Chapter 28- Canberra, helping, and familiarity
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Eight hours, thirty-five minutes later, the Dragoncraft touched down in Australia, just a little outside of the Canberra Containment Zone. Almost immediately, Eon sighed in relief, closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing for a moment.
"That was not fun." He announced decisively. "Not even slightly."
"Maybe you should try sleeping through it next time?" Shadow, who'd woken up around two hours before and promptly raided the snack bar of the majority of the fruit on there, steadily eating through it. Not that he blamed her, she was about to be using a lot of energy over the course of their work, and he hoped the people running this had thought to bring food for her. "That helped me."
"I'll try that on the way back, assuming you haven't completely given up after healing." He told her.
"Both of you can feel free to rest on the way back to the Bay." Dragon offered, entering the room. "It's highly unlikely that anything would happen to the shuttle."
"Old habits tend to die hard, I'm afraid." Eon admitted, slowly slipping from the couch. The world was spinning slightly, which was annoying, but slow breathing was helping a little. "When you're on the job and travelling, you should always have a team member keeping watch. Two is preferable, but always one."
"I... see." Dragon seemed somewhat startled by that- for some reason- but she looked between the two Team Inari Pokemon and nodded. "Well, are you two ready to go?"
"Certainly."
"All ready to go." Shadow agreed, stepping into the second position. Eon moved back, pushing her with his tails to stand at his side, and chuckled.
"This is your work, Shadow. We're working as equals today."
"Oh. Ok." Shadow blinked, also seeming startled. Eon wasn't surprised by this, since it was a pretty blatant disregarding of normal Rescue Team protocol for official things, but Eon didn't care. This was Shadow's day, not his, and there wasn't any reason to really follow protocol this time. There were no official Guilds or Teams, no outlaws or police to be talking to, the only reason for Eon to be in charge aside from being the nominal team leader, which was barely a consideration when there was only two of them.
"Lead the way, Dragon." Eon gestured slightly to the front of the shuttle. The Tinker nodded, apparently triggering the opening of the door on the back, and the three walked out.
There were three people there to meet them as well, two people in costume that were obviously Capes and a third, in a suit. He introduced himself as a general- someone named Hurley- and started to speak to Dragon, leaving Eon free to ignore things for a moment and examine the Capes.
Shadow was paying attention, she'd fill him in if he missed anything. For today, he was playing bodyguard and backup, more than leader. Though if they asked him to help heal he would, naturally, that wasn't his actual role today. Looking after Shadow would be much more important to him, and that meant scouting out the area to make sure nothing would hurt her. Including the Capes working with them.
They'd had teams betray them on the job before.
The Cape on the left of the group was tall and willowy- a similar build to Taylor, actually- though the man himself was obviously different. He seemed somewhat bored with the entire thing, leaning on a back foot like he wasn't expecting to need to do anything at all, and gazing absently around the area. Poor awareness, perhaps? Eon mused. Or is this person arrogant enough to not consider us a threat at all? I wonder what their power is, in that case. Their costume didn't give any hints; it was quite plain, a form-fitting spandex that emphasised the slight muscularity that he had, mostly blue with bronze highlights, and his helmet covered his head almost completely.
Eon made a note to watch him carefully, just in case he decided to be a problem.
The other Cape, in contrast, was quite bright and bubbly. She seemed young, maybe thirteen or fourteen, and was seated on a literal bubble, bright pink. Her costume was a dress, down just below her knees, in a cheerful green, with a simple domino mask that barely concealed her identity. Red hair brushed her shoulders, blue-green eyes darting around enthusiastically but mostly remaining focused on Shadow. A pair of large, fairy-like wings sat on her back, and as he watched they fluttered, making the bubble sway slightly in the draught. A flier, then, possibly the person who would escort Shadow to wherever the healing was happening. Or possibly it would be going from place to place, which would make the flying Cape's job moving her around.
Which slightly annoyed Eon, from the perspective of guarding Shadow. If she was moving around a lot- and being flown around, specifically- it would make looking after her a lot more difficult. He'd need to find a way to keep up with her, which might be difficult depending on how quickly the female Cape moved around. Most flying Capes moved pretty fast, in his experience- in fact, most flying Pokemon did too. Eon supposed that it was part of the package- so that might be troubling.
"...We've started to move people into set ups in town." The general was saying, when Eon refocused on him. "There's marquees set up to hold people, as many as we can get into one room, we're hoping you'll be able to clear them out from near the door so you can just move from place to place quick. We weren't able to get everyone into the rooms, unfortunately, but once you've worked your magic we'll move them out and into processing centres that we've set up."
"Processing centres?" Shadow asked, tilting her head.
"To get them out of here." He told her. "All of them are registered as Simurgh victims, so we'll need to strike them off the list and help them get back into society again. Canberra's being emptied out, basically, to let the folks get used to living in the real world and to check the place over. It's not been long since the attack, sure, but it'll need doing." Hurley shook his head. "Not my department, luckily, and I don't envy them doing the older zones."
"The Guild are offering help to the governments of the countries with older containment zones." Dragon put forward. "The American government and the PRT are offering their own aid as well, wherever they can."
Hurley looked surprised by this, for some reason, and Eon made a mental note to request information from Dragon on the way back.
"Good of you." He decided finally. "Right, Shadow. Iridessa here will take you over to the first tent, and she'll be acting as your escort around the area too. Thud is going to be helping out with crowd control for the moving people." Hurley looked questioningly at Eon, who swapped a look with Shadow.
"I'll be staying near Shadow's position, making sure that there's no scuffles that might hurt her." He said firmly. "Or attacks, for that matter."
Thud seemed to raise an eyebrow. "You expect us to attack you?"
"Not necessarily." He denied. "But people can do stupid things if they're worried. Or if they're not thinking straight. From what I understand, the Simurgh programs people, yes?" He waited to get a nod from Dragon before he continued, "Who's to say some of that programming doesn't require they attack anyone able to break the Mastering?"
The others- except Shadow, who'd heard this and a thousand other theories while they were making plans for the trip- did a double take.
"We never even thought of that." Dragon murmured, sounding irritated with herself.
Eon shrugged fluidly. "No need to beat yourself up over it. We can't all think of everything, after all. Shadow and I thought about it, Inari worked together to figure out what we could do. As such, I'll stop beside Shadow and make sure she's safe. It's no big deal, really. I can handle it just fine."
"I… see." Hurley nodded slowly. Iridessa just shrugged, flittering her wings to make the pink bubble she was sitting on drift forward, then shuffled slightly and offered her arms to Shadow.
"C'mon, you can fly with me!" She grinned, before looking over Eon. "I… don't know if my bubbles would be strong enough to carry you without me being in contact with it, though."
Eon shrugged, a rippling movement that ended in a small tail lash. "No worries." He easily lied. "I can keep up well enough, and Shadow needs to focus for her healing anyway."
"Yeah, I… kinda followed you guys on PHO with your healing stuff." Iridessa blushed a little. "So I knew from that that healing was a bit hard on Shadow. It's why I volunteered to help out."
"Oh?"
"I thought my power might be useful for transporting you around, since the bubbles move pretty fast even without me using my wings to push further."
Shadow and Eon exchanged a glance, feeling that there was more to it than what was being said by the fairy-like girl, then nodded.
"Thank you." Shadow smiled, stepping forward to let Iridessa lift her up. "Come on, let's get moving. The faster we can get these people out of this situation, the better."
Eon couldn't help but feel proud of his little second as the pair began to move. Always thinking of others... you've grown up a lot, Shadow, but you're still that little kit that only wanted to help people as an adventurer. Shaking himself, he piled up an Agility to make sure he could keep up with them. "Well, you heard her. I expect you'll be getting your first crowd of un-Mastered people soon, General. I'll go and make sure Shadow's safe and that everything works as intended."
"I'll make sure our people know to start getting ready on the paperwork, then." Hurley nodded, saluting them both. "Thank you for your assistance."
"Thank you, General." Eon replied, bowing. "Shadow, since the day we became a team and well before that, only really wanted to help people. She's been a little awestruck with glory a few times, as can only be expected from someone young, but being helpful has always been what she wanted. I'm glad she's able to find ways to keep doing it, even here."
"You keep an eye on that girl, because she'll be getting offers for awards faster than you can blink if she keeps this up."
"Trust me, General." Eon let a bit of fang show in his smile, and was roughly amused when the Brute gulped and stepped back. "I'll never let anything take Shadow off the ground. It's what we do, protect and ground each other. That won't stop, no matter how big our work gets."
Taking a glance over at the pair, who were now in some kind of quiet conversation as they flew towards their destination, Eon gave another bow to the group before hurrying off in long bounds. Given how quickly he was moving compared to them, it wouldn't be too hard to catch them before they reached the first tent, where he could keep an eye on Shadow.
"So, what's the real reason you wanted me to fly with you?" Shadow asked casually, as the two of them floated along on the bubble. It was quite an interesting experience, she found; bobbing up and down slightly while Iridessa fluttered her wings to push them along, the bubble holding their weight perfectly- as could be expected of Parahuman powers, she supposed. It was a shame that there weren't any Pokemon that could do the same thing, at least as far as she knew. Maybe they could suggest it to one of the Water types on their team for them to have a go at replicating. Would be cool, she mused, as Iridessa did a double take. Using bubbles to move about a Dungeon or something. Could maybe use it in escorts too, to keep the client safe out of the way while we walk.
"W-what do you mean?" Iridessa stuttered, her arms tightening slightly around Shadow. They were already wrapped around her, since the Vulpix was sitting in her lap while they floated along, but that was more of a careful enclosure to make sure that she didn't fall if they shifted around on the wind.
"Well, you've been following our work, apparently, so you probably know about how fast me and Eon move around, so you know I don't need someone to carry me over to the place." She pointed out, her tails shifting slightly. "We'd need a guide, sure, but not really a proper lift. So you offered me a lift for some reason other than just being polite or wanting me to get there fine."
"H-how do you know I wasn't just trying to be nice and making sure you didn't get too tired?" Iridessa retorted, a little defensively. Her face under her mask was a little pink, and she shot a glance to one side before refocusing on her flight. "I mean, I know that healing takes a lot of power for you to do, or at least do repeatedly for people! I follow your PHO stuff after all. How do you know I wasn't just trying to keep you from getting too tired early on?"
"That's fair, but there's the fact that you reacted super defensively to what I said, the fact that if you followed us on PHO then you'd know that I always bring stuff to boost my energy when I'm doing big healing runs with Panacea to try and clear out the hospital." Shadow replied. "Plus I can smell that you're embarrassed about something, which I'd assume is the fact that I caught you out."
"Ah!" The fairy-like Cape winced, the bubble shaking a little as she did, then sagged. "Alright, yeah. I did have another reason for wanting you to fly along with me."
"Go on."
"See, I was hoping you could help me with my own medical problems as well, while you're here." She was blushing a little darker now, and Shadow tilted her head a little, moving to bump her head crest reassuringly against her chin. "I… it's not a problem in my Cape ID, because of the bubbles, but when I'm a civilian I'm stuck in a wheelchair a lot of the time. I got hurt a while back, and I'm doing… better, but it's really hard to handle."
"Wouldn't getting healed be suspicious, though?" Shadow asked. "I mean, you'll be getting healed as a Cape, so…"
"It's not that I can't move, it's just difficult to." She explained. "Or, rather, difficult to do a lot of it. I can walk a bit, but not much, I get tired too easily. I'm doing physio to help, but it's really annoying not being able to walk around at home." Iridessa blushed harder. "That… feels kind of silly… I mean… I'm getting better… It's not really like it's something that needs your help…"
"I'm willing to give it, though." Shadow told her gently. "If you're sure. You'll need to remember that you're not supposed to be able to walk, after all. You might find that difficult to do, especially if you keep walking around at home. And there's the physio to think of."
"I… think I don't mind, to be honest." She murmured. "I'd like to be able to walk properly again. I can just pretend that my recovery's suddenly gotten a lot faster or something. I just… I miss being able to go up the stairs and not have to pant for breath at the top. Or being able to walk from the front room to the kitchen without needing to use my chair after only a few steps."
"I think I get that." Shadow said. While she'd not exactly been in that situation, she supposed it was rather like not being able to use her fire. And not like when she was a kid and still learning, like not being able to do it now, when she was a Rescue Pokemon and a Dungeon Explorer. Of course, for Iridessa her Cape activities weren't being affected- she could just float around on her bubbles, while Shadow would have trouble doing her job as an adventurer if she couldn't use her fire. "And yeah, I've got no problem healing you. Just be around when I use my power and you'll be affected by it."
"That won't cause trouble?"
"No, not at all." She shook her head. "It's not that much more energy to heal one person. I've almost definitely healed some of the nurses when I'm working in the hospital, and I know Panacea's been caught on the edges a few times. It's no problem."
"Thank you." The Vulpix smiled gently at the Cape holding her, carefully adjusting how she was sitting to pat her on the arm.
"It's no problem." She assured. "Honestly, I like helping people out- it's why I'm here, after all. There's a lot of people here in this city that need help, and I'm one of the only people here that can help them. Eon can too, but he can't do it as many heals in a row as I can. Plus he struggles a bit using both powers at once, which is what I'm doing… that's why he's a guard and not a healer. But still, I want to help people out, and it'd be bad for my honour as a healer to not offer help to someone who needs it when I'm on a trip to heal people!"
"Still, thank you." Iridessa smiled softly, then looked up. "Ok, this is the place."
'The place' was a large white shape, like a large tent. There was an opening on the side they had landed on, obviously to let her in, and after a moment to let Eon catch up Shadow jumped down from her perch on the bubble, landing elegantly on the floor and slipping in with her two escorts.
"Huh." She managed, after a moment of mildly stunned silence.
The marquee was a lot bigger on the inside than she'd expected. Not just in a 'wow the bit I couldn't see went further than I thought it would' way, but actually definitely bigger-than-it-should-be. The roof was a lot higher up than it should have been as well, and looking around showed her that there were an awful lot of walkways acting as extra levels above them, laid out in a way that her power would still count all of it as a single room.
There must have been at least a thousand people there. Maybe more, from the volume of people shuffling, whispering, nervous and confused, unsure exactly what was going on…
Shadow's tails drooped slightly, curling further inwards. So many people... She'd never healed this many people before. Not in one go, anyway… possibly not at all, even with all the healing she did in Dungeons and when they stopped in towns on their missions. Could she even manage it?
Something heavy draped itself over her back, making her startle and barely contain a yelp. Looking over at Eon, she took a deep breath and smiled, nodding slightly. I'm ok, she promised.
"I didn't expect this." Iridessa admitted quietly, casting her gaze around as well. "I wonder how they did it?"
"Some power like Vista's back home?" Eon suggested. "Or perhaps it's the effect of something Tinker-made. Though if it's the latter I rather wonder how much money was spent on all of this…"
"Well, it's certainly going to help out." Shadow muttered, breathing deeply again. The sudden onset of panic had been a new experience, one that was quickly fading and she wasn't eager to repeat. "There's hundreds of thousands of people in Canberra. It's going to take so long…"
"You'll manage." Eon assured her gently. "Now, we should probably go and inform someone of what we're doing."
Iridessa nodded audibly, the bubbly nature climbing back, and Shadow felt a small spark of her own rising back up.
"I'll go find someone to speak to, give me a sec."
She could do this. She'd healed time and time again before, it was just more people that were relying on her here. Thousands more people, who'd all suffered under the shadow of a beast for months now…
But they were people. There would be more people, soon. More from Canberra, in other tents around the walled off city, more from other walled off cities in other countries, and she and Eon were the only ones who could help them.
Iridessa and her bubble floated back, accompanied by a man in a suit, and another subtle glance at Eon for comfort had him dropping back and her moving forward- a perfect reversal of their normal leader and second.
Explaining everything to him took only a few minutes, and a little more to ensure that everything was set up right. Doors were pinned shut to make walls, an announcement was made about who she was as she was escorted further in- not that it was needed for her powers to work, but no-one wanted to risk someone getting missed- and Shadow closed her eyes, breathing deeply again.
The natural warmth that radiated from the Ninetales was familiar, and for a moment she could almost pretend she was back home, back in a Dungeon somewhere, and all that was waiting for her was her team, needing a quick healing after a difficult fight- maybe a Monster House, or some combat rite against a Legendary.
The loud howl came easily after that.
Taylor drifted easily around the Inari Den, a part of her mind on the spiders she was weaving with while the rest of her paid attention to her dad, guiding him around the small complex her team mates were working on building. It wasn't really much, at least compared to the stories she'd heard of the Den back on their world; a sleeping-room, with a few boxes for important things, like Shadow's bag and some of their money, a main storage block, which held Berries and a good chunk of the money, a few carefully hidden bags webbed in the trees containing more of their money, the new addition of a large loom for her spiders to work on with a box containing the flies, and the large garden a little ways away that had been made out of a powerful spring they'd been lucky enough to find. A stack of wood sat at one side, quite small, and a firepit in the middle of the clearing explained why it was there, and another pile of branches was sitting further away, set aside for some other project.
Compared to the stories she'd heard of Inari's Den on their world, of a massive sprawling complex of wood and stone that climbed four stories into the air and had another level below ground- plus the large open sparring area for when team members didn't want to go to one of the public grounds- Taylor couldn't help but feel the stirrings of… something. She wasn't sure what; pity, at the two Pokemon who led her team's sacrifices? Sorrow, that they'd had to give up what they'd built to come and help Earth Bet? Amazement and joy that they had done that, not knowing anything about where they were going or even why before they landed?
Taylor had no idea what exactly she was feeling, but she knew she was glad that the two of them had done what they'd done, and that she'd been lucky enough to meet them on that first night.
Right now, though, she and her father were wandering about in the Berry fields, carefully looking over the bushes to see if any of them were fully grown. Those that were were picked and placed into one of the silk bags. Usually they were sorted by effect- or at least, Taylor thought they were- but neither of them really knew what most of the Berries did, so instead they looked through the bags for one that looked to be around the same shape and put them in the same bag. Taylor was pretty sure they were doing it right, because the Berries did look the same… though if they were wrong then at least Shadow and Eon would be able to help them put things in the right place again.
"How on Earth did the two of them set all this up in so little time?" Danny asked, part way through picking the Berries off of a particularly fruitful Leppa tree.
"These trees are weird." Taylor explained. "The Berries grow to full in only a few days, I think the longest is about a week long. Back on their original planet they're even quicker. I'm pretty sure they brought a ton of things with them when they decided to come here, and they've just been growing them ever since. Plus there's a lot of Berries on all of these, so it's easy to plant more." She paused, tugging a stubborn Iapapa Berry from it's branch, then continued, "They've probably been replanting most of these to get more, which is why we've got all of this. I mean I can't blame them, it's really helpful."
"They are, yes." Danny nodded. "Most of these are healing of some kind, aren't they?"
"I think so." She thought back. "I think they're a lot of healing Berries, but a good number of these boost their ability to do things, like temporarily making them faster or making their attacks more powerful. It's like some of their Moves, but I think the effect lasts for less time? Or something like that, anyway. It's been a while, and since I can't use them I don't really remember everything they said."
Danny opened his mouth, and Taylor winced. "Yes, I know I should," she cut him off, "It was just a bit hard. Everything was still so new and I was a little bit distracted by the fact that the kitsune that had beaten Lung a few days ago wanted me on their team. I've been doing my best to learn everything I missed that time, though it's a bit difficult." She swept a hand around the field. "There's a lot of Berries to learn. I've basically just been focusing on the healing ones, and making sure I can grab some of the booster Berries if some kind of emergency comes up that means Shadow or Eon needs one." She paused again. "Then again, they don't really carry many Berries around with them. Leppa and Sitrus for healing, sometimes some Oran for smaller heals, but that's usually about it, really. I guess they don't want to accidentally waste some of the booster Berries on things? Or maybe they just don't like carrying them around too much. I know that bag of Eon's is ridiculously big on the inside, but I also know they don't like using too much storage at once, so…"
"Why is that, exactly?"
"Something to do with the Dungeons." Taylor explained. "Dungeons seem to randomly have items lying around in them, so teams like Inari get into the habit of not carrying more than the absolute essentials around with them, in order to make sure they have enough space in their bags for anything interesting or potentially valuable they find."
"Surely they could just take more bags?"
"Well, yeah, but that gets burdensome. Too many bags makes it difficult to manoeuvre around the Dungeon, and in fights it gets harder to dodge. Plus the bags can get damaged in fights. I think Shadow said Inari usually has one of their members acting as a carrier, usually one of the larger Pokemon, so that they can have a few more bags, but it's still a habit to carry as little as they can get away with to make sure they have room."
"Fair enough, I suppose." Danny hummed. The pair lapsed into silence for a little while, going back to focusing on the Berry field. Taylor also put a little more focus onto the spiders at the Den, making sure that the weaving was going as intended. Hopefully pretty soon she'd have enough silk made up to give to Parian for her work, which would be nice. Despite the conversation only being quite short, Taylor had rather liked the Rogue, and she was glad to be able to help her out in some way that didn't involve fighting.
A lot of Parahumans only seemed to be capable of fighting, so it was nice to be a part of more peaceful things, like Parian's shop or Inari's anti-Simurgh efforts.
She hoped Shadow was doing ok…
Shadow sagged a little in exhaustion as the energy pulse rippled through the room, taking with it all of the lingering Master effects on the people there. Iridessa immediately floated off to help organise the people in the tent, while Eon stepped forward slightly, letting his second-in-command lean against him.
"Thanks." She muttered, closing her eyes and listening to the steady sound of people walking.
"No problem, pix." He said, just as softly. One tail curled around her side to keep her close, and she couldn't help but relax a little. "You should take a break. There's no good in overworking yourself for this."
"No, I... well, I think I can do one or two more." She argued. "I'll definitely need to rest then, that's for sure, but I think I can handle doing a couple more tents."
"Shadow, you must've done thousands of people by now. Maybe more." Eon scolded. "And it's only been what, an hour? Two? You've used up so many healing combos that I'm surprised the Leppa Berries are still having an effect."
"It's close cut." Shadow admitted reluctantly. "They're starting to get to the point where it's not doing anything at all."
"So yes, you need a break." He sighed. "I'll let you do one more, then we'll tell Iridessa and one of the government people that you need to rest for a while before you can do anything more. See if Dragon can bring food from the craft, and we'll find a place for you to take another nap before we continue on."
The Vulpix slowly nodded, wanting to argue but knowing that her team leader had a point. If she kept going like she was, only using the Berries and Max Elixirs to keep her energy up, then pretty soon they'd stop working altogether and she would crash. It was better to take a break now, while she still had some energy left to recover, so that she would recover faster and be able to get back to things.
"Alright." She acquiesced. "We'll do that. Don't... don't let me sleep too long, though. I don't really want to be sleeping when there's still people to help..."
"But you can't be helping people if you don't have the power." Eon reminded her. "Tell you what. If you'd like, and you're willing to trust her, we'll ask Iridessa to keep an eye on you and I'll have a go at clearing out a few of the tents. That way Inari's still clearing out some of the tents, but you're able to recover."
"Are you gonna be able to do it?" Shadow cracked open an eye to look at him. He nodded.
"I should be able to. It's a bit of a mental trick for me to do what you do, but I've done it quite a few times, so I don't see why I wouldn't be able to do it again. I'd likely not be able to do it as many times as you, but I can still do it a few times, so you can rest a while."
"...I think I trust her enough." Shadow decided. "I mean, she'd only be carrying me about with you, so it's not like you'd be far away."
"Then you'll do one more tent, and then we'll ask her." Eon settled, patting her back with his tail-tip. "Get as much of a break as you can now, too, so that it's easier for you to recover after this next tent."
Shadow hummed in agreement, closing her eye again and leaning a little closer to Eon. It was almost warm enough to fall asleep, sort of like when they were in Dungeons and all curled up together to rest, taking turns sitting on guard in a group of fur and fluff and skin.
Again, if it hadn't been for the volume, the loud chorus of excited people moving towards freedom, it would've been easy to pretend she was back home. Maybe not even back home in a Dungeon with Inari; the warmth and curl of fur could almost be her and her siblings, curled up in front of the living room fire, listening to Momma or Gram telling Talekeeper stories, enthralled and at the time believing wholeheartedly that she would be doing that someday, telling stories that had been in the family so long that some people forgot where they even came from. The crowds of people could almost fade away into the background, becoming nothing but the noise of her siblings shuffling around, claws scratching slightly on the floor as they got more comfortable, or Pa working on something in the back of the room and listening with half an ear.
It's kind of odd. Shadow mused sleepily. How quickly some things have become familiar.
Because it was also the sound of her and Taylor and Eon sitting in the Den after a patrol, Eon letting himself be used as a sort of backrest because of the warmth of his internal fire, discussing what went well and what didn't before walking Taylor back to her house.
It's odd how quickly some things can become a part of home.
"That was not fun." He announced decisively. "Not even slightly."
"Maybe you should try sleeping through it next time?" Shadow, who'd woken up around two hours before and promptly raided the snack bar of the majority of the fruit on there, steadily eating through it. Not that he blamed her, she was about to be using a lot of energy over the course of their work, and he hoped the people running this had thought to bring food for her. "That helped me."
"I'll try that on the way back, assuming you haven't completely given up after healing." He told her.
"Both of you can feel free to rest on the way back to the Bay." Dragon offered, entering the room. "It's highly unlikely that anything would happen to the shuttle."
"Old habits tend to die hard, I'm afraid." Eon admitted, slowly slipping from the couch. The world was spinning slightly, which was annoying, but slow breathing was helping a little. "When you're on the job and travelling, you should always have a team member keeping watch. Two is preferable, but always one."
"I... see." Dragon seemed somewhat startled by that- for some reason- but she looked between the two Team Inari Pokemon and nodded. "Well, are you two ready to go?"
"Certainly."
"All ready to go." Shadow agreed, stepping into the second position. Eon moved back, pushing her with his tails to stand at his side, and chuckled.
"This is your work, Shadow. We're working as equals today."
"Oh. Ok." Shadow blinked, also seeming startled. Eon wasn't surprised by this, since it was a pretty blatant disregarding of normal Rescue Team protocol for official things, but Eon didn't care. This was Shadow's day, not his, and there wasn't any reason to really follow protocol this time. There were no official Guilds or Teams, no outlaws or police to be talking to, the only reason for Eon to be in charge aside from being the nominal team leader, which was barely a consideration when there was only two of them.
"Lead the way, Dragon." Eon gestured slightly to the front of the shuttle. The Tinker nodded, apparently triggering the opening of the door on the back, and the three walked out.
There were three people there to meet them as well, two people in costume that were obviously Capes and a third, in a suit. He introduced himself as a general- someone named Hurley- and started to speak to Dragon, leaving Eon free to ignore things for a moment and examine the Capes.
Shadow was paying attention, she'd fill him in if he missed anything. For today, he was playing bodyguard and backup, more than leader. Though if they asked him to help heal he would, naturally, that wasn't his actual role today. Looking after Shadow would be much more important to him, and that meant scouting out the area to make sure nothing would hurt her. Including the Capes working with them.
They'd had teams betray them on the job before.
The Cape on the left of the group was tall and willowy- a similar build to Taylor, actually- though the man himself was obviously different. He seemed somewhat bored with the entire thing, leaning on a back foot like he wasn't expecting to need to do anything at all, and gazing absently around the area. Poor awareness, perhaps? Eon mused. Or is this person arrogant enough to not consider us a threat at all? I wonder what their power is, in that case. Their costume didn't give any hints; it was quite plain, a form-fitting spandex that emphasised the slight muscularity that he had, mostly blue with bronze highlights, and his helmet covered his head almost completely.
Eon made a note to watch him carefully, just in case he decided to be a problem.
The other Cape, in contrast, was quite bright and bubbly. She seemed young, maybe thirteen or fourteen, and was seated on a literal bubble, bright pink. Her costume was a dress, down just below her knees, in a cheerful green, with a simple domino mask that barely concealed her identity. Red hair brushed her shoulders, blue-green eyes darting around enthusiastically but mostly remaining focused on Shadow. A pair of large, fairy-like wings sat on her back, and as he watched they fluttered, making the bubble sway slightly in the draught. A flier, then, possibly the person who would escort Shadow to wherever the healing was happening. Or possibly it would be going from place to place, which would make the flying Cape's job moving her around.
Which slightly annoyed Eon, from the perspective of guarding Shadow. If she was moving around a lot- and being flown around, specifically- it would make looking after her a lot more difficult. He'd need to find a way to keep up with her, which might be difficult depending on how quickly the female Cape moved around. Most flying Capes moved pretty fast, in his experience- in fact, most flying Pokemon did too. Eon supposed that it was part of the package- so that might be troubling.
"...We've started to move people into set ups in town." The general was saying, when Eon refocused on him. "There's marquees set up to hold people, as many as we can get into one room, we're hoping you'll be able to clear them out from near the door so you can just move from place to place quick. We weren't able to get everyone into the rooms, unfortunately, but once you've worked your magic we'll move them out and into processing centres that we've set up."
"Processing centres?" Shadow asked, tilting her head.
"To get them out of here." He told her. "All of them are registered as Simurgh victims, so we'll need to strike them off the list and help them get back into society again. Canberra's being emptied out, basically, to let the folks get used to living in the real world and to check the place over. It's not been long since the attack, sure, but it'll need doing." Hurley shook his head. "Not my department, luckily, and I don't envy them doing the older zones."
"The Guild are offering help to the governments of the countries with older containment zones." Dragon put forward. "The American government and the PRT are offering their own aid as well, wherever they can."
Hurley looked surprised by this, for some reason, and Eon made a mental note to request information from Dragon on the way back.
"Good of you." He decided finally. "Right, Shadow. Iridessa here will take you over to the first tent, and she'll be acting as your escort around the area too. Thud is going to be helping out with crowd control for the moving people." Hurley looked questioningly at Eon, who swapped a look with Shadow.
"I'll be staying near Shadow's position, making sure that there's no scuffles that might hurt her." He said firmly. "Or attacks, for that matter."
Thud seemed to raise an eyebrow. "You expect us to attack you?"
"Not necessarily." He denied. "But people can do stupid things if they're worried. Or if they're not thinking straight. From what I understand, the Simurgh programs people, yes?" He waited to get a nod from Dragon before he continued, "Who's to say some of that programming doesn't require they attack anyone able to break the Mastering?"
The others- except Shadow, who'd heard this and a thousand other theories while they were making plans for the trip- did a double take.
"We never even thought of that." Dragon murmured, sounding irritated with herself.
Eon shrugged fluidly. "No need to beat yourself up over it. We can't all think of everything, after all. Shadow and I thought about it, Inari worked together to figure out what we could do. As such, I'll stop beside Shadow and make sure she's safe. It's no big deal, really. I can handle it just fine."
"I… see." Hurley nodded slowly. Iridessa just shrugged, flittering her wings to make the pink bubble she was sitting on drift forward, then shuffled slightly and offered her arms to Shadow.
"C'mon, you can fly with me!" She grinned, before looking over Eon. "I… don't know if my bubbles would be strong enough to carry you without me being in contact with it, though."
Eon shrugged, a rippling movement that ended in a small tail lash. "No worries." He easily lied. "I can keep up well enough, and Shadow needs to focus for her healing anyway."
"Yeah, I… kinda followed you guys on PHO with your healing stuff." Iridessa blushed a little. "So I knew from that that healing was a bit hard on Shadow. It's why I volunteered to help out."
"Oh?"
"I thought my power might be useful for transporting you around, since the bubbles move pretty fast even without me using my wings to push further."
Shadow and Eon exchanged a glance, feeling that there was more to it than what was being said by the fairy-like girl, then nodded.
"Thank you." Shadow smiled, stepping forward to let Iridessa lift her up. "Come on, let's get moving. The faster we can get these people out of this situation, the better."
Eon couldn't help but feel proud of his little second as the pair began to move. Always thinking of others... you've grown up a lot, Shadow, but you're still that little kit that only wanted to help people as an adventurer. Shaking himself, he piled up an Agility to make sure he could keep up with them. "Well, you heard her. I expect you'll be getting your first crowd of un-Mastered people soon, General. I'll go and make sure Shadow's safe and that everything works as intended."
"I'll make sure our people know to start getting ready on the paperwork, then." Hurley nodded, saluting them both. "Thank you for your assistance."
"Thank you, General." Eon replied, bowing. "Shadow, since the day we became a team and well before that, only really wanted to help people. She's been a little awestruck with glory a few times, as can only be expected from someone young, but being helpful has always been what she wanted. I'm glad she's able to find ways to keep doing it, even here."
"You keep an eye on that girl, because she'll be getting offers for awards faster than you can blink if she keeps this up."
"Trust me, General." Eon let a bit of fang show in his smile, and was roughly amused when the Brute gulped and stepped back. "I'll never let anything take Shadow off the ground. It's what we do, protect and ground each other. That won't stop, no matter how big our work gets."
Taking a glance over at the pair, who were now in some kind of quiet conversation as they flew towards their destination, Eon gave another bow to the group before hurrying off in long bounds. Given how quickly he was moving compared to them, it wouldn't be too hard to catch them before they reached the first tent, where he could keep an eye on Shadow.
"So, what's the real reason you wanted me to fly with you?" Shadow asked casually, as the two of them floated along on the bubble. It was quite an interesting experience, she found; bobbing up and down slightly while Iridessa fluttered her wings to push them along, the bubble holding their weight perfectly- as could be expected of Parahuman powers, she supposed. It was a shame that there weren't any Pokemon that could do the same thing, at least as far as she knew. Maybe they could suggest it to one of the Water types on their team for them to have a go at replicating. Would be cool, she mused, as Iridessa did a double take. Using bubbles to move about a Dungeon or something. Could maybe use it in escorts too, to keep the client safe out of the way while we walk.
"W-what do you mean?" Iridessa stuttered, her arms tightening slightly around Shadow. They were already wrapped around her, since the Vulpix was sitting in her lap while they floated along, but that was more of a careful enclosure to make sure that she didn't fall if they shifted around on the wind.
"Well, you've been following our work, apparently, so you probably know about how fast me and Eon move around, so you know I don't need someone to carry me over to the place." She pointed out, her tails shifting slightly. "We'd need a guide, sure, but not really a proper lift. So you offered me a lift for some reason other than just being polite or wanting me to get there fine."
"H-how do you know I wasn't just trying to be nice and making sure you didn't get too tired?" Iridessa retorted, a little defensively. Her face under her mask was a little pink, and she shot a glance to one side before refocusing on her flight. "I mean, I know that healing takes a lot of power for you to do, or at least do repeatedly for people! I follow your PHO stuff after all. How do you know I wasn't just trying to keep you from getting too tired early on?"
"That's fair, but there's the fact that you reacted super defensively to what I said, the fact that if you followed us on PHO then you'd know that I always bring stuff to boost my energy when I'm doing big healing runs with Panacea to try and clear out the hospital." Shadow replied. "Plus I can smell that you're embarrassed about something, which I'd assume is the fact that I caught you out."
"Ah!" The fairy-like Cape winced, the bubble shaking a little as she did, then sagged. "Alright, yeah. I did have another reason for wanting you to fly along with me."
"Go on."
"See, I was hoping you could help me with my own medical problems as well, while you're here." She was blushing a little darker now, and Shadow tilted her head a little, moving to bump her head crest reassuringly against her chin. "I… it's not a problem in my Cape ID, because of the bubbles, but when I'm a civilian I'm stuck in a wheelchair a lot of the time. I got hurt a while back, and I'm doing… better, but it's really hard to handle."
"Wouldn't getting healed be suspicious, though?" Shadow asked. "I mean, you'll be getting healed as a Cape, so…"
"It's not that I can't move, it's just difficult to." She explained. "Or, rather, difficult to do a lot of it. I can walk a bit, but not much, I get tired too easily. I'm doing physio to help, but it's really annoying not being able to walk around at home." Iridessa blushed harder. "That… feels kind of silly… I mean… I'm getting better… It's not really like it's something that needs your help…"
"I'm willing to give it, though." Shadow told her gently. "If you're sure. You'll need to remember that you're not supposed to be able to walk, after all. You might find that difficult to do, especially if you keep walking around at home. And there's the physio to think of."
"I… think I don't mind, to be honest." She murmured. "I'd like to be able to walk properly again. I can just pretend that my recovery's suddenly gotten a lot faster or something. I just… I miss being able to go up the stairs and not have to pant for breath at the top. Or being able to walk from the front room to the kitchen without needing to use my chair after only a few steps."
"I think I get that." Shadow said. While she'd not exactly been in that situation, she supposed it was rather like not being able to use her fire. And not like when she was a kid and still learning, like not being able to do it now, when she was a Rescue Pokemon and a Dungeon Explorer. Of course, for Iridessa her Cape activities weren't being affected- she could just float around on her bubbles, while Shadow would have trouble doing her job as an adventurer if she couldn't use her fire. "And yeah, I've got no problem healing you. Just be around when I use my power and you'll be affected by it."
"That won't cause trouble?"
"No, not at all." She shook her head. "It's not that much more energy to heal one person. I've almost definitely healed some of the nurses when I'm working in the hospital, and I know Panacea's been caught on the edges a few times. It's no problem."
"Thank you." The Vulpix smiled gently at the Cape holding her, carefully adjusting how she was sitting to pat her on the arm.
"It's no problem." She assured. "Honestly, I like helping people out- it's why I'm here, after all. There's a lot of people here in this city that need help, and I'm one of the only people here that can help them. Eon can too, but he can't do it as many heals in a row as I can. Plus he struggles a bit using both powers at once, which is what I'm doing… that's why he's a guard and not a healer. But still, I want to help people out, and it'd be bad for my honour as a healer to not offer help to someone who needs it when I'm on a trip to heal people!"
"Still, thank you." Iridessa smiled softly, then looked up. "Ok, this is the place."
'The place' was a large white shape, like a large tent. There was an opening on the side they had landed on, obviously to let her in, and after a moment to let Eon catch up Shadow jumped down from her perch on the bubble, landing elegantly on the floor and slipping in with her two escorts.
"Huh." She managed, after a moment of mildly stunned silence.
The marquee was a lot bigger on the inside than she'd expected. Not just in a 'wow the bit I couldn't see went further than I thought it would' way, but actually definitely bigger-than-it-should-be. The roof was a lot higher up than it should have been as well, and looking around showed her that there were an awful lot of walkways acting as extra levels above them, laid out in a way that her power would still count all of it as a single room.
There must have been at least a thousand people there. Maybe more, from the volume of people shuffling, whispering, nervous and confused, unsure exactly what was going on…
Shadow's tails drooped slightly, curling further inwards. So many people... She'd never healed this many people before. Not in one go, anyway… possibly not at all, even with all the healing she did in Dungeons and when they stopped in towns on their missions. Could she even manage it?
Something heavy draped itself over her back, making her startle and barely contain a yelp. Looking over at Eon, she took a deep breath and smiled, nodding slightly. I'm ok, she promised.
"I didn't expect this." Iridessa admitted quietly, casting her gaze around as well. "I wonder how they did it?"
"Some power like Vista's back home?" Eon suggested. "Or perhaps it's the effect of something Tinker-made. Though if it's the latter I rather wonder how much money was spent on all of this…"
"Well, it's certainly going to help out." Shadow muttered, breathing deeply again. The sudden onset of panic had been a new experience, one that was quickly fading and she wasn't eager to repeat. "There's hundreds of thousands of people in Canberra. It's going to take so long…"
"You'll manage." Eon assured her gently. "Now, we should probably go and inform someone of what we're doing."
Iridessa nodded audibly, the bubbly nature climbing back, and Shadow felt a small spark of her own rising back up.
"I'll go find someone to speak to, give me a sec."
She could do this. She'd healed time and time again before, it was just more people that were relying on her here. Thousands more people, who'd all suffered under the shadow of a beast for months now…
But they were people. There would be more people, soon. More from Canberra, in other tents around the walled off city, more from other walled off cities in other countries, and she and Eon were the only ones who could help them.
Iridessa and her bubble floated back, accompanied by a man in a suit, and another subtle glance at Eon for comfort had him dropping back and her moving forward- a perfect reversal of their normal leader and second.
Explaining everything to him took only a few minutes, and a little more to ensure that everything was set up right. Doors were pinned shut to make walls, an announcement was made about who she was as she was escorted further in- not that it was needed for her powers to work, but no-one wanted to risk someone getting missed- and Shadow closed her eyes, breathing deeply again.
The natural warmth that radiated from the Ninetales was familiar, and for a moment she could almost pretend she was back home, back in a Dungeon somewhere, and all that was waiting for her was her team, needing a quick healing after a difficult fight- maybe a Monster House, or some combat rite against a Legendary.
The loud howl came easily after that.
Taylor drifted easily around the Inari Den, a part of her mind on the spiders she was weaving with while the rest of her paid attention to her dad, guiding him around the small complex her team mates were working on building. It wasn't really much, at least compared to the stories she'd heard of the Den back on their world; a sleeping-room, with a few boxes for important things, like Shadow's bag and some of their money, a main storage block, which held Berries and a good chunk of the money, a few carefully hidden bags webbed in the trees containing more of their money, the new addition of a large loom for her spiders to work on with a box containing the flies, and the large garden a little ways away that had been made out of a powerful spring they'd been lucky enough to find. A stack of wood sat at one side, quite small, and a firepit in the middle of the clearing explained why it was there, and another pile of branches was sitting further away, set aside for some other project.
Compared to the stories she'd heard of Inari's Den on their world, of a massive sprawling complex of wood and stone that climbed four stories into the air and had another level below ground- plus the large open sparring area for when team members didn't want to go to one of the public grounds- Taylor couldn't help but feel the stirrings of… something. She wasn't sure what; pity, at the two Pokemon who led her team's sacrifices? Sorrow, that they'd had to give up what they'd built to come and help Earth Bet? Amazement and joy that they had done that, not knowing anything about where they were going or even why before they landed?
Taylor had no idea what exactly she was feeling, but she knew she was glad that the two of them had done what they'd done, and that she'd been lucky enough to meet them on that first night.
Right now, though, she and her father were wandering about in the Berry fields, carefully looking over the bushes to see if any of them were fully grown. Those that were were picked and placed into one of the silk bags. Usually they were sorted by effect- or at least, Taylor thought they were- but neither of them really knew what most of the Berries did, so instead they looked through the bags for one that looked to be around the same shape and put them in the same bag. Taylor was pretty sure they were doing it right, because the Berries did look the same… though if they were wrong then at least Shadow and Eon would be able to help them put things in the right place again.
"How on Earth did the two of them set all this up in so little time?" Danny asked, part way through picking the Berries off of a particularly fruitful Leppa tree.
"These trees are weird." Taylor explained. "The Berries grow to full in only a few days, I think the longest is about a week long. Back on their original planet they're even quicker. I'm pretty sure they brought a ton of things with them when they decided to come here, and they've just been growing them ever since. Plus there's a lot of Berries on all of these, so it's easy to plant more." She paused, tugging a stubborn Iapapa Berry from it's branch, then continued, "They've probably been replanting most of these to get more, which is why we've got all of this. I mean I can't blame them, it's really helpful."
"They are, yes." Danny nodded. "Most of these are healing of some kind, aren't they?"
"I think so." She thought back. "I think they're a lot of healing Berries, but a good number of these boost their ability to do things, like temporarily making them faster or making their attacks more powerful. It's like some of their Moves, but I think the effect lasts for less time? Or something like that, anyway. It's been a while, and since I can't use them I don't really remember everything they said."
Danny opened his mouth, and Taylor winced. "Yes, I know I should," she cut him off, "It was just a bit hard. Everything was still so new and I was a little bit distracted by the fact that the kitsune that had beaten Lung a few days ago wanted me on their team. I've been doing my best to learn everything I missed that time, though it's a bit difficult." She swept a hand around the field. "There's a lot of Berries to learn. I've basically just been focusing on the healing ones, and making sure I can grab some of the booster Berries if some kind of emergency comes up that means Shadow or Eon needs one." She paused again. "Then again, they don't really carry many Berries around with them. Leppa and Sitrus for healing, sometimes some Oran for smaller heals, but that's usually about it, really. I guess they don't want to accidentally waste some of the booster Berries on things? Or maybe they just don't like carrying them around too much. I know that bag of Eon's is ridiculously big on the inside, but I also know they don't like using too much storage at once, so…"
"Why is that, exactly?"
"Something to do with the Dungeons." Taylor explained. "Dungeons seem to randomly have items lying around in them, so teams like Inari get into the habit of not carrying more than the absolute essentials around with them, in order to make sure they have enough space in their bags for anything interesting or potentially valuable they find."
"Surely they could just take more bags?"
"Well, yeah, but that gets burdensome. Too many bags makes it difficult to manoeuvre around the Dungeon, and in fights it gets harder to dodge. Plus the bags can get damaged in fights. I think Shadow said Inari usually has one of their members acting as a carrier, usually one of the larger Pokemon, so that they can have a few more bags, but it's still a habit to carry as little as they can get away with to make sure they have room."
"Fair enough, I suppose." Danny hummed. The pair lapsed into silence for a little while, going back to focusing on the Berry field. Taylor also put a little more focus onto the spiders at the Den, making sure that the weaving was going as intended. Hopefully pretty soon she'd have enough silk made up to give to Parian for her work, which would be nice. Despite the conversation only being quite short, Taylor had rather liked the Rogue, and she was glad to be able to help her out in some way that didn't involve fighting.
A lot of Parahumans only seemed to be capable of fighting, so it was nice to be a part of more peaceful things, like Parian's shop or Inari's anti-Simurgh efforts.
She hoped Shadow was doing ok…
Shadow sagged a little in exhaustion as the energy pulse rippled through the room, taking with it all of the lingering Master effects on the people there. Iridessa immediately floated off to help organise the people in the tent, while Eon stepped forward slightly, letting his second-in-command lean against him.
"Thanks." She muttered, closing her eyes and listening to the steady sound of people walking.
"No problem, pix." He said, just as softly. One tail curled around her side to keep her close, and she couldn't help but relax a little. "You should take a break. There's no good in overworking yourself for this."
"No, I... well, I think I can do one or two more." She argued. "I'll definitely need to rest then, that's for sure, but I think I can handle doing a couple more tents."
"Shadow, you must've done thousands of people by now. Maybe more." Eon scolded. "And it's only been what, an hour? Two? You've used up so many healing combos that I'm surprised the Leppa Berries are still having an effect."
"It's close cut." Shadow admitted reluctantly. "They're starting to get to the point where it's not doing anything at all."
"So yes, you need a break." He sighed. "I'll let you do one more, then we'll tell Iridessa and one of the government people that you need to rest for a while before you can do anything more. See if Dragon can bring food from the craft, and we'll find a place for you to take another nap before we continue on."
The Vulpix slowly nodded, wanting to argue but knowing that her team leader had a point. If she kept going like she was, only using the Berries and Max Elixirs to keep her energy up, then pretty soon they'd stop working altogether and she would crash. It was better to take a break now, while she still had some energy left to recover, so that she would recover faster and be able to get back to things.
"Alright." She acquiesced. "We'll do that. Don't... don't let me sleep too long, though. I don't really want to be sleeping when there's still people to help..."
"But you can't be helping people if you don't have the power." Eon reminded her. "Tell you what. If you'd like, and you're willing to trust her, we'll ask Iridessa to keep an eye on you and I'll have a go at clearing out a few of the tents. That way Inari's still clearing out some of the tents, but you're able to recover."
"Are you gonna be able to do it?" Shadow cracked open an eye to look at him. He nodded.
"I should be able to. It's a bit of a mental trick for me to do what you do, but I've done it quite a few times, so I don't see why I wouldn't be able to do it again. I'd likely not be able to do it as many times as you, but I can still do it a few times, so you can rest a while."
"...I think I trust her enough." Shadow decided. "I mean, she'd only be carrying me about with you, so it's not like you'd be far away."
"Then you'll do one more tent, and then we'll ask her." Eon settled, patting her back with his tail-tip. "Get as much of a break as you can now, too, so that it's easier for you to recover after this next tent."
Shadow hummed in agreement, closing her eye again and leaning a little closer to Eon. It was almost warm enough to fall asleep, sort of like when they were in Dungeons and all curled up together to rest, taking turns sitting on guard in a group of fur and fluff and skin.
Again, if it hadn't been for the volume, the loud chorus of excited people moving towards freedom, it would've been easy to pretend she was back home. Maybe not even back home in a Dungeon with Inari; the warmth and curl of fur could almost be her and her siblings, curled up in front of the living room fire, listening to Momma or Gram telling Talekeeper stories, enthralled and at the time believing wholeheartedly that she would be doing that someday, telling stories that had been in the family so long that some people forgot where they even came from. The crowds of people could almost fade away into the background, becoming nothing but the noise of her siblings shuffling around, claws scratching slightly on the floor as they got more comfortable, or Pa working on something in the back of the room and listening with half an ear.
It's kind of odd. Shadow mused sleepily. How quickly some things have become familiar.
Because it was also the sound of her and Taylor and Eon sitting in the Den after a patrol, Eon letting himself be used as a sort of backrest because of the warmth of his internal fire, discussing what went well and what didn't before walking Taylor back to her house.
It's odd how quickly some things can become a part of home.
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