Chapter Text
Hisui was a harsh and untamed land, only thinly populated by humans. Filled with toxic mirelands, deep and treacherous waters, forests that seemed to go on forever, towering cliffs and steep ravines, and freezing tundras. Most of all, it was home to what were thought to be the most fearsome Pokémon in the known world.
But amidst this darkness, a Galaxy was forming.
It was just a small rural village, started by two men after their old home was left in ruins. They were the sole survivors, bearing scars on their skin and a far-off, haunted look in their eyes, but a flicker of hope in their hearts.
The Security Corps would defend the village. The Medical Corps would treat the wounded and prepare medicine. The Supply Corps would collect and allocate material goods. The Agriculture Corps would produce crops and maintain pastures of Pokémon. The Construction Corps were responsible for building and setting up base camps.
And the Survey Corps would be the ones to face Pokémon in battle and devote themselves to Pokémon study, human expansion, and outside exploration. They were the face of the Galaxy Team, and in them lay the faint hope of Pokémon and humans living in harmony.
As Jubilife was barely even large enough to be called a village when it was formed, the Galaxy Team opened itself to prospective members from anywhere in the world, age thirteen and older. It was steadily growing within a short time, mostly made up of young adults from other regions who had just left home. Brave, intelligent, and inspirited people, like shining stars in a world of darkness.
Cyllene had left her position as a swordswoman for hire in Hoenn for this. She had been trained in the art of the sword from age eight, and was put to work practically the moment she turned thirteen. The villages and ports of Hoenn had dire need of it, after all, as the region was rife with pirates, bandits, and marauders. Cyllene had lived by the blade for as long as she could remember, and thought one day she would eventually die by it. But even while she had been growing up, samurai had been on the decline, according to her arms instructor Ruta, who was a former samurai herself. Eventually, people started to turn to Pokémon as weapons instead, and the invention of the Poké Ball had been what ultimately ushered in this new era, effectively obsoleting traditional blades and firearms.
But Cyllene could adapt. She had to, ever since she had lost her parents, and anyone who lived in Hoenn did, as there were dangers around every corner. Even if her specialty was being lost to time, this could be a suitable replacement. In her experience with her Abra, she had gained something of an understanding of Pokémon behavior, and it was apparently impressive enough to Commander Kamado that he made her Captain of the Survey Corps. Besides that, she needed only a willingness to take orders without question and give them without faltering, and with that, she now had new work, a new home, and a new life.
The new recruits to the Survey Corps stood side by side at the Training Grounds, Poké Balls in hand, as the now-Captain Cyllene stood before them. Beside her was Captain Zisu of the Security Corps, a powerfully built woman with a jovial smile and her hands on her hips.
“Good afternoon, recruits,” Cyllene greeted them.
There was a pause before they quickly replied, “Good afternoon, Captain Cyllene.”
“Welcome to the Galaxy Expedition Team,” she said, unfolding a sheet of paper. “Now, first things first, I will make sure all of the accepted recruits to the Survey Corps are present.”
Seventeen-year-old Iori from Hoenn, the very same homeland as Cyllene, was at the end of the line on her right. They had recruited him in Fallarbor Town, a tiny farming settlement so close by to a volcano that ash constantly rained from the sky. It was hot there too, not unlike Firespit Island off the coast of Hisui. He had brought a Machop with him, that it seemed he hoped to train up to help with farm work and gathering materials.
Twenty-one-year-old Kazuya was from Ecruteak City in Johto, a nearby but entirely separate region. Ecruteak had such an ancient and mythical air, the Galaxy Team members were plainly in awe when they had passed through it. Kazuya had lived just near the towering and magnificent Bell Tower, the oldest and grandest structure in the city and possibly in all of Johto. It could only have been something related to this rich history that had led Kazuya to the Survey Corps. With him was the fiery Fox Pokémon, Vulpix.
Emilie from Kalos was the youngest of their number, at fourteen. She had been the sole recruit of Santalune, a small, quaint town filled with lush farms and gardens. It was so peaceful there, some of the Galaxy Team had thought no one would leave it for the barren, wild land of Hisui, filled with vicious Pokémon. But here this one was, bright blue eyes filled with alacrity and a Ralts nearly small enough to fit in her hands by her side.
This seemed to have come as a surprise to her parents, but in the end they reluctantly permitted her to go.
“I know you’re a woman now,” her mother had said through tears. “But you’ll always be my baby girl.”
In sharp contrast to her was sixteen-year-old Ryo from Kanto, a sullen-looking young man with sandy hair that hung almost over his eyes and a constantly moody demeanor. Several people had seen him off from Celadon City when he was recruited by his parents, practically singing his praises as one who would bring glory to the city with this honorable undertaking. But Ryo hardly seemed convinced.
Such were some young men around his age at times, Cyllene supposed. Yet his Pokémon of choice was a tiny, fluffy Eevee.
Twenty-one-year-old Jin from Violet Town was another Hoennian, whose bearing reminded Cyllene distinctly of the sense of duty and honor held by her arms instructor. This made sense for the son of a samurai, naturally. Jin carried a Stantler in his Poké Ball instead of a sword by his side, but the principles of the samurai could persist a bit longer. He had lived just a stone’s throw from a beautiful lake in the center of town, behind which the resplendent Sprout Tower seemed to stretch up to the clouds.
There was no reason to be wary of Haruko from Rustboro Town, Cyllene told herself. She had a slightly weary look in her shining brown eyes, as if she had just witnessed something that substantially altered her view of the world. She claimed that she had previously been the maid of a nobleman, which seemed strangely unrelated to Pokémon study. But she was just a sixteen-year-old girl, and now a member of the Survey Corps as much as the others. Though it didn’t help matters that her Pokémon of choice was a Dustox.
Cyllene definitely didn’t stiffen and take a step back upon just seeing “Dustox” written on the paper.
Yojiro from Lilycove Village in Hoenn with a Bronzor, check. Netta from Shalour City in Kalos with a Mantyke, check. Kekoa from Akala Island in Alola with his Rowlet sure was far from home.
The line ended with Fortuna from Lavender Town in Kanto, a former priestess with tawny hair in waves that she had tied back in a short ponytail. Her Pokémon was a Gastly, perhaps one that she had taken straight from Lavender Tower. There was no issue there. But there was with a girl at the very end, with similarly wavy sepia hair, that Cyllene didn’t recognize.
“You are?” Cyllene prompted.
“Charm, from Kanto,” the girl said flatly.
“...Is that your real name?” Cyllene asked.
“It is to you,” the girl snapped.
Cyllene frowned. “If you are to be a member of the Survey Corps, I am your superior, and you will respect me. I’ll ask you again. What is your name?”
The girl sighed. “Matsuko. I’m her twin.” She pointed a thumb at Fortuna.
Cyllene looked at the paper, to see no one named Matsuko marked there. “I don’t see you listed in the pool of Survey Corps recruits.”
“I go wherever my sister does,” the girl asserted. “If I’m not there, you can enlist me yourself. I’m Matsuko from Lavender Town in Kanto, with a Rhyhorn as my Pokémon. And I’m here to stay in the Survey Corps.”
Cyllene nodded. “I’ll allow it, then.” The Galaxy Team could hardly send the girl all the way back to Kanto already without reasonable cause anyways.
“That is everyone, then.” She folded the paper back up. “Now, all of you here know what your duties as Survey Corps members will be: to research and study Pokémon in their natural habitats. But I must warn you, even if you have heard this already, that Hisui is a harsh land, unlike where any of you have come from. The Pokémon here are more fearsome than any you have seen before.”
She turned to the woman in red on her right. “This is Captain Zisu of the Security Corps. She can teach your Pokémon new moves, and help them master moves in the ‘strong’ and ‘agile’ style. You may also use the Training Grounds here to help your Pokémon grow stronger through battle.
“There will be Security Corps guards posted in every area you are sent to survey, but nonetheless, this is a highly dangerous job you are undertaking. And Jubilife has only just been settled. So if any of you become incapacitated, we can no longer feed and shelter you, and you will have to leave the village to find work elsewhere or brave the mercy of the wilds.”
In the brief pause after that, the recruits froze in place. Some faces turned pale, others up to the sky as if seeking the protection of whatever god they believed in, others down at the ground. A few hands clutched their Poké Balls tighter.
Cyllene looked around at them. “Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” they all said together.
“Very well then,” she said. “Your quarters are on Canala Avenue, across the bridge from the Galaxy building. You will receive your uniforms and satchels with all the supplies you will need for your expeditions tomorrow. Your day starts early, so be ready.”
Notes:
I know Bulbapedia describes Charm as wearing a Construction Corps uniform. Although Bulbapedia is usually very reliable and Charm says she used to work for the Galaxy Team…her outfit doesn’t look like a Construction Corps uniform. If you go to Sanqua’s office and look at Canala from the side, she’s in the uniform for female members of the Construction Corps. It’s a purple kimono with a white apron around the waist and those straw shoes everybody wears. Charm’s outfit looks more similar to Sanqua’s, but it’s still far from a match. So I’m sticking with PanellaDePonce’s theory of Charm having been initially in the Survey Corps.
Given names for Charm, Clover, and Coin from here on out based on their names in the Japanese edition, since I’m pretty sure the Miss Fortune Sisters just took the names we know them by for their rebranding when they took up thievery.
Chapter Text
The Obsidian Fieldlands were by far the safest and tamest part of Hisui, with gently sloping grasslands and hills, a river cutting it in two, and a dense but calm forest in the far south. It was the perfect starting point for a new surveyor, but nonetheless home to some dangerous Pokémon. Cyllene made especially sure to warn the Survey Corps of the Shinx and Paras lines; they fell into the category of Pokémon with an aggressive disposition, that would attack on sight, and the Fieldlands were full of them. The new surveyors were also introduced to Professor Laventon, a Pokémon scholar from Galar who had joined the corps with a dream of compiling the region’s first Pokémon encyclopedia — a Pokédex, he called it. He explained to them the varying dispositions of different Pokémon, and gave a brief overview of types — what they were, types that were strong against others, types that were weak to others, types that resisted others.
“As the lot of you have a variety of types among you, they should be sufficient to cover most Pokémon types out in the wild,” he said cheerfully. “Granted, you will not always be amongst each other in your work, but understanding typing is of vital importance to the study of Pokémon.”
The first couple of weeks were fairly smooth. The surveyors made good progress on their observations of Bidoof and Starly, though Staravia still posed a bit of a barrier, and their study of Shinx was coming along slowly but surely.
“Shinx looks like just a cute little sparky cub, how can it be so combative?” Emilie asked.
“Perhaps it just wants to play and doesn’t know its own strength,” Professor Laventon laughed. “Cheeky little buggers.”
“He’s so Galarian,” Netta whispered.
Most of the surveyors went back to their quarters each night to turn in, but there was a small group set aside for nighttime expeditions, consisting of Kazuya, Emilie, Fortuna, and Matsuko (or Charm, as she preferred to be called).
Just before setting off for their first one, they had stopped at the Wallflower for dinner, where Charm met up with her sister and noticed a faint stain on her satchel that looked like dried blood. With a crisp clink, Fortuna placed a few coins on the counter to pay for her meal…one of them rimmed with reddish-brown crust.
“Fortuna,” Charm hissed when they found a table. “Were you injured?”
“No…” Fortuna’s brow furrowed. “Why?”
“There’s a stain on your satchel.”
Fortuna still looked perplexed for a moment, then realization seemed to dawn on her. “Ohh…that isn’t from me, don’t worry. But…a few days ago, I found a Galaxy Team member heavily injured in the field. So I took her back here, to the Medical Corps. She was bleeding a lot , but Captain Pesselle managed to treat her, and she’s back to work at the farm now.” She gave a small smile, but a kind of uncertainty clouded her eyes. “I hope she’ll be alright…”
“Me too.” Charm nodded. “This land can be hostile…”
Wait, at the farm? she thought after a moment. Since when is that corps outside the village? And why would this person not be alright, if she was discharged from the infirmary?
Perhaps the strain of farm work could reopen the wound…but, regardless, Charm supposed that all she could do was pray for the girl’s luck.
And, yes, as far back as the founding of Jubilife Village, there was little more to eat than potato mochi, as the Survey Corps recruits learned after several evenings of stopping by the Wallflower after a long day of fieldwork. Perhaps there was more variety wherever Kamado and Beni had come from, but Jubilife’s soil was not the most fertile in Hisui. Mints and berries and the like could be grown at the farm, but there would be no great harvests of abundance in sight. Umeko, a fresh face in the Agriculture Corps, confirmed as much, though she claimed the land still yielded more than the barren tundra in the far north that the Pearl Clan had settled in.
But mostly, it was just that everyone was too terrified of Pokémon to even try to hunt or fish for them.
The nighttime surveyors left at sunset with Professor Laventon and the Security Corps that evening for the Fieldlands camp to make preparations before their excursion, as they would need to ensure they had enough supplies and their Pokémon were ready for battle. After that, all they had to do was wait. When the stars above appeared over the Fieldlands at nightfall, so would the stars of the Galaxy Team.
In the meantime, Emilie and Kazuya seemed to be bonding by the campfire, the flames matching the vivid orange of the evening sky.
“What made you join the Survey Corps?” Emilie asked.
Kazuya pressed his lips together momentarily, then said, “I can’t tell you.”
“Come on! Why not?” Emilie protested.
Kazuya shook his head. “You’re going to laugh.”
“No, I won’t! Tell me! Please!” Emilie insisted. “I’ll tell you why I joined!”
“Alright.” Kazuya smiled and spun around to fully face her. “I grew up in Ecruteak City in Johto. There used to be two towers there that were the pride of the city — the Brass Tower and the Bell Tower. But in 1849, the year that I was born, the Brass Tower was struck by lightning and burned down, until a sudden downpour of rain put the fire out. According to legend, a great bird Pokémon with rainbow feathers had lived in Brass Tower before, and brought three Pokémon that had died in the fire back to life. Then it flew away in search of a human with a pure soul. …Still following?”
Emilie nodded eagerly.
“I…joined the Survey Corps to learn more about these legends and…hopefully build a strong enough Pokémon team to find this rainbow bird Pokémon myself,” Kazuya explained, not meeting her eyes. “If there’s any truth to all of that.”
“Why would I laugh at that?” Emilie said. “It sounds fantastic! I don’t think my hometown has anything like that…”
“Just…don’t tell anyone else,” Kazuya said, only slightly less embarrassed. “They might think it’s stupid.”
“I don’t think they would.” Emilie shook her head. “But you said the rainbow Pokémon flew away to look for a human with a pure soul… Do you really think that would be you? That it would accept you as that person if you met it?”
Kazuya shrugged. “Only one way to find out, really. If the rainbow bird Pokémon is even out there. What brought you here, anyways? You said you’d tell me.”
“Right,” Emilie laughed. “Well…my hometown is known for its beauty. But it doesn’t have a lot of Pokémon. For a while I’ve been feeling like it’s missing that. People there don’t seem to want Pokémon, because they don’t like change or they don’t see the point. But I want to change their minds. I want to show them how beautiful Pokémon can be.” She let her Ralts out of its Poké Ball and patted its head. Its height did not even reach her shoulder from where she sat. “That’s why I caught Ralts. She has such a bright and charming vibe. I can’t wait to see what she evolves into.”
Kazuya smiled. “She’s a cute one for sure. You wouldn’t find one of them in these parts.”
“Hisui’s a harsh land,” Emilie sighed. “The Fieldlands are nice, but I thought the Floaro Gardens would at least be alive. Turns out it’s just barren earth and withered flowers. But…maybe there’s a Pokémon out there that could revive the soil. Make it a real and beautiful garden. Who knows?”
“That’d be a godsend to farmers everywhere,” Kazuya said.
“Fortuna, your partner Pokémon is a Gastly, right?” Emilie asked as the twins joined them by the fire.
“That’s right.” Fortuna smiled. “I bet he’s excited for this.”
“Ghost types don’t scare you? At all?” Kazuya glanced at her sideways in disbelief.
“Charm and I were apprentice priestesses back in our hometown,” Fortuna explained. “Lavender Tower was always filled with them. They were thought to be the restless spirits of the dead, that needed to be appeased…and maybe they are inside, but some time into our apprenticeship, we learned they were actually Pokémon we could catch. Granted, I only have this one so far, and I count that as a lucky catch.”
“Still, that’s brave of you,” Emilie said. “Ohh, the professor said ghost types are also weak to dark types. Any idea why that is?”
“Hmm…” Fortuna thought about this. “I feel like it has to do with darkness being made stronger by ghosts. Like how water conducts electricity, so electric is strong against water. It makes grass grow, so grass is strong against water too.”
“Strange, I would think ghosts would be made stronger by darkness instead,” Emilie remarked. “What’s it like, battling ghosts?”
Fortuna’s memory was hazy there. She and Charm had been tasked with conducting purification rituals as apprentice priestesses, in order to cleanse the air throughout the tower of any negative energy that may have lingered or gathered there. They both knew now that those rituals had actually been battles against ghost-type Pokémon. But Fortuna could not seem to remember just what this had entailed.
“I…don’t know, actually,” she admitted. “All I can recall is going into some strange, frenetic state…and when I came to, the ghost Pokémon was gone, and I was told I had completed the purification…sorry if that doesn’t tell you much.”
“No, it’s…interesting. Even if spooky,” Emilie said. “But I guess that’s ghost types for you.”
“They’re nothing if not dark and spooky,” Fortuna laughed.
Night fell a short while later, countless stars glittering in the jet sky, the fields only dimly lit by the glow of the waxing crescent moon. The surveyors all split up, sending Emilie to scope out Aspiration Hill and the Floaro Gardens, Kazuya to Sandgem Flats, and Charm and Fortuna to Horseshoe Plains.
All across the Fieldlands, purple Drifloon lightly floated through the night air, vanishing and reappearing in bursts of dark violet mist, eerie ooooh s sounding in their wake. Charm’s skin prickled a little under the heavy sleeves of her Survey Corps uniform at the sight of them. But she took comfort in ghost types being more familiar to her as a former priestess. They were nothing she had never seen before and could not stand against. If Fortuna was at all afraid, she didn’t show it.
“It’s a blessing and a curse, that ghosts are weak to ghosts,” Charm muttered after a few battles against the Balloon Pokémon, the tall grass whispering as she and her twin passed through it.
“Like a double-edged blade,” Fortuna quipped. “But luck is with us.”
“Always,” Charm said. The sisters had always believed this and, as far as Charm could remember, had no cause to doubt it.
“Do you think any of these Pokémon have ever seen humans before?” Fortuna asked.
Charm kept low to the ground as they emerged from the tall grass towards a large rock, to effectively barricade themselves behind before proceeding. “I guess not…that’s why they attack us, or run away, or follow us around. We’re unfamiliar to them.”
As they circled around the rock, Fortuna stopped in her tracks, so suddenly her twin almost bumped into her from behind.
“What is it?” Charm asked.
“Look at that,” Fortuna breathed.
Stepping beside her, Charm almost gasped in equal parts awe and terror at what she saw less than five meters from them. An enormous Rapidash, with fiery mane blazing in the night like a raging bonfire. If either sister stood beside it, her head would only come up to where its leg met its body. Charm swallowed thickly upon seeing the bright red eyes that marked it an alpha, visible even from this far away. As the stunning and terrifying beast reared on its hind legs, the sound it let out seemed to pierce the air of the Fieldlands.
The surveyor became suddenly aware of the sound of her breathing. Beside her, Fortuna was scribbling down notes fervidly.
“We have to mention this when we go back to the camp,” she whispered, sounding just as rapt as her twin.
“No need to remind me,” Charm said. “There’s no way I’m forgetting that.”
Emilie avoided the ghosts as much as possible, thanking her lucky stars for the abundance of tall grass to hide in throughout the Fieldlands. Her Ralts seemed to be no match for the Drifloon’s attacks. She held her own well against the Dustox that they had found fluttering by the Gardens that night, though.
Beautifly by day, Dustox at night, she thought. It was strange that these Pokémon lingered by the Floaro Gardens, even though all the flowers here were dead and wilted, the ground hard and cracked, offering up nothing. Could they be hoping for springtide?
Seeing all of them, she remembered that another surveyor, Haruko, had a Dustox as her partner Pokémon. I’m sure there’s a story behind that…
It was hard for her to tell at any point what her own partner Pokémon felt, besides the times that the Ralts would show affection and attachment to her, such as when she seemed to perk up upon seeing Emilie and stuck close by as they walked together. Was she afraid, as they went out into the night in this strange and perilous land, particularly the Gardens filled with bug types?
Emilie was wary of this unfamiliar place, too…but she took comfort in having Ralts with her. Holding its Poké Ball to her, it seemed to become warm, as though in tandem with her body heat. As Ralts was called the Feeling Pokémon, perhaps this one could sense her tenderness. She smiled.
Kazuya had been on his way to Sandgem Flats when he found a gigantic alpha Snorlax, taller than a tree and even wider across, having claimed the narrow strip of land that led out of Aspiration Hill to the flats. There was no way around it but through, as there were cliffs on one side of the colossus and the river rushed by on the other, too deep to wade through.
The so-called “Sleeping Pokémon” was awake, too, its huge footsteps booming on the ground and bright red eyes blazing in the dark. Weren’t Snorlax almost always asleep, except when gorging themselves?
Either way, Kazuya’s Vulpix was definitely not strong enough for this. But he was not about to let the remainder of his first nighttime expedition go to waste. So he doubled back around to Deertrack Path to survey there instead. It was mostly just a wide dirt path, and Kricketot were not particularly unusual or exciting, but Vulpix did well against them and was growing steadily stronger with each battle.
Kazuya had first met his Vulpix when he was around nine years old, exploring the charred ruins of the Burned Tower. Her fur was the shade of burnt sienna, and gave off a kind of smoky warmth that felt somehow reminiscent of the burning of the Tower…though Kazuya had not been there at the time, he imagined this was what filled the air. Yet this burnt red fur was silky smooth to the touch as the Vulpix let Kazuya run his hand through it and leaned her head against his arm contentedly. Rather than being a kind of postmonition of the disaster, hers was an innocent and kind presence.
She had become attached to Kazuya after some time, and his parents let him keep her so long as he alone would care for her. She had just one tail back then, that had since split into six as she grew, even sleeker and more beautiful than when Kazuya had first found her.
He held her close to him as he made his way back to the Fieldlands camp instead of returning her to her Poké Ball. She always relished in this, and though her warmth probably was not doing any favors for Kazuya’s tiredness, he had found that the early morning in the Fieldlands brought a chill with it. His breath came out in clouds of mist, though Vulpix seemed perfectly comfortable. Kazuya had seen her release little orbs of flame from her mouth before, but rather than being because of the cold, this had always been on hot days and seemed to expel excess heat. The strange part was how the little fireballs floated through the air instead of vanishing, and how they resembled what were thought to be spirits of the dead. Each time, Kazuya was both captivated and perturbed by them. But then he would see Vulpix’s big brown eyes gaze up at him, feel the heat coming off of her, and stroke her lustrous coat, and he was at ease again.
“Ah, you’re all back!” Professor Laventon greeted the surveyors at the camp, a note of relief clear in his voice. “How did you fare?”
“Fine,” Emilie replied, though she was visibly uneasy as she flipped through her Pokédex to the notes she had taken. “I found some Shinx down by Aspiration Hill, as you’d expect, and…an alpha Luxray between there and the Floaro Gardens.”
“Oh my.” The professor’s eyes widened. “Anything else?”
“There were Dustox at the Gardens, including an alpha, where there would normally be Beautifly,” Emilie continued. “No Beautifly in sight this time.”
“Ah, I see!” Professor Laventon beamed. “This most likely means Dustox come out to the Gardens at night, and Beautifly during the day. Most intriguing! As our fellow corps member Haruko has a Dustox as her partner Pokémon, she may have more information. I shall have to ask her later.”
He glanced at Kazuya. “How about you, my boy?”
Kazuya sighed. “I couldn’t reach Sandgem Flats. There was an alpha Snorlax blocking the way.”
The professor’s jaw dropped. “My stars! Are you serious?”
“I sure am,” Kazuya confirmed. “So I went over to Deertrack Path instead. Mostly just Kricketot and Zubat there. But there were some Abra down by Windswept Run…and Drifloon just about everywhere.” He shivered a little, though not from the cold this time. “You could sometimes see Drifloon floating high in the sky in my hometown.”
“I see…so Abra is active both day and night,” Professor Laventon noted. “And it seems Sandgem Flats is inaccessible until one of you attains a strong enough Pokémon to get past that alpha Snorlax.” He smiled as he turned to the twins. “Matsuko and Fortuna?”
They grinned at each other before facing him.
“We saw an alpha Rapidash,” Charm said.
The professor’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “Surely not! Did you really?!”
“We sure did,” Fortuna confirmed. “It’s massive, and its fiery mane is impossible to miss at night.”
“That certainly explains why that area was named Horseshoe Plains, then,” Laventon said. “Fiery mane, you say? That is interesting…as the Rapidash in my homeland is not a fire type, and instead possesses a curling mane in streaks of lavender and cyan, and has a long horn protruding from its forehead. It is quite beautiful, I must say. But this one must have been magnificent!”
“Both of us battled some of the Drifloon, too, so now Gastly and Rhyhorn are even stronger,” Charm added.
“Excellent! You have all made splendid progress!” the professor exclaimed. “Now then, I take it you would like to head back to the village and rest for a bit?”
Emilie yawned. “Sounds good to me.”
“I could sleep.” Kazuya nodded.
“Not me,” Fortuna said. “I’m still raring to go!”
“Me too.” Charm smiled.
“Right then, how about you two continue your expedition and the Security Corps can escort Emilie and Kazuya back to Jubilife?” Professor Laventon turned to one of the guards. “Is that acceptable?”
The guard nodded. “Sure, of course.”
As he and the Security Corps took their leave to walk the tired surveyors back to the village, Professor Laventon grinned at the twins. “Most pleasing to see you two going the extra mile in your survey work. Best of luck then!”
They both waved him off and padded down the dirt path back into the Fieldlands.
“So many alphas,” Fortuna sighed, staring up at the early morning sky wistfully.
“We can’t battle them yet,” Charm reminded her. “Rhyhorn and Gastly aren’t strong enough. Especially for the Luxray, some of them know dark-type moves.”
“I’ll leave that one to you then,” Fortuna said. “We’ll get them one of these days.”
“All the alphas in Hisui?” Charm whistled. “That’ll be an undertaking. But…you think for now we can take on the Pokémon further south?”
Fortuna grinned. “You know it.”
Notes:
IT'S FINALLY DONE.
Yeah, heads up from here on out that updates on this fic are gonna be unpredictable and probably SLOW, but I promise I am working on it. It just takes a long time of concentrated effort for me to put out passable content, in this case five drafts across three weeks. My beta reader is also really busy right now and will be for the next week or so.
Hope you enjoyed nonetheless!
Chapter 3: In the Heart of the Woods
Notes:
I'm baaaaack! Just in case anyone didn't believe that I was still working on this...or cared.
Not only were there holidays and finals, I got my first full-time job a few weeks ago so I've been getting used to being a working girl. The past couple weeks also involved a really bad cold that had me stressed and overtired, AND THEN stomach bug this past weekend. Everyone's favorite thing ever /sarc
And, as I said, this is possibly my most ambitious multi-chapter fanfic yet, so progress is going to be SLOW, but I promise it is happening. For now, enjoy!
Chapter Text
A samurai masters her emotions.
Cyllene faintly remembered Ruta saying it was like mastering a Rapidash.
She would allow herself to be pleased by the Survey Corps’ work so far. This was no less than they deserved, as they had about two months of Pokémon battling under their belts now and felt ready to brave the edges of the Fieldlands and the stronger Pokémon there. But she pulled on the reins before her esteem for them could race any further. Their surveying of the Obsidian Fieldlands alone had only just begun. The alpha Pokémon here still remained an obstacle, with an alpha Snorlax blocking off all of Sandgem Flats. Grueling Grove was still untouched too…and perhaps not without reason for now. The name alone sounded ominous.
Ryo was back at the Fieldlands camp less than a half hour into the expedition, with dustings of dirt on his uniform and small tears in the sleeves, a deep scowl on his face, and a stream of curses under his breath.
“Well, look what the Skitty dragged in,” came Iori’s voice from the workbench. “What’s your problem?”
“Damn alpha Staravia…” Ryo muttered. “Eevee’s out for the count.”
“I have some extra revives if you need any,” Iori offered.
“I don’t need your help,” Ryo snapped as he brushed by his fellow surveyor towards the tent.
Captain Cyllene tried not to mirror his scowl. Luckily, Iori looked only mildly peeved as he set out into the fields again.
She could tell they were a suitable group to their tasks. Iori and Jin had taken on surveying and its potential dangers for their families and the people of their respective homelands. Kekoa had come all the way from Alola for it. Cyllene would not have expected Emilie to volunteer for nighttime expeditions, but the girl’s young age and bright blue eyes, still full of lively innocence, belied a surprising bravery. Even Ryo did his duty, if begrudgingly. The twin sisters from Lavender Town were the most proficient of all, having documented a decent variety of Pokémon across the Fieldlands, even if their research on them so far was still very rudimentary.
“Professor! Professor, look at this!”
Right on cue, Fortuna raced to the Fieldlands camp, casting a dark shadow ahead of her in the bright sunlight. Her Pokédex was in her arms, clutched tightly to keep her notes from falling out. She stopped once she reached Professor Laventon, hunching over slightly as she caught her breath, her face red from the sweat she had worked up.
“Fortuna! What is it, my girl?” the professor said in alarm.
“Look what I found!”
Holding her open Pokédex out to Laventon, she flipped through her notes and stopped at a sketch of what looked like a bell-shaped flower on one side, and…a cherry blossom with a smiling face on the other.
“Alright, we have Cherrim, and…” Professor Laventon’s gaze flitted from one side of the paper to the other. “What’s this?”
“It’s Cherrim!” Fortuna exclaimed. “It has two forms! At least, I’m pretty sure it does…this is my first time seeing its other form…” She pointed to the sketch on the left side of her notes. “But it looked like this before, and then during battle, it turned into this!”
The professor frowned. “Are you quite sure it didn’t evolve? I’ve never seen anything like this before…”
“I mean, it probably needs more research, but I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen this closed form of Cherrim, and I encountered this one just now!”
“You’re right, it will need more research for sure…” Professor Laventon stared at the sketch of the strange cherry blossom before grinning at Fortuna. “Nevertheless, a fascinating discovery. Well done, old girl!”
Fortuna beamed and set off to continue her expedition. “See you around!”
From beside the crafting table, Cyllene smiled faintly at the surveyor’s retreating back.
“Enthusiastic as ever, I see,” she remarked to Laventon.
“We chose well,” he replied cheerfully, echoing her earlier musings.
The Galaxy Team had managed to form alliances with the Diamond and Pearl Clans, a pair of tribes that had lived in Hisui since before anyone of Jubilife arrived. The team strived for peaceful relations with both clans, but maintained neutrality on the dominant faiths held by each, that the two had been feuding for generations on. Apparently they both worshiped a god they called “almighty Sinnoh,” but the Diamond Clan believed Sinnoh had created time, while the Pearl Clan believed it had created space. Why they could not just agree to disagree and leave each other in peace seemed to be the real unknown, but that was not the Galaxy Team’s concern.
At the outermost edge of the Obsidian Fieldlands was a beautiful forest called the Heartwood, and within was the dwelling place of a special Kleavor belonging to the Pearl Clan, that was revered by them as a noble and called “the Lord of the Woods.” Kleavor’s warden had permitted the Galaxy Team to expand their survey work to the Heartwood so long as they did not disturb Kleavor’s residence.
The lush, verdant woods was where Fortuna had encountered the Pokémon in her sketches, as Professor Laventon had also seen jotted down in her notes.
“I suppose Cherrim could have a dual form,” he surmised to Cyllene. “The Pokémon she drew looked like…what I can only describe as a cherry blossom flower with a face. I cannot think of what else a sudden transformation in battle would be, besides evolution.”
“I would have to see Fortuna’s notes side by side, but for now I am inclined to agree,” Cyllene said. “A dual form seems most likely.”
Back at the Heartwood, Fortuna’s eyes shone in the sunlight peeking through the treetops as she took in the forest once again, her and Charm’s feet softly padding on the grass.
The abundance of Beautifly here had provided ample battle opportunities for Charm’s Rhydon as a secondary rock-type, too. Charm would never have expected the delicately fluttering Butterfly Pokémon to have an aggressive disposition…but every rose had its thorn. She felt like Emilie would like them, though, and maybe the little spiky Wurmple that inched along the grass.
“Look at this!”
Fortuna’s voice broke Charm from her musings. She glanced over to see her sister running towards a small yellow thing in the grass.
“Fortuna, wait—”
But she had already picked up the yellow thing in her hands, carefully examining it. She turned around and held it out to Charm, who scrutinized it.
“It’s…honeycomb.”
“No…really look,” Fortuna insisted.
The other twin stared at it more closely. There was something different about it indeed. The comb itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but the honey within shone like old amber, and glittered as it dripped from the holes in the comb as though filled with stardust. Charm felt herself spellbound just looking at it.
“That’s…wow.” She didn’t know what else to say.
Then a faint buzzing in the distance caught her attention, snapping her out of it.
“There better not be Beedrill out here,” she murmured, stiffening.
Beedrill was a vicious Poison Bee Pokémon native to Kanto, that flew at a breakneck speed and attacked in swarms, jabbing its prey repeatedly with the large stingers on its forelegs before dealing the final blow with the one on its rear, that held a highly concentrated poison. Charm did not even want to think of what a Hisuian Beedrill could be like.
“I don’t think so,” Fortuna said. “But even if there are, Rhyhorn can take care of them.”
Passing through the forest, the twins found that the only vespine Pokémon in sight were Combee, that flew away when the girls approached. If memory served, Charm thought, female Combee evolved into the more intimidating Vespiquen, but they were rare and there seemed to be none around here.
Luck is with us , she thought…until she came across an ominous sight that made her stomach sink.
At the foot of a sloping hill was a Combee hive on the ground…or, what was left of one. It had been torn in half to reveal the inside, little more than a mass of empty, desiccated holes. The bright golden glow it would have once held was gone without a trace, none of its inhabitants in sight. As if nothing had ever lived there.
In colder months, this would make sense. Insectile Pokémon in Kanto were known to vacate their habitats for warmer climates in which to spend the winter. But this corner of Hisui was right between summer and autumn. The air had been a little cooler lately, but not nearly enough for an entire Combee hive to migrate.
“Fortuna!” Charm called. “You’d better come see this…”
Fortuna hurried to her side, where she stopped abruptly upon seeing the remains of the Combee hive. “Oh! H-How did that happen?”
Charm stared down at it. “I don’t know, it...it was just like this.”
Beedrill lived in hives too, but even Ursaring never dared disturb their nests. The Poison Bee Pokémon were much bigger and fiercer than Combee, though. Those tiny bees would be no match for a hungry predator…especially one that craved the vibrant, glittering honey they produced, Charm realized as her gaze fell to the honeycomb in her sister’s hands.
“Whatever did this had its fill of honey.” Charm nodded at the empty, dried up hive on the ground.
“All those Combee… It stole their lives.” Fortuna shook her head as she gazed down at their destroyed home, then back at the honeycomb she had picked up.
“If Combee made these…” she mused out loud. “How did the honey get all sparkly like this?” She turned to her twin. “Did you see any stardust or fairy-type Pokémon around?”
“No.” Charm shook her head. “But maybe the professor knows something about it. I’d definitely think Combee to be much more likely to produce honey like that than Beedrill, anyways.”
“True.” Fortuna nodded, as Charm bent down and carefully scooped up the vacant hive for Professor Laventon to take a look at too.
As they looped back around, something by the entrance to the forest caught Fortuna’s eye.
“I think that’s where the Pearl Clan keeps their Kleavor,” she whispered to Charm.
Charm’s brow furrowed. “You mean where those fallen pillars are? We’re not allowed in there.”
Fortuna raised her eyebrows. “Did they say we weren’t?”
“Fortuna, we can’t ,” Charm said. “Kleavor’s warden could be around here. The Pearl Clan would be mad at us.”
“I just want to see it!” Fortuna insisted. “We don’t even have to go in. They can’t punish us for looking .”
Charm sighed. “Alright. We’ll take one peek and be on our way.”
They crept as close as they could to the entrance of the arena and carefully peered inside, to find the largest tree in the whole forest…and not much else.
“Not much to see…the Kleavor isn’t even here,” Fortuna noted.
“Maybe it lives in the tree,” Charm guessed. “What else would it need then? If it’s an aggressive one and anything like the Pearl Clan made it out to be, we’re lucky it’s not here. Or asleep up in the tree.”
Fortuna sighed. “Let’s keep going, then.”
Besides the stone steps leading up to Kleavor’s arena, the twins found a wide dirt path branching away from it towards the easternmost edge of the Fieldlands. It was so smooth, yet seemed that it couldn’t have been manmade, winding through a grassy knoll full of Buneary hopping by a shallow spring.
This really has to be the most breathtaking part of all the Fieldlands, Fortuna thought.
Further north, she and her twin reached a clearing, where they found…what appeared to be a tunnel within a massive boulder.
“Let’s go in!” Fortuna said immediately, dashing in before Charm could say a word in protest.
“And then the rocks fell down over the entrance, sealing the promising young surveyors inside,” Charm muttered as she followed behind.
“Don’t say that!” Fortuna cried, but kept on her way through the tunnel.
The narrow, rocky entryway expanded into a large dome, where…small Machop were walking around.
As a few of them approached Fortuna, Charm readied her Poké Ball, but they made no move to attack. If anything, they just seemed curious about the twins.
Fortuna smiled. “I bet Iori would like to see this.”
Charm frowned. “What are all these Machop doing here? I would have thought there’d be rock types.”
“They’re fighting types, so…maybe they train themselves here?” Fortuna guessed. “Until they can evolve?”
Charm shrugged as she added that to her notes. “Maybe.”
As they headed to the back of the tunnel, a shaft of bright light shone from the end, breaking through the dimness.
“See? There’s the exit,” Fortuna said. “Even if some rocks fell over the entrance, we wouldn’t be stuck inside.”
“What if rocks fell down in front of both entrances?” Charm countered.
Fortuna grimaced. “Then luck would really not be with us.” She gazed up at the sky, tinted orange with the setting sun. “It’s getting late now. We should head back to the camp so they know we’re alright.”
Almost all the other surveyors were back at the camp by the time the twins returned. Ryo, Iori, and Kazuya sat by the fire, the light of the flames flickering on their faces. Behind them, hammers pounded at the workbench where Emilie and Yojiro were crafting supplies. Haruko and Kekoa were resting in the tents with their tired Pokémon.
“Ah, Fortuna and Matsuko,” Professor Laventon greeted them. “How is the survey work coming along?”
“I have something else for you to see, professor,” Fortuna piped.
Laventon grinned. “Well, aren’t you having a productive day! Let me see it, then.”
The surveyor reached into her satchel and pulled out the honeycomb she had discovered. In the evening sunset, the amber honey shone with a deep orange glow, sparkling faintly.
“I found it at the Heartwood,” she explained.
“This, my dear, is dazzling honey!” the professor said. “It’s produced by Combee, and it seems this kind of honey in particular is specific to Hisui — that is, Combee in other regions produce honey of different flavors. That is all we know for now, but there is always more to learn!”
“We found this, too,” Charm added grimly.
As she carefully pulled out the desiccated Combee hive from her satchel, Professor Laventon’s broad grin vanished entirely, as he nearly jumped back in alarm.
“Oh my!” he exclaimed. “Did you find this in the Heartwood too?”
Charm nodded. “It was all dried up like this, and there were no Combee around it. Our guess was some predator had its fill of the honey.”
The professor crossed his arms and shook his head, eyes downcast. “That must be some predator, to have depleted the hive of all its life…I should like to take this back to my office for further examination, if you would not mind, Matsuko.”
Charm handed it to him. “You’re the professional.”
Moments later, Jin showed up, back from Nature’s Pantry, carrying a fellow corps member on his back.
Professor Laventon gasped. “Netta! Is she hurt, Jin?”
“It’s just a scraped knee,” Netta said.
“We were escaping an alpha Parasect, and she tripped over a tree root,” Jin explained.
“We had made it to safety when I did,” Netta clarified. “It looks worse than it is. But thank you anyways, Jin.”
“Yes, kudos to you for your chivalry, lad,” the professor praised him as Netta slipped off his back and took a seat by the campfire. He turned to her. “And thank goodness you’re alright, my girl. Though you should perhaps have the Medical Corps take a look at that knee.”
“Your Eevee is close to evolving, right?” Iori was saying to Ryo. “What do you think it’ll evolve into?”
“Dunno,” Ryo muttered, looking disinterested.
“You don’t talk much, huh?” Netta said.
“I didn’t even want to do this,” Ryo grumbled. “Be in the Survey Corps, I mean.”
“Did someone force you into Hisui?” Iori asked sarcastically.
“My parents enlisted me when the Galaxy Team came to Celadon,” Ryo explained. “They and my neighbors made it out to be this honorable undertaking that would bring glory to the city, but I’m pretty sure they just wanted to get rid of me. They all think I’m a snot-nosed brat, anyways.”
Can’t imagine why, Charm thought.
“I’ve had Eevee for years,” he continued. “It’s hard to think of her as anything else.”
“You don’t have to evolve her, you know,” Netta said sympathetically. “Not until you’re ready, if at all. I’m not sure I want to evolve Mantyke. He’s so cute.”
Iori snickered. “If you’re going to keep him that way and train him until you have a literal baby manta ray out there steamrolling Pokémon like the alpha Rapidash at Horseshoe Plains, I need to see it at some point.”
“I’ll let you know when the time comes,” Netta laughed.
Gamerkat1 on Chapter 1 Tue 22 Nov 2022 04:00PM UTC
Comment Actions
PanellaDePonce on Chapter 1 Thu 24 Nov 2022 08:07PM UTC
Comment Actions
impudent_strumpet on Chapter 1 Fri 25 Nov 2022 04:32AM UTC
Comment Actions