Injustices New and Oldby SerperiorChaptersChapter One: BetrayalChapter Two: Apparently Bad Morals aren't Specific to EarthChapter Three: Settling InChapter One: BetrayalSinnoh Route 217 A lone human stood in the snow, dressed in a heavy coat, and shivering heavily. ‘Why did he have to piss off my boss’ he wondered to himself. ‘I knew this fucking storm was going to blowing in tonight, why would I eat his lunch?’ He brought his shaking hands up to his mouth and exhaled on them, trying to return some warmth to his freezing fingers. ‘I swear as soon as we’re done here I’m taking my paycheck and leaving. If I hadn’t eaten his damn Tauros steak he wouldn’t have even assigned someone for guard duty in this weather. It’s not like anyone would be out in a storm like this. Unbeknownst to the watchman, there were, and suddenly he felt a hard pain on the back of his head, and he was out like a light. The attacker searched the man's pockets until he dug out a key ring, containing about seven different keys. “We have our way in” the attacker announced mentally. Out of the woods nearby six more Pokemon exited, a Bisharp, an Infernape, an Electivire, a Weavile, a Skarmory, and a Audino. They approached the attacker, a Gallade. “What next sir? The Weavile asked. The Gallade looked to the Dark-Type, “You take these keys, and scout out the compound. Keep us informed through the link.” The Weavile nodded, took the keys and dashed off into the snow towards a faint light. The Gallade looked back to the rest of the group, “Tina," he looked to the Audino, “standby in case of injuries.” for the Skarmory he commanded, “Skream, you stay outside and make sure no poachers get away, and standby for emergency evacuation.” He pointed to he Bisharp, “Doki, you and Jugger take them head on through the front. Phil and I will attack through the side door," he held up a remaining key. The Weavile from before spoke up over the link, Gallavant, I have good news, and bad news. It looks like most of the poachers are in their cafeteria area, looks like some sort of celebration. Bad news, they have Pokemon working with them, a Tyranitar and a Garchomp. They both look pretty tough, but they may just be the only ones out of their Pokeballs currently.” The Gallade nodded to himself, “Understood, thank you Scout. We can take those two easily. Allow me into your mind so I can receive the layout of the compound please.” The Weavile allowed the Gallade in, and he transmitted the layout to the rest of the group. “Scout, hide in that broom cupboard next to you. When we reach your position you will join us in releasing the Pokemon, unless we are found, in which case you will be in charge of the Garchomp, and I the Tyranitar.” “Understood, sir.” The Gallade looked back to the group. “Same plan as before, Phil and I will go through the side, and release the Pokemon in their storage area. We will all avoid the mess hall to the best of our ability. Doki, Jugger, you will create a distraction at the front. I think knocking down their front door with a Wild Charge will suffice, but afterwards try to avoid direct conflict until the prisoners have escaped. Once the Pokemon are all released we will take down and capture as many of the poachers as possible. Their leader is main priority. Understood?” All present nodded their understanding, and went to their respective positions. “Ready… Now!” From Gallavant’s position he could hear the sound of two heavy metal doors being broken down, and he quickly unlocked the entrance and advanced. They met little resistance on the way, only two or three humans which were quickly engaged and incapacitated. Along the way they retrieved Scout, who tagged along behind them silently. They came to the door that Scout had informed them led to the holding area. Before the Infernape could open the door Gallavant shook his head in the negative. He closed his eyes and touched his hands together, sensing the humans on the other side. “Hmm… yes they’re all fine to take out. Just don’t make it too painful. “Now, for the explanation of our enemy. Just beyond the door are three guards, all together at a table. Playing some form of poker I think.” “Ok, so the usual? You kick down the door, I launch a Fire Blast through the door to surprise and disorient them, and wing it from there?” “Of course! Ready when you are.” Phil groaned and gave a thumbs up. BANG The door was kicked down, and the attack went through, wounding two of the men beyond. The one remaining reached for his belt but was stopped by a slap to his hand. The poacher looked up to find a Gallade, who simply shook his head disapprovingly, and then knocked him out with his other hand. Gallavant gave a hearty laugh “Heh, that was easy. C’mon, let’s get the prisoners.” The three retrieved some keys from the guards and began unlocking the cages around them, letting out all of the Pokemon that had been captured. “Phil, go open that garage door to let em’ out.” “Yeah, sure.” The Infernape used Rock Smash on the wall several times and created a hole large enough for some of the larger Pokemon to go through. Just after all of the captives had been evacuated, a Garchomp burst through the door, looked at his fallen comrades, and roared in fury. Gallavant’s eyes narrowed. “It’s unforgivable what you have done to your brethren. You hast a one last to surrender yourself.” He pounded his fists together, “Or we won’t allow any mercy.” “Fat chance. Bring it on.” The Garchomp rushed forward, his jaws emitting a dark energy, “Crunch!” Gallavant sidestepped the move easily. “You form is poor. You require practice in the art of battle.” The Gallades arms glowed a purple-blue color, and he used a double Dual Chop attack, alternating with each hand and striking the the Garchomps knees, causing them to buckle. The Garchomp attempted to strike the Fighting-Type, but was parried and struck in the jaw with an Ice Punch. Before the Garchomp could attack again he was hit with a Low Kick, causing him to fall over. Gallavant used another Ice Punch and the Garchomp was down for the count. The Gallade snorted at the easy battle. “These guys only really on brute strength, they don’t have any brains at all.” Scout grunted in acknowledgement. “Yeah, and here I was hoping I could actually do some fighting today. Oh well. Think I could lead the next mission?” “Don’t you remember how the last time I allowed that went.” “Well it’s not my fault that they decided to use Earthquake on the side of a mountain! I had it under control until that stupid Metagross…” the Weavile was cut off as the door to the room exploded, revealing a Tyranitar. It looked to the Garchomp, unconscious on the floor, and gave an irate, and surprisingly feminine roar. “Garchy! You’re going to pay for that!” Phil just sighed. “I got this one if you wanna go ahead and start rounding up poachers.” “Good idea. Scout and I will go on while you fight the pebble.” “What’d you call me?” The Tyranitar roared. “He called you a pretty rock monster,” Scout snarked. The Tyranitar let out another bellow, and rushed the Gallade, but was diverted from her target by a powerful Mach Punch to her rocky cheekbone. “You’re gonna pay for that, monkey!” The Rock-Type then lumbered after the Infernape, who continued throwing several attacks at her. “Let’s go, Doki and Jugger may need help.” The Weavile nodded and followed the Gallade back through the building, which now seemed to be strangely empty. “Do you think that they beat Doki and Jugger?” “Hmm… It’s possible I guess, but unlikely. Something here uneases me, proceed with caution.” The two finally reached the front entrance, and were met with a shocking sight, Jugger was lying in the snow, a large pool of blood collected around the Electivire. Gallavant and Scout quickly rushed forward to tend to the Electric-Type. “Tina! We need you here!” “I’m busy with Skream, you know Heal Pulse, use it!” The Gallade frowned, Heal Pulse was not a move he knew well, but his comrade would die if he didn’t try. He closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could, and he felt as if it was working for a moment, but he then heard a coughing noise, and he opened his eyes to find Jugger turning his head towards his leader. “It… it was…” The Electric-Type faltered, and spit up some blood. “It was who?” The Gallade demanded. “It was… Doki…” Gallavant’s eyes widened. How could Doki have done this? He was his oldest friend, his most trusted ally. “There must be some mistake! Some accidental friendly fire!” Jugger coughed up more of his fluids, “No, he stabbed me in the back! You need to find him! Go!” Just then Skream touched down with Tina riding on her back. “Has Jugger already told you?” The Skarmory demanded darkly. “Yes… but… there must be some mistake! Doki wouldn’t-” “He did! Now are you gonna help me catch that literal backstabber or not?” The Gallade nodded his head slightly and climbed onto the Steel-Types back, only barely registering Tina beginning work on Jugger and Skream’s liftoff. The Skarmory soared some distance through the storm, which was now becoming thinner, until she finally reached a caravan of trucks, all driving along in a line through the snowy road. “Drop me down in front of the first truck.” Skream obliged, and flew ahead of the procession, and slowing down enough for the Gallade to jump from her back. Just before he hit the ground, he yelled out “Stone Edge!” and a number of large jagged stones breached the concrete, blocking the way of the leading truck, which crashed into the crags, causing all of the trucks behind it to become stuck in a pileup. The driver of the lead truck stumbled out of his seat, but was met with a powerful punch to the stomach, and was thrown back twenty feet into several other poachers he rushed forward and struck several more humans coming to save their cargo. He continued to fight off more and more of the poachers, dodging and weaving between them, and striking them down one by one. He vaguely noticed Skream helping him on the sidelines, but his focus was on finding Doki. He needed and explanation for what his allies were saying. There must be something else going on, maybe Doki was trying to lure them in by pretending to be with them? Or something of the like? He didn’t have to wait too long as he suddenly felt a sharp pain is his side, and something cold and hard poking between his ribcage. The object twisted hard and he felt something yank his head and shove him down to the ground, the blade pulling out of his side. He rolled over as best he could to see his attacker, and found to his horror, a Bisharp. “What are you doing?” The Gallade demanded, still in denial. “Really? You haven’t figured it out? I betrayed you and stabbed you, and you’re still continuing on with your immature act? Pathetic.” The Bisharp sneered. “Wha- what do you mean?” The Dark-Type rolled his eyes and grunted. “I’ve already told you? I betrayed you! I’m working with the poachers!” “But… But why?” Doki snorted. “Do I really have to spell it out to you? I’m sick of working with you and your band of misfits! You do nothing but go around and do feel-good bullshit!” “But we're partn-” “We are nothing. I’ve wanted to leave ever since that old coot made you the leader! He was supposed to choose me!” “I,,, I made you my second in comm-” “That’s not enough! All of the glory, all of the thanks, it always goes to you!” The Bisharp then smirked, “So I figured, since you get all the reward, why not make a little on the side when we’re not on missions.” The wounded psychic attempted to stand, “You… you won’t get away with…” He was met with a knee to the face, sending him sprawling on the ground. “It may sound cliche, but I already have. Fiona’s with me too, and she’s already taking care of little ol’ Skream.” “F-fiona!” Gallavants was more shocked at the Talonflame’s teamwork with Doki than the betrayal, the two had never gotten along. The Bisharp smirked. “You should learn to ‘check our hearts’ more often you prick. I can understand since I’m a dark type, but c'mon, she doesn’t even have that going for her.” Gallavant was out of things to say, and his eyes were growing heavier with the blood loss, seeing this, Doki extended the blade from his hand, preparing for a final strike. “I’ll make it quick for…” The Bisharp faltered, and stumbled, something seeming to overtake him. Gallavant too could feel himself becoming suddenly even sleepier, despite the bloodloss. In the back of his mind, just before he was fully gone he heard a voice, “Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home” Ten years ago, in the Kalos Region. A lone Kirlia wandered through the flowery meadows just north of Santalune. He picked a few flowers and sniffed them, and his eyes widened. Not from the flowers, but because he heard something. Whipping around he Teleported just in time to dodge an attack from a Quilladin, appearing again several feet away. “Nice try, but I could hear you coming!” About ten feet away, a form lifted up out of the flowers, brushing pollen off of itself, and the Kirlia was greeted with the sight of a human girl, about ten years old, probably just starting on her journey. “Ok, so sneaking up on it didn’t work… Chester, use rollout!” The Quilladin obeyed immediately, and brought in his arms, throwing himself to the ground and rolling speedily towards the Kirlia. He dodged easily, and then used a Confusion attack, causing the Grass-Type to trip up in his attack and painfully tumble on the ground. “Use Pin Missile!” The Quilladin leaned forward, and began launching a barrage of his spikes are the Kirlia, who took most of them head on. The Psychic type quickly regained his footing, and used Disarming Voice, the powerful fairy sound waves damaging Chester and knocking him out. “Chester, return!” A red flash lit up and returned the Grass starter to his Pokeball, and another of the orbs was thrown out, “Go, Doki!” Another flash lit up the field, and a Pawniard appeared. “Ok Doki, use Metal Claw!” The Pawniard rushed forward, and landed a powerful hit on the little psychic, wounding him. “Now follow up with a Fury Cutter!” The glowing green arm slammed into the Kirlias side and send him sprawling. “Go Pokeball!” The ball bounced off of the Kirlia’s shoulder, and enveloped him in a red light. The Kirlia simply accepted his fate, the trainer seemed strong, and a journey didn’t sound like a bad idea. A “ding” sound could be heard, and after a few moments he was let out again. “Hi there! My name is Amy. What’s yours?” “Kirlia” was the response she received. “Heh, of course. Well we can’t leave you with a name like that can we? A special mon’ needs a special name to help separate them! What do you think?” The Psychic type nodded happily in agreement. “Kirlia!” “Ok, hmm… how about… Lia?” He sighed and shook his head, not only was he male but it just sounded unoriginal. “How about Belle?” The Kirlia puffed out his chest indignantly, “Kirlia Kirlia!” “Oh, I get it sorry, you’re a guy aren’t you! Sorry. How about… Gallavant?” The Kirlia almost shook his head in the negative, but stopped, that sounded like a pretty good name actually. He nodded in affirmation of his new name. “Great! it’s nice to meet you Gallavant!” She held out a hand, which was happily accepted. “Welcome to the team, speaking of…” She pulled out three more Pokeballs and opened them up, and the Quilladin from before, a Honedge, and an Audino came out. “Okay guys, meet out newest member, Gallavant!” The Pokemon before her all voiced their greetings. “Gallavant, I’d like you to meet Tina,” she motioned to the Audino, “Aphex,” she pointed to the Honedge, “and Chester, but you two have already met, hehe.” “Hi there! I’m Gallavant now I guess. It’s nice to meet you guys.” There was an awkward pause after, and Amy, seeing this, took off her backpack and pulled out some food. “So how about some lunch guys?” The Pokemon all happily agreed to the girls suggestion, and were each given their own bowl and a two different types of food was poured into different ones. Gallavant was summoned by the girl, who had an empty bowl right next to Doki. “I checked my Pokedex and saw your dietary needs, but I thought I’d let you decide for yourself, she held out four different bags, each with writing on it that the young Kirlia couldn’t read. He sniffed the openings to each of them, until he gestured to two at once. “So you want two kinds at once?” The Kirlia nodded, “Alright,” she poured some into the bowl, half and half, “There you go. If you decide you want something different next time just tell me. Oh, and here,” She pulled out a few Oran Berries. “Eat these to get your strength back up, that was a tough battle.” Gallavant accepted the berries and voiced his thanks, then popped them into his mouth, savoring the flavor, until he finished with those and began digging into his food bowl. He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and looked up to find Doki, rubbing his shoulder with his blade hand. “Sorry if I went a little overboard there earlier. I’m used to battling with other Pawniard, and we usually go farther than other Pokemon do when we spar.” Gallavant smiled and nodded. “It’s alright, I understand. You were just following your trainer's commands, or our trainers commands now I suppose,” He popped another bit of the Poke-Kibble in his mouth. “Alright, thanks. You seem pretty tough yourself, I was sorta aware of the battle you had with Chester prior to me, and he’s pretty strong. Maybe you would’ve beat me if he hadn’t already worn you down first.” Gallavant smiled, “Ya think so? I never really battled that much myself to be honest. I only actually evolved because my dad was so set on me learning to defend myself.” He continued to eat. “Yeah, same. My pops was pretty hard on all of us back at the breeding farm. Most Bishard are that way though. Was your dad a Gallade?” The Kirlia shook his head. “Nah, he was a Dusklops. My mom’s a Gardevoir. I left home not too long ago to live on my own, and I’m pretty sure they split up after I left.” “My dad was a Bisharp, and my mom a Kadabra. Their trainer was trying to breed a better Pawniard. I think they did since my parent’s stopped making kids eventually. I have fifteen siblings, and I can’t stand a single one of them. Gallavant laughed. “I’m an only child, so I wouldn’t really know where you're coming from. So how is it that you ended up traveling with Amy?” The Pawniard smiled “There was some trouble at the farm, some nearby Swirlix kept causing trouble and stealing food, and she helped take care of it. I helped, and when the owner of the farm saw how we’d gotten sorta close he offered me as a gift. So here I am.” Gallavant looked around at the mon surrounding him. “What about the others?” Doki swallowed and began. “Tina and aphex were both caught in battle like you on route six. Chester is her starter. Like I said I was a gift, and you were caught just now.” The Kirlia nodded along with each explanation. “So how long have you all been together?” “I’ve been here about a month. Tina and Aphex a little less, Aphex one day more than Tina. Chester I think is more like one and a half or two. But I’m not entirely sure.” He stopped and ate some more. “So… how about an even battle later?” Gallavant smirked, “You’re on!” “I think we’re gonna be good friends,” Doki Smiled. Unknown Location Present Gallavant jumped up, slamming his head on something hard above him. “Gah! What the?” After cradling his head for a few moments, he opened his eyes back up, revealing the bottom of a bed. The Gallade looked around more, and found himself to be in what appeared to be some sort of guest bedroom. When he glanced back up he realized he was in a bunk bed, and had slammed his skull into the bottom of the top bunk. He rubbed his head again and pulled the sheets off of him, revealing a bandage, slightly tainted red. “So it wasn’t a dream... “ He stopped getting out of the bed, and lied back down, crossing his arms and looking up at the metal bars above him. “What could cause him to do this?” Before he could ponder it further, a door was opened across from him in the room. He quickly stood up and readied himself, but found Tina carrying a tray of bandages and medicine. “Oh good, I thought I heard you wake up. Our hosts will be bringing in some food for you shortly.” Gallavant nodded, and lifted up his arms for the Audino to remove the previous bandage. As Tina began cleaning the wound, which was much smaller than he had previously thought, he pondered further on the betrayal. There was no way the only reason Doki betrayed him was for money. Could there be others? He couldn’t think of any likely ones, but there must be something more substantial than that. How could he have just stabbed- “JUGGER!” The sudden exclamation surprised the Audino, and she fumbled with the bottle of rubbing alcohol in her hands for a moment. “Sorry… But what happened to Jugger? Is he alright?” Tina sighed, “I- I don’t know. He didn’t look good when we were teleported.” Gallavant raised an eyebrow, “Teleported?” The Audino facepalmed. “I forgot, you’ve been unconscious all day. It seems like all of earth has been taken somewhere different. I don’t know where, but I don’t think it’s even the same world. Instead of humans there are these weird Ponyta-like creatures that call themselves ponies.” The Gallade looked around some in the room, it looked just like a human house, were these “ponies” so similar to humans? “So how did we get in here?” “We both appeared in the backyard of this house. I managed to communicate to the owners that you required medical attention, and they let us in, that was four hours ago.” Tina finished applying the new bandage, and stepped back. “You should be good to stand and move around, just try not to lift anything heavy or get into any fights, kay?” “Alright, got it. So do you know if any of the others are here?” Tina shrugged, “I don’t know. There are lots of other Pokemon outside, causing quite a bit of chaos I might add. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the others are off trying to calm everyone down or something. Maybe you could find em’ with your psychic powers.” “Yeah, that could work I guess.” His stomach growled then, “You mentioned lunch?” Tina nodded, “Come with me, I told them to make you beans and Sweet Potatoes, those are good for trying to recover from a surgery… or a stab wound.” The Audino led him through the house, which he noticed was rather bare, almost as if they had recently moved in. There was little furniture, and what was there seemed new. The walls had few pictures, but there were quite a few boxes sitting around. They finally came to the kitchen, and Gallavant was finally answered in his question of the appearance of the locals. They were definitely similar to Ponyta, but only in their basic body shape and hooves, beyond there, they were very different. One of them was black, which a tall faded looking blue mohawk for a mane, and eyes of a similar color. Gallavant was fairly sure he was male judging by how large he was compared to the other, a yellow mare with a turquoise mane and eyes. Both possessed wings, which looked too small for them to fly, but remembering Skarmory and Dragonite he decided to pass it off as a quirk of the species. The black one turned around first, holding a pan filled with four tin foil wads, which likely contained sweet potatoes. He set them on the counter and looked to the two Pokemon in his doorway. “Ah! Audino! You’re friend is up! You mentioned he could translate for us?” Gallavant nodded, and his eyes glowed for a moment, allowing for a translator to be set up between them. “Can you understand us now?” The stallion nodded and held out a hoof. “Yeah, nice to meet you… uh…” The Gallade accepted the shake, “Gallavant. It’s a pleasure as well. But Tina hasn’t had a chance to introduce me to either of you.” The stallion nodded, “My name is Thunderlane, and this is my marefriend Raindrops.” The mare at the stove looked back and waved. “Has… Tina did you say? told you about what’s going on.” Gallavant sat down at the table. “Yeah, honestly I have no more idea than any of you. Last thing I remember I was… in the woods, and the snow.” Thunderlane quirked an eyebrow, “So nothing about a betrayal?” At Gallavant’s surprised expression he just chuckled, “Tina told us about that. We weren’t about to let some strange wounded creature into our home without at least knowing what happened first.” His eyes softened some, “I’m sorry to hear about what your friend did. I’d like to say I can relate, but I don’t think your best friend going out with your crush really counts as the same thing,” he chuckled. Gallavant’s eyes narrowed. “No, it doesn’t.” Tina, sensing the tense situation came over and began unwrapping the potatoes. “Okay, so who’s up for some food?” The two males at the table both nodded, and grabbed a plate from a stack on the corner, and put a potato on their plates. Thunderlane began adding salt and butter, but Gallavant was looking left and right, searching for a certain topping. Tina noticed this and gave a knowing smirk. “Looking for the hotsauce Gal?” The Gallade grinned, “You know me too well.” Raindrops came over and set a pan of fried beans on the table. “We have some Rainbow Sauce if you’d like. But I’m warning you, it’s the hottest in Equestria. The only reason we have any is cuz’ Thundey here lost a bet before we moved.” Gallavant crossed his arms in confidence. “Bring it on! No fire is too hot for Gallavant!” The mare giggled, “Well I did warm you.” She opened up the fridge and pulled out a small bottle. “Here ya go.” She poured two or three drops on the potato. Gallavant looked up, slightly irked. “Is that all?” “Oh it’s all you’ll need.” “You underestimate just how much I’ve killed my tastebuds over the last few years!” He mixed up the potato, adding a bit of salt and pepper. “Now for the moment of truth!” He picked up a spoonful of the root, and put it in his mouth. “Hmm… It has a nice tang I guess.” Thunderlane burst out laughing, “A little tang? I dunked my head in the toilet and jugged a whole gallon of milk after a drop of that stuff!” Tina gave a little smile. “He always had a supply of Mount Chimney Lava Sauce. Hopefully one of the old ladies that made the stuff is here too or else he’s gonna forever have an unsatisfied fire tooth.” The table laughed at Gallavant’s expense, and finished their meal. Once they were done Gallavant stood up and stretched, before flinching in pain and putting a hand to his side. “Gaah. Gotta remember not to do that.” He looked to Thunderlane. “Tina and I are going to go out on the town and see if we can find any of our friends. You think one of you could come along?” Thunderlane stood up, “Sure, I gotta walk off that meal anyway.” The Gallade nodded. “Good, give me a moment to see if I can sense any of our number nearby, I only have about a mile radius,but we can check periodically.” His eyes glowed blue, and he touched his hands together for a moment, before the glow faded and he shook his head. “No one nearby. Let’s walk about a half mile and try again.” The trio exited, Tina mostly tagging along to keep an eye on Gallavants injury. “I don’t know whether to hope we find Doki or not… I don’t know if I could fight him like this... ” The Gallade shook himself. He wouldn’t need to. He would show Doki the light again. Chapter Two: Apparently Bad Morals aren't Specific to EarthAfter exiting the house, the trio continued on down the street, following Thunderlanes directions into town. They seemed to be in a more suburban area on the outskirts, the city skyline a good three or four miles in the distance. They walked in silence for some time, Gallavant deep in thought, and the other two wary to break the silence because of this. After they had walked a fair distance Thunderlane cleared his throat, “I think this is about a half mile out, you wanna use your spell to find your friends again?” Gallavant simply nodded, then his eyes glowed again for a moment, before fading, and he shook his head. “No one here, let’s continue.” After a few moments Tina finally tried to start up a real conversation. “So Thunderlane, did you grow up in… wherever this is?” The Pony shook his head, “No, I grew up in a city farther south called Cloudesdale. Raindrops and I only moved here a few weeks ago. And this city is called Detrot.” “Hmm…” Tina pondered for a moment, trying to figure out how to continue. “So what caused the move to this ‘Detrot?’” Thunderlane grinned, “Well… my marefriend got an offer for the weather captain in town, since we’re both graduates of the Wonderbolts we’re pretty hot material in air related industries.” “Oh? What exactly are the Wonderbolts? I don’t think we have that where we come from.” The Audino queried. “They’re a sort of… mix between a military unit and sports team. They usually just do airshows and races, but every now and then they’re called in to deal with aerial threats around Equestria,” He explained. This piqued Gallacant’s interest. “So you’re a soldier? You didn’t hit me as the fighting type.” “Oh no! Raindrops and I aren’t really Wonderbolts yet, and the academy was all flying, no fighting.” The two Pokemon nodded in understanding. “So how did you two meet?” Tina asked. “We first met at the academy. I had actually seen her around the last town we lived in a couple times, but we never really met. We first started dating at the academy, and kept it up when we went back to Ponyville, until she got a job offer here and we moved.” “Aww… that’s sorta sweet,” She smiled, “You followed her all the way here. I take it you two really like each other?” The stallion nodded. “Yeah, I had been thinking about proposing some time soon, but I was waiting until we could settle down some more. Now with all of… this happening I’m not sure if it should be reason for delay or to hurry up.” Tina gasped. “If you love her you should never delay! What are your species proposal traditions? How much do gems cost here? That is if you use rings. Have you met her parents? Has she met yours? What about…?” The gushing Normal-Type was cut off by a light smack to the back of her head. “Give the guy a break,” Gallavant chuckled, gesturing to the heavily blushing stallion. Tina gulped and gave an awkward smile. “Heh… sorry. I always get excited when I know there's romance afoot. I always liked to play matchmaker for teammates back home, and I’m happy to say that most of them are still together, and the only ones that fell through were with Gallavant and... Doki. I shouldn't have brought him up." Tina began tearing up a little. Gallavant stopped, got down on one knee, and opened his arms up for the Audino, who quickly accepted the hug, now sniffing a little. "It's fine, we're going to fix this. The hug tightened. “I know. But… I don’t think Jugger would have made it, even with me helping him.” She sobbed a little. “I hope the others are doing well.” Aphex was not doing well. He was physically fine, yes… but his situation with the local authorities could use some work. The guards were still at the ‘stab first, ask questions later’ stage, and so he was currently leaning up against a wall, barely paying attention to the feeling of heavy metal spears bouncing off his shield. They had started with swords, then arrows, and were now using spears. He was sure they’d bring some sort of crossbow next, considering what their weapon technology was like. Finally the guards ran out of spears, and were too scared to approach him to retrieve the ones thrown before. The sword Pokemon collected them all up with his ribbons and dumped them in the dumpster next to him, as they had cornered him in an alley. “You done?” He asked. One of the Ponyta-like creatures stepped forward, and scrutinized the strange creature before him. “This one doesn't seem an immediate threat. We should move on to some of the other more dangerous creatures around here.” There was a general murmur of agreement from the other guards, and they all retrieved their spears the dumpster, all carefully eyeing Aphex as they did so. Once they had all wandered off, Aphex exited the alley and wandered down the street. “That must have been a good two hours wasted,” he grumbled. As much as the guards he annoyed him, he wasn’t sure if he could get out without harming one of them, they may have been overzealous in their protection of the city from the Pokemon, which he had deduced were new for them, they were really only doing their jobs. As he floated down the street, he saw that most of the Pokemon around were rather small. Quite a few bidoofs and starlys hung around in a small park to his right, and he saw some Rattata scampering around between buildings on his left. They all looked very confused, which was a relief for him, as he was not alone in this feeling. “HELP! SOMEONE HELP!” Aphex made a sudden turn to the right, where a Houndoom appeared to be menacing one of the locals. He quickly floated over to the scene, and gave the dog a smack on the behind with his blade. “Oi, do your kind even try not to make yourselves look like villains?” The Dark-Type turned to the sword, “Butt out! She has food! I want it!” Aphex floated in front of the mare, and glared at the Houndoom with his single eye. “Leave her alone. Or else.” “Hmmph. You must not be very smart. I have two type advantages after all.” “Try me Fido.” The Dark-Type snarled and launched himself at the Aegislash, who didn’t even flinch when the Foul-Play attack made contact with his shield. He then bashed the Houndoom, causing him to stumble back. “You sure you wanna do this. You don’t seem very well trained.” The Houndoom made another animalistic snarl, and launched himself at Aphex again, this time with fire licking at his maw, it made to bite down on the edge of the shield, but at the last second changed directions and went for the tip of Aphex’s sword, poking out from the bottom, but before he could bite down the shield moved down suddenly, slamming his head into the ground. He bit at air for a moment, trying to grab something with the Fire Fang, but the fire in his mouth eventually faded, and he was thrown back again. “Nice try, but you can’t eye your real target so much when attacking, I saw right through your plan. I’m getting tired, I think I’m gonna finish up now.” The Aegislash shifted into his blade form, and charged up a Sacred Sword. The Houndoom, seeing a chance to deal some real damage charged forward again, but was smacked hard with the flat of the sword, and was sent flying back about fifty feet. Aphex began floating over to the Pokemon, but the Dark-Type quickly jumped back up and ran off, whimpering with his tail between his legs. Aphex turned back to the pony from before, who was still cowering at the same spot as before. The Aegislash sighed and floated over, and began picking up bits of food that had fallen out of the ponies basket. After he finished he set it back down next to her, and floated away. About halfway down the street he felt a light tug on one of his ribbons, he turned around to find the pony from before, giving as brave a smile as she could manage. “Um… thank you… sir? That dog thing would probably have stolen all of my food so... “ She pulled an apple out of her basket, “Here. I hope it’s something you can eat. If not maybe you could give it to a friend or something?” Aphex nodded gratefully and accepted the fruit, holding it in his ribbon-hand, and continued onward. Gallavant and his compatriots had been wandering the streets of Detrot for several hours now, with no luck. They had stopped a few times so that Tina could check on Gallavant’s wound, which was doing rather well. “It wasn’t really that deep, but he nicked a fairly major vein. The vein is sealed up and there’s little muscle damage, it should be fine in a day or two.” Tina explained, giving a basic rundown of the cut. “That’s good. That means I can go straight back to work then.” Tina’s eyes narrowed. “You really need to take a bit more time before you can fight again.” “I need to find Doki!” “You need to rest!” “I need to know why he betrayed us!” “He betrayed us because he’s selfish and doesn't care for the morals he’s helped uphold for the past eight years! Face it Gallavant! He’s changed! I don’t know when but he did, and there’s nothing more to it than that.” Tears were now streaming down Tina’s face, and she was shaking uncontrolably. “You forget, he was my friend too! We all knew him!” The Gallade wasn’t sure how to respond. In his mind, he knew she was probably right. Doki had betrayed them all, and there was no excuse for that. But he knew in his heart, there must be something more to the story. Doki would never just turn on them for something like profit, would he? The group stood there for several minutes, Gallavant giving light pats and strokes to Tina’s back every now and then to help calm her down. After some time she was finished, and before either of the males present were ready she began marching forward, a new look of determination in her eyes. Aphex had been attacked several more times by guards, and he didn’t fight back at all. Their weapons didn’t hurt him, so as long as they didn’t harm someone they were capable of harming, they were fine in his book. Instead of fighting back he usually just took their weapons from them and broke or threw them away, more as a distraction then anything. One rather pesky guard almost managed to nick his ribbons, he ended up hanging by his armor from a light pole. “They’ll probably just get one of those winged Ponyta to take him down,” the Aegislash reasoned. He hadn’t really accomplished anything in the five or six hours since he had awoken other than move around and saving the mare. He hadn’t even eaten the apple, he handed it off to a young looking Chespin that looked about ready to steal from hunger. He seemed to be moving into a worse part of town now, as the buildings look significantly more run down, and the ponies looked less friendly. Not that the guards were exactly, but these Ponyta-like creatures seemed more threatening in a criminal way, as though they were sizing him up before they mugged him. Not that they would get anything if they tried, even if he had anything. Looking to the horizon he saw what appeared to be a large number of storm clouds gathering, or rather being gathered. Apparently the winged ones could use some roundabout form of Raindance as they appeared to be making rain. “I should probably find somewhere to go inside.” The Aegislash muttered to himself. He continued on, looking for somewhere run down enough for him to take cover without trespassing. Most of the buildings around him were either houses, which were mostly on the left, and factories on the right. After some time Aphex finally found one he deemed deserted looking enough, and he approached it. He tried the door, but found it to be locked. The sword Pokemon sighed, “I hate doing this so much.” He removed his shield, and shoved the tip of his blade between the door and the frame, and twisted, causing the wooden frame on the inside to explode inward. “What was that?” Asked a voice from the inside. “Don’t worry about it,” answered another more gruff voice, “Probably just a rat knocking something over, now get back to work. We’re all in trouble if they’re not moved by tonight.” Aphex stopped. He had been fairly sure this was abandoned. He floated back out of the building and looked at the wall, where a sign said “Keep out, bank property.” “In trouble… moving. That doesn’t really sound like bank stuff.” He looked back to the run down factory. “I think this deserves investigation, doesn’t seem like the locals are dangerous anyway.” Aphex floated back into the building, and found a large number of cardboard boxes, all apparently new, and stacked against a single wall. The Aegislash looked around the room more, and found it to be some sort of lobby or front entrance, but there were no doorways other than the one he entered through. He looked over to the pile of boxes. “Whoever is trying to keep from looking suspicious is really bad at it.” He floated over, and pushed the boxes out of the way with ease, revealing an open doorway, and… more boxes. Was their plan to just prevent people from getting in through giant mounds of cardboard boxes? “Shadow Sneak,” he mumbled, and he sank into the floor, and moved through the shadows to the other side. “Too easy,” the Aegislash would have smirked if he could. Looking around he found to be behind a large number of large machines, industrial looms to be more precise. They were lined up close enough together than Aphex still couldn’t see past them, but he could hear voices on the other side. “Hey, boss, we have a train set up. They think we’re moving chickens to a bunch of different farms in Zebrica,” one voice explained. “Didn’t I tell you to say they were vegetables? We could've put a sound muffling spell on it.” The same gruff voice from before questrioned. “They charge less for livestock. I thought you’d prefer that.” The other voice became more irritated. “But they’re less likely to look inside if they’re vegetables. If we get caught it’s your fault. Now go clean out one of the empty crates, they pissed themselves in there earlier. “Yes sir.” the first speaker then wandered off. The apparent leader began to speak up again, “Alright boys, we’re moving out tonight. Get all the merchandise into the cages, Sweet and I will come around and put silencing spells on them once they’re closed and sealed.” There was a sound of affirmation and of hoof beats around the factories stone floor as the subordinates began their work. This was enough for Aphex, something was definitely going on here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. He floated out from behind the machinery and looked. Before him, being rounded into five shipping containers on wheels, were thirty bruised, beaten, malnourished specimens of the Ponyta creatures. This was the last straw. Aphex came farther out, floating over to the pony who he assumed was speaking as the leader before. The brown and green stallion was facing away from the sword, and was monitoring the locking and latching of the containers. As the Pokemon floated through the room some of the other ponies who were cleaning up possible evidence stopped and watched, with looks somewhere between shock and horror. “Ahem.” The pony didn’t turn around. “I think you mean ‘excuse me sir’. Do it right and we can talk.” Aphex reached out with his ribbon-hands, and grabbed the pony around the barrel. “Hey there asshole!” The ponies eyes bugged out, “Wh-what are you?!” “I think you mean, ‘what is your species sir’.” Aphex then wrapped one of his ribbons around him and carried him underhand as he floated over to a locked container, all of the workers still watching in fear. Once he made it to an empty container, he ripped open the unlocked door, and threw the pony inside, then slammed the door closed. From inside a terrified cried out, “What are you doing? Get him!” The trio walked a while longer, and Gallavant decided to stop and check for teammates again. His eyes glowed as he scanned the surrounding area for familiar minds, and finally, he found someone. “Aphex! I found him. He’s close enough for me to sense him, but I can’t quite communicate with him.” Tina gave as large a grin as she could muster, “Yes! Finally! Cmon, we gotta go get him!” The trio set out again, now with a destination and a new spring in their step. The ponies charged at Aphex, trying to beat him with their hooves, but he simply allowed them to pass through him, most of them slamming into the metal container behind him, falling down, and groaning. A bright flash emanated from behind him, and he felt a mild tingling sensation on his back, turning around he found one of a female Ponyta, this one with a horn. So would it be more like a Rapidash then? he wondered to himself, before her horn lit up again, and he was hit with another beam of energy, impacting his shield and dissipating, it felt somewhat like fairy energy he noted. The ponies eyes narrowed, and she tried a different spell, this time a fire spell. “Gaah!” Aphex exclaimed at the surprisingly powerful flames, and backed up, holding his shield in front of him again. The pony smirked and fired another fire spell, but was interrupted by a green fist impacting the side of her face, throwing her into another of the containers. “Hello Gallavant. Nice to see you. How’d the mission go?” Gallavant fended off another one of the ponies charging him, picking him up and throwing him up onto a catwalk. “Poorly. So what are we dealing with here?” “Standard slave ring. I think I had it fairly well under control but I always welcome help.” “Good, because I feel like punching something right now.” The two approached the group of ponies cowering in front of the container their boss was in. “We surrender!” They all shouted simultaneously. Gallavant put his hands on his hips. “Hmmph. Way easier than usual.” “I think that the fear factor of how unfamiliar we are helps,” another voice pitched in. Aphex turned around to greet it, “Ah, Tina! Good to see you too! Who’s the Ponyta?” Thunderlane gulped at the blade pokemon. “Uh… Thunderlane. Guys, I wish you would've warned me about your friend being a giant sword.” Gallavant chuckled. “Sorry. I guess it slipped my mind. Now, let’s go find the local authorities and-” The Gallade buckled down in pain. “Gaah! Tina, check the wound!” The Audino hurried over and took off the bandage carefully, scrutinizing the cut beneath. “Gallavant, I told you no fighting until it was healed! Now you tore the new flesh growing there. We need to get you back to the house.” Gallavant sighed in defeat. “Fine, but first we need to let these ponies out. Thunderlane, go find the guard and tell them what happened.” The stallion nodded, “Got it,” before trotting outside. Tina forced Gallavant to sit down, so he watched their criminal prisoners, preparing to use his mind instead of his body should they try anything. Once all of the ‘merchandise’ was released, they were led outside and instructed to wait with Aphex for the guard. Tina practically dragged Gallavant back to Thunderlane and Raindrop’s house, where she put him back in his bed, and made him rest. Gallavant awoke to someone knocking on his door. “Come in” he mumbled. The door was enveloped in a blue psychic glow, and he was surprised to see a Meowstic enter instead of Tina. “Hey Robin, how’d we find you?” The Meowstic smirked. “It was more like I found you. The guards made quite the spectacle out of the arrests, especially when they chewed out Aphex. Apparently they don’t need his help, and they should lock him up for obstructing justice. I heard about what happened there, and in my opinion if Aphex hadn’t done what he did, those ponies would be long gone to wherever they were being sent.” Gallavant sighed, “I suppose they don’t like things that are strange and new. What about your experience? You met anyone good?” The Meowstic nodded happily. “I already have a job! I appeared out front of a music school, and I heard the terrible… sounds those amateurs were making. I just had to go in and correct them.” Gallavant laughed, before grimacing and putting a hand to his side. “Augh… still hurts sorta. So, lemme guess, your instruction involved an instrument being forcibly taken?” She giggled slightly. “Oh, you know me too well! Yes, I charged in there and yanked a violin away from their instructor, and showed them how to properly play… whatever piece they were doing. It’s new music to me, but luckily it’s based on the same principles.” “I would have expected you to be more passionate about someone messing up on the sax.” “Hush you. Just because my specialty is jazz doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate other forms.” “True, true. So what time is it now?” “FIve o-clock. I find it odd how they even have the same time system here as we do, I’m not complaining, but it is very odd. You’ve been out cold for the past three hours. Tina sent me in to wake you up and let you know dinner is almost done.” “DINNERS DONE!” Came a shout from down the hall. “I suppose I have performed my duty well. Come along o’ fearless leader.” Author's Note Oh boy! Chapter two! I think this means I get into Canon 2 now, or something. Just so you know I made a few minor alterations to the first chapter, the major ones being me changing the name of the Aegislash from Roger to Aphex, because I love obscure references only I will get. I also changed the length of time since Gallavant was caught from five to ten years. That's all folks! Chapter Three: Settling InDinner was very enjoyable. Tina prepared tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for the ponies and Pokemon. It wasn’t high class food, but the Audino was a fairly good cook. During the meal she repeatedly got up and refilled Gallavant’s glass, telling him it was important to stay hydrated. “Yes ‘mom’,” he chuckled as she brought the glass over from the sink for the umpteenth time. Tina set the glass down and put her hands on her hips. “Gallavant, this is no laughing matter! I told you no fighting! And now you’ve just made the wound worse!” Gallavant sighed. “Sorry. I guess I just needed to get some aggression out. It was a really short and easy fight!” “That’s no excuse, and you don’t need to be apologizing to me. Apologize to yourself, after all that’s the only person you’re really hurting.” Robin took a bite out of her sandwich. “She has a point you know. That’s a serious wound. You’ve made Shields go on the backburner for weeks even after less serious injuries.” Raindrops blinked at the statement. “Shields? There are more of that guy” she looked to Aphex, “in your group?” The sword Pokemon chuckled, “No, no. I’m the only Aegislash in the Shields of Justice. Shield is just the word we use for a member of our organization. I’m a shield, Robin’s a shield, Gallavant’s a shield, you get the idea?” The mare nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense. So how do you organize your ‘shields’? Is it sorta military style?” Gallavant shook his head. “No, not really. Most of the members operate as near equals. We only have two official ranks, Shield Master, which is me, and Shield Ace which is… the second in command.” Realizing who Gallavant had been reminded of, Robin continued for him. “Beyond that we have four ‘tiers’ for our members, the Trainees, the Novices, the Adepts, and the Veterans. Everyone in here is a Veteran. It’s not really official, it’s mostly just based on social status in the group, skill, and time spent with us. Veterans don’t really get any perks other than usually being favored for leading positions on missions, and usually being given more high risk missions. Trainees are the only ones that aren’t official members yet, they have yet to complete training and take the oath, which only veterans can administer.” Thunderlane nodded, “That makes sense I guess. How many of you are there?” “About sixty” Tina answered. “But there were usually only about twenty members at our base at any one time. Most came and went as they wished, checking to see if there were missions they could join in on. Most of the people that stayed were younger members still in training, or some of the more core members of the Veterans.” Robin suddenly stopped eating. “Arceus! What am I thinking! Just because we’re in a new place doesn’t mean we can part with tradition!” Aphex laughed loudly. “I was wondering when you’d notice. I guess this just threw off your schedule. Don’t worry, I’d be more than happy to let you take a break for one night.” The Meowstic glared, “I will not so easily abandon my duties! I have done it since before you even joined!” Raindrops interrupted, “Um… what tradition is it that you’re talking about?” “Robin always plays a song for us before we started eating back at the temple,” Tina explained, “I’m surprised at her as well that she didn’t.” Thunderlane chuckled, “Well I think we can forgive her for one night since she doesn’t have an instrument to play on.” Robin huffed, and lifted her ears up “I have no need for an instrument, observe.” Her ears began to glow, and a smooth sax solo began to play throughout the room. “There we go. You may continue eating now.” The ponies eyes widened and they looked around, trying to locatethe source of the musc. Robin giggled, “It’s not coming from a music player or anything. I can project music by vibrating the air in the room. I figured out how to do it myself.” Gallavant put a palm to his face. “She has like four ways of using her psychic powers to produce music without an actual instrument.” “Only three actually, but this is the least invasive and still allows me to use my hands and mouth,” she retorted before taking a sip from her soup. “What are the other two then?” Thunderlane asked, impressed. “I can compact air into a solid state in the form of an instrument, and play that normally, or simply project the tune from my mind to yours. I prefer this one though, or to simply use a real instrument.” “Can all Pokemon do that sort of thing?” Raindrops asked. Robin almost spat out her soup, “Heavens no. I’m one in a extreme few who attain this level of skill, in fact there are others even more powerful than myself. Of course, I am not necessarily ‘powerful.’ I can’t lift as much as many psychics, or attack as hard, but I am very adept at manipulating things on a miniscule scale.” Raindrops nodded in understanding. “I guess it’s sorta like how most unicorns learn a few spells, but only some get to be very good at it. You must be very absorbed in music.” Tina nodded, “That’s a good analogy I suppose. And you don’t know the half of it.” The group finished up their meals, and cleaned up. Tina refused to let Gallavant do it himself and sent him off to the living room while she took care of his dishes. He sat on a couch for several minutes, listening to the sounds of dishes being washed, tables being wiped, and leftovers being stored. “This is so boooring.” He looked around in the room more, like most of the house, it was fairly bare, with only a lamp, and two sofa’s, together capable of holding five people. Behind the couch he sat on was a large window, still without blinds. A few boxes were placed next to a bookshelf on the opposite wall from where he was sitting, one open slightly, revealing a large number of books within. “Well I suppose now is as good a time as ever to learn about local literature.” Gallavant opened up the box and pulled out one of the books on the top. “Daring Do and The Ring of Destiny. Hmm. I suppose I can give it a read.” He sat down with the book, and cracked it open, flipping to the first page. He read through it for the first three pages, before closing it again. “I get the feeling this is a sequel. It’d be nice if it was numbered so I’d know where to start.” He checked the back of the book, and found a list of others of the same series. “Here we go, ‘Quest for The Sapphire Stone.” He stood up again and searched through the box some, digging through the many other installments in the series, searching for the first. “Damn, this author publishes a lot. How many has she written?” The only answer he got wasn’t much of an answer, as the glass window behind him shattered, sending glass all over the couch and carpet where he had been sitting moments ago. He whipped around, barely registering the pain in his side, and extended the blades at his elbows, ready for a fight. Instead, he found a Chespin laying on the couch, groaning in pain. After a few moments of awkward silence, Gallvant heard a few shouts from down the street, looking out he saw a few ponies, apparently law enforcement, searching around. When the Chespin heard the voices he immediately jumped up and attempted to charge further into the house, but was caught in a psychic grasp. “Just where do you think you’re going?” Gallavant asked. “I dunno… away.” The Chespin struggled in midair for a few moments before giving up and hanging in the telekinesis. “Please, don’t let them catch me.” It was now that Gallavant got a better look at the Chespin. It appeared to have significantly more spikes than normal for its species, almost entirely covering the shell on it’s back. “Why are they chasing you?” The Grass-Type shrunk away from Gallavant as much as he could. “I uh… I stole some food. I was hungry and didn’t know what else to do.” Just then the rest of the household entered. Raindrops eyes widened when she say the broken glass everywhere. “Our window! What happened?” Gallavant set down the Chespin on the floor, away from the glass. “This little guy stole some food, and was trying to find a hiding place away from the guard.” Robin stepped forward and leaned down to the Chespin. “What’s your name little one? And why do you seem so much more… spinier than most of your kind if you don’t mind me asking?” The Chespin puffed out his chest and put his hands on his hips. “The names Cody! I was subject Thirty One under Doctor Nurem! One of the few survivors.” Cody grinned stupidly. “He gave me these awesome spikes!” The eyes of all of the Pokemon in the room widened. Robin stepped forward, “You seem awfully happy for someone who had to go through that experience. Why should we believe you?” Cody shrugged. “I dunno, my spines are proof enough I thought. What’s it to ya?” Robin quirked an eyebrow at the little grass starter. “The Pokemon here are members of the Shields of Justice, a group dedicated to fighting those who prey on the weak, and helping those in need. I was in charge of locating and freeing you and your fellow subjects from that madman.” “Neato!” The Chespin looked around some more. “Do you guys have any more food in here? I’m starved.” He looked back out the window, noticing the guards were now closer he ran into the next room to hide. Ignoring how little the Chespin seemed to care about his past, Tina followed him. “I think before we do anything of the sort we should attend to those cuts.” She called out behind him. When she and the others entered the kitchen behind him, they found he had already opened the fridge, and had begun gorging himself on the still warm leftover tomato soup. He lifted his head out of the container, the red liquid dripping down his chin onto the floor. “Nah, just gimme a few minutes and I can take care of em myself. This isn’t that bad.” Tina scowled and took the soup away from the Chespin. “Not that bad? Almost as much of the red stuff on your face is blood as it is soup!” Returning the scowl Cody jumped up to the sink, and washed his face off. “Watch,” he instructed. He then scrunched up his eyes, and balled up his fists. After a few moments the cuts on his face became smaller, and the bits of glass were forced out, until there was no sign he had even gotten scratched up by the window. “See? Not that bad.” Tina was mad that she didn’t take a look at him first, but he seemed to be fine now. She then stomped back out of the room mumbling about crazy kids not letting her do her job. “Interesting,” Robin remarked once Tina was gone. “If you don’t mind, after you’ve finished eating I’d like to ask you a few questions. After whatever is going on here is finished I’d like to return to my search and free your fellow subjects, and you may know something vital to doing so.” Cody ignored her, and took the soup back from Tina, drinking up the last of what was in the bottom, before letting out a large belch. “This could be difficult,” Robin facepalmed. “Your mom is difficult.” Before Robin could further comment on Cody’s immaturity there was a knock at the door. “Police, open up!” Thunderlane began moving towards the door but Gallavant stopped him. “I got this, we have more experience with dealing with law enforcement.” He walked to the end of the hall, and opened up the door, finding a stallion and a mare, both in guard armor. “Hello sir, we’re searching for a thief. He stole some apples at the market and assaulted several guards while we were attempting to apprehend him.” Gallavant nodded. “Yeah I guess that was the guy that jumped through the window a minute ago,” he pointed to the shattered glass to his right, “He got out through the back door and scaled the fence. Doesn’t seem like the smartest guy to me. Would've been easier to go around the house instead.” The mare nodded in thanks. “Got it, cmon, let's get to the next street over to see if we can find him.” The two then dashed off down the street. Gallavant closed the door behind him and returned to the kitchen, everybody but robin and Cody had left the room to do something else. Robin was attempting to extract answers from the grass type. “I dunno.” Was the answer she was getting to most of them. Looking very frustrated, Robin tried again. “Look, you must know something. You were there for a year you said.” “I dunno.” “Are you even trying?” “I dunno.” “Uuuurgh.” The Meowstic clasped her head in her paws. “You’re impossible!” She continued to glare at Cody until and idea came to her. “I think this would be easier if you allowed me into your mind. You may know something important but simply not realize it. i won’t tamper with anything while I’m in there, I just need to search around for anything relevant. Do you mind.” “I dunno.” “I’ll take that as a yes.” She looked to Gallavant, who gave a curt nod in the affirmative. She then closed her eyes and lifted up her ears. There were a few minutes of silence in the room. Gallavant reached out to observe Robin’s search, and she was keeping to her word, so he pulled out, and observed from the physical world. Several minutes more passed, and Gallavant was about to leave to see if the glass had been cleaned up, when he heard a soft sound behind him. Turning around, he saw a tear streaming down Robins face. She let out a few more soft sobs before exiting the young Chespins mind, and turning around to wipe off the tear. “He has a lot of suppressed memories of what went on back there.” she communicated telepathically. “I was careful not to let any of them out. Some were… grisly. And hold no place in the mind of one so young.” “That would explain how he’s so… ok with all that has happened to him. Leave them for now. I’ll take a look later tonight while he is asleep. We should probably try to find Hannah, she’d probably have a better idea of what to do in this situation.” Robin nodded, their Swoobat therapist would likely be the best choice for consultation. “I did manage to get some information out of him. The biggest thing is general location. He was born in the Kalos region, and often when lab assistants had just come back they smelled like swamp. Sounds to me like Route 14.” Gallavant cracked a smile. “While that is good to know. I could tell from some of the fresher memories in there that little Cody was in the lab when he passed out and found himself here in Detrot.” “Yes, I know. Most of the other subjects may have been teleported away as well. But it’s still worth looking into in case not all made it out, and the ‘scientists’ there still need to be punished.” “Of course but… I’d have thought you’d have figured it out by now but, I think we’re all on a different world.” Robin quirked an eyebrow. “Yes, I did have the same theory as well, but it still sounds completely ridiculous, like something some mediocre writer who lives in his basement would come up with.” Gallavant laughed. “Yes that is true, but I’m not sure if I’d describe it like that. But… looking into his mind, I noticed something that I heard before as well, but forgot about.” She nodded, “Yes, I know what you mean. ‘Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home’. I heard the same thing all the way in Kalos, so if both you and I heard it whatever transmitted it must have been immensely powerful. Perhaps powerful enough to bring us all here, wherever here is.” “Indeed. Let’s just hope that he reveals his intentions soon.” After a while, all the ponies and Pokemon all began going to bed. Tina offered to sleep on the couch, which had been completely cleaned of glass by Gallvant and Robin’s psychic ministrations. Robin and Cody were sharing the top bunk in the guest room, and Gallavant was on the bottom, while Aphex decided to lean in a corner in the kitchen. The lights were out, and Gallavant had already begun drifting off to sleep when he felt something climb into his bed with him and poke him. Opening his eyes, he found Cody standing over him, looking rather nervous. “Is there something you need?” Gallavant whispered. Robin spoke up then, “Don’t bother whispering he woke me up when he moved.” Cody shrunk down some and Gallavant chuckled. He repeated, now louder, “Is there something you need?” The Chespin nodded meekly, seemingly out of character. “Yeah, uh. Can you tell me a story?” Gallavant blinked in confusion, “Why do you want to hear a story?” “Well,” Cody gulped audibly, “I heard from some of the other Pokemon at the lab that their parents used to tell them stories before they went to sleep. I… I never really knew my parents, but I’d.... I’d like to try the story part, even if… if you aren’t my dad.” Gallavant gave a light smile and sat up, moving the Chespin next to him. “Sure. I think I know just the one.” He cleared his throat then began. “Once, a long time ago, well not that long really. Once, a fair amount of time ago, there was a beautiful, kind young trainer named Amy. Amy always took great care of her Pokemon, she fed them, trained them, patched them up after battles. All of her Pokemon loved her dearly, and she loved them back. Emily and her Pokemon were very strong, they managed to collect seven gym badges in only a year! You know about gym badges don’t you?” Cody nodded his head and motioned for Gallavant to continue. “Amy and her Pokemon, an Audino, a Kirlia, a Chesnaught, an Aegislash, and… a Bisharp, were very strong, and collected seven badges, an impressive feat, and she was more than ready to try for her eighth and final badge! Along the road from one town to the next, Amy discovered some strange men in the woods, who seemed to be doing bad things! She tried to stop them, but ended up getting very badly hurt, and her Pokemon were forced to fight to protect her. Her Pokemon were powerful, but the bad men had even stronger ones with them, that were badly beating us… er... them. But then, out of nowhere, a group of Pokemon appear and fight off the villain, and rescue the girl and her Pokemon. They called themselves the Shields of Justice, and were led by a strong and honorable Lucario by the name of James. The shields fought off the bad guys and took the girl and her Pokemon to a hospital, but unfortunately, they were… too late to save the girl. She had been hurt very badly, and slipped into a coma, a very deep sleep that she couldn’t wake up from. Her Pokemon were all heartbroken, and didn’t know what to do. A few days after the incident, the Kirlia was looking for through his trainers bag to remember her by. The doctors didn’t think she’d be waking up anytime soon. He dug through all of her equipment, Pokeballs, potions, random items she had collected over time. Suddenly, as he was looking through her stones, he began to glow. His body changing, through evolution. After it was over, the stone that evolved him disappeared, but he noticed a small tag that laid in the bottom of the bag. It read, ‘Dear Gallavant, I don’t know when your birthday is, but I know the exact date of when I caught you! I thought it’d be nice to give you something special. So here you go.’” Gallavant’s eyes were watering slightly, and he stopped to wipe them. He continued on, “It was then that the new Gallade knew, that he would join the Shields of Justice, and help prevent anything like what had happened to him and his friends from happening ever again. Since then, he’s done lots of good. He’s helped fight evil organizations, bust all sorts of immoral activities, and saved countless innocents.” He then stopped and looked down at Cody, who instead of going to sleep like he had hoped, was beaming up at him with wide eyes. “Keep going! I wanna hear the ending!” He begged. Gallavant laughed. “There is no ending yet, and I hope there won’t be for some time.” Cody’s eyes widened even more, “So… you’re the Gallade from the story!” “You got me,” he grinned. “So… the Shields of Justice, they… they fight crime, and protect people?” “That’s right. We told you that before,” Robin responded from above. The Chespin beamed, “I wanna be a Shield of Justice! They sound so awesome! Can I join? Please?” Gallavant smiled and nodded, “Anyone is free to join, as long as they want to help others and are pure of heart.” Cody gasped, and started jumping up and down, “I’m gonna be a Shield of Justice! I’m gonna be a Shield of Justice!” The Gallade grabbed him and put him back down on the bed, “You’re not quite there yet. You have to complete training, and take the oath.” “Aww.” his face fell. “How long will that take?” “Depends. You can take the oath when I, or another veteran member decide you’re of high enough skill. Anyone here is capable of giving you the oath.” “Aw. Ok. So when can we start training then?” He asked hopefully. Robin piped up again, “If you like we can start tomorrow. Gallavant is still wounded so it will probably be me, Aphex, or Tina instructing you.” Cody beamed again, “Awesome! I can’t wait! I’m gonna be the strongest Shield ever!” Gallavant smiled and put him back on the top bunk, “I’m sure you will little one, I’m sure you will.”
Chapter One: BetrayalSinnoh Route 217 A lone human stood in the snow, dressed in a heavy coat, and shivering heavily. ‘Why did he have to piss off my boss’ he wondered to himself. ‘I knew this fucking storm was going to blowing in tonight, why would I eat his lunch?’ He brought his shaking hands up to his mouth and exhaled on them, trying to return some warmth to his freezing fingers. ‘I swear as soon as we’re done here I’m taking my paycheck and leaving. If I hadn’t eaten his damn Tauros steak he wouldn’t have even assigned someone for guard duty in this weather. It’s not like anyone would be out in a storm like this. Unbeknownst to the watchman, there were, and suddenly he felt a hard pain on the back of his head, and he was out like a light. The attacker searched the man's pockets until he dug out a key ring, containing about seven different keys. “We have our way in” the attacker announced mentally. Out of the woods nearby six more Pokemon exited, a Bisharp, an Infernape, an Electivire, a Weavile, a Skarmory, and a Audino. They approached the attacker, a Gallade. “What next sir? The Weavile asked. The Gallade looked to the Dark-Type, “You take these keys, and scout out the compound. Keep us informed through the link.” The Weavile nodded, took the keys and dashed off into the snow towards a faint light. The Gallade looked back to the rest of the group, “Tina," he looked to the Audino, “standby in case of injuries.” for the Skarmory he commanded, “Skream, you stay outside and make sure no poachers get away, and standby for emergency evacuation.” He pointed to he Bisharp, “Doki, you and Jugger take them head on through the front. Phil and I will attack through the side door," he held up a remaining key. The Weavile from before spoke up over the link, Gallavant, I have good news, and bad news. It looks like most of the poachers are in their cafeteria area, looks like some sort of celebration. Bad news, they have Pokemon working with them, a Tyranitar and a Garchomp. They both look pretty tough, but they may just be the only ones out of their Pokeballs currently.” The Gallade nodded to himself, “Understood, thank you Scout. We can take those two easily. Allow me into your mind so I can receive the layout of the compound please.” The Weavile allowed the Gallade in, and he transmitted the layout to the rest of the group. “Scout, hide in that broom cupboard next to you. When we reach your position you will join us in releasing the Pokemon, unless we are found, in which case you will be in charge of the Garchomp, and I the Tyranitar.” “Understood, sir.” The Gallade looked back to the group. “Same plan as before, Phil and I will go through the side, and release the Pokemon in their storage area. We will all avoid the mess hall to the best of our ability. Doki, Jugger, you will create a distraction at the front. I think knocking down their front door with a Wild Charge will suffice, but afterwards try to avoid direct conflict until the prisoners have escaped. Once the Pokemon are all released we will take down and capture as many of the poachers as possible. Their leader is main priority. Understood?” All present nodded their understanding, and went to their respective positions. “Ready… Now!” From Gallavant’s position he could hear the sound of two heavy metal doors being broken down, and he quickly unlocked the entrance and advanced. They met little resistance on the way, only two or three humans which were quickly engaged and incapacitated. Along the way they retrieved Scout, who tagged along behind them silently. They came to the door that Scout had informed them led to the holding area. Before the Infernape could open the door Gallavant shook his head in the negative. He closed his eyes and touched his hands together, sensing the humans on the other side. “Hmm… yes they’re all fine to take out. Just don’t make it too painful. “Now, for the explanation of our enemy. Just beyond the door are three guards, all together at a table. Playing some form of poker I think.” “Ok, so the usual? You kick down the door, I launch a Fire Blast through the door to surprise and disorient them, and wing it from there?” “Of course! Ready when you are.” Phil groaned and gave a thumbs up. BANG The door was kicked down, and the attack went through, wounding two of the men beyond. The one remaining reached for his belt but was stopped by a slap to his hand. The poacher looked up to find a Gallade, who simply shook his head disapprovingly, and then knocked him out with his other hand. Gallavant gave a hearty laugh “Heh, that was easy. C’mon, let’s get the prisoners.” The three retrieved some keys from the guards and began unlocking the cages around them, letting out all of the Pokemon that had been captured. “Phil, go open that garage door to let em’ out.” “Yeah, sure.” The Infernape used Rock Smash on the wall several times and created a hole large enough for some of the larger Pokemon to go through. Just after all of the captives had been evacuated, a Garchomp burst through the door, looked at his fallen comrades, and roared in fury. Gallavant’s eyes narrowed. “It’s unforgivable what you have done to your brethren. You hast a one last to surrender yourself.” He pounded his fists together, “Or we won’t allow any mercy.” “Fat chance. Bring it on.” The Garchomp rushed forward, his jaws emitting a dark energy, “Crunch!” Gallavant sidestepped the move easily. “You form is poor. You require practice in the art of battle.” The Gallades arms glowed a purple-blue color, and he used a double Dual Chop attack, alternating with each hand and striking the the Garchomps knees, causing them to buckle. The Garchomp attempted to strike the Fighting-Type, but was parried and struck in the jaw with an Ice Punch. Before the Garchomp could attack again he was hit with a Low Kick, causing him to fall over. Gallavant used another Ice Punch and the Garchomp was down for the count. The Gallade snorted at the easy battle. “These guys only really on brute strength, they don’t have any brains at all.” Scout grunted in acknowledgement. “Yeah, and here I was hoping I could actually do some fighting today. Oh well. Think I could lead the next mission?” “Don’t you remember how the last time I allowed that went.” “Well it’s not my fault that they decided to use Earthquake on the side of a mountain! I had it under control until that stupid Metagross…” the Weavile was cut off as the door to the room exploded, revealing a Tyranitar. It looked to the Garchomp, unconscious on the floor, and gave an irate, and surprisingly feminine roar. “Garchy! You’re going to pay for that!” Phil just sighed. “I got this one if you wanna go ahead and start rounding up poachers.” “Good idea. Scout and I will go on while you fight the pebble.” “What’d you call me?” The Tyranitar roared. “He called you a pretty rock monster,” Scout snarked. The Tyranitar let out another bellow, and rushed the Gallade, but was diverted from her target by a powerful Mach Punch to her rocky cheekbone. “You’re gonna pay for that, monkey!” The Rock-Type then lumbered after the Infernape, who continued throwing several attacks at her. “Let’s go, Doki and Jugger may need help.” The Weavile nodded and followed the Gallade back through the building, which now seemed to be strangely empty. “Do you think that they beat Doki and Jugger?” “Hmm… It’s possible I guess, but unlikely. Something here uneases me, proceed with caution.” The two finally reached the front entrance, and were met with a shocking sight, Jugger was lying in the snow, a large pool of blood collected around the Electivire. Gallavant and Scout quickly rushed forward to tend to the Electric-Type. “Tina! We need you here!” “I’m busy with Skream, you know Heal Pulse, use it!” The Gallade frowned, Heal Pulse was not a move he knew well, but his comrade would die if he didn’t try. He closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could, and he felt as if it was working for a moment, but he then heard a coughing noise, and he opened his eyes to find Jugger turning his head towards his leader. “It… it was…” The Electric-Type faltered, and spit up some blood. “It was who?” The Gallade demanded. “It was… Doki…” Gallavant’s eyes widened. How could Doki have done this? He was his oldest friend, his most trusted ally. “There must be some mistake! Some accidental friendly fire!” Jugger coughed up more of his fluids, “No, he stabbed me in the back! You need to find him! Go!” Just then Skream touched down with Tina riding on her back. “Has Jugger already told you?” The Skarmory demanded darkly. “Yes… but… there must be some mistake! Doki wouldn’t-” “He did! Now are you gonna help me catch that literal backstabber or not?” The Gallade nodded his head slightly and climbed onto the Steel-Types back, only barely registering Tina beginning work on Jugger and Skream’s liftoff. The Skarmory soared some distance through the storm, which was now becoming thinner, until she finally reached a caravan of trucks, all driving along in a line through the snowy road. “Drop me down in front of the first truck.” Skream obliged, and flew ahead of the procession, and slowing down enough for the Gallade to jump from her back. Just before he hit the ground, he yelled out “Stone Edge!” and a number of large jagged stones breached the concrete, blocking the way of the leading truck, which crashed into the crags, causing all of the trucks behind it to become stuck in a pileup. The driver of the lead truck stumbled out of his seat, but was met with a powerful punch to the stomach, and was thrown back twenty feet into several other poachers he rushed forward and struck several more humans coming to save their cargo. He continued to fight off more and more of the poachers, dodging and weaving between them, and striking them down one by one. He vaguely noticed Skream helping him on the sidelines, but his focus was on finding Doki. He needed and explanation for what his allies were saying. There must be something else going on, maybe Doki was trying to lure them in by pretending to be with them? Or something of the like? He didn’t have to wait too long as he suddenly felt a sharp pain is his side, and something cold and hard poking between his ribcage. The object twisted hard and he felt something yank his head and shove him down to the ground, the blade pulling out of his side. He rolled over as best he could to see his attacker, and found to his horror, a Bisharp. “What are you doing?” The Gallade demanded, still in denial. “Really? You haven’t figured it out? I betrayed you and stabbed you, and you’re still continuing on with your immature act? Pathetic.” The Bisharp sneered. “Wha- what do you mean?” The Dark-Type rolled his eyes and grunted. “I’ve already told you? I betrayed you! I’m working with the poachers!” “But… But why?” Doki snorted. “Do I really have to spell it out to you? I’m sick of working with you and your band of misfits! You do nothing but go around and do feel-good bullshit!” “But we're partn-” “We are nothing. I’ve wanted to leave ever since that old coot made you the leader! He was supposed to choose me!” “I,,, I made you my second in comm-” “That’s not enough! All of the glory, all of the thanks, it always goes to you!” The Bisharp then smirked, “So I figured, since you get all the reward, why not make a little on the side when we’re not on missions.” The wounded psychic attempted to stand, “You… you won’t get away with…” He was met with a knee to the face, sending him sprawling on the ground. “It may sound cliche, but I already have. Fiona’s with me too, and she’s already taking care of little ol’ Skream.” “F-fiona!” Gallavants was more shocked at the Talonflame’s teamwork with Doki than the betrayal, the two had never gotten along. The Bisharp smirked. “You should learn to ‘check our hearts’ more often you prick. I can understand since I’m a dark type, but c'mon, she doesn’t even have that going for her.” Gallavant was out of things to say, and his eyes were growing heavier with the blood loss, seeing this, Doki extended the blade from his hand, preparing for a final strike. “I’ll make it quick for…” The Bisharp faltered, and stumbled, something seeming to overtake him. Gallavant too could feel himself becoming suddenly even sleepier, despite the bloodloss. In the back of his mind, just before he was fully gone he heard a voice, “Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home” Ten years ago, in the Kalos Region. A lone Kirlia wandered through the flowery meadows just north of Santalune. He picked a few flowers and sniffed them, and his eyes widened. Not from the flowers, but because he heard something. Whipping around he Teleported just in time to dodge an attack from a Quilladin, appearing again several feet away. “Nice try, but I could hear you coming!” About ten feet away, a form lifted up out of the flowers, brushing pollen off of itself, and the Kirlia was greeted with the sight of a human girl, about ten years old, probably just starting on her journey. “Ok, so sneaking up on it didn’t work… Chester, use rollout!” The Quilladin obeyed immediately, and brought in his arms, throwing himself to the ground and rolling speedily towards the Kirlia. He dodged easily, and then used a Confusion attack, causing the Grass-Type to trip up in his attack and painfully tumble on the ground. “Use Pin Missile!” The Quilladin leaned forward, and began launching a barrage of his spikes are the Kirlia, who took most of them head on. The Psychic type quickly regained his footing, and used Disarming Voice, the powerful fairy sound waves damaging Chester and knocking him out. “Chester, return!” A red flash lit up and returned the Grass starter to his Pokeball, and another of the orbs was thrown out, “Go, Doki!” Another flash lit up the field, and a Pawniard appeared. “Ok Doki, use Metal Claw!” The Pawniard rushed forward, and landed a powerful hit on the little psychic, wounding him. “Now follow up with a Fury Cutter!” The glowing green arm slammed into the Kirlias side and send him sprawling. “Go Pokeball!” The ball bounced off of the Kirlia’s shoulder, and enveloped him in a red light. The Kirlia simply accepted his fate, the trainer seemed strong, and a journey didn’t sound like a bad idea. A “ding” sound could be heard, and after a few moments he was let out again. “Hi there! My name is Amy. What’s yours?” “Kirlia” was the response she received. “Heh, of course. Well we can’t leave you with a name like that can we? A special mon’ needs a special name to help separate them! What do you think?” The Psychic type nodded happily in agreement. “Kirlia!” “Ok, hmm… how about… Lia?” He sighed and shook his head, not only was he male but it just sounded unoriginal. “How about Belle?” The Kirlia puffed out his chest indignantly, “Kirlia Kirlia!” “Oh, I get it sorry, you’re a guy aren’t you! Sorry. How about… Gallavant?” The Kirlia almost shook his head in the negative, but stopped, that sounded like a pretty good name actually. He nodded in affirmation of his new name. “Great! it’s nice to meet you Gallavant!” She held out a hand, which was happily accepted. “Welcome to the team, speaking of…” She pulled out three more Pokeballs and opened them up, and the Quilladin from before, a Honedge, and an Audino came out. “Okay guys, meet out newest member, Gallavant!” The Pokemon before her all voiced their greetings. “Gallavant, I’d like you to meet Tina,” she motioned to the Audino, “Aphex,” she pointed to the Honedge, “and Chester, but you two have already met, hehe.” “Hi there! I’m Gallavant now I guess. It’s nice to meet you guys.” There was an awkward pause after, and Amy, seeing this, took off her backpack and pulled out some food. “So how about some lunch guys?” The Pokemon all happily agreed to the girls suggestion, and were each given their own bowl and a two different types of food was poured into different ones. Gallavant was summoned by the girl, who had an empty bowl right next to Doki. “I checked my Pokedex and saw your dietary needs, but I thought I’d let you decide for yourself, she held out four different bags, each with writing on it that the young Kirlia couldn’t read. He sniffed the openings to each of them, until he gestured to two at once. “So you want two kinds at once?” The Kirlia nodded, “Alright,” she poured some into the bowl, half and half, “There you go. If you decide you want something different next time just tell me. Oh, and here,” She pulled out a few Oran Berries. “Eat these to get your strength back up, that was a tough battle.” Gallavant accepted the berries and voiced his thanks, then popped them into his mouth, savoring the flavor, until he finished with those and began digging into his food bowl. He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and looked up to find Doki, rubbing his shoulder with his blade hand. “Sorry if I went a little overboard there earlier. I’m used to battling with other Pawniard, and we usually go farther than other Pokemon do when we spar.” Gallavant smiled and nodded. “It’s alright, I understand. You were just following your trainer's commands, or our trainers commands now I suppose,” He popped another bit of the Poke-Kibble in his mouth. “Alright, thanks. You seem pretty tough yourself, I was sorta aware of the battle you had with Chester prior to me, and he’s pretty strong. Maybe you would’ve beat me if he hadn’t already worn you down first.” Gallavant smiled, “Ya think so? I never really battled that much myself to be honest. I only actually evolved because my dad was so set on me learning to defend myself.” He continued to eat. “Yeah, same. My pops was pretty hard on all of us back at the breeding farm. Most Bishard are that way though. Was your dad a Gallade?” The Kirlia shook his head. “Nah, he was a Dusklops. My mom’s a Gardevoir. I left home not too long ago to live on my own, and I’m pretty sure they split up after I left.” “My dad was a Bisharp, and my mom a Kadabra. Their trainer was trying to breed a better Pawniard. I think they did since my parent’s stopped making kids eventually. I have fifteen siblings, and I can’t stand a single one of them. Gallavant laughed. “I’m an only child, so I wouldn’t really know where you're coming from. So how is it that you ended up traveling with Amy?” The Pawniard smiled “There was some trouble at the farm, some nearby Swirlix kept causing trouble and stealing food, and she helped take care of it. I helped, and when the owner of the farm saw how we’d gotten sorta close he offered me as a gift. So here I am.” Gallavant looked around at the mon surrounding him. “What about the others?” Doki swallowed and began. “Tina and aphex were both caught in battle like you on route six. Chester is her starter. Like I said I was a gift, and you were caught just now.” The Kirlia nodded along with each explanation. “So how long have you all been together?” “I’ve been here about a month. Tina and Aphex a little less, Aphex one day more than Tina. Chester I think is more like one and a half or two. But I’m not entirely sure.” He stopped and ate some more. “So… how about an even battle later?” Gallavant smirked, “You’re on!” “I think we’re gonna be good friends,” Doki Smiled. Unknown Location Present Gallavant jumped up, slamming his head on something hard above him. “Gah! What the?” After cradling his head for a few moments, he opened his eyes back up, revealing the bottom of a bed. The Gallade looked around more, and found himself to be in what appeared to be some sort of guest bedroom. When he glanced back up he realized he was in a bunk bed, and had slammed his skull into the bottom of the top bunk. He rubbed his head again and pulled the sheets off of him, revealing a bandage, slightly tainted red. “So it wasn’t a dream... “ He stopped getting out of the bed, and lied back down, crossing his arms and looking up at the metal bars above him. “What could cause him to do this?” Before he could ponder it further, a door was opened across from him in the room. He quickly stood up and readied himself, but found Tina carrying a tray of bandages and medicine. “Oh good, I thought I heard you wake up. Our hosts will be bringing in some food for you shortly.” Gallavant nodded, and lifted up his arms for the Audino to remove the previous bandage. As Tina began cleaning the wound, which was much smaller than he had previously thought, he pondered further on the betrayal. There was no way the only reason Doki betrayed him was for money. Could there be others? He couldn’t think of any likely ones, but there must be something more substantial than that. How could he have just stabbed- “JUGGER!” The sudden exclamation surprised the Audino, and she fumbled with the bottle of rubbing alcohol in her hands for a moment. “Sorry… But what happened to Jugger? Is he alright?” Tina sighed, “I- I don’t know. He didn’t look good when we were teleported.” Gallavant raised an eyebrow, “Teleported?” The Audino facepalmed. “I forgot, you’ve been unconscious all day. It seems like all of earth has been taken somewhere different. I don’t know where, but I don’t think it’s even the same world. Instead of humans there are these weird Ponyta-like creatures that call themselves ponies.” The Gallade looked around some in the room, it looked just like a human house, were these “ponies” so similar to humans? “So how did we get in here?” “We both appeared in the backyard of this house. I managed to communicate to the owners that you required medical attention, and they let us in, that was four hours ago.” Tina finished applying the new bandage, and stepped back. “You should be good to stand and move around, just try not to lift anything heavy or get into any fights, kay?” “Alright, got it. So do you know if any of the others are here?” Tina shrugged, “I don’t know. There are lots of other Pokemon outside, causing quite a bit of chaos I might add. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the others are off trying to calm everyone down or something. Maybe you could find em’ with your psychic powers.” “Yeah, that could work I guess.” His stomach growled then, “You mentioned lunch?” Tina nodded, “Come with me, I told them to make you beans and Sweet Potatoes, those are good for trying to recover from a surgery… or a stab wound.” The Audino led him through the house, which he noticed was rather bare, almost as if they had recently moved in. There was little furniture, and what was there seemed new. The walls had few pictures, but there were quite a few boxes sitting around. They finally came to the kitchen, and Gallavant was finally answered in his question of the appearance of the locals. They were definitely similar to Ponyta, but only in their basic body shape and hooves, beyond there, they were very different. One of them was black, which a tall faded looking blue mohawk for a mane, and eyes of a similar color. Gallavant was fairly sure he was male judging by how large he was compared to the other, a yellow mare with a turquoise mane and eyes. Both possessed wings, which looked too small for them to fly, but remembering Skarmory and Dragonite he decided to pass it off as a quirk of the species. The black one turned around first, holding a pan filled with four tin foil wads, which likely contained sweet potatoes. He set them on the counter and looked to the two Pokemon in his doorway. “Ah! Audino! You’re friend is up! You mentioned he could translate for us?” Gallavant nodded, and his eyes glowed for a moment, allowing for a translator to be set up between them. “Can you understand us now?” The stallion nodded and held out a hoof. “Yeah, nice to meet you… uh…” The Gallade accepted the shake, “Gallavant. It’s a pleasure as well. But Tina hasn’t had a chance to introduce me to either of you.” The stallion nodded, “My name is Thunderlane, and this is my marefriend Raindrops.” The mare at the stove looked back and waved. “Has… Tina did you say? told you about what’s going on.” Gallavant sat down at the table. “Yeah, honestly I have no more idea than any of you. Last thing I remember I was… in the woods, and the snow.” Thunderlane quirked an eyebrow, “So nothing about a betrayal?” At Gallavant’s surprised expression he just chuckled, “Tina told us about that. We weren’t about to let some strange wounded creature into our home without at least knowing what happened first.” His eyes softened some, “I’m sorry to hear about what your friend did. I’d like to say I can relate, but I don’t think your best friend going out with your crush really counts as the same thing,” he chuckled. Gallavant’s eyes narrowed. “No, it doesn’t.” Tina, sensing the tense situation came over and began unwrapping the potatoes. “Okay, so who’s up for some food?” The two males at the table both nodded, and grabbed a plate from a stack on the corner, and put a potato on their plates. Thunderlane began adding salt and butter, but Gallavant was looking left and right, searching for a certain topping. Tina noticed this and gave a knowing smirk. “Looking for the hotsauce Gal?” The Gallade grinned, “You know me too well.” Raindrops came over and set a pan of fried beans on the table. “We have some Rainbow Sauce if you’d like. But I’m warning you, it’s the hottest in Equestria. The only reason we have any is cuz’ Thundey here lost a bet before we moved.” Gallavant crossed his arms in confidence. “Bring it on! No fire is too hot for Gallavant!” The mare giggled, “Well I did warm you.” She opened up the fridge and pulled out a small bottle. “Here ya go.” She poured two or three drops on the potato. Gallavant looked up, slightly irked. “Is that all?” “Oh it’s all you’ll need.” “You underestimate just how much I’ve killed my tastebuds over the last few years!” He mixed up the potato, adding a bit of salt and pepper. “Now for the moment of truth!” He picked up a spoonful of the root, and put it in his mouth. “Hmm… It has a nice tang I guess.” Thunderlane burst out laughing, “A little tang? I dunked my head in the toilet and jugged a whole gallon of milk after a drop of that stuff!” Tina gave a little smile. “He always had a supply of Mount Chimney Lava Sauce. Hopefully one of the old ladies that made the stuff is here too or else he’s gonna forever have an unsatisfied fire tooth.” The table laughed at Gallavant’s expense, and finished their meal. Once they were done Gallavant stood up and stretched, before flinching in pain and putting a hand to his side. “Gaah. Gotta remember not to do that.” He looked to Thunderlane. “Tina and I are going to go out on the town and see if we can find any of our friends. You think one of you could come along?” Thunderlane stood up, “Sure, I gotta walk off that meal anyway.” The Gallade nodded. “Good, give me a moment to see if I can sense any of our number nearby, I only have about a mile radius,but we can check periodically.” His eyes glowed blue, and he touched his hands together for a moment, before the glow faded and he shook his head. “No one nearby. Let’s walk about a half mile and try again.” The trio exited, Tina mostly tagging along to keep an eye on Gallavants injury. “I don’t know whether to hope we find Doki or not… I don’t know if I could fight him like this... ” The Gallade shook himself. He wouldn’t need to. He would show Doki the light again.
Chapter Two: Apparently Bad Morals aren't Specific to EarthAfter exiting the house, the trio continued on down the street, following Thunderlanes directions into town. They seemed to be in a more suburban area on the outskirts, the city skyline a good three or four miles in the distance. They walked in silence for some time, Gallavant deep in thought, and the other two wary to break the silence because of this. After they had walked a fair distance Thunderlane cleared his throat, “I think this is about a half mile out, you wanna use your spell to find your friends again?” Gallavant simply nodded, then his eyes glowed again for a moment, before fading, and he shook his head. “No one here, let’s continue.” After a few moments Tina finally tried to start up a real conversation. “So Thunderlane, did you grow up in… wherever this is?” The Pony shook his head, “No, I grew up in a city farther south called Cloudesdale. Raindrops and I only moved here a few weeks ago. And this city is called Detrot.” “Hmm…” Tina pondered for a moment, trying to figure out how to continue. “So what caused the move to this ‘Detrot?’” Thunderlane grinned, “Well… my marefriend got an offer for the weather captain in town, since we’re both graduates of the Wonderbolts we’re pretty hot material in air related industries.” “Oh? What exactly are the Wonderbolts? I don’t think we have that where we come from.” The Audino queried. “They’re a sort of… mix between a military unit and sports team. They usually just do airshows and races, but every now and then they’re called in to deal with aerial threats around Equestria,” He explained. This piqued Gallacant’s interest. “So you’re a soldier? You didn’t hit me as the fighting type.” “Oh no! Raindrops and I aren’t really Wonderbolts yet, and the academy was all flying, no fighting.” The two Pokemon nodded in understanding. “So how did you two meet?” Tina asked. “We first met at the academy. I had actually seen her around the last town we lived in a couple times, but we never really met. We first started dating at the academy, and kept it up when we went back to Ponyville, until she got a job offer here and we moved.” “Aww… that’s sorta sweet,” She smiled, “You followed her all the way here. I take it you two really like each other?” The stallion nodded. “Yeah, I had been thinking about proposing some time soon, but I was waiting until we could settle down some more. Now with all of… this happening I’m not sure if it should be reason for delay or to hurry up.” Tina gasped. “If you love her you should never delay! What are your species proposal traditions? How much do gems cost here? That is if you use rings. Have you met her parents? Has she met yours? What about…?” The gushing Normal-Type was cut off by a light smack to the back of her head. “Give the guy a break,” Gallavant chuckled, gesturing to the heavily blushing stallion. Tina gulped and gave an awkward smile. “Heh… sorry. I always get excited when I know there's romance afoot. I always liked to play matchmaker for teammates back home, and I’m happy to say that most of them are still together, and the only ones that fell through were with Gallavant and... Doki. I shouldn't have brought him up." Tina began tearing up a little. Gallavant stopped, got down on one knee, and opened his arms up for the Audino, who quickly accepted the hug, now sniffing a little. "It's fine, we're going to fix this. The hug tightened. “I know. But… I don’t think Jugger would have made it, even with me helping him.” She sobbed a little. “I hope the others are doing well.” Aphex was not doing well. He was physically fine, yes… but his situation with the local authorities could use some work. The guards were still at the ‘stab first, ask questions later’ stage, and so he was currently leaning up against a wall, barely paying attention to the feeling of heavy metal spears bouncing off his shield. They had started with swords, then arrows, and were now using spears. He was sure they’d bring some sort of crossbow next, considering what their weapon technology was like. Finally the guards ran out of spears, and were too scared to approach him to retrieve the ones thrown before. The sword Pokemon collected them all up with his ribbons and dumped them in the dumpster next to him, as they had cornered him in an alley. “You done?” He asked. One of the Ponyta-like creatures stepped forward, and scrutinized the strange creature before him. “This one doesn't seem an immediate threat. We should move on to some of the other more dangerous creatures around here.” There was a general murmur of agreement from the other guards, and they all retrieved their spears the dumpster, all carefully eyeing Aphex as they did so. Once they had all wandered off, Aphex exited the alley and wandered down the street. “That must have been a good two hours wasted,” he grumbled. As much as the guards he annoyed him, he wasn’t sure if he could get out without harming one of them, they may have been overzealous in their protection of the city from the Pokemon, which he had deduced were new for them, they were really only doing their jobs. As he floated down the street, he saw that most of the Pokemon around were rather small. Quite a few bidoofs and starlys hung around in a small park to his right, and he saw some Rattata scampering around between buildings on his left. They all looked very confused, which was a relief for him, as he was not alone in this feeling. “HELP! SOMEONE HELP!” Aphex made a sudden turn to the right, where a Houndoom appeared to be menacing one of the locals. He quickly floated over to the scene, and gave the dog a smack on the behind with his blade. “Oi, do your kind even try not to make yourselves look like villains?” The Dark-Type turned to the sword, “Butt out! She has food! I want it!” Aphex floated in front of the mare, and glared at the Houndoom with his single eye. “Leave her alone. Or else.” “Hmmph. You must not be very smart. I have two type advantages after all.” “Try me Fido.” The Dark-Type snarled and launched himself at the Aegislash, who didn’t even flinch when the Foul-Play attack made contact with his shield. He then bashed the Houndoom, causing him to stumble back. “You sure you wanna do this. You don’t seem very well trained.” The Houndoom made another animalistic snarl, and launched himself at Aphex again, this time with fire licking at his maw, it made to bite down on the edge of the shield, but at the last second changed directions and went for the tip of Aphex’s sword, poking out from the bottom, but before he could bite down the shield moved down suddenly, slamming his head into the ground. He bit at air for a moment, trying to grab something with the Fire Fang, but the fire in his mouth eventually faded, and he was thrown back again. “Nice try, but you can’t eye your real target so much when attacking, I saw right through your plan. I’m getting tired, I think I’m gonna finish up now.” The Aegislash shifted into his blade form, and charged up a Sacred Sword. The Houndoom, seeing a chance to deal some real damage charged forward again, but was smacked hard with the flat of the sword, and was sent flying back about fifty feet. Aphex began floating over to the Pokemon, but the Dark-Type quickly jumped back up and ran off, whimpering with his tail between his legs. Aphex turned back to the pony from before, who was still cowering at the same spot as before. The Aegislash sighed and floated over, and began picking up bits of food that had fallen out of the ponies basket. After he finished he set it back down next to her, and floated away. About halfway down the street he felt a light tug on one of his ribbons, he turned around to find the pony from before, giving as brave a smile as she could manage. “Um… thank you… sir? That dog thing would probably have stolen all of my food so... “ She pulled an apple out of her basket, “Here. I hope it’s something you can eat. If not maybe you could give it to a friend or something?” Aphex nodded gratefully and accepted the fruit, holding it in his ribbon-hand, and continued onward. Gallavant and his compatriots had been wandering the streets of Detrot for several hours now, with no luck. They had stopped a few times so that Tina could check on Gallavant’s wound, which was doing rather well. “It wasn’t really that deep, but he nicked a fairly major vein. The vein is sealed up and there’s little muscle damage, it should be fine in a day or two.” Tina explained, giving a basic rundown of the cut. “That’s good. That means I can go straight back to work then.” Tina’s eyes narrowed. “You really need to take a bit more time before you can fight again.” “I need to find Doki!” “You need to rest!” “I need to know why he betrayed us!” “He betrayed us because he’s selfish and doesn't care for the morals he’s helped uphold for the past eight years! Face it Gallavant! He’s changed! I don’t know when but he did, and there’s nothing more to it than that.” Tears were now streaming down Tina’s face, and she was shaking uncontrolably. “You forget, he was my friend too! We all knew him!” The Gallade wasn’t sure how to respond. In his mind, he knew she was probably right. Doki had betrayed them all, and there was no excuse for that. But he knew in his heart, there must be something more to the story. Doki would never just turn on them for something like profit, would he? The group stood there for several minutes, Gallavant giving light pats and strokes to Tina’s back every now and then to help calm her down. After some time she was finished, and before either of the males present were ready she began marching forward, a new look of determination in her eyes. Aphex had been attacked several more times by guards, and he didn’t fight back at all. Their weapons didn’t hurt him, so as long as they didn’t harm someone they were capable of harming, they were fine in his book. Instead of fighting back he usually just took their weapons from them and broke or threw them away, more as a distraction then anything. One rather pesky guard almost managed to nick his ribbons, he ended up hanging by his armor from a light pole. “They’ll probably just get one of those winged Ponyta to take him down,” the Aegislash reasoned. He hadn’t really accomplished anything in the five or six hours since he had awoken other than move around and saving the mare. He hadn’t even eaten the apple, he handed it off to a young looking Chespin that looked about ready to steal from hunger. He seemed to be moving into a worse part of town now, as the buildings look significantly more run down, and the ponies looked less friendly. Not that the guards were exactly, but these Ponyta-like creatures seemed more threatening in a criminal way, as though they were sizing him up before they mugged him. Not that they would get anything if they tried, even if he had anything. Looking to the horizon he saw what appeared to be a large number of storm clouds gathering, or rather being gathered. Apparently the winged ones could use some roundabout form of Raindance as they appeared to be making rain. “I should probably find somewhere to go inside.” The Aegislash muttered to himself. He continued on, looking for somewhere run down enough for him to take cover without trespassing. Most of the buildings around him were either houses, which were mostly on the left, and factories on the right. After some time Aphex finally found one he deemed deserted looking enough, and he approached it. He tried the door, but found it to be locked. The sword Pokemon sighed, “I hate doing this so much.” He removed his shield, and shoved the tip of his blade between the door and the frame, and twisted, causing the wooden frame on the inside to explode inward. “What was that?” Asked a voice from the inside. “Don’t worry about it,” answered another more gruff voice, “Probably just a rat knocking something over, now get back to work. We’re all in trouble if they’re not moved by tonight.” Aphex stopped. He had been fairly sure this was abandoned. He floated back out of the building and looked at the wall, where a sign said “Keep out, bank property.” “In trouble… moving. That doesn’t really sound like bank stuff.” He looked back to the run down factory. “I think this deserves investigation, doesn’t seem like the locals are dangerous anyway.” Aphex floated back into the building, and found a large number of cardboard boxes, all apparently new, and stacked against a single wall. The Aegislash looked around the room more, and found it to be some sort of lobby or front entrance, but there were no doorways other than the one he entered through. He looked over to the pile of boxes. “Whoever is trying to keep from looking suspicious is really bad at it.” He floated over, and pushed the boxes out of the way with ease, revealing an open doorway, and… more boxes. Was their plan to just prevent people from getting in through giant mounds of cardboard boxes? “Shadow Sneak,” he mumbled, and he sank into the floor, and moved through the shadows to the other side. “Too easy,” the Aegislash would have smirked if he could. Looking around he found to be behind a large number of large machines, industrial looms to be more precise. They were lined up close enough together than Aphex still couldn’t see past them, but he could hear voices on the other side. “Hey, boss, we have a train set up. They think we’re moving chickens to a bunch of different farms in Zebrica,” one voice explained. “Didn’t I tell you to say they were vegetables? We could've put a sound muffling spell on it.” The same gruff voice from before questrioned. “They charge less for livestock. I thought you’d prefer that.” The other voice became more irritated. “But they’re less likely to look inside if they’re vegetables. If we get caught it’s your fault. Now go clean out one of the empty crates, they pissed themselves in there earlier. “Yes sir.” the first speaker then wandered off. The apparent leader began to speak up again, “Alright boys, we’re moving out tonight. Get all the merchandise into the cages, Sweet and I will come around and put silencing spells on them once they’re closed and sealed.” There was a sound of affirmation and of hoof beats around the factories stone floor as the subordinates began their work. This was enough for Aphex, something was definitely going on here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. He floated out from behind the machinery and looked. Before him, being rounded into five shipping containers on wheels, were thirty bruised, beaten, malnourished specimens of the Ponyta creatures. This was the last straw. Aphex came farther out, floating over to the pony who he assumed was speaking as the leader before. The brown and green stallion was facing away from the sword, and was monitoring the locking and latching of the containers. As the Pokemon floated through the room some of the other ponies who were cleaning up possible evidence stopped and watched, with looks somewhere between shock and horror. “Ahem.” The pony didn’t turn around. “I think you mean ‘excuse me sir’. Do it right and we can talk.” Aphex reached out with his ribbon-hands, and grabbed the pony around the barrel. “Hey there asshole!” The ponies eyes bugged out, “Wh-what are you?!” “I think you mean, ‘what is your species sir’.” Aphex then wrapped one of his ribbons around him and carried him underhand as he floated over to a locked container, all of the workers still watching in fear. Once he made it to an empty container, he ripped open the unlocked door, and threw the pony inside, then slammed the door closed. From inside a terrified cried out, “What are you doing? Get him!” The trio walked a while longer, and Gallavant decided to stop and check for teammates again. His eyes glowed as he scanned the surrounding area for familiar minds, and finally, he found someone. “Aphex! I found him. He’s close enough for me to sense him, but I can’t quite communicate with him.” Tina gave as large a grin as she could muster, “Yes! Finally! Cmon, we gotta go get him!” The trio set out again, now with a destination and a new spring in their step. The ponies charged at Aphex, trying to beat him with their hooves, but he simply allowed them to pass through him, most of them slamming into the metal container behind him, falling down, and groaning. A bright flash emanated from behind him, and he felt a mild tingling sensation on his back, turning around he found one of a female Ponyta, this one with a horn. So would it be more like a Rapidash then? he wondered to himself, before her horn lit up again, and he was hit with another beam of energy, impacting his shield and dissipating, it felt somewhat like fairy energy he noted. The ponies eyes narrowed, and she tried a different spell, this time a fire spell. “Gaah!” Aphex exclaimed at the surprisingly powerful flames, and backed up, holding his shield in front of him again. The pony smirked and fired another fire spell, but was interrupted by a green fist impacting the side of her face, throwing her into another of the containers. “Hello Gallavant. Nice to see you. How’d the mission go?” Gallavant fended off another one of the ponies charging him, picking him up and throwing him up onto a catwalk. “Poorly. So what are we dealing with here?” “Standard slave ring. I think I had it fairly well under control but I always welcome help.” “Good, because I feel like punching something right now.” The two approached the group of ponies cowering in front of the container their boss was in. “We surrender!” They all shouted simultaneously. Gallavant put his hands on his hips. “Hmmph. Way easier than usual.” “I think that the fear factor of how unfamiliar we are helps,” another voice pitched in. Aphex turned around to greet it, “Ah, Tina! Good to see you too! Who’s the Ponyta?” Thunderlane gulped at the blade pokemon. “Uh… Thunderlane. Guys, I wish you would've warned me about your friend being a giant sword.” Gallavant chuckled. “Sorry. I guess it slipped my mind. Now, let’s go find the local authorities and-” The Gallade buckled down in pain. “Gaah! Tina, check the wound!” The Audino hurried over and took off the bandage carefully, scrutinizing the cut beneath. “Gallavant, I told you no fighting until it was healed! Now you tore the new flesh growing there. We need to get you back to the house.” Gallavant sighed in defeat. “Fine, but first we need to let these ponies out. Thunderlane, go find the guard and tell them what happened.” The stallion nodded, “Got it,” before trotting outside. Tina forced Gallavant to sit down, so he watched their criminal prisoners, preparing to use his mind instead of his body should they try anything. Once all of the ‘merchandise’ was released, they were led outside and instructed to wait with Aphex for the guard. Tina practically dragged Gallavant back to Thunderlane and Raindrop’s house, where she put him back in his bed, and made him rest. Gallavant awoke to someone knocking on his door. “Come in” he mumbled. The door was enveloped in a blue psychic glow, and he was surprised to see a Meowstic enter instead of Tina. “Hey Robin, how’d we find you?” The Meowstic smirked. “It was more like I found you. The guards made quite the spectacle out of the arrests, especially when they chewed out Aphex. Apparently they don’t need his help, and they should lock him up for obstructing justice. I heard about what happened there, and in my opinion if Aphex hadn’t done what he did, those ponies would be long gone to wherever they were being sent.” Gallavant sighed, “I suppose they don’t like things that are strange and new. What about your experience? You met anyone good?” The Meowstic nodded happily. “I already have a job! I appeared out front of a music school, and I heard the terrible… sounds those amateurs were making. I just had to go in and correct them.” Gallavant laughed, before grimacing and putting a hand to his side. “Augh… still hurts sorta. So, lemme guess, your instruction involved an instrument being forcibly taken?” She giggled slightly. “Oh, you know me too well! Yes, I charged in there and yanked a violin away from their instructor, and showed them how to properly play… whatever piece they were doing. It’s new music to me, but luckily it’s based on the same principles.” “I would have expected you to be more passionate about someone messing up on the sax.” “Hush you. Just because my specialty is jazz doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate other forms.” “True, true. So what time is it now?” “FIve o-clock. I find it odd how they even have the same time system here as we do, I’m not complaining, but it is very odd. You’ve been out cold for the past three hours. Tina sent me in to wake you up and let you know dinner is almost done.” “DINNERS DONE!” Came a shout from down the hall. “I suppose I have performed my duty well. Come along o’ fearless leader.” Author's Note Oh boy! Chapter two! I think this means I get into Canon 2 now, or something. Just so you know I made a few minor alterations to the first chapter, the major ones being me changing the name of the Aegislash from Roger to Aphex, because I love obscure references only I will get. I also changed the length of time since Gallavant was caught from five to ten years. That's all folks!
Chapter Three: Settling InDinner was very enjoyable. Tina prepared tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for the ponies and Pokemon. It wasn’t high class food, but the Audino was a fairly good cook. During the meal she repeatedly got up and refilled Gallavant’s glass, telling him it was important to stay hydrated. “Yes ‘mom’,” he chuckled as she brought the glass over from the sink for the umpteenth time. Tina set the glass down and put her hands on her hips. “Gallavant, this is no laughing matter! I told you no fighting! And now you’ve just made the wound worse!” Gallavant sighed. “Sorry. I guess I just needed to get some aggression out. It was a really short and easy fight!” “That’s no excuse, and you don’t need to be apologizing to me. Apologize to yourself, after all that’s the only person you’re really hurting.” Robin took a bite out of her sandwich. “She has a point you know. That’s a serious wound. You’ve made Shields go on the backburner for weeks even after less serious injuries.” Raindrops blinked at the statement. “Shields? There are more of that guy” she looked to Aphex, “in your group?” The sword Pokemon chuckled, “No, no. I’m the only Aegislash in the Shields of Justice. Shield is just the word we use for a member of our organization. I’m a shield, Robin’s a shield, Gallavant’s a shield, you get the idea?” The mare nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense. So how do you organize your ‘shields’? Is it sorta military style?” Gallavant shook his head. “No, not really. Most of the members operate as near equals. We only have two official ranks, Shield Master, which is me, and Shield Ace which is… the second in command.” Realizing who Gallavant had been reminded of, Robin continued for him. “Beyond that we have four ‘tiers’ for our members, the Trainees, the Novices, the Adepts, and the Veterans. Everyone in here is a Veteran. It’s not really official, it’s mostly just based on social status in the group, skill, and time spent with us. Veterans don’t really get any perks other than usually being favored for leading positions on missions, and usually being given more high risk missions. Trainees are the only ones that aren’t official members yet, they have yet to complete training and take the oath, which only veterans can administer.” Thunderlane nodded, “That makes sense I guess. How many of you are there?” “About sixty” Tina answered. “But there were usually only about twenty members at our base at any one time. Most came and went as they wished, checking to see if there were missions they could join in on. Most of the people that stayed were younger members still in training, or some of the more core members of the Veterans.” Robin suddenly stopped eating. “Arceus! What am I thinking! Just because we’re in a new place doesn’t mean we can part with tradition!” Aphex laughed loudly. “I was wondering when you’d notice. I guess this just threw off your schedule. Don’t worry, I’d be more than happy to let you take a break for one night.” The Meowstic glared, “I will not so easily abandon my duties! I have done it since before you even joined!” Raindrops interrupted, “Um… what tradition is it that you’re talking about?” “Robin always plays a song for us before we started eating back at the temple,” Tina explained, “I’m surprised at her as well that she didn’t.” Thunderlane chuckled, “Well I think we can forgive her for one night since she doesn’t have an instrument to play on.” Robin huffed, and lifted her ears up “I have no need for an instrument, observe.” Her ears began to glow, and a smooth sax solo began to play throughout the room. “There we go. You may continue eating now.” The ponies eyes widened and they looked around, trying to locatethe source of the musc. Robin giggled, “It’s not coming from a music player or anything. I can project music by vibrating the air in the room. I figured out how to do it myself.” Gallavant put a palm to his face. “She has like four ways of using her psychic powers to produce music without an actual instrument.” “Only three actually, but this is the least invasive and still allows me to use my hands and mouth,” she retorted before taking a sip from her soup. “What are the other two then?” Thunderlane asked, impressed. “I can compact air into a solid state in the form of an instrument, and play that normally, or simply project the tune from my mind to yours. I prefer this one though, or to simply use a real instrument.” “Can all Pokemon do that sort of thing?” Raindrops asked. Robin almost spat out her soup, “Heavens no. I’m one in a extreme few who attain this level of skill, in fact there are others even more powerful than myself. Of course, I am not necessarily ‘powerful.’ I can’t lift as much as many psychics, or attack as hard, but I am very adept at manipulating things on a miniscule scale.” Raindrops nodded in understanding. “I guess it’s sorta like how most unicorns learn a few spells, but only some get to be very good at it. You must be very absorbed in music.” Tina nodded, “That’s a good analogy I suppose. And you don’t know the half of it.” The group finished up their meals, and cleaned up. Tina refused to let Gallavant do it himself and sent him off to the living room while she took care of his dishes. He sat on a couch for several minutes, listening to the sounds of dishes being washed, tables being wiped, and leftovers being stored. “This is so boooring.” He looked around in the room more, like most of the house, it was fairly bare, with only a lamp, and two sofa’s, together capable of holding five people. Behind the couch he sat on was a large window, still without blinds. A few boxes were placed next to a bookshelf on the opposite wall from where he was sitting, one open slightly, revealing a large number of books within. “Well I suppose now is as good a time as ever to learn about local literature.” Gallavant opened up the box and pulled out one of the books on the top. “Daring Do and The Ring of Destiny. Hmm. I suppose I can give it a read.” He sat down with the book, and cracked it open, flipping to the first page. He read through it for the first three pages, before closing it again. “I get the feeling this is a sequel. It’d be nice if it was numbered so I’d know where to start.” He checked the back of the book, and found a list of others of the same series. “Here we go, ‘Quest for The Sapphire Stone.” He stood up again and searched through the box some, digging through the many other installments in the series, searching for the first. “Damn, this author publishes a lot. How many has she written?” The only answer he got wasn’t much of an answer, as the glass window behind him shattered, sending glass all over the couch and carpet where he had been sitting moments ago. He whipped around, barely registering the pain in his side, and extended the blades at his elbows, ready for a fight. Instead, he found a Chespin laying on the couch, groaning in pain. After a few moments of awkward silence, Gallvant heard a few shouts from down the street, looking out he saw a few ponies, apparently law enforcement, searching around. When the Chespin heard the voices he immediately jumped up and attempted to charge further into the house, but was caught in a psychic grasp. “Just where do you think you’re going?” Gallavant asked. “I dunno… away.” The Chespin struggled in midair for a few moments before giving up and hanging in the telekinesis. “Please, don’t let them catch me.” It was now that Gallavant got a better look at the Chespin. It appeared to have significantly more spikes than normal for its species, almost entirely covering the shell on it’s back. “Why are they chasing you?” The Grass-Type shrunk away from Gallavant as much as he could. “I uh… I stole some food. I was hungry and didn’t know what else to do.” Just then the rest of the household entered. Raindrops eyes widened when she say the broken glass everywhere. “Our window! What happened?” Gallavant set down the Chespin on the floor, away from the glass. “This little guy stole some food, and was trying to find a hiding place away from the guard.” Robin stepped forward and leaned down to the Chespin. “What’s your name little one? And why do you seem so much more… spinier than most of your kind if you don’t mind me asking?” The Chespin puffed out his chest and put his hands on his hips. “The names Cody! I was subject Thirty One under Doctor Nurem! One of the few survivors.” Cody grinned stupidly. “He gave me these awesome spikes!” The eyes of all of the Pokemon in the room widened. Robin stepped forward, “You seem awfully happy for someone who had to go through that experience. Why should we believe you?” Cody shrugged. “I dunno, my spines are proof enough I thought. What’s it to ya?” Robin quirked an eyebrow at the little grass starter. “The Pokemon here are members of the Shields of Justice, a group dedicated to fighting those who prey on the weak, and helping those in need. I was in charge of locating and freeing you and your fellow subjects from that madman.” “Neato!” The Chespin looked around some more. “Do you guys have any more food in here? I’m starved.” He looked back out the window, noticing the guards were now closer he ran into the next room to hide. Ignoring how little the Chespin seemed to care about his past, Tina followed him. “I think before we do anything of the sort we should attend to those cuts.” She called out behind him. When she and the others entered the kitchen behind him, they found he had already opened the fridge, and had begun gorging himself on the still warm leftover tomato soup. He lifted his head out of the container, the red liquid dripping down his chin onto the floor. “Nah, just gimme a few minutes and I can take care of em myself. This isn’t that bad.” Tina scowled and took the soup away from the Chespin. “Not that bad? Almost as much of the red stuff on your face is blood as it is soup!” Returning the scowl Cody jumped up to the sink, and washed his face off. “Watch,” he instructed. He then scrunched up his eyes, and balled up his fists. After a few moments the cuts on his face became smaller, and the bits of glass were forced out, until there was no sign he had even gotten scratched up by the window. “See? Not that bad.” Tina was mad that she didn’t take a look at him first, but he seemed to be fine now. She then stomped back out of the room mumbling about crazy kids not letting her do her job. “Interesting,” Robin remarked once Tina was gone. “If you don’t mind, after you’ve finished eating I’d like to ask you a few questions. After whatever is going on here is finished I’d like to return to my search and free your fellow subjects, and you may know something vital to doing so.” Cody ignored her, and took the soup back from Tina, drinking up the last of what was in the bottom, before letting out a large belch. “This could be difficult,” Robin facepalmed. “Your mom is difficult.” Before Robin could further comment on Cody’s immaturity there was a knock at the door. “Police, open up!” Thunderlane began moving towards the door but Gallavant stopped him. “I got this, we have more experience with dealing with law enforcement.” He walked to the end of the hall, and opened up the door, finding a stallion and a mare, both in guard armor. “Hello sir, we’re searching for a thief. He stole some apples at the market and assaulted several guards while we were attempting to apprehend him.” Gallavant nodded. “Yeah I guess that was the guy that jumped through the window a minute ago,” he pointed to the shattered glass to his right, “He got out through the back door and scaled the fence. Doesn’t seem like the smartest guy to me. Would've been easier to go around the house instead.” The mare nodded in thanks. “Got it, cmon, let's get to the next street over to see if we can find him.” The two then dashed off down the street. Gallavant closed the door behind him and returned to the kitchen, everybody but robin and Cody had left the room to do something else. Robin was attempting to extract answers from the grass type. “I dunno.” Was the answer she was getting to most of them. Looking very frustrated, Robin tried again. “Look, you must know something. You were there for a year you said.” “I dunno.” “Are you even trying?” “I dunno.” “Uuuurgh.” The Meowstic clasped her head in her paws. “You’re impossible!” She continued to glare at Cody until and idea came to her. “I think this would be easier if you allowed me into your mind. You may know something important but simply not realize it. i won’t tamper with anything while I’m in there, I just need to search around for anything relevant. Do you mind.” “I dunno.” “I’ll take that as a yes.” She looked to Gallavant, who gave a curt nod in the affirmative. She then closed her eyes and lifted up her ears. There were a few minutes of silence in the room. Gallavant reached out to observe Robin’s search, and she was keeping to her word, so he pulled out, and observed from the physical world. Several minutes more passed, and Gallavant was about to leave to see if the glass had been cleaned up, when he heard a soft sound behind him. Turning around, he saw a tear streaming down Robins face. She let out a few more soft sobs before exiting the young Chespins mind, and turning around to wipe off the tear. “He has a lot of suppressed memories of what went on back there.” she communicated telepathically. “I was careful not to let any of them out. Some were… grisly. And hold no place in the mind of one so young.” “That would explain how he’s so… ok with all that has happened to him. Leave them for now. I’ll take a look later tonight while he is asleep. We should probably try to find Hannah, she’d probably have a better idea of what to do in this situation.” Robin nodded, their Swoobat therapist would likely be the best choice for consultation. “I did manage to get some information out of him. The biggest thing is general location. He was born in the Kalos region, and often when lab assistants had just come back they smelled like swamp. Sounds to me like Route 14.” Gallavant cracked a smile. “While that is good to know. I could tell from some of the fresher memories in there that little Cody was in the lab when he passed out and found himself here in Detrot.” “Yes, I know. Most of the other subjects may have been teleported away as well. But it’s still worth looking into in case not all made it out, and the ‘scientists’ there still need to be punished.” “Of course but… I’d have thought you’d have figured it out by now but, I think we’re all on a different world.” Robin quirked an eyebrow. “Yes, I did have the same theory as well, but it still sounds completely ridiculous, like something some mediocre writer who lives in his basement would come up with.” Gallavant laughed. “Yes that is true, but I’m not sure if I’d describe it like that. But… looking into his mind, I noticed something that I heard before as well, but forgot about.” She nodded, “Yes, I know what you mean. ‘Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home’. I heard the same thing all the way in Kalos, so if both you and I heard it whatever transmitted it must have been immensely powerful. Perhaps powerful enough to bring us all here, wherever here is.” “Indeed. Let’s just hope that he reveals his intentions soon.” After a while, all the ponies and Pokemon all began going to bed. Tina offered to sleep on the couch, which had been completely cleaned of glass by Gallvant and Robin’s psychic ministrations. Robin and Cody were sharing the top bunk in the guest room, and Gallavant was on the bottom, while Aphex decided to lean in a corner in the kitchen. The lights were out, and Gallavant had already begun drifting off to sleep when he felt something climb into his bed with him and poke him. Opening his eyes, he found Cody standing over him, looking rather nervous. “Is there something you need?” Gallavant whispered. Robin spoke up then, “Don’t bother whispering he woke me up when he moved.” Cody shrunk down some and Gallavant chuckled. He repeated, now louder, “Is there something you need?” The Chespin nodded meekly, seemingly out of character. “Yeah, uh. Can you tell me a story?” Gallavant blinked in confusion, “Why do you want to hear a story?” “Well,” Cody gulped audibly, “I heard from some of the other Pokemon at the lab that their parents used to tell them stories before they went to sleep. I… I never really knew my parents, but I’d.... I’d like to try the story part, even if… if you aren’t my dad.” Gallavant gave a light smile and sat up, moving the Chespin next to him. “Sure. I think I know just the one.” He cleared his throat then began. “Once, a long time ago, well not that long really. Once, a fair amount of time ago, there was a beautiful, kind young trainer named Amy. Amy always took great care of her Pokemon, she fed them, trained them, patched them up after battles. All of her Pokemon loved her dearly, and she loved them back. Emily and her Pokemon were very strong, they managed to collect seven gym badges in only a year! You know about gym badges don’t you?” Cody nodded his head and motioned for Gallavant to continue. “Amy and her Pokemon, an Audino, a Kirlia, a Chesnaught, an Aegislash, and… a Bisharp, were very strong, and collected seven badges, an impressive feat, and she was more than ready to try for her eighth and final badge! Along the road from one town to the next, Amy discovered some strange men in the woods, who seemed to be doing bad things! She tried to stop them, but ended up getting very badly hurt, and her Pokemon were forced to fight to protect her. Her Pokemon were powerful, but the bad men had even stronger ones with them, that were badly beating us… er... them. But then, out of nowhere, a group of Pokemon appear and fight off the villain, and rescue the girl and her Pokemon. They called themselves the Shields of Justice, and were led by a strong and honorable Lucario by the name of James. The shields fought off the bad guys and took the girl and her Pokemon to a hospital, but unfortunately, they were… too late to save the girl. She had been hurt very badly, and slipped into a coma, a very deep sleep that she couldn’t wake up from. Her Pokemon were all heartbroken, and didn’t know what to do. A few days after the incident, the Kirlia was looking for through his trainers bag to remember her by. The doctors didn’t think she’d be waking up anytime soon. He dug through all of her equipment, Pokeballs, potions, random items she had collected over time. Suddenly, as he was looking through her stones, he began to glow. His body changing, through evolution. After it was over, the stone that evolved him disappeared, but he noticed a small tag that laid in the bottom of the bag. It read, ‘Dear Gallavant, I don’t know when your birthday is, but I know the exact date of when I caught you! I thought it’d be nice to give you something special. So here you go.’” Gallavant’s eyes were watering slightly, and he stopped to wipe them. He continued on, “It was then that the new Gallade knew, that he would join the Shields of Justice, and help prevent anything like what had happened to him and his friends from happening ever again. Since then, he’s done lots of good. He’s helped fight evil organizations, bust all sorts of immoral activities, and saved countless innocents.” He then stopped and looked down at Cody, who instead of going to sleep like he had hoped, was beaming up at him with wide eyes. “Keep going! I wanna hear the ending!” He begged. Gallavant laughed. “There is no ending yet, and I hope there won’t be for some time.” Cody’s eyes widened even more, “So… you’re the Gallade from the story!” “You got me,” he grinned. “So… the Shields of Justice, they… they fight crime, and protect people?” “That’s right. We told you that before,” Robin responded from above. The Chespin beamed, “I wanna be a Shield of Justice! They sound so awesome! Can I join? Please?” Gallavant smiled and nodded, “Anyone is free to join, as long as they want to help others and are pure of heart.” Cody gasped, and started jumping up and down, “I’m gonna be a Shield of Justice! I’m gonna be a Shield of Justice!” The Gallade grabbed him and put him back down on the bed, “You’re not quite there yet. You have to complete training, and take the oath.” “Aww.” his face fell. “How long will that take?” “Depends. You can take the oath when I, or another veteran member decide you’re of high enough skill. Anyone here is capable of giving you the oath.” “Aw. Ok. So when can we start training then?” He asked hopefully. Robin piped up again, “If you like we can start tomorrow. Gallavant is still wounded so it will probably be me, Aphex, or Tina instructing you.” Cody beamed again, “Awesome! I can’t wait! I’m gonna be the strongest Shield ever!” Gallavant smiled and put him back on the top bunk, “I’m sure you will little one, I’m sure you will.”
