Torn Between Type

Lasaruz finished off his meal quickly, then looked at the sky, estimating the time. The trees made it hard to see the bright sun, so he sighed and began to climb the tallest one he could see.

At the top, he squinted at the sky, estimating it was about time to head back to the Grandmaster. He had only had authorization for a two-day break before he had to report back, after all. And it wouldnt do to anger the Grandmaster. Not when he was so close to getting a position of power.

He began to descend the tree when he noticed something in the distance.
"What in the name of..." he muttered, bewildered, then swung to the next tree to get a closer look.

There was a group in the distance, what appeared to be a mixture of different factions headed in the same direction. He studied them intently, noting the different species that made up the group.

This was potentially very big. But on the other hand, if it turned out to be nothing more than a group of harmless refugees from neighbouring factions, the Grandmaster would be furious when he returned late.

He hesitated, not knowing what the right decision was. Then, shaking his head, he decided to trust his instincts as he had been trained to do in the case of a dilemma, and shimmied down the tree, before making his way towards the group, quick but cautious.

 

Comalia was startled by the sudden harsh voice before she actually noticed the Mawile covered in ash.

"No, I am part of the Flying faction. I'm very sorry about your scarf if I unknowingly blew a bit of dust on it when I landed. Do you side with the Steel or Fairy faction?"

Comalia was still weary about the Mawile. Sure, neither type she was were very offensive, meaning she probably wouldn't attack her first, but what if she was a freelancer or simply didn't side with her types?"

 

Sehkmet relaxed a little bit, partially from hearing that the yanma wasn't with a delegation and partially from realizing that her scarf hadn't been badly stained. She looked at the yanma, thinking for a second about how to answer the question.

"I'm from steel." She said with a small smile of pride. "I'm going to the peace meeting in case anything goes wrong, though." It wasn't technically a lie, she was going there in case things went wrong. It was just that her purpose was more to report incidents than to help solve them. She wrapped her scarf back around herself, brushing it off one last time and avoiding eye contact. "And I kinda need to pick up my pace now."

Sehkmet stood awkwardly, fiddling with her scarf a bit more. She almost said something, but at the last second decided against it and simply rocked on her heels.

"Uh, yeah, see yah." She half-mumbled, wincing internally and walking back towards the end of the barren plain in the distance. That was smooth. She was smooth. It was absolutely not embarrassing.

 

Comalia watched the Mawile walk off. "Real smooth." she said sarcastically before taling off again and continuing on her way back.

"Hopefully things won't go wrong there." she said to herself. "Possibly four Grandmasters all in one place? I really hope the Dark and Ghost clans don't try anything..."

 

"Understood." Neroe stood up and walked out, going the same way he came to get to his Ice faction earings.

"Heh, he thinks I'm going to get caught." he said to himself as he switched out the Dark earings he was wearing with the Ice ones. He then started heading back toward the exit. When he got past the several security checkpoints and made it outside the complex, he traveled toward the Normal Kingdom by way of the treetops.

 

"Wait, an Infernape?" Damon began to look behind him, but Plaid grabs him and holds him forward.

In as calm of a voice as he could muster, he says "Didn't you hear what the grandmaster just said? Keep moving forward." Damon listened, but he he was worried about the possibilities. If there's an Infernape following, who else could be following? What if different members of different factions come to cause trouble? How would this affect their treaty with the Normal-type Kingdom?

As he pondered these questions, they could see the kingdom just up ahead. They all continued forward, feigning ignorance of the Infernape tailing them.

"How are you holding up, Ilbis?" Corona asked, looking up at the Volcarona.

 

Ilbis gave a quick glance in the direction and saw the infernape. "If he knows what's good for him, he'll keep in the bushes. Though the clan is known for its uhhh hot heads. For his sake, he better stay" Ilbis gave one last cautious glance to him, and stayed his course.

Ilbis looked down at Corona, "I am holding up well. I have traveled without stopping much farther then this before, and how about you? How long have you been a soldier?"

 

Lasaruz paused. More than one of the group had looked to where he was hidden in the bushes. They had barely been more than quick peeks in his general direction, but they unnerved him nonetheless.

Part of him cried out for caution, reminding him that he had to be back for the Grandmaster and not to do anything stupid. Yet another part of him spurred him on, curiosity getting out of hand. Besides, he told himself, if they had seen him they would have attacked by now.

Ofcourse, they could be leading him into a trap. He could retreat deeper into the plants or trail them from the protection of a tree, but if they knew he was there, that would solve nothing. In the end, he resumed his tail, albiet at a slower pace.

 

As the Electric-types and Volcanora were out of sight, Flora tried to run away from the place as fast as she can. However, realizing that she was still lost, she, without knowing it, was going around the forest.

"Oh no, if this keeps up, I'm gonna be lost at this forest forever!" Flora thought. It was only a matter of time before she's used up all of her energy with her levitating, so she was really flying a bit slower than usual. She didn't realize that she was already in front of a Mawile with a pink scarf and a Yanma with a purple ribbon tied on it's left antenna, two Pokémon that weren't supposed to be together. Holding her flower weakly, she asks them a favor.

"P-please, spare m-me if you're gonna k-kill me" Flora said, trembling in fear as those creatures were larger and bigger than she was.

 

"Well... I've been a member for a few years now" Corona began telling the Volcarona "But I've only been the head strategist for about... 4 months, when this war started to get really bad."

Even though no one asked, Plaid decided to butt in on this conversation. "I've been a soldier nearly my whole life, and worked my way up to the top. I know, I know, I'm just that good." He was clearly very impressed with himself.

"Since we're apparantly sharing, Damon, why don't you go ahead and tell him?" Corona said, trying to encourage him.

He had no idea why they would possibly be interested. He didn't like being put on the spot like the way he was. "Well.... I'm just a healer... other electrics praise me for my healing abilities, but I know there are tons of Pokémon from other types that could do better..."

"Relax. You're just as valuable as any other member of the Electric faction." Corona assured, before she faced Plaid and had a slightly disgusted face. "Well, ALMOST any other member."

 

Sehkmet relaxed slightly as she got further away from the yanma. She hated talking to people like that, if she couldn't be mad at them she just didn't even know what to say. As she walked, she encouraged herself with the thought that she could enjoy some calm silence until she reached the Normal Kingdom.

"P-please spare me if you're gonna kill me!"

"Godamnit." Sehkmet sighed, running a hand down her face. She looked to where the voice had come from and saw a trembling floette. "Why do I have to talk to people can't I just..." She glanced at the fear on the floette's face and stopped herself.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you if you don't try and hurt me." Sehkmet reassured the floette, her tone still slightly irritated. "What are you even doing out here alone?"

 

Flora was happy that there were still some Pokémon who wouldn't hurt another Pokémon just by being close to them. It would appear that neither of them are harmless at all.

"I got separated from my Queen, while we were heading towards to Normal Kingdom" Flora replied, answering the Mawile's question, still scared after hearing the Mawile with an irritated voice.

After Flora replied, she could notice the quiet Yanma floating near the Mawile.

 

(I didn't reply earlier because of an inconsistancy. I thought Comalia and Sehkmet had already left each other.)

"How did you get separated from your queen?" Comalia said to the Floette. "I would imagine that, no offense, someone as small as a Floette would stay as close to their bigger comrades as possible."

 

"Well, I wasn't really a part of her entourage, and I just sneaked up and followed them here. I lost them, so unfortunately I have no idea on what path they took since I didn't see the map" Flora replied to the Yanma's question. When the Yanma expected that small ones should always follow their bigger allies, she slightly took offense on that. However, instead of being mad, she took a deep breath, replying "Well, everyone wants to be responsible. Besides, it's not by size on how we judge the usefulness of something. It matters on the will and power the thing has"

 

Sehkmet shrugged. "I mean, size helps." She said, chuckling a bit. "Like, good luck trying to take down a Pokémon that could just step on you. This one time I fought a golurk and he just-" Sehkmet clapped her hands together. She nodded in thought. "That really, really hurt. I had to go to the healers and my jaw closed kinda crooked for like a month and..."

It occurred to Sehkmet that her current train of thought probably was not helping. She stopped suddenly, instead pulling out her map. Since it seemed fate had it that she couldn't avoid running into at least part of the delegate parties, maybe she could try blending in.

"The Normal Kingdom's still a pretty fair distance away." She observed, pointing to where she thought she, the floette, and the yanma were on the map, and then pointing to the Normal Kingdom. "And you're gonna be heading through a fair bit of possibly hostile territory on the way." She looked over at the floette. "I was actually headed there myself to do some security detail." Which was technically maybe not a- oh who was she kidding that was absolutely a lie. Oh well. She tilted the map so the floette could see it.

 

Ilbis glided about gently with the group, happily chatting with stories of when he was younger. As time went on, they soon arrived at the Normal Kingdom, and gazed over it's walls. Ilbis waited for someone to let them in.

 

"What the hell...?" Lasaruz's voice trailed off as he stared in confusion at the group he had been shadowing. They were all outside what was, if he was not mistaken, the outer walls of the Normal Kingdom.

Increasingly uneasy, he thought about bolting for a second, but this was too good to run away from. He could be eavesdropping on history here, and as much as the Grandmaster was inevitably angry at him, he'd be even more lucid if this turned out to be important, and he had just run away from it.

Fingers unconciously stroking his necklace, he climbed up a nearby tree for a better view, and waited to see what would happen next.

 

Ilbis smiled at the rather awkward interaction between the grandmaster and the exploud. He almost seemed like a lost old man. The thought of being old suddenly crossed his mind and he frowned a bit when he remembered just how old he was getting. "Feels like not too long ago I was a little larvesta... actually yeah that's probably true," he thought to himself as he entered the walls.

Snapping out of his chain of thought, he looked around at the people of the city, seeing Pokémon go about their day while looking over at the commotion they've made. He smiled at the children who gave him strange looks. "If it's all the same Grandmaster, I think I'll stick with you until someone tells me to go somewhere else."