[h2]Nouvelle, Lugere - - - Lumine Solaris[/h2]
[h3]Time: 11AM[/h3]

Up above in the moderately overcast Lugerian sky, one with enough skill could tell it was nearly 11AM in Nouvelle, Lugere, and that meant it was that time not only here, but in their sister-continent, Ayero, as well. Many people in this day and age started ignoring the skill of telling time by the sun in favor of the grand clocks in town squares, with all of their springs and sprockets, and gears whirling to tick down the seconds, but Lumine Solaris, Procurer of Rare Goods and Merchant Extraordinaire, did not.

She had a small sundial strapped to her wrist as well, just in case, but she had found herself traveling through rugged valleys with Beartic chasing her, or hiding out in meadows with hives of Beedrill in an uproar because she had decided to snag a wee-bit of their discarded Kakuna shells more often than not. [i]Time[/i] was a valuable thing to understand, determine, and get yourself out of danger with. Beedrill calm down at certain times of the day, and Beartic will stop chasing you if you manage to waste enough of [i]their[/i] time. 

A plan will always pull together with enough persistence.

And that was why she now stood in plain sight, standing next to her highly decorative and flamboyant cart, which ended up being just another part of the scenery in Nouvelle, which was known for it's art, music, and dance. Circuses lined the edge of the town, but she had managed to finagle her way closer in to the actual town with some fast trading and ass kissing. [i]It had been worth it.[/i]

From the corner of her eye she had observed a young man, some years younger than herself, after the very same thing as herself. [i]Those fucking posters.[/i] She thought with some fraction of amusement as she took another puff of her lavender scented cigarette. Puckering her lips together, she blew out rings of smoke into the air above her. She knew, from just practical observation, that [i]this[/i] wasn't the time of day for what they sought. Distractions were necessary, and that fight in the Chanson tavern hadn't been enough to make the locals slack in their duty to tear down the posters. The posters that would sell very, [i]very[/i] well to the right people... Such as that young man who had been trying to get his hands on one.

Was she just assuming things? Dangerous things, if she were wrong and the young man wasn't what she suspected. Could he be a lordling? An undercover agent from the King? She mused over ridiculous possibilities, possibilities that could very well happen to be the case, no matter how small the chance of them occurring. 

She knew that the posters would be back, no matter how many were eradicated. Nouvelle seemed to be a prime location for the mysterious [i]Lotus Triumvirate[/i] to recruit members, and no wonder from the numerous circuses that could easily conceal Morphs within. Not many people went around to police the rougher tents on a regular basis, and they certainly didn't bring even a handful Pokemon capable of sniffing out Morphs, even if they wanted to. Having a Pokemon who stood out in this part of town was foolishness, bait to be kidnapped by any one of the foreigners and gypsies with low moral values, people who could easily slip away to another city with your valuable Pokemon in tow to sell to a lucrative buyer. 

Pokemon who could sniff out Morphs included Legendaries, or most Legendaries anyway, and those Pokemon belonged almost primarily to the seriously influential noble Houses, people you didn't mess with if you wanted to live to see another sunrise. Even if you [i]could[/i] steal a Legendary, that is. They were notoriously strong, it would take a team of lesser Pokemon to take one down on a good day. Other Pokemon who could sniff out Morphs were rare, and the breed doesn't usually matter, as it is on an individual-Pokemon basis. That being said, many Stoutlands are born with the ability as Lillipups, so much so that they've become the popular go-to Morph hounds. If Lumine had to guess, around 65% of all Lillipups had the ability, a much higher rate than any other Pokemon known to date.

And though she found no good part in her heart for Lillipup, Herdier, or Stoutland, she appreciated the fact that they were popular enough to be used by most every Morph-hunting team, and so they were easy to avoid. It's always easiest to evade enemies you can see coming... The other Pokemon who could sense Morphs, the rare ones, she hated with a passion. She had been nearly caught on more than one occasion by a Rhydon she passed off as ordinary, or a Tentacruel that she hadn't seen at all. 

She leaned back against her cart, blending into the scenery once again, as her sharp eyes followed the young man with dark hair. She planned to meet that man again so that she could make a tidy profit, one way or another. She just had to wait till the night to get a poster before it was posted. 


[h2]Havenport, Middle of the Ayero Barrier Sea Coast - - - Corivana Espada & Kyo[/h2]
[h3]Time: 11AM[/h3]

As Corivana walked up to the Pokemon Center, she noticed that something wasn't right. It was unnaturally quiet, too quiet for a place that was supposed to be a Pokemon hospital, filled with injured and recovering Pokemon. At least, she was sure it was filled, based on the Pokemon battles she had been forced to participate in growing up. The Pokemon were usually well kept by her House, but she didn't like the fact that they were used to train many aspiring Pokemon tamers and battlers in the Battle Arena here in Havenport. It was a distasteful practice, in her opinion.

But it always meant this Pokemon Center was filled to the brim and noisy, with Pokemon chittering and growling at one another through the bars of their cages as they were treated by the Nurses. She rushed in, pushing the doors aside in her wake, and found total disaster. Cages were overturned, and the Pokemon that were in them at one point where all gone. The Nurses, two ladies she recognized from growing up with them, were tied up behind the receptionist counter, bound hand to foot with large wads of cloth shoved into their mouths. Corivana rushed to pluck the gags out of their mouths, and they filled in the unnatural quiet with stuttering and crying, and incoherent explanations all in a torrent over each other.

[b]“Giselle, Penelope, calm yourselves! What happened? Where are the Pokemon?”[/b] Corivana managed to lose her pirate-accent in her loosely concealed panic. Her mind raced as she waited for one of the two Nurses to compose themselves enough to tell her why this had happened, and more importantly, [i]how[/i]. Kyo would [i]never[/i] let this happen! Giselle, [url=http://static.zerochan.net/Ryuryu.Mikan.full.1839712.jpg]a blonde little thing with amber eyes[/url], spoke up. “C-Co-Corivana! They took them all! They took the Great One too!” Giselle managed to get out in her high-pitched voice, before [url=http://static.zerochan.net/Rofuro-e.full.986949.jpg]Penelope[/url] spoke over her in a much steadier tone. “They told the Great One that if it did not comply with their demands that they would slaughter all of the Pokemon here, and us as well. The Great One saved us by going with them, but how can we ever atone?” Penelope's voice went shaky near the end of her explanation, and she cast her gaze downward. Giselle followed suit, hanging her head in shame. 

Corivana, in her disbelief, ran up the stairs to the second floor where Kyo, her companion and friend, [i]should[/i] have been. The room was starkly empty, the polished wooden floor pristine and gleaming by the sun streaming in through the open windows. She felt her heart pause for a moment, her breath catching in her throat. Bandits. Pokemon thieves. [i]Bastards![/i] They took Kyo, and the rest of the Pokemon being nursed here. But how!? How could they get in, and get out of a highly guarded town? Her mind reeled, and only one possibility came to her mind. [b]“The had help. Insider help.”[/b] She whispered into the empty room, and she realized what that really meant. 

One or more of the guards in this city knew she was passing through, and sold that information to... a rival House? Pokemon thieves? And then tried to cover up the fact that they only wanted Kyogre, so they used the rest of the Pokemon and Nurses as leverage for the gentle Legendary Pokemon to obey them. That meant that whoever did this knew how Kyo couldn't just let innocent Pokemon or humans get hurt, even if it meant sacrificing itself. 

That meant that she was betrayed by a friend.

She stomped back down the stairs, and Penelope and Giselle were propping the cages back upright and putting them back into their rightful places. [b]“Who did this, Giselle?”[/b] Corivana's voice carried loudly across the room, causing both Nurses to jump. Corivana immediately noticed the worried glance that Penelope shot Giselle. [i]So they're in on it too? Or just afraid to reveal who did this?[/i] Corivana was sickened. They used her home-visit to majorly screw over a lot of things. [b]“The Queen wont be happy if I come back without Kyogre. That anger can easily extend to the rest of the Espadas. And, knowing how much the Queen adores my work, I could focus that anger directly onto your families. So!”[/b] Corivana slammed a fist down on the receptionist's counter to punctuate her statement, [b]“Tell me what I want to know. [i]Now.[/i]”[/b] The last word lost all emotion, and punctuated her sentence better than her fist-slamming did.

The two Nurses shared glances for a silent moment, worry painted obviously across their faces. Finally, Penelope pushed her glasses up her nose and took a step forward. “Cassius let them in, Cori! I promise you, we wanted no part in this, but we couldn't stop him! He and a gang of men came, and said that taking Kyo would be for the best.” 

Corivana couldn't believe what she was hearing. Cassius – her very own brother – betrayed her! Sure, she had given him enough reason to dislike her, but this? This counted as treason, not only against his own House, but against the Queen! She couldn't help it, but she barked out a laugh. [b]“Fine, let me go see why my brother thinks this is [i]for the best.[/i]”[/b] She turned and made her way out of the Pokemon Center. She didn't need to hear any more, she knew where he would take those Pokemon. [i]Kingler Cove[/i], secluded and to the south of Havenport, it was an easy place to smuggle anything in or out of without interference, unless you counted the Krabby and Kingler who made their home there. If Corivana could appeal to their sense of kinship, they might even help her with retrieving Kyogre from the clutches of her traitorous brother and those thieves. 

It was worth a shot. [i]Anything to rescue Kyo[/i].


[h2]The Barrier Sea Coastline, Lugere - - - Sophia Skyheart & Neva[/h2]
[h3]Time: 11AM[/h3]

Wind and sleet assailed them as they flew through the Lugerian sky high above the coastline. She had been told to follow it and to stay out of sight for as long as possible, but the cold was seeping into her very bones. She had been up here for hours and hours, and her hands were stiff against Neva's reins, and Sophia was sure she couldn't take it anymore, even with the Bond that she had with Neva to stave off the intense chill. She nudged Neva on the side of his torso with her knees, but at the same time a large chunk of hail knocked her in the side of the head, knocking her unconscious atop Neva's saddle. The only thing keeping her from plummeting to the earth below were the straps across her legs, holding her in. From below her, Neva gave a frightful cry and started descending in swooping circles. 

When his claws touched the ground below, he found himself on the edge of a forest road bordering the rocky coastline that bordered the Barrier Sea on the Lugere side. No sandy beaches were found, and instead coarse gravel and rocks dominated the coast. He could feel Sophia flopping around on top of him, and tried to turn his body this way and that to reach the buckles that kept her held to his saddle. He [i]needed[/i] to know that his Sophia was okay. 

To any passerby, it probably would have looked comical, but Neva was giving off increasingly distressed noises as all of his attempts failed.