at it. "Way less strain than trying to hold all six of them at once." He sighed, lifting the burger from the bag. "Way less."
"I need to practise cloaking more." Shadow decided, through a mouthful of fries. "Pretty sure that'd make it easier, right?"
"It'd help, sure." Eon agreed, taking a cautious bite from his burger. "That's really nice, actually."
"I wouldn't recommend eating them too often," Taylor cautioned, through her own bite, "The stuff's known as 'heart attack in a bun' for a reason. Especially some of the bigger stuff. There's so much fat and grease that it's ridiculous."
"Nice on occasion, though." The three sat silently for a little while, just eating their way through the take-out, before Taylor hummed.
"Y'know, I've always been ok at cooking." She said slowly. "So maybe on some afternoons when dad's not around you guys could spend some time at mine. We'd have to listen out a bit, I guess, so that you don't get caught, but it'd be kinda fun, I think."
"Have you still not said anything to your father yet?" Eon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I got in late last night and the night before, and I didn't have the time this morning or yesterday." She shrugged. "Plus, well, I've been a Cape for a pretty long time now- four months- and I haven't said anything to him before now. It makes me feel… a little awkward, I guess, about bringing it up."
"But if you do tell your father, he might be able to help cover for you in things. Like if you need the day of school for Cape business, he'd be able to phone you in as sick instead of you just skipping like you did today. And we'd be able to come over your house more easily that way. Show up under an illusion, and we could drop it as soon as we get into your house, without needing to worry about listening out for your father showing up." Eon told her. Taylor frowned, biting her lip for a few moments, then nodding and taking the final bite of her burger and working her way through some of the fries.
"I'll… have to find a good time to talk about it." She finally said slowly. "Maybe a weekend, or a Friday afternoon where there's plenty of time for him to get used to it." Eon gave a nod, leaving it at that.
"So, are we gonna start moving?" Shadow's voice made both of them look down, where the smaller Vulpix was balancing the balled up paper bag on the end of her nose, sitting perfectly still. She'd barely moved even asking her question, though the ball wobbled for a moment before she stilled again.
"Are you finished already?" Eon blinked, a few fries hovering in midair. "Where did it all go?"
"I finished because I wasn't talking." She muttered, the ball wobbling again before she reached up to put a paw on it, moving to a better position at the same time. "And it went in my stomach, silly."
"Fair enough, I suppose." Eon chuckled. "We'll be done soon, so just wait a bit."
"Ok." Shadow almost huffed out a sigh, but seemed to remember her balancing act and the last moment and just settled for tapping her paw and sweeping her tails around a little. Taylor and Eon exchanged amused looks, quickly finishing the rest of their food and balling up their own bags as well.
"Alright, now we can go to mine." Taylor smiled.
"Good." Shadow did huff this time, blowing the ball off her nose, which Taylor snatched out of the air with a quick movement. Shadow looked impressed. "Nice reflexes. That was really fast." Taylor blushed.
"Thanks." The teen muttered, turning and leading the way out of the alleyway. "Come on, my house is a bit far from here, so we should probably try and get there soon so I can hide my stuff there. Then we can go patrolling in daylight for the first time."
"Are you looking forward to it?" Shadow asked, trotting after her. Eon took a moment to brush the dirt off his tails before he followed with a slight huff of irritation, planning on cleaning it up properly once they were in Taylor's hopefully empty house.
"A bit, yeah." Taylor nodded. "I mean, I'm nervous too, it's kinda strange and I know people'll stare, but I'm used to that."
"Oh, I'm not asking that. I mean if you're actually excited for it. A proper step into being a famous rescue team is always done with a high profile mission from someone, normally capturing a big name outlaw, or a Guild expedition where you find lost treasures or areas long forgotten." Taylor looked around and down, seeing a glitter of excitement in her eyes. "I guess it's not likely we'll encounter some big name, but we'll be properly in public and doing lots of work helping people. That's just as good."
"I would almost say it's better, Shadow." Eon put in, taking up Taylor's other side as they turned a corner into another empty alley. "After all, if your team is just known for being famous, you'll be respected for that alone, but people will likely be wary of you. They might not see you as just another Pokemon- or person, in this case- because they don't know about the ordinary stuff you do. If you were known for being quite normal before you were famous, on the other hand…"
"People would be more likely to approach you." Taylor finished, understanding where his speech was going. "Which makes sense for someone like you guys, doing missions, but less for something like a Cape team?"
"It's possible it'd be easier to find informants in groups." Eon elaborated. "You're known to be powerful and famous, but also approachable and keep your word, perhaps even pushing towards noble. That'll make it more likely that other people would be willing to approach with information- hold on." Eon paused, wrapping both himself and Shadow in a cloak again as they started getting near to the streets. "-Information that could help with capturing criminals or finding missing Pokemon that no-one knows exactly where they are."
"Interesting…" Taylor mused quietly, before the three of them walked out into a less crowded but still populated street and they had to fall silent again.
"Come in, dad's not here, I checked with my bugs." Taylor said softly, holding open the back door for them both. Eon huffed slightly at the idea of bringing the dirt in with them, while Shadow just carefully walked in, trying not to disturb anything. "Don't worry about dirt, Eon, I'll fix it afterwards, before we leave."
"Fine." He grumbled. "I didn't want to get you in trouble."
"It'll be alright. Will you be ok getting it off on your own? I'm going to my room to put my things away and put my costume on."
"Sure, we can manage. It's not the first time we've had situations with dirt, after all." Eon laughed, tails flicking in amusement. "We'll see you in a moment." Taylor nodded acceptingly and trooped up the stairs. Eon listened for the creak of the doors, then looked at Shadow, who was brushing at the base of her tails with her paws. "Be careful, Shadow." Eon said lowly, making her look up at him and pause her ministrations.
"What about?"
"We're hunting in daylight, in a crowded area. You can't hold invisibility very well, so you're relying on your colour change, and that's not necessarily gonna be good enough for this." He told her firmly. "Be careful with how you work today."
"I will, Eon." She nodded. "Don't worry. You and Taylor stay invisible, I'll just drop in and out of things." She pawed gently at the end of his tail. "You be safe too, ok?"
"We both will be." The grey Ninetales placed his paw on Shadow's head. "This world is a lot more dangerous than ours in many ways. No risks, ok?"
"Ok." The two of them turned to getting the dirt off their tails for the next minute or so, then curled up on the floor and waited for Taylor to make a reappearance, listening to the sounds of her moving around upstairs. Shadow pawed slightly at the end of her scarf, the badge above it shifting as she did, and chewed at her lip. "I'm a little scared."
"What of?" Eon blinked, cocking his head.
"Dunno." She shrugged. "Just, something. Something feels off, and I don't like it."
"I thought I was the one with the future sight." Eon chuckled. "But I'll take your word for it. Instinct's have gotten us through this stuff before."
"Like the expedition in Murky Oceans the Guild went on." Shadow recalled with a smile. "That was fun, but a little scary."
"True." Eon shuddered. "The fact that you picked up on the attack before it happened was really lucky. Especially given that damned Scream that came right before it. Thanks again, by the way."
"You've been thanking me about that every other week for the last eleven months." Shadow giggled. "You can let it go now."
"Let what go?" Taylor, now fully costumed up as Swarm, asked, entering the room.
"Oh, just a story from an expedition." Eon waved off, pushing himself up in the same movement. "I'll tell it to you some other time. Maybe this evening after our patrol's over?"
"Could be fun, sure." Swarm nodded, standing next to Shadow. Both vulpines cocked their heads.
"Your voice sounds different." Shadow noted.
"I was messing with insects when I had some spare time, trying to make voices with them." She told them. "I can't use them to talk or anything, and I'm not sure I ever really will, but I can make my voice sound really different like this. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, to be honest, it could've been really helpful for dealing with villains."
"And heroes. Sometimes the so-called 'good guys' can be just as bad." Eon said darkly, glaring at the wall.
"Another story for later," Shadow whispered, before saying louder, "I think you might've been too close to the problem? Sometimes me and Eon don't spot things we could do for ages, then when someone points it out it's all 'Oh, duh. Why didn't we think of that?'"
"Probably." Swarm hummed, a noise that sounded very odd with the dull hum of insects behind it. "Anyway, ready to leave?"
"One last thing." Eon said, looking between the two girls. "Be careful, both of you. Things in this city are dangerous, and we're going to be out in the public eye for the first time today. Neither of you can get hurt during this, please. Especially not you, Taylor. Shadow doesn't have to explain away random injuries to people. You will. Do your best not to get hurt, and stay near me. I'm keeping the both of us invisible, so you should be safe unless we get into a fight about something. Shadow, I'm trusting you to know your limits. Cloak when you have to, hide when you can, and by Arceus keep an eye out for trouble. Don't go running into something on accident that might get you hurt. This isn't back home, in a Dungeon. If you get seriously injured, you won't be teleported out back to a safe spot outside the dungeon, you'll be injured in front of a hostile enemy. Watch out."
"I will, Eon." Shadow promised. "I know things are different here. I'm not going to try something stupid and get hurt. I grew out of that phase pretty quickly as part of a Rescue Team." Eon studied her for a moment, then nodded, looking up at Swarm.
"I'll be careful too, Eon." She agreed. "I'm not as experienced as you are in exploring and rescuing, and I know that."
"Coulda fooled me, jumping in front of a dragon."
"I'll be careful, and listen to what you guys recommend." Swarm finished, ignoring Shadow's comment with the unfortunate ease of practise. "Just show me where to go, and I'll follow."
"Unless we get into a big fight, then I hope you can manage yourself without the team leader yelling instructions at you." Eon grinned.
"I think I can do that, yeah."
"Then come on. Let's get out of here to make sure we don't run into your father or something, we'll cloak outside and get moving. Would you like to make your way to the Boardwalk while in costume, and see what we can do?" He asked, letting Taylor lead the way out of her house and waiting for her to lock up. "Or should we just sulk in the alleys again and pick people off in the dark and dirt?"
"Why don't we do that, but move along towards the Boardwalk as we go?" Shadow suggested. "We can do a bit of both then, right?"
"Sounds fine to me." Swarm nodded her acceptance.
"Then we cloak up and start moving. We'll stick mostly to the alleys this time, so Shadow has an easier time avoiding being spotted." Eon told them, waving his tails. An illusion formed around the two larger members of the team, while the smallest changed her colours to something somewhat darker as they all padded out quietly, dipping into an alleyway at the first chance they got.
Nearly three quarters of an hour, and one attempted mugging later, the group of three huddled together under a much larger illusion near the Boardwalk.
"So, we're pretty near the Boardwalk. Swarm, you're our native. How do things normally look about here?"
"I don't normally spend too much time here, to be honest." She said uncomfortably. "Don't really have the money to spend on a lot of the shops here, and when I'd normally have the time to even look everyone else is out of school and wandering about, so I can't even get away from those people here." Eon nodded.
"Well, anything you can say, from your bugs or yourself?"
"There's a lot of back alleys and passages, so plenty of potential for a mugging or five. Lots of pretty expensive shops, so it's likely that there'd be some idiot willing to try a robbery." Swarm said.
"That's more likely to be teenage gang members, I'd think." Shadow guessed. "I know back home that robbing low profile high profile stuff is kinda a kiddy move, basically."
"Sorry, what?"
"Um, things that are low profile targets, like shops, but high profile because they're really popular or in really obvious areas with lots of people?" She explained, sounding a little confused herself. "It's a bit of a weird way to class something, but that's what we call it. It's a bit low level, too, mostly newish outlaws who've done enough stuff to think that they're really good, but aren't really that good at all."
"Alright, moving the lessons to later, anything with your bugs, Swarm?" Eon interrupted.
"Things mostly look ok, to be honest. I still don't have the best grasp on insect senses, but I can't hear or see anything nearby." She reported. "It's possible that since most of the teenagers in the gangs are still in school- assuming they aren't skipping, or just mega high in the Merchant's cases- things are gonna be a bit quiet for a while, since they aren't around."
"Perhaps, I suppose." Eon frowned. "And here I was hoping there'd be some way we could have a decent debut for the three of us."
About three blocks over, something exploded.
"Oh, nice one, Eon." Shadow groaned. "Of course you had to speak up, oh so great and brilliant leader."
"Quit your yapping, pix!" The Ninetales snapped, turning to Swarm. "What's happening over there?"
"Hold on, I'm getting bugs into the area so I can see." They waited a moment, where Eon's tails flicked impatiently, then Swarm continued, "Bank robbery. There's a lot of black smoke at the main entrance, and… I think I see most of the Wards there too, plus a white figure? There's a few dogs running about too… Pretty sure it's the Undersiders." Shadow frowned.
"Do we go after them?" She asked awkwardly. "I mean, we helped them the other day…"
"They're villains, and remember what Tattletale said about reputation." Eon returned. "This could be an easy chance for a debut."
"The Wards do seem to be struggling a bit. I think… Clockblocker and Aegis are in the wrong costumes, they're showing the others powers and the dog's going after Clockblocker, who hasn't been seriously hurt yet, so I'm pretty sure they've swapped costumes. Probably to try and fool the Undersiders, I don't think they know that Tattletale's a Thinker." Swarm reported. Eon nodded, grinning.
"Let's go offer a helping hand, shall we?"
Dennis cursed quietly as he stepped forwards, trying to get close enough to the fight between the giant dog and his team mate to freeze the huge thing and try to buy them a few moments of breathing space. Vicky and Missy were trying to fight a second one, with slightly better results, and Dean and Chris were fighting with Grue and Regent respectively. Bitch was on the side, calling commands to her dogs, and the final member, Tattletale, was nowhere to be seen. Dennis assumed she was inside with however many hostages they'd kept in the bank, but for now he just was trying to even the odds a bit against the Undersiders and their giant dogs.
They were really too smart for dogs, he grumbled mentally, taking another step closer and trying to find some sort of way to touch the dog. A moment later, he jumped and made a small, startled yelp that he hastily muffled.
"Hey there!" A cheery female voice said from his left. "Need some help?" Dennis looked around for a second, trying to spot the owner of the voice, before a flash of red-orange made him look down towards the ground.
And blink, since a two foot tall fox with six tails and a cuteness factor of around twenty-six was not what he expected to find.
"Only, you guys seem to be getting a bit beaten up." She continued, apparently ignoring his confusion. "So I was thinking that it looked like you needed some help."
"We, ah, yeah." He tried, trying to get his brain working again. "Yeah, we could do with some help. Only, um, what could you do?"
"A lot of things, really." She replied, not seeming offended- which Dennis was glad for, since he'd realised about a second after he said it that it could have been taken very badly. "And Eon can do a lot more, if he remembers to tone it down a bit." Her part- or interest- in the conversation apparently over, she took a few steps closer to the dog and ignored him in favour of looking at it.
A sigh made him twitch, then look over at his left again, finding a three foot tall fox with nine tales and an almost six foot tall human had appeared from nowhere.
"Well, she'll be doing that, I suppose." The fox sighed. "Swarm, can you handle the humans, please? I believe I'll be dealing with the other dog, since Shadow seems to have picked this one."
"No problem, Eon." The woman- Swarm- nodded, running her hand through her hair. Dennis mentally recoiled when it came away with some dozen spiders attached to it. "No-one's getting shot at inside the bank, at least."
"I know, I can hear it." Eon told her. "Come on, we might as well get moving." Nodding to Dennis on her way past, Swarm started making her way closer to the ongoing fights between Dean, Grue, Regent, and Chris, before throwing the spiders into the mix in a careful fashion, seemingly waiting for some unknown signal before she did. The fox, Eon, nodded at him as well, walking over to the dog Vicky and Missy were fighting. Dennis just watched, slightly dumbfounded and very confused, as he looked between the girl and the larger fox, before turning to look at the smaller one, Shadow.
"Hey!" She shouted, her voice lost over the growls of the dog. For a moment, her slowly wagging tails stilled, before the rightmost one flicked angrily. "HEY!" The dog froze, as did Carlos, before looking across and down at the fox, whose voice had suddenly become about four times louder and a lot more intimidating. "Thank you. Mr Superhero, you might want to look away…" Bemused, Dennis watched his friend stare at her, before doing a double take and looking away from her as fast as possible, finding one of the nearby buildings many times more interesting than whatever the fox was doing. "Thank you…" The dog continued staring at her, its eyes slowly getting more and more droopy, and it opened a heavily fanged mouth in a yawn.
"Bitch, get them out of here!" A new female voice made all of them jump, including Shadow, who lost her focus on the dog. Said animal began blinking slowly, seeming confused, before a shrill whistle from its owner caused it to jump to attention and run over, the dog that had been fighting Vicky and Missy, as well as Eon, doing the same. A blonde in a skin-tight purple-and-black costume came running out of the front of the bank, another of the huge animals following her. "Grue, Regent, time to go!" Both of them disengaged from their fights with some difficulty, having to also deal with the pile of bugs that had joined them courtesy of Swarm, and made their way over to the dogs, both girls already climbing onto one each.
"Swarm, stop them!" Eon barked, tails wavering in the air. A swarm of bugs rose up at the command, chasing towards the dogs in a terrifying fashion, while an ethereal purple aura blasted from the blue tail-tips of the fox, following after the bugs. Tattletale seemed to pale behind her mask, eyes wide, and Bitch whistled sharply. The dogs jerked off, making a running jump at the nearest building and scrambling up. The purple creation froze and dispelled, now lacking a target, while the bug cloud buzzed dangerously before Swarm twitched, clearly calling them back. Shadow growled, the sound making both Carlos and Dennis jump and Eon turn.
"Damn it." She scowled. "They got away."
"Do we go after them, Eon?" Swarm asked, the cloud of bugs forming at her back. Eon watched after them for a moment, frowning, then shook his head.
"No point. The dogs move far faster than you could, Swarm, and even Shadow and myself would be pushing it a bit." He replied. "They're probably already well enough away, and I reckon those dogs would hear if we gave chase." Shadow huffed, making Eon glance at her. "Oh, get over it, pix."
"Alright. It's been a while since that's happened, though." She grumbled, making her way over to the larger fox. "Normally bad guys fight to the bitter end, or just give up straight away. I miss our reputation already."
"It'll come back, Shadow." Eon grinned, patting her head for a moment. "At least this time we're familiar with the climb."
"True." She smiled, as Swarm coughed.
"Maybe instead of chattering on about your awesomeness, we should actually introduce ourselves to people?" She asked awkwardly, the swarm of bugs now dispersing completely.
"Ah, yes. Thanks, Swarm." Eon nodded, shaking his head. A plume of white-grey fur on his head waved with the motion, making Dennis blink and wonder how he'd missed noticing that before the movement, and how Eon had avoided it getting in the way in the fight, before the giant fox turned towards the group. "Apologies for ignoring you all, and for just jumping into your fights like we did. We felt you all could use some help." The Wards traded glances, then Carlos, as the leader, stepped forwards to respond.
"Thank you for joining in. You're right, we did need a bit of help. The Undersiders aren't really known for frontal assaults, so we weren't prepared for it. I wonder what changed this time."
"Who knows?" Eon shrugged, the motion rippling down his tails. "Maybe we'll find out someday, most likely we won't. No reason to dwell on it either way." He stepped forwards slightly, leaving his two team mates flanking him, and offered a paw. "Now, introductions. My name's Eon, the team leader, Shadow there is my second in command and Swarm's the newbie." Shadow gave a cheery wave to them all, sitting down as she did to wait out the conversation, while Swarm coolly nodded. Seeming slightly more confused, Carlos stepped closer and shook the offered paw.
"I'm Aegis, the Ward's leader, that's Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win, and Vista." He introduced them all in turn, Dennis and Missy giving polite waves while Gallant and Kid Win nodded. "Glory Girl was here, but she seems to have gone right now."
"She went inside the bank." Swarm told him. "Something about her sister?"
"Ah, yes. Panacea was in the bank at the time, so she's probably gone to go and make sure she's ok." Carlos winced. "Gallant, can you…?"
"Sure thing, Aegis." Dean nodded, walking past them and into the bank. Eon smiled slightly.
"Her worry is understandable. Family is important, after all." He said, taking his paw back. "So, what's the procedure for this now? I assume it'll be somewhat different to back home, or when we were dealing with muggers over the last few days."
"The police will be here any minute, console says, so we'll need to give statements to them. They'll take witness statements as well, so we'll probably be here a while."
"Understandable." The fox nodded. "Back home, the authorities have a tendency to take extremely detailed statements from every member of the team- or teams, as the case may be- and I was slightly surprised to see that didn't happen with those muggings."
"The police are a little stretched thin in this city." Carlos agreed. "They stick around for longer with the bigger crimes, of course."
"That certainly makes sense." Eon glanced over his shoulder at his two team mates. "Relax, you two. We've got some time before we need to be all formal and giving information." Shadow immediately slumped down slightly, her tails wrapping around her paws, while Swarm just shifted a little on the spot, folding her arms. Dennis took the opportunity to properly examine the three of them.
Eon was clearly the leader of the group, and not just because he'd introduced himself as such. Even being nearly two feet shorter than him and sitting down, the nine-tailed vulpine gave a sense of being completely aware of everything around him, almost unnervingly so. His red eyes were constantly scanning the area, even after telling his two partners to relax- an order that sounded oddly like a slightly rephrased 'stand down' to him- and two of the nine tails were twitching, like he was expecting to have to jump into action in a moment.
Dennis wondered what sort of hell the animal had came from to act like that. And why he'd never heard of a pair of foxes causing trouble and heroics, since they were apparently famous, from Shadow's earlier words.
Said smaller fox was now lying on the stomach, six tails curling around her right side to lie along her body, looking completely relaxed and at ease, in contrast to her leader. She was looking around at the building and people in the area, just like he was, but her attitude appeared to be more idly curiosity than waiting for a sudden attack from somewhere. She was looking at him and the rest of the Wards curiously as well, like they were an interesting puzzle she wanted to figure out, but she didn't seem at all hostile, which was nice.
Dennis was especially glad of that, since she'd managed to yell down that dog of Bitch's and probably would've taken it down if Tattletale hadn't intervened.
Swarm was probably the least interesting of the three, in his opinion. She didn't bother looking around, aside from shifting her head slightly, alternating her likely view between Eon, Shadow and the Wards, but for the most part remained basically still. She didn't seem to have any sort of emotions towards the situation at all, which Dennis found unnerving.
Taking a closer look at the brown-black hair, he could see varyingly sized spots of mainly black running up and down it, occasionally meeting each other before moving on. Dennis wondering what they were for a moment, then was reminded of the woman pulling a number of spiders from her hair when she went to join the fight and shivered slightly.
That was one Cape he wasn't going to enjoy having to be around, he felt.
Dennis' attention was drawn back to Shadow when he spotted Missy making her way over to her, the smaller fox looking up with her head cocked in interest.
"Hello there." Shadow smiled, pushing herself upwards into a seated position and offering her paw. "You're Vista, right?"
"That's me." Missy grinned in reply, gently shaking the paw. "It's nice to meet you. We could always do with more heroes, and you're… well, you're really cute." Shadow laughed.
"Thank you. I'm happy to see that people, no matter where they are, find me cute." She smirked. "And Eon and I've always been heroes. Sure, we did it differently to how you guys apparently do things here; rescues mostly, and finding lost items, but we've done our own fair share of criminal hunting deals as well." She looked back at the damaged bank, placing her paw on the floor again and looking a little disappointed. "Although it was always rare that something like this happened."
"How so?" Missy asked, sounding curious. "Did people not rob banks where you came from?"
"Not normally, no." Shadow was smirking again, looking up at Missy's face. "The people that run the banks are really capable of defending themselves, so most people wouldn't take the risk. Plus with the banks being in the middle of towns, and pretty much anyone in the town would help out against a thief, so it's really stupid to try robbing a bank in our place."
"That's interesting." Missy mused. "What about shops?"
"Same sort of thing, really. Marketplaces tend to have a lot of people in them, so it's a bit stupid to try and rob them. Most people have single items stolen, then they put out a request to have a team like ours go and find the item for them, since the dungeons where thieves normally run to can be really dangerous for someone unprepared."
"Dungeons?"
"They're strange places, the layout of them changes for every person or team that enters, so you're never in the same place twice- or rarely, at least. So teams like us get hired to go into those dungeons and get back the stolen items or arrest criminals." Shadow grinned. "They're pretty fun, though some of them can be a real pain to fight through. Some of the targets we've had to hunt down have been really difficult to deal with, assuming they didn't just quit."
"Why would they just quit?" Dennis butted in, suddenly curious. Shadow looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, and for a moment he worried that he'd offended her, but she just grinned harshly after a moment.
"Between my crazy family tree and the skills Eon's learned, from me and other teams, we're absolutely terrifying together. We can manage to fight off pretty much anything working with each other. Burns and Hexes, for example, are really good." She snickered, looking up and back at Swarm. "I wonder what sort of terror we'd make if you came along, Swarm."
"It could be fun, certainly." She buzzed, looking slightly down at her team mate. Shadow nodded, grinning.
"Vespiquen and Ariados would probably be glad to meet you, and you'll probably like them as well. They're really powerful, and really good at trap laying. They work well together."
"Police are here." Carlos interrupted, making the Wards straighten. Swarm stiffened slightly, while Shadow stood up and shook herself out, fur rippling everywhere as she did. Eon remained seated, looking across at the cars rolling up, before turning away and looking at the bank front instead. Dennis followed his gaze, spotting Dean walking out with Vicky and Amy, who spotted the police and hurried over. Dean joined the rest of the Wards in their group, Vicky stayed hovering next to her sister, who froze and stared at the two foxes. Eon and Shadow both ignored them, the female fox moving back to flank her leader again while Swarm stayed in the back.
Chris nudged Dennis, dragging his attention off of the unusual team and back to the police that were heading over to them, and threw a smile on his face.
Time to act serious and give a report.
A good half an hour later, with all of the statements now collected and the police driving away, the ones who'd spoken to the foxes looking somewhat confused, the group of heroes- and apparent heroes- were ready to depart. Most of the civilians who'd been in the bank, or nearby, had already left, getting bored waiting about with nothing interesting happening with the Capes. Which amused Dennis, given how quick they normally were to stop and watch Capes doing absolutely nothing.
Eon yawned, standing and shaking himself, making the group back away slightly to avoid being hit by one of his tails, and smiled.
"Well, I suppose we ought to be off." He announced, as Shadow and Swarm stepped up behind him. "I'm certain you all have other things to be doing, as do we."
"Ah, a question before you go?" Carlos asked, a little awkward.
"That was one." Eon smirked. "I assume you have a second?"
"Are either of you two Case 53's?"
"Pardon?"
"Case 53's. They're sometimes referred to as monster Capes, all of them are really different from humans, and they have a specific tattoo on them somewhere." Carlos explained, fumbling for a moment before holding out his phone with an image of the tattoo on its screen. "They all have complete memory loss too."
"Well, I can certainly say that isn't what we are. No tattoos, for one." Eon disagreed, closely examining the picture even so. "And no amnesia either."
"Ah. Alright, then." Carlos nodded, putting the phone away. "Sorry for asking, it's just procedure."
"Not a problem." Eon smiled. "A pleasure to meet you all."
"Thank you for helping my sister out." Amy suddenly said, sticking her hand out to the nine-tailed fox. Eon blinked, surprised, then gently placed his paw on it and shook.
"It's our job, madam." He replied. "We're happy to do it." Taking his paw back, he looked over his shoulder at his second-in-command and nodded to her. Shadow nodded back, running away from the group and slipping out of sight into an alley a moment later. "Now, good luck with the debrief I assume you'll all be going through when you return to your base, and farewell." He looked up at Swarm, who gave a nod to whatever question his eyes asked, and the pair vanished from sight. Vicky made a startled choking sound, apparently having been about to ask a question, while Amy just kept staring at where they had been. Dean looked around, confused.
"That's… weird." He mumbled. "I can still kind of feel them, but it feels more like they just teleported a really long way away. They just went all blurry."
"Huh." Chris said.
"Yeah." They all stood about for a minute, confused, before Carlos shook his head.
"Come on, back to base. That Eon was right about one thing, we need to go debrief now."
"Joy." Dennis deadpanned. "See you around, Vicky, Amy."
"Bye, Clock." Vicky waved. Amy muttered some kind of agreement, still looking about with confusion. The group started off, Missy bending space to get them on top of a nearby building before they began roof-hopping.
"They were kind of cute, though." The sole girl said absently, crunching space again and letting them all step through. "And Eon's fur looked really pretty, all shiny and glittery." The four boys blinked, meeting each other's eyes behind their respective masks, and rolled their eyes.
"Priorities, Vista." Dennis chuckled.
"How come you didn't ask us about the Case 53 thing?" Eon asked, once the group was suitably far enough away, under a unified cloak, and able to relax.
"I didn't think of it, and to be honest something told me you weren't one." Swarm shrugged. "The stuff you were saying against Lung made me think you really were from elsewhere. Or possibly a Master projection that're playing practical jokes on people."
"I see…" Eon mused, then looked at Shadow, who was sniffing about and looking bored. "Do you want to end the patrol and drop back at your home? Or should we go and find another safe house to try robbing?"
"Safe house!" Shadow perked up, cheering. Swarm chuckled.
"Sure, we can do that. I'll keep some bugs out looking for muggings and stuff, too."
"Attagirl, Swarm." He praised. "Alright. Team Inari, form up and we're off." Shadow's colours quickly faded to something more muted as she slipped away, and Eon tightened his grip on the cloak before he and Swarm followed her, walking through the alleyways of the city towards some of the warehouses, which they all thought were likely to have something hidden in them- if you knew where to look.
In his bag, out of sight, the Wonder Map began to glow slightly.
"Keep your phone on you tonight, Taylor." Eon recommended, several hours later. The girl in question was behind a screen made from her bugs, changing into a civilian outfit from the supply she'd brought with her to the base, while Eon and Shadow worked on emptying out the Treasure Bag, Eon removing things while Shadow moved them into the den. "I'll keep ours turned on too, but keep yours with you even if you take the battery out or turn it off."
"Why?" She asked, over the rustling of folding clothes.
"It's probably a good idea that we always have a way to contact each other, in case of an emergency." He told her, lifting the rolled up Map from the bottom of the bag, before shrugging and putting it back. "If something happens while you're in school, you're more likely to be able to find out more about it than us, so you can send us information. These things do more than just call, I think?"
"Yeah, they can text as well." Taylor agreed. "And I see what you mean. I'll just have to keep it hidden from dad; he doesn't like phones."
"Alright, then." The bug wall came down, revealing Taylor adjusting her glasses and shirt, and the grey Ninetales looked upwards at the sky, then over at the girl again. "We'll walk you back, like before. Shadow, come on."
"Holb om." She mumbled, dragging the bag into the den with the strap in her mouth. The Vulpix returned a moment later. "Right. Where're we going?"
"Taking Taylor back to her house." He repeated. "You ready to go, Taylor?"
"Just a sec." She pushed the last remains of her costume into her bag, then sealed it up and pulled it onto her back. "Ready."
"I wonder if your father's back." Shadow mused as they walked.
"I'll be able to tell once we get close enough to the house." Taylor replied. "There's enough bugs in my collection that I can hear pretty well."
"That's neat." Eon smiled. "Good for security too, so long as you're in range."
"They are, yeah. I have a lot of poisonous spiders in there."
"As long as they aren't in your hair."
"It's safe either way." Taylor shrugged, as the two foxes dropped into invisibility again. "So it's fine for me to do that. Like how you guys can apparently walk in fire and be mildly refreshed by it."
"It's nice, and so far seems to be confusing people that see it here." Eon responded. "Now, we're going quiet. We're still here though, I promise."
"Thanks Eon, Shadow."
"No worries!"
"Any time, Taylor."
The next morning, there was an explosion.
Interlude 1: Tattletale
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Lisa dropped her phone down on the table and sat back, a slightly confused frown on her face, staring at the door she'd just let the two foxes- no, Pokemon- out of.
That was… intriguing. She mused, chewing her lip slightly in thought. Very, very intriguing. After a few moments, Lisa stood, heading into the kitchen area of the base and grabbing a coffee, slowly blowing on it to cool it down while she thought back over the conversation she'd just had.
Listening to the pair of Pokemon explaining their world had been interesting, she thought, but not nearly as interesting as some of the things her power told her that they weren't saying.
Mystery Dungeons are different every time.
Reason for changes unknown to all Pokemon in their world.
Humans exist in their world, but not in their lands.
Humans do not normally understand Pokemon speech.
Reason for change between worlds unknown.
Pokemon on Eon's side of the world know more about the human side than the other way.
Knowledge is due to bird migratory patterns.
Team rank ups determined upon review of mission difficulty.
All of that was interesting to her, for sure, but Lisa couldn't help but think the most interesting bits had been… missing, as though her power couldn't even figure it out from the clues Eon and Shadow had given her. Which annoyed her half to death, since Lisa could normally get far more out of far less than she'd been told by the pair.
Partly out of curiosity, and partly frustration, she tried again.
Hoopa unknown entity.
Hoopa has the ability to create portals.
Hoopa ERROR_0x2-ERROR_0x6-ERROR_0x8-ERROR_0x11-ERROR_0x15-ERROR_0x65_101-ERROR-
Lisa growled, sipping her coffee and frowning at the headache that was starting to develop, cutting off her ability before it got stuck any further.
The exact same thing had happened during the conversation as well. Lisa had been curious about the mention of the 'Hoopa' Pokemon that had sent the two to Earth Bet, only for her power to stick in a way that she'd never seen before. She'd almost call it a glitch, in fact. It certainly seemed like one.
The mention of these 'Time Gears' was even worse. Her power didn't even want to latch onto it at first, and once she'd finally forced it to, the only thing it had done was repeat the same things Shadow had told her about them, before erroring out on its own a few cycles after.
Sipping from her mug again, Lisa frowned even more deeply.
Another thing that was bothering her was Earth Bet. Explaining it all to Eon and Shadow like that, it had made Lisa realise just how strange, and how bad, the situation on their world truly was. Brockton Bay was a mess, the world was far worse, and the regular Endbringer attacks on every city and country the damn things could pick on had caused so much trouble for them all that she was surprised the world was still even anywhere near as functional as it was. Laying it all out as she had, to a pair of neutral strangers who'd never heard of any of it before, had given Lisa a shock that was almost as bad as the one she knew she'd given Eon and Shadow.
Having been looking over it all during her impromptu speech/lecture, Lisa had had an inkling that something was off about it all. It almost felt like someone was directing it…
The sound of a door slamming shut jolted Lisa from her thoughts, and nearly into her mug, before she pushed off the side of the kitchen's table and walked back into the front room, Brian and Alec meandering in while Rachel appeared from her room.
"So what do you need, Lisa?" The blonde Thinker blinked, suddenly remembering the text she'd sent out in the moments after the Pokemon had left, then glanced at the clock. Ten minutes had elapsed in no time at all, somehow, and she dropped herself into the nearest chair, shaking all other thoughts from her mind as she began repeating the conversation she'd just had.
"Huh."
"That's about right, yeah." Lisa nodded at Brian, looking over to him.
"Will they come back here?"
"I don't think so." Lisa rolled the thought around in her head for a moment, letting her power chew on it, and nodding to herself when it confirmed her original thought. "They only came because they didn't know about the Rules, so they didn't know that they weren't supposed to track us and just show up at the base. I told them about the Rules, and a few other things besides, so I don't think they'll just show up here again unless we invite them to."
"That's something, at least." Brian sighed. "Fuck, that could've been bad. If they'd been out to attack…" He trailed off, irate, and Lisa shuddered.
She only had an inkling about what they could potentially have done. She didn't want to think on it any harder.
"I think it might be best if we avoid fighting with them whenever possible." She recommended. "I'm not sure what their full abilities are- my power doesn't want to dig into them much more than I've already forced it to- but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try and fight against them."
"Given that the little one took on Lung like it was nothing?" Alec snorted. "Yeah, I'm happy staying the hell away from them when we can."
"Rachel?" All three of them looked at the girl, who glared and shrugged.
"Fine." She answered shortly, before leaving the room and slamming the door behind her. Lisa sighed.
"I think that's as good as we'll get." She told them, standing and grabbing the now empty coffee mug. Inclining her head, she got one confirming nod, and went back to the kitchen to make two new cups of coffee. I could've sworn I'm forgetting something here… Lisa mused to herself, waiting for the pot to finish. After a few moments, her power not providing any clues, she shrugged, giving up on it. It's probably not all that important anyway…
A few days later, on the morning after their bank robbery, Lisa got off the phone in a huff. Bloody Coil… She mentally growled, throwing the phone to one side before flopping down on her back.
The Undersiders' annoying bastard of a boss had tried ripping her a new one for her somewhat panicked retreat order the day before, when Team Inari had shown up half way through the bank job. She'd retorted with the fact that they didn't know enough about them to be able to deal with them as well as they could have fought the Wards, plus her own difficulties in reading them, and he'd eventually backed off, his voice almost a growl and a fairly audible- to her power, at least- glare on the phone as he hung up.
Which had slightly amused Lisa, but not enough to cover up all the irritation he'd also triggered.
Grumbling to herself for a few minutes, Lisa managed to regain enough control of herself to leave the room, heading straight for the coffee. Brian was sitting in the front, reading something, and Alec was on his game, both glancing up at her arrival.
"Something wrong, Lisa?" Brian asked.
"Just a personal pain in the ass, Brian." She replied. "Nothing to worry about." For now, she thought darkly, sipping the mug. "Anyway, my problems aside, anyone seen Rachel today?"
"She was still looking a bit pissed off about the bank job this morning." Alec put in. "She went out, I think."
"Great…" Lisa muttered, frowning again. "Anyone have any idea when she'll be back?"
"No idea." Brian shrugged. "Not as if she can get into much trouble, though. It's just walking her dogs."
It was at this moment the first explosion sounded. Lisa jumped, dropping her mug, while both Brian and Alec startled upwards, Alec pausing his game as he did.
"Of fucking course!" Lisa burst out. "Dammit!"
"What was that, Lisa?" Brian demanded. The Thinker frowned, pointing her power at the question.
Explosion was a bomb.
Bomb was Tinker created.
Tinker a member of the Azn Bad Boys.
Tinker's specialty is bombs.
Tinker attempting bombing attack on city.
Attack is due to the capture of Lung.
"Well shit."
That was… intriguing. She mused, chewing her lip slightly in thought. Very, very intriguing. After a few moments, Lisa stood, heading into the kitchen area of the base and grabbing a coffee, slowly blowing on it to cool it down while she thought back over the conversation she'd just had.
Listening to the pair of Pokemon explaining their world had been interesting, she thought, but not nearly as interesting as some of the things her power told her that they weren't saying.
Mystery Dungeons are different every time.
Reason for changes unknown to all Pokemon in their world.
Humans exist in their world, but not in their lands.
Humans do not normally understand Pokemon speech.
Reason for change between worlds unknown.
Pokemon on Eon's side of the world know more about the human side than the other way.
Knowledge is due to bird migratory patterns.
Team rank ups determined upon review of mission difficulty.
All of that was interesting to her, for sure, but Lisa couldn't help but think the most interesting bits had been… missing, as though her power couldn't even figure it out from the clues Eon and Shadow had given her. Which annoyed her half to death, since Lisa could normally get far more out of far less than she'd been told by the pair.
Partly out of curiosity, and partly frustration, she tried again.
Hoopa unknown entity.
Hoopa has the ability to create portals.
Hoopa ERROR_0x2-ERROR_0x6-ERROR_0x8-ERROR_0x11-ERROR_0x15-ERROR_0x65_101-ERROR-
Lisa growled, sipping her coffee and frowning at the headache that was starting to develop, cutting off her ability before it got stuck any further.
The exact same thing had happened during the conversation as well. Lisa had been curious about the mention of the 'Hoopa' Pokemon that had sent the two to Earth Bet, only for her power to stick in a way that she'd never seen before. She'd almost call it a glitch, in fact. It certainly seemed like one.
The mention of these 'Time Gears' was even worse. Her power didn't even want to latch onto it at first, and once she'd finally forced it to, the only thing it had done was repeat the same things Shadow had told her about them, before erroring out on its own a few cycles after.
Sipping from her mug again, Lisa frowned even more deeply.
Another thing that was bothering her was Earth Bet. Explaining it all to Eon and Shadow like that, it had made Lisa realise just how strange, and how bad, the situation on their world truly was. Brockton Bay was a mess, the world was far worse, and the regular Endbringer attacks on every city and country the damn things could pick on had caused so much trouble for them all that she was surprised the world was still even anywhere near as functional as it was. Laying it all out as she had, to a pair of neutral strangers who'd never heard of any of it before, had given Lisa a shock that was almost as bad as the one she knew she'd given Eon and Shadow.
Having been looking over it all during her impromptu speech/lecture, Lisa had had an inkling that something was off about it all. It almost felt like someone was directing it…
The sound of a door slamming shut jolted Lisa from her thoughts, and nearly into her mug, before she pushed off the side of the kitchen's table and walked back into the front room, Brian and Alec meandering in while Rachel appeared from her room.
"So what do you need, Lisa?" The blonde Thinker blinked, suddenly remembering the text she'd sent out in the moments after the Pokemon had left, then glanced at the clock. Ten minutes had elapsed in no time at all, somehow, and she dropped herself into the nearest chair, shaking all other thoughts from her mind as she began repeating the conversation she'd just had.
"Huh."
"That's about right, yeah." Lisa nodded at Brian, looking over to him.
"Will they come back here?"
"I don't think so." Lisa rolled the thought around in her head for a moment, letting her power chew on it, and nodding to herself when it confirmed her original thought. "They only came because they didn't know about the Rules, so they didn't know that they weren't supposed to track us and just show up at the base. I told them about the Rules, and a few other things besides, so I don't think they'll just show up here again unless we invite them to."
"That's something, at least." Brian sighed. "Fuck, that could've been bad. If they'd been out to attack…" He trailed off, irate, and Lisa shuddered.
She only had an inkling about what they could potentially have done. She didn't want to think on it any harder.
"I think it might be best if we avoid fighting with them whenever possible." She recommended. "I'm not sure what their full abilities are- my power doesn't want to dig into them much more than I've already forced it to- but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try and fight against them."
"Given that the little one took on Lung like it was nothing?" Alec snorted. "Yeah, I'm happy staying the hell away from them when we can."
"Rachel?" All three of them looked at the girl, who glared and shrugged.
"Fine." She answered shortly, before leaving the room and slamming the door behind her. Lisa sighed.
"I think that's as good as we'll get." She told them, standing and grabbing the now empty coffee mug. Inclining her head, she got one confirming nod, and went back to the kitchen to make two new cups of coffee. I could've sworn I'm forgetting something here… Lisa mused to herself, waiting for the pot to finish. After a few moments, her power not providing any clues, she shrugged, giving up on it. It's probably not all that important anyway…
A few days later, on the morning after their bank robbery, Lisa got off the phone in a huff. Bloody Coil… She mentally growled, throwing the phone to one side before flopping down on her back.
The Undersiders' annoying bastard of a boss had tried ripping her a new one for her somewhat panicked retreat order the day before, when Team Inari had shown up half way through the bank job. She'd retorted with the fact that they didn't know enough about them to be able to deal with them as well as they could have fought the Wards, plus her own difficulties in reading them, and he'd eventually backed off, his voice almost a growl and a fairly audible- to her power, at least- glare on the phone as he hung up.
Which had slightly amused Lisa, but not enough to cover up all the irritation he'd also triggered.
Grumbling to herself for a few minutes, Lisa managed to regain enough control of herself to leave the room, heading straight for the coffee. Brian was sitting in the front, reading something, and Alec was on his game, both glancing up at her arrival.
"Something wrong, Lisa?" Brian asked.
"Just a personal pain in the ass, Brian." She replied. "Nothing to worry about." For now, she thought darkly, sipping the mug. "Anyway, my problems aside, anyone seen Rachel today?"
"She was still looking a bit pissed off about the bank job this morning." Alec put in. "She went out, I think."
"Great…" Lisa muttered, frowning again. "Anyone have any idea when she'll be back?"
"No idea." Brian shrugged. "Not as if she can get into much trouble, though. It's just walking her dogs."
It was at this moment the first explosion sounded. Lisa jumped, dropping her mug, while both Brian and Alec startled upwards, Alec pausing his game as he did.
"Of fucking course!" Lisa burst out. "Dammit!"
"What was that, Lisa?" Brian demanded. The Thinker frowned, pointing her power at the question.
Explosion was a bomb.
Bomb was Tinker created.
Tinker a member of the Azn Bad Boys.
Tinker's specialty is bombs.
Tinker attempting bombing attack on city.
Attack is due to the capture of Lung.
"Well shit."
Chapter 8- Bombing, hunting, and contact
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Taylor cursed as she awoke, the shaking of the house making her fall out of her bed.
"Taylor?" Her dad called from his own room.
"Dad?" She responded, her voice trembling slightly. No, I can deal with this, I managed fine at the bank yesterday, I can handle this. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. What about you?" Danny asked, knocking once on her door.
"I'm ok too." Taylor stood up carefully and made her way over, picking up her glasses as she went past. "What's going on?"
"I don't know." The older man frowned. "Probably some sort of Cape fight." Another explosion went off in the distance, forcing Taylor to cling to the doorframe to stay steady.
"Maybe we should go find out." Taylor muttered, straightening again. Carefully, she took control of the bugs in her room, pulling a few of the spiders out of the box under her bed and sending them crawling along the floor towards the wardrobe, while she and her dad went down the stairs and over to the television.
The thing burst into static for a moment, before scrolling reports of bomb attacks flared on the screen, with mentions of possible Tinker involvement.
"Shit." Taylor whispered under her breath. "That's not good."
"No." Danny said heavily. "This could easily start a gang war."
"Dammit." Silently, Taylor directed her spiders to pull the phone out from under the false board in her wardrobe, putting the battery in and turning it on.
Bomb attack on city Tinkers involved cant get out now dads here will try and meet soon.
The message sent to her team mates, Taylor pursed her lips. I wish I'd told him sooner, dammit. She sighed slightly. "Dad, I need to go."
"What?" Danny turned sharply, staring at her. "But- the bombs- Taylor, you can't go! You might get hurt!"
"I need to go to my friends, they might need help-"
"Fuck your friends!" He barked. "Taylor, you need to stay here-"
"Dad, there's a lot I need to tell you." She argued, clenching her fist. "I should've said something earlier, but with the Locker and the bullying I never could…"
"Taylor?" Danny asked, confused.
"I'm a Cape." She muttered, slumping in her chair. "I have been since the Locker, that's when I Triggered and got my powers, I've been learning to use them for months since then, I made my own costume in the basement." Taylor sighed. "I went out for the first time a few days ago, and I've ended up joining a new team. We only had our public debut yesterday, but I need to go find them. I've already told them what's going on, but I need to go and help them out."
"Taylor, what-?" Danny began, then shook his head. "No. I'm not going to get any answers out of you, am I?"
"Not right now." Taylor said. "Sorry, dad. I need to go help out, though."
"Stay safe, then." The man sighed. "Too much like your mother. I want to meet your team mates, and I want the full story when you've got time."
"I can manage that, dad." She replied, with a watery smile. "It might be a while, though." Danny nodded.
"I expected that." He gave his own tight smile. "Go on, then. Get your costume together, and for god's sake be careful."
"I will." Taylor nodded to her dad, running up the stairs two at a time. She scooped the phone off the floor of her room, her spiders pulling her costume towards her as she glanced at the return message.
Moving out now will meet you soon do your best. Eon. Throwing the phone on the bed, along with a few spiders, she began changing, directing the bugs to respond.
Told dad. Am changing now, will be on way soon. Meet in woods? Taking off her glasses and carefully putting her contacts in, Taylor blinked a few times before pulling on her mask and threading her hair through the back of it. Patting herself down, she made sure the sparkling badge of honour was in place, she drew all of the bugs she had scattered around the room to her, opening the large boxes under her bed to let all of them out and pushed her window out as far as it would go to let the ones outside in as well.
Swarm picked up her phone again as it blinked, reading the reply.
Stay at yours. We're coming. She hummed, sending a confirmation, then having one of her spiders take her phone back into the armoured backpack on her costume, the rest of the crawling creatures taking up hiding spots in her costume and hair. Closing the window again, Swarm looked out, hoping to see her team mates there, even though she knew they'd take a lot longer to get there than she'd given them, before hearing the curtains downstairs being drawn shut.
"Dad?" Swarm called.
"You can come down, Taylor." He replied carefully. "Though you might want to go straight into the back even so."
"Just a minute, then." She spent a few more seconds looking over everything, having bugs in her pack check her supplies before ensuring that everything Cape related was locked away under the floorboard in the wardrobe and closing everything she could, including jamming her door from the inside using a few spiders and roaches to drag some random things from around the room into the path of the door once she was outside.
Pushing on it a few times, Swarm nodded, satisfied that it wouldn't open any time soon, she made her way downstairs, doing her best to avoid as many windows as possible. "Hey dad." She greeted, a slight bit of buzz in her voice. Danny jumped, turning to stare at her.
"Holy crap." He muttered. "Taylor?"
"It's Swarm when in costume." She responded. "But yeah, it's me."
"You look absolutely terrifying like that." He told her, carefully looking her up and down. "Impressive, though. How'd you manage to only go public yesterday?"
"I only went out at night, and one of my team mates is an illusion maker." She explained. "We can go invisible, though it's hard for him to hold more than two people at a time like that without help from our other member."
"There's only three of you?"
"Yeah. I'm probably the weakest of us." She sighed. "I'll get there, I know it, but it kind of sucks."
"What's your power, then?" Danny asked. "I'd assume something to do with bugs?"
"Insect control, mostly. Spiders and worms as well." She grinned through her mask. "All individually controlled. I have super-multitasking, basically."
"Interesting." He smiled slightly, still examining her. "Annette would've been proud of you, I think."
"Really?"
"Most likely." The conversation stalled for a moment as the shape of a small squirrel, white with a blue stripe running down its large tail and over its head, blue ears, and yellow cheeks, bounced at the window. Carefully, after a nod from Swarm, he opened it, letting the creature it.
"We're here, Swarm." It said, in the familiar voice of Shadow. "We'll be mostly doing some scouting, though Eon thinks we'll be able to find this Tinker and the bomber if we look around enough. Their scent should be on everything they've made." The image faded, and Swarm nodded to herself.
"That's Shadow, my team mate. Or her work, at least." She told Danny. "I'll see you later, dad."
"Stay safe, Taylor."
"I will." Smiling at him from behind her mask, she unlocked the back door and slipped out, seeing the pair of Pokemon sitting at the edge of her garden.
"Swarm, come on." Eon said softly, in a carrying voice. Nodding, the bug user hurried over, letting the Ninetales cloak himself and her as they started to move away, Shadow vanishing with her own patchy cloaking method. "What's going on?"
"I'm not completely sure." She shrugged. "Pretty much everything I know was in that message. Some kinda bomb attack going on, and they think there's Tinker involvement going on."
"Tinker, Tinker... ah, the scientists?" Shadow checked.
"Yeah, that'd be them." She grinned momentarily. "But it's bad news, trust me. Tinkertech is weird, and doesn't tend to follow the agreed laws of physics, so it's possible that we'll end up with a lot of weird effects going on wherever the bombs are going off."
"We'll do our best to avoid them, then." Eon decided, as they sidestepped into an alley. "Now, any idea where the bombs mostly are?" Swarm shook her head.
"No, but I'll send my bugs out to scout things. I've got about four blocks of range, so I think I'll be able to notice them at least a little, so we can avoid them."
"Thanks." Eon paused, sniffing at the air, then barked. Shadow made a reappearance at his side, looking confused. "Shadow, be careful. You're still scouting, but Swarm's going to be looking for the bombs, so listen to her. If you think you find the bomber, memorise his or her scent, but don't get too close, ok? And don't get hurt."
"Yes, Eon." She saluted, balancing on three legs for a moment, before flickering out and away to do her job.
"Swarm, stay close. Shadow won't go too far, but hopefully she'll be able to get close enough to find out who the bomber is."
"Alright." Loosing a shaky breath, Swarm straightened, directing her bugs into a search pattern across her range, focused on looking for irregularities.
"Eon," Shadow murmured, coming back to their side around half an hour later. "I've found something. It's... not good."
"Lead the way." Eon growled softly. Shadow nodded, turning on the spot and slowly making her way down the path, invisibility flickering on and off from tiredness, before she dodged into an alley and dropped it. Eon followed, doing the same once Swarm was close enough, and looked at his subordinate. "What is it?"
"I just wanted to give you a moment." She said lowly. "It's just up ahead." Smelling curiosity, Eon noticed some of the bugs in the alley running away from them, and looked back at Swarm.
"I'm just coming up on the end now..." She started, before freezing. "What the...?!"
"I know." Shadow replied, pawing the ground. Her tails flicked irritably, and she scowled at nothing for a moment. "Eon, just... invisibility up, and come on."
"I'll stay here and keep a look out." Swarm said faintly, leaning against the wall and focusing. Eon raised an eyebrow, cloaking himself with little effort and following the semi-invisible Vulpix down the alley.
"What the heck..." He whispered, breathless, as he caught sight of the area on the end of the alleyway.
"I know..." Shadow quietly whimpered, as the two of them walked in.
The area was clearly one of the areas that had been bombed, and had once been a fairly decent suburban area, one that Eon thought looked quite nice in comparison to some of the places they'd ended up seeing during their two patrols around the city. However, it was sadly marred by a semi-large hole in the middle of the street, which was quite obviously where the bomb had gone off, but the coating of glass across the entire street was the main cause for pause.
"Goodness..." Eon pursed his lips, looking back and forth along the road. He glanced along the front of some of the houses, then stopped, freezing dead. "Are those... people in there?"
"I think so." Shadow confirmed. Padding forwards down the deserted street, Eon gently reached out and brushed his paw along the edge of one of the glass statues-
The man stepped carefully out of his house, looking around warily. Along the road, other people were doing the same, searching for the source of the explosion.
"Daddy?" A little girl asked, making him look back and down. "What was that?"
"I'm not sure, sweetie." He replied, gently patting her head. "You go back inside to mummy, ok?"
"Ok." The three year old nodded, tottering off through the house, while he looked around the street again.
The chink of metal on concrete made him stop, staring at the middle of the road, where an unfortunately familiar metal capsule was rolling to a stop. He gasped, backing into the house again and starting to close the door.
The grenade went off, and he didn't even get time to scream as glass began flashing over the house.
Eon froze, backing away suddenly with a harsh shudder.
"Arceus…" He muttered, steadily creeping away from the now frozen human. "That's… that's…"
"Eon?" Shadow asked softly, touching a paw on his side. He flinched, then darted back into the alleyway, feeling his illusion rippling unstably as he lost concentration.
"That's… I don't…" He shook himself.
"Was it another vision?" She asked, as Swarm came over and patted him on the back, seeming slightly awkward about the entire thing.
"I… yeah, it was." He huffed, pulling himself together and dropping the cloak. "We've definitely got confirmation that it's Tinkertech, and that this bomber needs to go down." He shuddered again. "There were kids in there, Shadow. That man had a little daughter, something like three… how…" His tails lashed at the air as he growled, then struck out at the nearest wall with sharp claws.
"I know, Eon." Shadow growled, scratching at the ground as well. "I don't understand how someone could do this."
"What do you mean, Eon, Shadow?" Swarm questioned softly, her hand still on Eon's back. "What do you mean by visions? What did you see?"
"The visions thing is a discussion for another time, Swarm." He replied. "But… there are people in those houses, with families and everything, that this bomber caught. They didn't even have the time to scream before they died. There wasn't even a chance they could escape."
"I see." Swarm exhaled sharply. "Come on. Let's see how much ground we can cover today." She stood, straightening, while her bugs swarmed around her. "Let's get this person."
Nearly four hours later, approaching midday, the entire group paused in the middle of one of the streets, all spotting something with their extra senses.
"Isn't that the Undersiders?" Shadow asked, sniffing at the air curiously.
"It is." Swarm nodded, looking at the group with her bugs. They were a little way out of reach, about a block over from where they were currently, and from the scent on the wind seemed both angry and a little bit injured. "Do you think we should go and meet them?"
"We did kinda fight them yesterday, though." Shadow pointed out. "Would they try and fight us again?"
"I don't-" Swarm began, shrugging, before halting. "Tattletale's just noticed my bugs. She's waving them down. Do I go?"
"Go on, see what she wants." Eon told her, curious.
"Alright." She went silent for a minute, then frowned. "She wants to know if we should team up to try and find this bomber."
"Why not?" The Ninetales shrugged. "The more people we have working together, the more likely it is we'll find them."
"Are the local heroes even doing anything, on that note?" Shadow mused, as Swarm directed her bugs.
"Probably focusing on the richer areas of the city." She said, sounding sour. "They tend to do that. Leave's the lower end of the city to the independents, which is probably why they aren't known to last very long on their own."
"Good thing you have a team then, eh?" Shadow grinned. Swarm chuckled, nodding.
"Yeah, it is." She replied. "Anyway, the Undersiders are coming this way now. I've directed them over to us, and given that they've got those huge dogs they'll probably be here in a minute."
"I hear them." Eon agreed, turning to look in their direction. "Shadow, Swarm, back up, will you? Same as yesterday."
"Alright, leader." Shadow smirked, before falling back to flank the Ninetales while wiping the look from her face. Swarm looked between them both for a moment, confused, before shrugging and mimicking her on the other side.
"Ready, Swarm?" Eon asked lowly.
"Yeah, I can do this." She smiled. "It's just like yesterday."
"Hopefully with less fighting, though." Shadow added. Both nodded, then the three large dogs jumped off one of the nearby buildings and landed in front of them, Grue and Tattletale jumping off their own animals while Regent and Bitch stayed back.
"Hello there!" The Thinker called, waving to the three. "Good to see you again. We aren't going to end up fighting again, are we?"
"I should hope not, Tattletale." Eon replied. "Not unless you decide you want to start something."
"No fear of that." She smirked. "This bomber's more important than this right now."
"Good." The Ninetales smiled, before turning to Grue. "Now, then, to business."
"Indeed." The male's voice echoed slightly inside his helmet, creating an interesting disguise for his voice. "Though you'll still want to talk to Tattletale. She's our information expert."
"The bomber's definitely a Tinker, a member of the ABB, and the attack's because of Lung's capture the other day." Tattletale reeled off, losing the smug look slightly. "She's also a bomb specialist, so there's going to be a lot of really weird effects wherever the bombs are."
"We've already seen the effects of one." Eon nodded, with barely restrained anger. "Turned the entire street into glass. People, too."
"I see..." Tattletale muttered, thinking. "That... really isn't good. That sort of obvious disregard for life is probably going to get her a kill order."
"Hey, what happened to you guys, anyway?" Shadow asked, trying to drag Eon's attention off of his thoughts. "You guys look like a mess."
"We got caught up by Uber and Leet." Grue rumbled, sounding a little irate. "Not sure what was going on with them, but they gave us a bit of information. Apparently the bomber, Bakuda has implanted bombs into some of the ABB."
"I see." Eon slowly loosed a breath. "Right. Shadow, think you can manage things?"
"Yeah." She grinned, a little nervously. "I think it'll work." Closing her eyes and focusing, she barked once, a wave of energy flickered out with the sound of a bell.
"Whoa!" Regent shouted, while the dogs recoiled in shock. "What the-?"
"Heal Bell and Heal Pulse." Shadow smiled. "It's something I figured out a while ago. Sort of an accident, actually, I panicked while battling a fake Dialga and used both moves at once trying to heal me and Eon. Good to see that it works in this world as well." Sure enough, it had, the slight cuts and bruises their fight had left on them vanishing, leaving only the marks on the costumes.
"Huh." Tattletale hummed. "That's interesting. Might be a useful skill for Endbringer battles. And we can always use more healers."
"I like healing." Shadow nodded. "I can't do it much, only five to eight times for the mixed one, but Heal Pulse alone is somewhere between ten and sixteen. Still works well. Back home it'll reach through an entire room, so any of my allies anywhere there would benefit from it, but I'm not sure how the boundaries would measure out here. Maybe rooms, maybe just random."
"Still, that's a very effective ability, Shadow." The Thinker whistled.
"Yes, yes. We'll have to arrange something." Eon muttered, sniffing at the air. "Come on, let's see if we can find this... Bakuda, as you called her."
"Sure thing." Grue and Tattletale made their way back to the dogs, the girl turning back after a moment. "Here, Swarm. It'll be easier if you ride along with us. I'm pretty sure Eon and Shadow can move pretty quickly?" She looked over at the pair of Pokemon, who nodded.
"Not a problem. I'm sure we can keep up with you lot." Shadow smirked.
"Go on, Swarm." Eon agreed. "It'll be easier to search that way."
"Alright." The insect user walked over, accepting Tattletale's offered hand to climb onto the back of the dog. Shadow and Eon looked at each other, then blurred into an Agility to boost their speed.
"We'll spread out to cover more ground." Eon decided. "Shadow, stay low, and stay safe."
"Always, Eon." The Vulpix cocked a grin, before vanishing off into the city. There were a number of shocked exclamations, which stopped when the Ninetales looked over at them.
"Don't get lost, and Swarm, call if you get into trouble, ok?"
"Sure thing." She nodded, carefully holding onto the spines of the dog.
"Eon out, then." The grey Pokemon vanished as well, reappearing on a rooftop in the opposite direction from the one Shadow had gone, sniffing at the air for the smell of explosions.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Eon startled as the sound of multiple explosions rang over the bay. Quickly spinning in that direction, he inhaled deeply, smelling the wind for any hint of the situation.
Boom!
"Well, they seem to have stopped in the same place for a while." Eon grumbled, using Agility again before bounding across the buildings towards the still ongoing explosions. The sun was starting to set as well, making visibility a bit of a pain, but Eon was lucky in that he could see in the dark fairly well. The problem would be the humans running around, since they didn't have that luxury, and it might cause the bomber to retreat for the day in an attempt to continue this attack tomorrow.
"Eon!" Shadow barked, jumping from the roof next to him and landing. She stumbled for a moment, then picked up the running once more. Eon slowed slightly, letting his second in command catch up with him. "Do you smell that?"
"What, the explosions?" He snarked, speeding up again.
"No, the smell underneath that!" She retorted, panting a little. "Smells like... sparkles, and tin, and... grey?" She sniffed again. "Yeah. Grey." Eon blinked, confused, then sniffed as well, looking underneath the familiar smell of explosions for what she was saying.
"Huh. You're right. That's new." Eon mused, sniffing again.
"Hey!"
"Not what I meant, little pix. I'm more confused at the smell, though. It's weird."
"Unique, though." Shadow grinned. "We can use that to find her later, if she manages to escape."
"Let's try and make sure she doesn't escape, first." Eon remarked, jumping down to street level. Shadow joined him, and the dogs carrying Swarm and the Undersiders followed a minute later. "We've got a scent! Follow us!"
"Alright!" Tattletale shouted back. Bitch whistled sharply, the dogs picking up their pace, panting loudly, while Eon moved into the front of the group.
Let's hope we get there on time.
Shadow, Eon and the Undersiders found themselves overlooking the battle from a nearby rooftop, peering carefully over the edge. Eon had layered a cloaking illusion over the entire group as well, and was sure that Shadow, at the very least, had picked up on it, but the rest of them were theoretically ignorant.
Breathing deeply, Eon's eyes focused on one of the females on the ground. She was clearly the bomber, and not just from the grenades she was throwing around, though that just made it more obvious. The scent of the explosives, both the common and the strange sparkly one, was practically radiating from her like her own personal light show to the pair of Pokemon, making him growl softly in his chest.
"I know the bomber," he muttered, knowing the Undersiders and Swarm could hear him, "But I don't exactly recognise the rest of them down there. Any info?"
"The one in blue and silver armour is Armsmaster. He's a Tinker, and local Protectorate leader. Next to him is Miss Militia, and the red guy bouncing around the place is Assault. Militia makes weapons, and Assault does stuff with kinetic energy." Tattletale explained, watching them. "Not sure where anyone else is, but they're probably running around trying to deal with the aftermath of Bakuda's little bombing spree. Or maybe they're dealing with the ABB, or something."
"Maybe." Eon stayed still for a moment more, then grinned sharply. "I think we should go and offer our assistance, hm, Shadow?"
"Sure thing, Eon." The Vulpix's own smirk was about as wide and wicked as her leader's, and the two continued to survey their prospective battleground and make plans.
Around five minutes later, Tattletale hesitantly tapped the pair on the shoulder.
"Bakuda's thinking about trying to retreat." She murmured. "If you want to jump in, now's your time." Eon smirked.
"Thank you for the heads up, Tattletale. Since I understand that you don't have the best relations with the heroes down there, I'd suggest you and your team move off for now." The Thinker blinked, and the scents on the air became confused and surprised, but she nodded.
"Right." Tattletale nodded, jumping back up onto her dog. Swarm slipped down, going to stand next to Eon and Shadow, a little bit back from the two. "Seeya around. Probably on the other side of a battle, but oh well."
"Goodbye." Eon nodded slightly, ignoring as the three animals scrambled off, and continued glaring at the battle below.
"How do you plan on doing this?" Swarm questioned, after a moment's delay.
"Illusions, and bug bites." Eon told her. "We'll distract, you go and put her out, and we'll see if we can get Shadow in close enough to Hypnosis her unconscious."
"She's wearing goggles." Swarm noted. "Will Shadow's Hypnosis get through that?"
"I don't see why not." The Vulpix shrugged when they both looked at her questioningly. "I mean, it's worked before on Pokemon with funny vision, and I can Hypnosis bat Pokemon even though they don't see, so…"
"Your powers are weird." Swarm commented.
"Said the insect controller."
"Point."
"Alright, girls." Eon chuckled slightly, rolling his eyes. "Shadow, get down there, I want you close enough to surprise her. Swarm, get your bugs together. Try and avoid anything too poisonous- actually, maybe try and avoid poison at all. Just bite at her as best you can, or fly around and distract her. My illusions will do the same."
"Can you hold that many illusions up all at once?" Shadow checked. "You're holding the cloak as well…"
"I can do a couple more. Pokemon aren't all that hard for me, since I'm so familiar with them. I'll stick with Pokemon that're easy to move, like Ekans and Seviper, but the fox, dog, and cat-like Pokemon won't be too hard either, I'm used to how they move." Eon promised. "I'll be staying away from birds though, since they're a bit harder to make move realistically. I've almost cracked it, I think, but I need more time on them."
"So I'll use a lot of flying bugs to get in her face, and you trip her up on the ground."
"Not literally. My illusions aren't solid enough for that."
"Guys, she's starting to back away." Shadow warned, peering over the edge of the building.
"Go!" Eon barked, making Shadow nod and jump off the side of the building down to ground level. Looking over the edge himself, he flicked his tails, forming a pair of illusions next to him and walking them into the alleyway as well.
"What were those?" Swarm asked, as bugs began swarming out of her costume.
"The long purple and yellow snake was an Ekans. Poison type, pretty weak alone despite the size of'em, but kind of terrifying in a… pack, or whatever the collective for snakes is-"
"Den, I think. Or nest."
"Thank you. They evolve into something called Arbok, which is terrifying even alone and I'll show you later. The other's an Eevee, a cute little fox that has eight different possible evolutions depending on the conditions."
"Huh." Swarm muttered. "Did I mention that your world's weird?"
"You have." Eon nodded. "Now hush. Get your bugs moving, we need to block her. And if we head down there, let me do the talking."
"Sure." The rush of bugs dove over the edge of the building, and out of the cloak as they did so, making the four Capes down on the ground freeze and look over.
"What the fuck?" Bakuda gaped, staring. Eon smirked massively, taking the chance to send the Ekans illusion out, the serpentine Pokemon darting around her feet and lunging as if it were to bite her. "Whoa!" The mad bomber pulled out a grenade and aimed it at the illusion, which is when Swarm sent her bugs in, blinding her.
"Hey Eon," Shadow's voice whispered, from the sound-displacing illusion she'd become so fond of, "Do you think that I should use Swift?" Eon thought for a moment, then made the brown Pokemon nod. "Alright. Throw some fake ones in too, if you can." Illusion-Eevee nodded again, and a few moments later a flood of real and fake Swift stars were flying out of the alley, the Ekans illusion dodging around them all as they cut into Bakuda's legs.
"Ouch! What the fuck?"
"I'm going in." Shadow said, while Bakuda danced around the illusory snake, the bugs covering her face, and the stars that were very occasionally firing from the alleyway still.
Shooting a glance at the three other Capes, Eon was slightly pleased to notice that none of them seemed to know what was going on. The strange smells from the Capes covered a lot of their scents, especially in the case of the one called Armsmaster, but he and Miss Militia seemed intrigued and curious, while Assault appeared to be just as confused, but also extremely amused by the situation at hand.
A few seconds later, Shadow stepped out of the alleyway with a frown on her face, Eon directing illusion-Eevee to follow her. "Hey, watch your language." Shadow scolded, looking up at Bakuda. With a flick of his tails, Eon moved the Ekans away, looping around the two of them in a slightly protective position, while also giving Shadow enough room to look Bakuda in the eyes. "Seriously, it's a bit impolite, y'know?"
"What the hell are you?" The bomber Cape snapped. From his current angle, Eon watched Shadow's face, frowning, as Swarm made her bugs retreat and join the pair of illusions and the Vulpix.
Why aren't her eyes glowing? Eon thought, staring at her. I know she's using Hypnosis, she's got to be, but why aren't her eyes glowing if she is?
"My name's Shadow!" She grinned, before very obviously forcing herself to go back to at least mostly serious and grumpy. "Um, I mean, um…" While she stumbled slightly over her words, she flicked a tail slightly. "Make Ekans strike out again in a minute." She muttered in his ear, while she personally frowned. "Um, you should stop attacking people."
"Why would I listen to you?" Bakuda snarled, taking a step forward and pulling out a grenade. Immediately, the Ekans rose up, hissing and rattling its tail on Eon's command, before lunging out towards her, making the bomb Tinker squeak in shock and jump back.
"Hey, there's no need to be mean!" Shadow barked in return, as the illusion settled back down, still watching her warily. "And anyway, you should listen to me because attacking people is mean, and you're hurting people, and that's bad." The entire group was gaping at her now, Eon noticed with a smirk, while Swarm knelt down next to him, still keeping her bugs buzzing around Shadow and the illusions.
"Why is she acting like a child again?" She whispered, leaning close.
"It's one of her tactics." Eon breathed in reply. "She likes to act like a naïve kid around dangerous opponents. It makes then underestimate her, and it confuses them, so they tend to end up focusing on her and gives me a bit of time to get everything I need set up." Frowning for a moment, he manifested badges on the two Pokemon illusions, carefully arranged so that it would seem like they'd been there all along, before refocusing on Shadow. The Vulpix was still talking to Bakuda, making childish arguments about why she shouldn't be attacking anyone, and was now sitting on her haunches, waving one of her forepaws around in the air as she spoke.
For a moment, her paw drifted in front of the single eye Eon could see from his current angle as she brushed away some of the fur from her head plume that'd shifted while she was talking, and Eon noticed the eye flicker to a pale blue colour in the fractions of a second after her paw passed it.
"Ah…" He muttered to himself. "Clever, Shadow. Very clever indeed."
"What?" Swarm asked.
"She's hiding her Hypnosis with an illusion." He replied lowly, while the two continued their argumentative babbling down below. "Most likely she's doing it to make the heroes think she just needs time to focus to be able to knock them out."
"Why would she do that?" She wondered. "I thought she was trying to make herself look like less of a target, not more of one."
"She is though." Swarm blinked, radiating confusion, making Eon explain. "She's making herself less of a target by making herself more of a threat. Shadow's small and cute, which makes her less of a threat, and therefore less likely to be targeted, but by playing up her abilities. It makes her seem like more of a threat to be able to knock you out from anywhere, as long as she's focused on you, which makes her less of a target, since no-one wants to give her the opportunity to get mad and knock you out in an instant."
"It also makes her more of a target because they'll want her out of the fight as fast as possible." Swarm countered.
"They'll do that, and get careless." Eon retorted. "It gives her the ability to pull out other stuff. Or, alternatively, takes attention away from her team mates, who can then take them out while she's being a distraction. It works, we've done it before." He smirked at the memory. "Good times…"
"You need to tell me this stuff."
"Another time."
"Hey Eon, she's gonna be dropping in a minute." Shadow's voice echoed through the illusion, during a period where Bakuda began ranting at her. "The lenses on her mask blocked me more than I thought, but she's going now. Might wanna get Swarm ready to come down. And also be ready to do whatever you're doing with these illusion Pokemon. Don't think I didn't see what you did with the badges." Eon chuckled to himself.
"Come on, Swarm. Shadow's nearly got it, so we need to be down there." He told her, standing and shaking himself. "Oh, look. That Assault person's moving towards Bakuda. I wonder if he's going to try something."
"We should get moving, then." Swarm nodded, standing as well. The Ninetales jumped off the rooftop and into the alley in a graceful, flowing movement, making sure he could still see his illusions to make then react and move like they should, and with another part of his mind he lifted Swarm off the edge of the building and carried her down to him with Extrasensory. "I keep forgetting you can do that." She remarked, finding her balance again.
"It's a bit more difficult than you'd expect. I've got experience with lifting heavy things, no offense, but it's not a skill I use very much." Eon explained, sneaking forwards. "Now, get ready. Stand behind me, in the sort of position that implies you're the third in command."
"I am, though."
"No, there's only three of us. In that case, you don't count as third in command, you count as the rookie." Eon corrected. "And just getting a fourth member wouldn't count, either."
"Fine." She responded. "Now what?"
"-you… argh!" Bakuda snapped, glaring at Shadow.
"Eh, it's not like it bothers me." She shrugged. "Besides, you're gonna go down in a minute, so I think I win anyway."
"Wha-?" She started, before pitching forwards and collapsing to the concrete, snoring slightly on the way.
"There we go." Shadow huffed. "That took way longer than it should've."
"Going in now." Eon whispered to Swarm, before taking a few steps forward out of the alley, standing proudly with his tails swaying behind him. "But you still did well." He remarked, grinning.
"Thanks, Eon." Shadow chuckled, jumping over the illusion Ekans and heading to his side. "Thanks too, Swarm." She added, as the bugs flew over their heads and back to the girl.
"No problem, Shadow." The Cape nodded, as Eon went over to his illusions- now turned around to look at them- and Shadow slotted herself into the second position. The shiny Pokemon was mildly amused to see that Assault had frozen mid-step, and Armsmaster and Miss Militia appeared to have started up a debate in low voices. Out of respect for their privacy, he ignored what was being said, instead moving back to his illusions. Eon examined them for a moment, then flicked his tail and dispelled them both. Assault gave a muttered exclamation of shock, making Eon hide a smirk by turning around again and patting Shadow on the head.
"Good job, little pix." He told her. "That could've gotten very dangerous. I'm glad you're ok."
"I'd've been fine, Eon." She replied, swatting at his paw. "But thanks. Both f'the help 'n' all that."
"No problem." Eon turned again, heading over to Bakuda and sniffing at her, taking the moment to memorise the strange scents attached to her. "Yeah, she's out solid. Any idea how long for?"
"Nope. Probably... I'unno, couple hours?" Shadow shrugged. "Might be less. Prolly more, if anything." She yawned. "Urgh, that sucked."
"How much energy did you use?"
"Dunno."
"Ah, excuse me?" All three of them looked over- and somewhat upwards- at the red-costumed Cape, who was hovering somewhat awkwardly in the background.
"Yes?"
"What exactly... did your friend do?"
"Put'er to sleep." Shadow told him, lying on the floor and resting her head on her paws. "Lik'I said, she'll be out a while." She yawned again, then grumbled to her feet when Eon cleared his throat.
"Well, thanks for that." The man replied, before grinning widely at them. "Hey, you're the three that intervened at the bank yesterday, right? The Wards were telling us all about you."
"Yes, that was us." Eon grinned back, careful not to display too many fangs. "I'm glad we were able to help out before things got too bad, both yesterday and today."
"It would've been a bit of a pain to try and chase Bakuda here down in the dark." Assault nodded. "And if she'd escaped, who knows how much more damage she could've done."
"All part of the job, in the end." Eon said, looking up at the sky. "The dark wouldn't have been too much of a bother for us, I think, but it's still difficult to move and fight in the darkness. Speaking of..." He frowned, lashing his tails. Whirls of fire lanced along his body, forming orbs on the blue tail-tips before detaching and floating around them in loose circles, providing a somewhat eerie lilac light for them to see by and throwing sharp shadows on everything.
Assault whistled. "Neat trick. These things hot?" He reached over towards one, careful not to touch it.
"A little, I think. They might Burn you if you touch them, though. That's something Shadow would need to heal, and she's a bit tired right now."
"Side-effect o'the Hypnosis." She muttered, yawning again. "Be alright inna minute'r so."
"I think I'll just avoid touching them." Assault replied, pulling his hand back. "Useful, though, I'd assume?"
"Pretty good, yes. We've used them as lights before. They're technically battle weapons, but what works works." Eon shrugged, before looking at Bakuda again. "I think we'll leave you to deal with our... friend, here. Shadow, at the very least, should be getting home now. She needs a break."
"Not that bad." The Vulpix grumped.
"I'm pretty sure the others want to ask you some questions..." Assault began.
"You all stay up in that building over there, right? The PRT one?" Eon checked, interrupting him. "We'll come to you tomorrow. Or we can find some kind of neutral meeting point, if you'd rather." Assault hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"There's a place called Somer's Rock. It's commonly used by heroes and villains to meet up on neutral ground without fighting. We could meet there around midday?"
"Midday would be fine. I'm sure we can find it." Eon grinned, holding out a paw for him. "Naturally, I'll be bringing my team. Bring yours, if you wish."
"Of course." He agreed, shaking his paw. "We'll handle Bakuda from here."
"Tomorrow, then." Eon nodded, shifting back. "Good evening to you all." With a flick of two of his tails, the Ninetales extinguished the Will-o-Wisps floating around and cloaked the group of three, before picking up Shadow by the scruff of her neck and carrying her into the alleyway, Swarm following alongside. Behind them, there was a muttered exclamation of surprise from Assault, which made him grin, while the other two Capes came over, apparently finished with their discussion.
Eon entertained the thought of stopping to listen for a while, before deciding not too. Shadow needed rest, Swarm needed to get home before her dad worried too badly, and it'd have been rude to eavesdrop on potential allies.
Progressing well into the alleyway, Eon placed Shadow on her paws, shaking his head as he did so.
"Urgh. That... should not be as straining as it was." He grumbled. "That's not good."
"Why?" Swarm asked, crouching down and patting Shadow's back.
"It means I'm gonna end up with a headache if I keep pushing myself with illusions." He replied, curling around the younger fox and girl. "Moves use up a different type of energy to illusions, so while I just get tired using Moves too often, I get headaches and more mental exhaustion from illusions. If it gets too bad, I can't do them anymore."
"Oh. That's... bad."
"I can get you home alright, and it'll be fine after a night of sleep and not needing to make anything, so don't worry." Eon added, nudging her ankle. "But moving Shadow here will be annoying."
"I'll be fine." She yawned, swaying slightly on her feet. Swarm giggled, then lifted Shadow into the air, carrying her in her arms carefully. "Hey!"
"It'll be faster if I carry you back. Both of you can spend the night at my place, I don't think dad'll mind and I need to explain things to him anyway." She sighed, then stiffened. "I mean, unless it bothers you...?"
"'Sokay, I guess." Shadow yawned again, shifting slightly so she was more comfortable. "Eon, y'ok?"
"I'll be fine too." He agreed, pushing himself up and uncurling. "C'mon, let's go, we'll take up that offer of staying overnight if your dad's ok with it, Swarm."
"Sure, no problem. Let's go." Swarm said nervously, her bugs buzzing and twitching in her hair until she forced them to stop, making Eon's job of cloaking them easier. The Ninetales slipped past her, standing close to her side as they walked, staying invisible and doing their best to avoid any of the locations where Bakuda's attack had hit.
Unfortunately, there were quite a number of them.
"Why did you let them leave?" Colin asked lowly of Ethan, while Hannah called for a transport for Bakuda.
"That little fox just took out Bakuda by looking at her." Ethan retorted, waving a hand towards the ABB Cape. "I wasn't going to try forcing her to stay while she had backup. Who knows what the other two might have done? Meeting them at a neutral place tomorrow and letting them bring their entire team with them makes it less likely they'll feel like they're being threatened at all, so we can get some kind of report out of them without needing to worry about them doing something to us if they suddenly felt like they were being threatened for some reason."
"I'm pretty sure they were the kitsune that took out Lung, as well." Hannah said quietly, coming over to them both, keeping an eye on the downed Cape as she did. "Their appearances matched the description that Lung gave. A pair of kitsune, one red one with six tails, and a grey one with nine tails. Plus a girl with some sort of insect control, which is probably the one Lung was fighting in the first place before they intervened." Ethan whistled.
"Wow. You mean the little one took on Lung?" He nodded. "Yeah, I'm leaving that alone, then. If the little one, and probably the weaker one, can take Lung, I don't want to see what the larger one could do if pissed off." Colin paused, apparently just as unsettled by that idea as he was.
"Are you going to take someone else with you to Somer's Rock tomorrow?" Hannah asked.
"If the three of them are coming, I probably should. Fancy joining me, Militia?" Ethan grinned widely as she sighed, her eyes showing mild amusement even so.
"I probably should, just to make sure you don't say something stupid to them." She agreed. "And maybe bring Battery as well. She can keep you under control."
A PRT transport rolled up next to them, dispensing a number of troops with containment foam sprayers who immediately moved Bakuda into the van.
"I suppose we should go get this handled, then." Ethan sighed. "Meet you there." The red Cape bounced off, jumping from wall to wall with enthusiasm. Colin and Hannah traded exasperated glances, then headed over to their own motorcycles, starting them up.
"Keep him from doing anything stupid, please." Colin muttered to her, as they got ready to move off. "I have no wish to see first hand what one of these kitsune could do, let alone one of the Kyuubi if it were annoyed." Hannah shuddered slightly, nodding.
"Battery and I can keep him in line, I think." She promised, before smiling as a thought struck her. "Besides, kitsune and Kyuubi are typically pranksters and tricksters. Who's to say they wouldn't get along with Assault because they share his sense of humour?"
Colin actually slowed down in order to give her a dark look through his visor.
"Taylor?" Her dad called from his own room.
"Dad?" She responded, her voice trembling slightly. No, I can deal with this, I managed fine at the bank yesterday, I can handle this. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. What about you?" Danny asked, knocking once on her door.
"I'm ok too." Taylor stood up carefully and made her way over, picking up her glasses as she went past. "What's going on?"
"I don't know." The older man frowned. "Probably some sort of Cape fight." Another explosion went off in the distance, forcing Taylor to cling to the doorframe to stay steady.
"Maybe we should go find out." Taylor muttered, straightening again. Carefully, she took control of the bugs in her room, pulling a few of the spiders out of the box under her bed and sending them crawling along the floor towards the wardrobe, while she and her dad went down the stairs and over to the television.
The thing burst into static for a moment, before scrolling reports of bomb attacks flared on the screen, with mentions of possible Tinker involvement.
"Shit." Taylor whispered under her breath. "That's not good."
"No." Danny said heavily. "This could easily start a gang war."
"Dammit." Silently, Taylor directed her spiders to pull the phone out from under the false board in her wardrobe, putting the battery in and turning it on.
Bomb attack on city Tinkers involved cant get out now dads here will try and meet soon.
The message sent to her team mates, Taylor pursed her lips. I wish I'd told him sooner, dammit. She sighed slightly. "Dad, I need to go."
"What?" Danny turned sharply, staring at her. "But- the bombs- Taylor, you can't go! You might get hurt!"
"I need to go to my friends, they might need help-"
"Fuck your friends!" He barked. "Taylor, you need to stay here-"
"Dad, there's a lot I need to tell you." She argued, clenching her fist. "I should've said something earlier, but with the Locker and the bullying I never could…"
"Taylor?" Danny asked, confused.
"I'm a Cape." She muttered, slumping in her chair. "I have been since the Locker, that's when I Triggered and got my powers, I've been learning to use them for months since then, I made my own costume in the basement." Taylor sighed. "I went out for the first time a few days ago, and I've ended up joining a new team. We only had our public debut yesterday, but I need to go find them. I've already told them what's going on, but I need to go and help them out."
"Taylor, what-?" Danny began, then shook his head. "No. I'm not going to get any answers out of you, am I?"
"Not right now." Taylor said. "Sorry, dad. I need to go help out, though."
"Stay safe, then." The man sighed. "Too much like your mother. I want to meet your team mates, and I want the full story when you've got time."
"I can manage that, dad." She replied, with a watery smile. "It might be a while, though." Danny nodded.
"I expected that." He gave his own tight smile. "Go on, then. Get your costume together, and for god's sake be careful."
"I will." Taylor nodded to her dad, running up the stairs two at a time. She scooped the phone off the floor of her room, her spiders pulling her costume towards her as she glanced at the return message.
Moving out now will meet you soon do your best. Eon. Throwing the phone on the bed, along with a few spiders, she began changing, directing the bugs to respond.
Told dad. Am changing now, will be on way soon. Meet in woods? Taking off her glasses and carefully putting her contacts in, Taylor blinked a few times before pulling on her mask and threading her hair through the back of it. Patting herself down, she made sure the sparkling badge of honour was in place, she drew all of the bugs she had scattered around the room to her, opening the large boxes under her bed to let all of them out and pushed her window out as far as it would go to let the ones outside in as well.
Swarm picked up her phone again as it blinked, reading the reply.
Stay at yours. We're coming. She hummed, sending a confirmation, then having one of her spiders take her phone back into the armoured backpack on her costume, the rest of the crawling creatures taking up hiding spots in her costume and hair. Closing the window again, Swarm looked out, hoping to see her team mates there, even though she knew they'd take a lot longer to get there than she'd given them, before hearing the curtains downstairs being drawn shut.
"Dad?" Swarm called.
"You can come down, Taylor." He replied carefully. "Though you might want to go straight into the back even so."
"Just a minute, then." She spent a few more seconds looking over everything, having bugs in her pack check her supplies before ensuring that everything Cape related was locked away under the floorboard in the wardrobe and closing everything she could, including jamming her door from the inside using a few spiders and roaches to drag some random things from around the room into the path of the door once she was outside.
Pushing on it a few times, Swarm nodded, satisfied that it wouldn't open any time soon, she made her way downstairs, doing her best to avoid as many windows as possible. "Hey dad." She greeted, a slight bit of buzz in her voice. Danny jumped, turning to stare at her.
"Holy crap." He muttered. "Taylor?"
"It's Swarm when in costume." She responded. "But yeah, it's me."
"You look absolutely terrifying like that." He told her, carefully looking her up and down. "Impressive, though. How'd you manage to only go public yesterday?"
"I only went out at night, and one of my team mates is an illusion maker." She explained. "We can go invisible, though it's hard for him to hold more than two people at a time like that without help from our other member."
"There's only three of you?"
"Yeah. I'm probably the weakest of us." She sighed. "I'll get there, I know it, but it kind of sucks."
"What's your power, then?" Danny asked. "I'd assume something to do with bugs?"
"Insect control, mostly. Spiders and worms as well." She grinned through her mask. "All individually controlled. I have super-multitasking, basically."
"Interesting." He smiled slightly, still examining her. "Annette would've been proud of you, I think."
"Really?"
"Most likely." The conversation stalled for a moment as the shape of a small squirrel, white with a blue stripe running down its large tail and over its head, blue ears, and yellow cheeks, bounced at the window. Carefully, after a nod from Swarm, he opened it, letting the creature it.
"We're here, Swarm." It said, in the familiar voice of Shadow. "We'll be mostly doing some scouting, though Eon thinks we'll be able to find this Tinker and the bomber if we look around enough. Their scent should be on everything they've made." The image faded, and Swarm nodded to herself.
"That's Shadow, my team mate. Or her work, at least." She told Danny. "I'll see you later, dad."
"Stay safe, Taylor."
"I will." Smiling at him from behind her mask, she unlocked the back door and slipped out, seeing the pair of Pokemon sitting at the edge of her garden.
"Swarm, come on." Eon said softly, in a carrying voice. Nodding, the bug user hurried over, letting the Ninetales cloak himself and her as they started to move away, Shadow vanishing with her own patchy cloaking method. "What's going on?"
"I'm not completely sure." She shrugged. "Pretty much everything I know was in that message. Some kinda bomb attack going on, and they think there's Tinker involvement going on."
"Tinker, Tinker... ah, the scientists?" Shadow checked.
"Yeah, that'd be them." She grinned momentarily. "But it's bad news, trust me. Tinkertech is weird, and doesn't tend to follow the agreed laws of physics, so it's possible that we'll end up with a lot of weird effects going on wherever the bombs are going off."
"We'll do our best to avoid them, then." Eon decided, as they sidestepped into an alley. "Now, any idea where the bombs mostly are?" Swarm shook her head.
"No, but I'll send my bugs out to scout things. I've got about four blocks of range, so I think I'll be able to notice them at least a little, so we can avoid them."
"Thanks." Eon paused, sniffing at the air, then barked. Shadow made a reappearance at his side, looking confused. "Shadow, be careful. You're still scouting, but Swarm's going to be looking for the bombs, so listen to her. If you think you find the bomber, memorise his or her scent, but don't get too close, ok? And don't get hurt."
"Yes, Eon." She saluted, balancing on three legs for a moment, before flickering out and away to do her job.
"Swarm, stay close. Shadow won't go too far, but hopefully she'll be able to get close enough to find out who the bomber is."
"Alright." Loosing a shaky breath, Swarm straightened, directing her bugs into a search pattern across her range, focused on looking for irregularities.
"Eon," Shadow murmured, coming back to their side around half an hour later. "I've found something. It's... not good."
"Lead the way." Eon growled softly. Shadow nodded, turning on the spot and slowly making her way down the path, invisibility flickering on and off from tiredness, before she dodged into an alley and dropped it. Eon followed, doing the same once Swarm was close enough, and looked at his subordinate. "What is it?"
"I just wanted to give you a moment." She said lowly. "It's just up ahead." Smelling curiosity, Eon noticed some of the bugs in the alley running away from them, and looked back at Swarm.
"I'm just coming up on the end now..." She started, before freezing. "What the...?!"
"I know." Shadow replied, pawing the ground. Her tails flicked irritably, and she scowled at nothing for a moment. "Eon, just... invisibility up, and come on."
"I'll stay here and keep a look out." Swarm said faintly, leaning against the wall and focusing. Eon raised an eyebrow, cloaking himself with little effort and following the semi-invisible Vulpix down the alley.
"What the heck..." He whispered, breathless, as he caught sight of the area on the end of the alleyway.
"I know..." Shadow quietly whimpered, as the two of them walked in.
The area was clearly one of the areas that had been bombed, and had once been a fairly decent suburban area, one that Eon thought looked quite nice in comparison to some of the places they'd ended up seeing during their two patrols around the city. However, it was sadly marred by a semi-large hole in the middle of the street, which was quite obviously where the bomb had gone off, but the coating of glass across the entire street was the main cause for pause.
"Goodness..." Eon pursed his lips, looking back and forth along the road. He glanced along the front of some of the houses, then stopped, freezing dead. "Are those... people in there?"
"I think so." Shadow confirmed. Padding forwards down the deserted street, Eon gently reached out and brushed his paw along the edge of one of the glass statues-
The man stepped carefully out of his house, looking around warily. Along the road, other people were doing the same, searching for the source of the explosion.
"Daddy?" A little girl asked, making him look back and down. "What was that?"
"I'm not sure, sweetie." He replied, gently patting her head. "You go back inside to mummy, ok?"
"Ok." The three year old nodded, tottering off through the house, while he looked around the street again.
The chink of metal on concrete made him stop, staring at the middle of the road, where an unfortunately familiar metal capsule was rolling to a stop. He gasped, backing into the house again and starting to close the door.
The grenade went off, and he didn't even get time to scream as glass began flashing over the house.
Eon froze, backing away suddenly with a harsh shudder.
"Arceus…" He muttered, steadily creeping away from the now frozen human. "That's… that's…"
"Eon?" Shadow asked softly, touching a paw on his side. He flinched, then darted back into the alleyway, feeling his illusion rippling unstably as he lost concentration.
"That's… I don't…" He shook himself.
"Was it another vision?" She asked, as Swarm came over and patted him on the back, seeming slightly awkward about the entire thing.
"I… yeah, it was." He huffed, pulling himself together and dropping the cloak. "We've definitely got confirmation that it's Tinkertech, and that this bomber needs to go down." He shuddered again. "There were kids in there, Shadow. That man had a little daughter, something like three… how…" His tails lashed at the air as he growled, then struck out at the nearest wall with sharp claws.
"I know, Eon." Shadow growled, scratching at the ground as well. "I don't understand how someone could do this."
"What do you mean, Eon, Shadow?" Swarm questioned softly, her hand still on Eon's back. "What do you mean by visions? What did you see?"
"The visions thing is a discussion for another time, Swarm." He replied. "But… there are people in those houses, with families and everything, that this bomber caught. They didn't even have the time to scream before they died. There wasn't even a chance they could escape."
"I see." Swarm exhaled sharply. "Come on. Let's see how much ground we can cover today." She stood, straightening, while her bugs swarmed around her. "Let's get this person."
Nearly four hours later, approaching midday, the entire group paused in the middle of one of the streets, all spotting something with their extra senses.
"Isn't that the Undersiders?" Shadow asked, sniffing at the air curiously.
"It is." Swarm nodded, looking at the group with her bugs. They were a little way out of reach, about a block over from where they were currently, and from the scent on the wind seemed both angry and a little bit injured. "Do you think we should go and meet them?"
"We did kinda fight them yesterday, though." Shadow pointed out. "Would they try and fight us again?"
"I don't-" Swarm began, shrugging, before halting. "Tattletale's just noticed my bugs. She's waving them down. Do I go?"
"Go on, see what she wants." Eon told her, curious.
"Alright." She went silent for a minute, then frowned. "She wants to know if we should team up to try and find this bomber."
"Why not?" The Ninetales shrugged. "The more people we have working together, the more likely it is we'll find them."
"Are the local heroes even doing anything, on that note?" Shadow mused, as Swarm directed her bugs.
"Probably focusing on the richer areas of the city." She said, sounding sour. "They tend to do that. Leave's the lower end of the city to the independents, which is probably why they aren't known to last very long on their own."
"Good thing you have a team then, eh?" Shadow grinned. Swarm chuckled, nodding.
"Yeah, it is." She replied. "Anyway, the Undersiders are coming this way now. I've directed them over to us, and given that they've got those huge dogs they'll probably be here in a minute."
"I hear them." Eon agreed, turning to look in their direction. "Shadow, Swarm, back up, will you? Same as yesterday."
"Alright, leader." Shadow smirked, before falling back to flank the Ninetales while wiping the look from her face. Swarm looked between them both for a moment, confused, before shrugging and mimicking her on the other side.
"Ready, Swarm?" Eon asked lowly.
"Yeah, I can do this." She smiled. "It's just like yesterday."
"Hopefully with less fighting, though." Shadow added. Both nodded, then the three large dogs jumped off one of the nearby buildings and landed in front of them, Grue and Tattletale jumping off their own animals while Regent and Bitch stayed back.
"Hello there!" The Thinker called, waving to the three. "Good to see you again. We aren't going to end up fighting again, are we?"
"I should hope not, Tattletale." Eon replied. "Not unless you decide you want to start something."
"No fear of that." She smirked. "This bomber's more important than this right now."
"Good." The Ninetales smiled, before turning to Grue. "Now, then, to business."
"Indeed." The male's voice echoed slightly inside his helmet, creating an interesting disguise for his voice. "Though you'll still want to talk to Tattletale. She's our information expert."
"The bomber's definitely a Tinker, a member of the ABB, and the attack's because of Lung's capture the other day." Tattletale reeled off, losing the smug look slightly. "She's also a bomb specialist, so there's going to be a lot of really weird effects wherever the bombs are."
"We've already seen the effects of one." Eon nodded, with barely restrained anger. "Turned the entire street into glass. People, too."
"I see..." Tattletale muttered, thinking. "That... really isn't good. That sort of obvious disregard for life is probably going to get her a kill order."
"Hey, what happened to you guys, anyway?" Shadow asked, trying to drag Eon's attention off of his thoughts. "You guys look like a mess."
"We got caught up by Uber and Leet." Grue rumbled, sounding a little irate. "Not sure what was going on with them, but they gave us a bit of information. Apparently the bomber, Bakuda has implanted bombs into some of the ABB."
"I see." Eon slowly loosed a breath. "Right. Shadow, think you can manage things?"
"Yeah." She grinned, a little nervously. "I think it'll work." Closing her eyes and focusing, she barked once, a wave of energy flickered out with the sound of a bell.
"Whoa!" Regent shouted, while the dogs recoiled in shock. "What the-?"
"Heal Bell and Heal Pulse." Shadow smiled. "It's something I figured out a while ago. Sort of an accident, actually, I panicked while battling a fake Dialga and used both moves at once trying to heal me and Eon. Good to see that it works in this world as well." Sure enough, it had, the slight cuts and bruises their fight had left on them vanishing, leaving only the marks on the costumes.
"Huh." Tattletale hummed. "That's interesting. Might be a useful skill for Endbringer battles. And we can always use more healers."
"I like healing." Shadow nodded. "I can't do it much, only five to eight times for the mixed one, but Heal Pulse alone is somewhere between ten and sixteen. Still works well. Back home it'll reach through an entire room, so any of my allies anywhere there would benefit from it, but I'm not sure how the boundaries would measure out here. Maybe rooms, maybe just random."
"Still, that's a very effective ability, Shadow." The Thinker whistled.
"Yes, yes. We'll have to arrange something." Eon muttered, sniffing at the air. "Come on, let's see if we can find this... Bakuda, as you called her."
"Sure thing." Grue and Tattletale made their way back to the dogs, the girl turning back after a moment. "Here, Swarm. It'll be easier if you ride along with us. I'm pretty sure Eon and Shadow can move pretty quickly?" She looked over at the pair of Pokemon, who nodded.
"Not a problem. I'm sure we can keep up with you lot." Shadow smirked.
"Go on, Swarm." Eon agreed. "It'll be easier to search that way."
"Alright." The insect user walked over, accepting Tattletale's offered hand to climb onto the back of the dog. Shadow and Eon looked at each other, then blurred into an Agility to boost their speed.
"We'll spread out to cover more ground." Eon decided. "Shadow, stay low, and stay safe."
"Always, Eon." The Vulpix cocked a grin, before vanishing off into the city. There were a number of shocked exclamations, which stopped when the Ninetales looked over at them.
"Don't get lost, and Swarm, call if you get into trouble, ok?"
"Sure thing." She nodded, carefully holding onto the spines of the dog.
"Eon out, then." The grey Pokemon vanished as well, reappearing on a rooftop in the opposite direction from the one Shadow had gone, sniffing at the air for the smell of explosions.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Eon startled as the sound of multiple explosions rang over the bay. Quickly spinning in that direction, he inhaled deeply, smelling the wind for any hint of the situation.
Boom!
"Well, they seem to have stopped in the same place for a while." Eon grumbled, using Agility again before bounding across the buildings towards the still ongoing explosions. The sun was starting to set as well, making visibility a bit of a pain, but Eon was lucky in that he could see in the dark fairly well. The problem would be the humans running around, since they didn't have that luxury, and it might cause the bomber to retreat for the day in an attempt to continue this attack tomorrow.
"Eon!" Shadow barked, jumping from the roof next to him and landing. She stumbled for a moment, then picked up the running once more. Eon slowed slightly, letting his second in command catch up with him. "Do you smell that?"
"What, the explosions?" He snarked, speeding up again.
"No, the smell underneath that!" She retorted, panting a little. "Smells like... sparkles, and tin, and... grey?" She sniffed again. "Yeah. Grey." Eon blinked, confused, then sniffed as well, looking underneath the familiar smell of explosions for what she was saying.
"Huh. You're right. That's new." Eon mused, sniffing again.
"Hey!"
"Not what I meant, little pix. I'm more confused at the smell, though. It's weird."
"Unique, though." Shadow grinned. "We can use that to find her later, if she manages to escape."
"Let's try and make sure she doesn't escape, first." Eon remarked, jumping down to street level. Shadow joined him, and the dogs carrying Swarm and the Undersiders followed a minute later. "We've got a scent! Follow us!"
"Alright!" Tattletale shouted back. Bitch whistled sharply, the dogs picking up their pace, panting loudly, while Eon moved into the front of the group.
Let's hope we get there on time.
Shadow, Eon and the Undersiders found themselves overlooking the battle from a nearby rooftop, peering carefully over the edge. Eon had layered a cloaking illusion over the entire group as well, and was sure that Shadow, at the very least, had picked up on it, but the rest of them were theoretically ignorant.
Breathing deeply, Eon's eyes focused on one of the females on the ground. She was clearly the bomber, and not just from the grenades she was throwing around, though that just made it more obvious. The scent of the explosives, both the common and the strange sparkly one, was practically radiating from her like her own personal light show to the pair of Pokemon, making him growl softly in his chest.
"I know the bomber," he muttered, knowing the Undersiders and Swarm could hear him, "But I don't exactly recognise the rest of them down there. Any info?"
"The one in blue and silver armour is Armsmaster. He's a Tinker, and local Protectorate leader. Next to him is Miss Militia, and the red guy bouncing around the place is Assault. Militia makes weapons, and Assault does stuff with kinetic energy." Tattletale explained, watching them. "Not sure where anyone else is, but they're probably running around trying to deal with the aftermath of Bakuda's little bombing spree. Or maybe they're dealing with the ABB, or something."
"Maybe." Eon stayed still for a moment more, then grinned sharply. "I think we should go and offer our assistance, hm, Shadow?"
"Sure thing, Eon." The Vulpix's own smirk was about as wide and wicked as her leader's, and the two continued to survey their prospective battleground and make plans.
Around five minutes later, Tattletale hesitantly tapped the pair on the shoulder.
"Bakuda's thinking about trying to retreat." She murmured. "If you want to jump in, now's your time." Eon smirked.
"Thank you for the heads up, Tattletale. Since I understand that you don't have the best relations with the heroes down there, I'd suggest you and your team move off for now." The Thinker blinked, and the scents on the air became confused and surprised, but she nodded.
"Right." Tattletale nodded, jumping back up onto her dog. Swarm slipped down, going to stand next to Eon and Shadow, a little bit back from the two. "Seeya around. Probably on the other side of a battle, but oh well."
"Goodbye." Eon nodded slightly, ignoring as the three animals scrambled off, and continued glaring at the battle below.
"How do you plan on doing this?" Swarm questioned, after a moment's delay.
"Illusions, and bug bites." Eon told her. "We'll distract, you go and put her out, and we'll see if we can get Shadow in close enough to Hypnosis her unconscious."
"She's wearing goggles." Swarm noted. "Will Shadow's Hypnosis get through that?"
"I don't see why not." The Vulpix shrugged when they both looked at her questioningly. "I mean, it's worked before on Pokemon with funny vision, and I can Hypnosis bat Pokemon even though they don't see, so…"
"Your powers are weird." Swarm commented.
"Said the insect controller."
"Point."
"Alright, girls." Eon chuckled slightly, rolling his eyes. "Shadow, get down there, I want you close enough to surprise her. Swarm, get your bugs together. Try and avoid anything too poisonous- actually, maybe try and avoid poison at all. Just bite at her as best you can, or fly around and distract her. My illusions will do the same."
"Can you hold that many illusions up all at once?" Shadow checked. "You're holding the cloak as well…"
"I can do a couple more. Pokemon aren't all that hard for me, since I'm so familiar with them. I'll stick with Pokemon that're easy to move, like Ekans and Seviper, but the fox, dog, and cat-like Pokemon won't be too hard either, I'm used to how they move." Eon promised. "I'll be staying away from birds though, since they're a bit harder to make move realistically. I've almost cracked it, I think, but I need more time on them."
"So I'll use a lot of flying bugs to get in her face, and you trip her up on the ground."
"Not literally. My illusions aren't solid enough for that."
"Guys, she's starting to back away." Shadow warned, peering over the edge of the building.
"Go!" Eon barked, making Shadow nod and jump off the side of the building down to ground level. Looking over the edge himself, he flicked his tails, forming a pair of illusions next to him and walking them into the alleyway as well.
"What were those?" Swarm asked, as bugs began swarming out of her costume.
"The long purple and yellow snake was an Ekans. Poison type, pretty weak alone despite the size of'em, but kind of terrifying in a… pack, or whatever the collective for snakes is-"
"Den, I think. Or nest."
"Thank you. They evolve into something called Arbok, which is terrifying even alone and I'll show you later. The other's an Eevee, a cute little fox that has eight different possible evolutions depending on the conditions."
"Huh." Swarm muttered. "Did I mention that your world's weird?"
"You have." Eon nodded. "Now hush. Get your bugs moving, we need to block her. And if we head down there, let me do the talking."
"Sure." The rush of bugs dove over the edge of the building, and out of the cloak as they did so, making the four Capes down on the ground freeze and look over.
"What the fuck?" Bakuda gaped, staring. Eon smirked massively, taking the chance to send the Ekans illusion out, the serpentine Pokemon darting around her feet and lunging as if it were to bite her. "Whoa!" The mad bomber pulled out a grenade and aimed it at the illusion, which is when Swarm sent her bugs in, blinding her.
"Hey Eon," Shadow's voice whispered, from the sound-displacing illusion she'd become so fond of, "Do you think that I should use Swift?" Eon thought for a moment, then made the brown Pokemon nod. "Alright. Throw some fake ones in too, if you can." Illusion-Eevee nodded again, and a few moments later a flood of real and fake Swift stars were flying out of the alley, the Ekans illusion dodging around them all as they cut into Bakuda's legs.
"Ouch! What the fuck?"
"I'm going in." Shadow said, while Bakuda danced around the illusory snake, the bugs covering her face, and the stars that were very occasionally firing from the alleyway still.
Shooting a glance at the three other Capes, Eon was slightly pleased to notice that none of them seemed to know what was going on. The strange smells from the Capes covered a lot of their scents, especially in the case of the one called Armsmaster, but he and Miss Militia seemed intrigued and curious, while Assault appeared to be just as confused, but also extremely amused by the situation at hand.
A few seconds later, Shadow stepped out of the alleyway with a frown on her face, Eon directing illusion-Eevee to follow her. "Hey, watch your language." Shadow scolded, looking up at Bakuda. With a flick of his tails, Eon moved the Ekans away, looping around the two of them in a slightly protective position, while also giving Shadow enough room to look Bakuda in the eyes. "Seriously, it's a bit impolite, y'know?"
"What the hell are you?" The bomber Cape snapped. From his current angle, Eon watched Shadow's face, frowning, as Swarm made her bugs retreat and join the pair of illusions and the Vulpix.
Why aren't her eyes glowing? Eon thought, staring at her. I know she's using Hypnosis, she's got to be, but why aren't her eyes glowing if she is?
"My name's Shadow!" She grinned, before very obviously forcing herself to go back to at least mostly serious and grumpy. "Um, I mean, um…" While she stumbled slightly over her words, she flicked a tail slightly. "Make Ekans strike out again in a minute." She muttered in his ear, while she personally frowned. "Um, you should stop attacking people."
"Why would I listen to you?" Bakuda snarled, taking a step forward and pulling out a grenade. Immediately, the Ekans rose up, hissing and rattling its tail on Eon's command, before lunging out towards her, making the bomb Tinker squeak in shock and jump back.
"Hey, there's no need to be mean!" Shadow barked in return, as the illusion settled back down, still watching her warily. "And anyway, you should listen to me because attacking people is mean, and you're hurting people, and that's bad." The entire group was gaping at her now, Eon noticed with a smirk, while Swarm knelt down next to him, still keeping her bugs buzzing around Shadow and the illusions.
"Why is she acting like a child again?" She whispered, leaning close.
"It's one of her tactics." Eon breathed in reply. "She likes to act like a naïve kid around dangerous opponents. It makes then underestimate her, and it confuses them, so they tend to end up focusing on her and gives me a bit of time to get everything I need set up." Frowning for a moment, he manifested badges on the two Pokemon illusions, carefully arranged so that it would seem like they'd been there all along, before refocusing on Shadow. The Vulpix was still talking to Bakuda, making childish arguments about why she shouldn't be attacking anyone, and was now sitting on her haunches, waving one of her forepaws around in the air as she spoke.
For a moment, her paw drifted in front of the single eye Eon could see from his current angle as she brushed away some of the fur from her head plume that'd shifted while she was talking, and Eon noticed the eye flicker to a pale blue colour in the fractions of a second after her paw passed it.
"Ah…" He muttered to himself. "Clever, Shadow. Very clever indeed."
"What?" Swarm asked.
"She's hiding her Hypnosis with an illusion." He replied lowly, while the two continued their argumentative babbling down below. "Most likely she's doing it to make the heroes think she just needs time to focus to be able to knock them out."
"Why would she do that?" She wondered. "I thought she was trying to make herself look like less of a target, not more of one."
"She is though." Swarm blinked, radiating confusion, making Eon explain. "She's making herself less of a target by making herself more of a threat. Shadow's small and cute, which makes her less of a threat, and therefore less likely to be targeted, but by playing up her abilities. It makes her seem like more of a threat to be able to knock you out from anywhere, as long as she's focused on you, which makes her less of a target, since no-one wants to give her the opportunity to get mad and knock you out in an instant."
"It also makes her more of a target because they'll want her out of the fight as fast as possible." Swarm countered.
"They'll do that, and get careless." Eon retorted. "It gives her the ability to pull out other stuff. Or, alternatively, takes attention away from her team mates, who can then take them out while she's being a distraction. It works, we've done it before." He smirked at the memory. "Good times…"
"You need to tell me this stuff."
"Another time."
"Hey Eon, she's gonna be dropping in a minute." Shadow's voice echoed through the illusion, during a period where Bakuda began ranting at her. "The lenses on her mask blocked me more than I thought, but she's going now. Might wanna get Swarm ready to come down. And also be ready to do whatever you're doing with these illusion Pokemon. Don't think I didn't see what you did with the badges." Eon chuckled to himself.
"Come on, Swarm. Shadow's nearly got it, so we need to be down there." He told her, standing and shaking himself. "Oh, look. That Assault person's moving towards Bakuda. I wonder if he's going to try something."
"We should get moving, then." Swarm nodded, standing as well. The Ninetales jumped off the rooftop and into the alley in a graceful, flowing movement, making sure he could still see his illusions to make then react and move like they should, and with another part of his mind he lifted Swarm off the edge of the building and carried her down to him with Extrasensory. "I keep forgetting you can do that." She remarked, finding her balance again.
"It's a bit more difficult than you'd expect. I've got experience with lifting heavy things, no offense, but it's not a skill I use very much." Eon explained, sneaking forwards. "Now, get ready. Stand behind me, in the sort of position that implies you're the third in command."
"I am, though."
"No, there's only three of us. In that case, you don't count as third in command, you count as the rookie." Eon corrected. "And just getting a fourth member wouldn't count, either."
"Fine." She responded. "Now what?"
"-you… argh!" Bakuda snapped, glaring at Shadow.
"Eh, it's not like it bothers me." She shrugged. "Besides, you're gonna go down in a minute, so I think I win anyway."
"Wha-?" She started, before pitching forwards and collapsing to the concrete, snoring slightly on the way.
"There we go." Shadow huffed. "That took way longer than it should've."
"Going in now." Eon whispered to Swarm, before taking a few steps forward out of the alley, standing proudly with his tails swaying behind him. "But you still did well." He remarked, grinning.
"Thanks, Eon." Shadow chuckled, jumping over the illusion Ekans and heading to his side. "Thanks too, Swarm." She added, as the bugs flew over their heads and back to the girl.
"No problem, Shadow." The Cape nodded, as Eon went over to his illusions- now turned around to look at them- and Shadow slotted herself into the second position. The shiny Pokemon was mildly amused to see that Assault had frozen mid-step, and Armsmaster and Miss Militia appeared to have started up a debate in low voices. Out of respect for their privacy, he ignored what was being said, instead moving back to his illusions. Eon examined them for a moment, then flicked his tail and dispelled them both. Assault gave a muttered exclamation of shock, making Eon hide a smirk by turning around again and patting Shadow on the head.
"Good job, little pix." He told her. "That could've gotten very dangerous. I'm glad you're ok."
"I'd've been fine, Eon." She replied, swatting at his paw. "But thanks. Both f'the help 'n' all that."
"No problem." Eon turned again, heading over to Bakuda and sniffing at her, taking the moment to memorise the strange scents attached to her. "Yeah, she's out solid. Any idea how long for?"
"Nope. Probably... I'unno, couple hours?" Shadow shrugged. "Might be less. Prolly more, if anything." She yawned. "Urgh, that sucked."
"How much energy did you use?"
"Dunno."
"Ah, excuse me?" All three of them looked over- and somewhat upwards- at the red-costumed Cape, who was hovering somewhat awkwardly in the background.
"Yes?"
"What exactly... did your friend do?"
"Put'er to sleep." Shadow told him, lying on the floor and resting her head on her paws. "Lik'I said, she'll be out a while." She yawned again, then grumbled to her feet when Eon cleared his throat.
"Well, thanks for that." The man replied, before grinning widely at them. "Hey, you're the three that intervened at the bank yesterday, right? The Wards were telling us all about you."
"Yes, that was us." Eon grinned back, careful not to display too many fangs. "I'm glad we were able to help out before things got too bad, both yesterday and today."
"It would've been a bit of a pain to try and chase Bakuda here down in the dark." Assault nodded. "And if she'd escaped, who knows how much more damage she could've done."
"All part of the job, in the end." Eon said, looking up at the sky. "The dark wouldn't have been too much of a bother for us, I think, but it's still difficult to move and fight in the darkness. Speaking of..." He frowned, lashing his tails. Whirls of fire lanced along his body, forming orbs on the blue tail-tips before detaching and floating around them in loose circles, providing a somewhat eerie lilac light for them to see by and throwing sharp shadows on everything.
Assault whistled. "Neat trick. These things hot?" He reached over towards one, careful not to touch it.
"A little, I think. They might Burn you if you touch them, though. That's something Shadow would need to heal, and she's a bit tired right now."
"Side-effect o'the Hypnosis." She muttered, yawning again. "Be alright inna minute'r so."
"I think I'll just avoid touching them." Assault replied, pulling his hand back. "Useful, though, I'd assume?"
"Pretty good, yes. We've used them as lights before. They're technically battle weapons, but what works works." Eon shrugged, before looking at Bakuda again. "I think we'll leave you to deal with our... friend, here. Shadow, at the very least, should be getting home now. She needs a break."
"Not that bad." The Vulpix grumped.
"I'm pretty sure the others want to ask you some questions..." Assault began.
"You all stay up in that building over there, right? The PRT one?" Eon checked, interrupting him. "We'll come to you tomorrow. Or we can find some kind of neutral meeting point, if you'd rather." Assault hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"There's a place called Somer's Rock. It's commonly used by heroes and villains to meet up on neutral ground without fighting. We could meet there around midday?"
"Midday would be fine. I'm sure we can find it." Eon grinned, holding out a paw for him. "Naturally, I'll be bringing my team. Bring yours, if you wish."
"Of course." He agreed, shaking his paw. "We'll handle Bakuda from here."
"Tomorrow, then." Eon nodded, shifting back. "Good evening to you all." With a flick of two of his tails, the Ninetales extinguished the Will-o-Wisps floating around and cloaked the group of three, before picking up Shadow by the scruff of her neck and carrying her into the alleyway, Swarm following alongside. Behind them, there was a muttered exclamation of surprise from Assault, which made him grin, while the other two Capes came over, apparently finished with their discussion.
Eon entertained the thought of stopping to listen for a while, before deciding not too. Shadow needed rest, Swarm needed to get home before her dad worried too badly, and it'd have been rude to eavesdrop on potential allies.
Progressing well into the alleyway, Eon placed Shadow on her paws, shaking his head as he did so.
"Urgh. That... should not be as straining as it was." He grumbled. "That's not good."
"Why?" Swarm asked, crouching down and patting Shadow's back.
"It means I'm gonna end up with a headache if I keep pushing myself with illusions." He replied, curling around the younger fox and girl. "Moves use up a different type of energy to illusions, so while I just get tired using Moves too often, I get headaches and more mental exhaustion from illusions. If it gets too bad, I can't do them anymore."
"Oh. That's... bad."
"I can get you home alright, and it'll be fine after a night of sleep and not needing to make anything, so don't worry." Eon added, nudging her ankle. "But moving Shadow here will be annoying."
"I'll be fine." She yawned, swaying slightly on her feet. Swarm giggled, then lifted Shadow into the air, carrying her in her arms carefully. "Hey!"
"It'll be faster if I carry you back. Both of you can spend the night at my place, I don't think dad'll mind and I need to explain things to him anyway." She sighed, then stiffened. "I mean, unless it bothers you...?"
"'Sokay, I guess." Shadow yawned again, shifting slightly so she was more comfortable. "Eon, y'ok?"
"I'll be fine too." He agreed, pushing himself up and uncurling. "C'mon, let's go, we'll take up that offer of staying overnight if your dad's ok with it, Swarm."
"Sure, no problem. Let's go." Swarm said nervously, her bugs buzzing and twitching in her hair until she forced them to stop, making Eon's job of cloaking them easier. The Ninetales slipped past her, standing close to her side as they walked, staying invisible and doing their best to avoid any of the locations where Bakuda's attack had hit.
Unfortunately, there were quite a number of them.
"Why did you let them leave?" Colin asked lowly of Ethan, while Hannah called for a transport for Bakuda.
"That little fox just took out Bakuda by looking at her." Ethan retorted, waving a hand towards the ABB Cape. "I wasn't going to try forcing her to stay while she had backup. Who knows what the other two might have done? Meeting them at a neutral place tomorrow and letting them bring their entire team with them makes it less likely they'll feel like they're being threatened at all, so we can get some kind of report out of them without needing to worry about them doing something to us if they suddenly felt like they were being threatened for some reason."
"I'm pretty sure they were the kitsune that took out Lung, as well." Hannah said quietly, coming over to them both, keeping an eye on the downed Cape as she did. "Their appearances matched the description that Lung gave. A pair of kitsune, one red one with six tails, and a grey one with nine tails. Plus a girl with some sort of insect control, which is probably the one Lung was fighting in the first place before they intervened." Ethan whistled.
"Wow. You mean the little one took on Lung?" He nodded. "Yeah, I'm leaving that alone, then. If the little one, and probably the weaker one, can take Lung, I don't want to see what the larger one could do if pissed off." Colin paused, apparently just as unsettled by that idea as he was.
"Are you going to take someone else with you to Somer's Rock tomorrow?" Hannah asked.
"If the three of them are coming, I probably should. Fancy joining me, Militia?" Ethan grinned widely as she sighed, her eyes showing mild amusement even so.
"I probably should, just to make sure you don't say something stupid to them." She agreed. "And maybe bring Battery as well. She can keep you under control."
A PRT transport rolled up next to them, dispensing a number of troops with containment foam sprayers who immediately moved Bakuda into the van.
"I suppose we should go get this handled, then." Ethan sighed. "Meet you there." The red Cape bounced off, jumping from wall to wall with enthusiasm. Colin and Hannah traded exasperated glances, then headed over to their own motorcycles, starting them up.
"Keep him from doing anything stupid, please." Colin muttered to her, as they got ready to move off. "I have no wish to see first hand what one of these kitsune could do, let alone one of the Kyuubi if it were annoyed." Hannah shuddered slightly, nodding.
"Battery and I can keep him in line, I think." She promised, before smiling as a thought struck her. "Besides, kitsune and Kyuubi are typically pranksters and tricksters. Who's to say they wouldn't get along with Assault because they share his sense of humour?"
Colin actually slowed down in order to give her a dark look through his visor.