2024-07-29: Scattered Leaves

• Log: 2024-07-29 Scattered Leaves
• Cast: Sheriff Star, Magilou, Dias Flac, Xantia, Claude C. Kenny, Chase, Kaede Akigiri, Mariel, Rena Lanford, Venetia Vuong, Chartreuse Spinosa, Ethius Hesiod, Ida Everstead-Rey, Misty, Grace Harvey, Chisato Madison, Gwen Whitlock
• Where: Marlind - The Great Tree
• Date: July 29, 2024
• Summary: After the disastrous battle at the Marlind Tree, those who fought there are beamed up to the Calnus and given an explanation--that then gets cut short.

---

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

A moment ago, many of the Drifters (plus one injured town guard and one very confused cat) at Marlind were inside of Magilou's barrier. It reached up in a dome around them -- the witch's powerful spell surrounded by an outgrowth of salt on all sides. It was similar for other efforts to hold it back.

They were all doomed.

The barrier CRACKED right at the end, an audible sound like a pane of glass under stress suddenly starting to buckle. Salt began to dust the top of the barrier. Thenn, light shone around them.

Now, golden light floods around everyone.

It isn't quite like any teleportation they've undertaken before. It says something about how often Drifters are teleported that they can appreciate the difference between the different types. Those differences are subtle, of course; Elw ones involve a sense of rushing wind and soft blue-green light, while Althenan sorceries tend to involve a flash of silver light and reappearing elsewhere, and the Sorcery Globe-powered teleportation is a static-like burst, then a flash of red and violet.

This is a sense of golden light, washing over them, and lifting up, then drifting back down.

And as the light fades, they're somewhere they've never seen before.

A large room, with several circular indentations on the floor. The floors and walls are plastic and metal; all soft blues and whites, with flourescent lighting, and individuals in blue, green, and tan uniforms moving to-and-fro. The astute might notice some are wearing jackets like Claude's, albeit zipped up.

As they all reappear, there are two officers standing at a console. "Did you get them all?" one asks.

The other nods. "We did," she says. "Good work."

"Thanks," he says. "What a relief. I've sent a message to the admiral--" Then she looks at them, and realizes that there is a room full of very confused people standing right there. "Oh, gosh--please, wait right there! Admiral Kenny is on his way. You're aboard the Calnus, a Pangalactic Federation Cruiser, and--"

Behind her are a few security officers. They look them over; one spots Ethius, his eyes widening, and he turns his head to avoid lip-reading and begins to speak.

"We'll need to debrief you," she continues, "and... figure out what we're going to do, next."

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

        Pathetic fool. Did I not tell you it would require an iron will, as indomitable as the very trees that live and die across millennia?

    That day, Magilou's barrier faced a hundred and seven assaults -- or a hundred and eight. She swore an Oath, then; she would see how all of this ends.

    A thousand years later, she's still...

    Maybe this is how it ends.

    The salt stretches out into eternity, and eternity presses in. The pressure builds against those jagged edges of her heart; she can feel Bienfu's worry, in there, as he tries with all his Normin strength to help. And then --

    When that golden light floods them, it finds Magilou, knees bent, one hand pressed flush against the ground, the other still lifted up to maintain her barrier. Rather than earth, she realises that her palm is flush against metal; her barrier drops with her hand, as she looks over the uniformed officers.

    "Oh... huh," Magilou says, eloquently.

    And then she drops, too, falling face-first the rest of the way onto the ground.

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

CLANG.

Darn metal floors.

<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.

    When Lucifer had unleashed that salt effect, only a second of observation had told Dias that this was not something that any of them could either deflect or survive. Magilou's barrier gave him some hope--but then it cracked like glass. The understanding that death was imminent was... an experience. Less rattling than he would've expected, all considered.
    
    But before the salt could break through, a golden light overtook everyone, including him. When it fades, they're all... somewhere else. Dias lowers an arm from his face, which he'd instinctively raised at the flood of light, and frowns around at the plastic and metal decor. It reminds him a bit of Marduk. That's not a good sign, in his mind.
    
    But there are people here, and they have jackets like Claude's. Dias shoots his companion a glance, then looks again at the officers. His eyes narrow at the explanation. 'Admiral Kenny' and the 'Calnus.'
    
    "Hmm," he murmurs--and otherwise doesn't weigh in. He'll find a wall and lean on it for now. ...It was an intense fight. As that witch falling face-first on the metal floor can attest.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

"Come back here! I'm not done with you!!"

Those words, growled in anger, are likely the last anyone heard of Xantia during the battle against two of the Ten Wise Men back in Marlind. Furious at Zaphkiel's retreat after unleashing the full fury of her elemental powers upon him, having seemed to enjoy the fight a little bit too much.

There was plenty of reason for concern regarding her behavior, given it followed a drastic power increase that she summoned seemingly out of nowhere. Which some may have recognized as eerily similar to the time she turned on her friends and allies not long ago, accompanied by the same visual signs as back then. Which meant there may have been reason for concern, once the target of her wrath was suddenly no longer there.

However... once Xantia took stock of the situation, and came to realize the reason for the Wise Men's retreat, everything changed. Witnessing the result of Lucifer's actions, the rapid spread of white bearing down and straining the barrier... the rage in Xantia's expression drained away, as did the glow of her bracers and collar, the red in her eyes fading back to their normal blue as they widen in sudden terror. Her voice now so soft as to be barely inaudible, all she could muster was a strained, "N-no...!"

The next thing she knows, everything has changed. When she reappears in unfamiliar surroundings, Xantia is on her hands and knees, breathing quick shallow breaths. She may need a moment to reorient herself. But at least there's no battle-crazed maniac to deal with, that's a plus.

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

"Rena..." Claude is there with her as Magilou's barrier starts to crack, finally. And then...

Claude hasn't experienced this kind of teleportation in some time--but he recognizes it immediately. Golden light...

Claude knows this very room; he was here, years ago. He knows the uniforms, though he suspects there might be some differences after a few years. And the officers--

Okay he doesn't recognize the officers offhand. Maybe they're new.

Either way, they did good work, and--

"Whoa! You made it just in time!"

He looks at Rena for a moment--and then glances away suddenly, something troubled in his eyes. she may be red, but--. He walks to Magilou, and kneels down to help her up. "You really saved us," he tells her. "They wouldn't have had time to beam us up if you hadn't put up that barier..."

He turns, looks at Ethius--he noticed that lookf rom the officer--and then to the officers, "I, uh-"

He straightens. He looks at Rena, again, without explanation, before--

"Ensign Kenny," Claude says, straightening. "Reporting for debrief. I understand my father is on the way. I have a lot to fill him in on, sir."

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Pikachu clutches onto Chase as tightly as her yellow paws will allow while Chase finally relents on trying to trap her in her ball, hugged around her as if that might protect her instead. So caught up in bracing themselves that even with the sense of up and then down, and the bright light flashing and fading, they remain huddled that way as they arrive.

There is a very loud, very unpleasant clang.

Both blink up in unison and glance around at being very not dead.

"Pika?"

His Pikachu's gaze scans the area, and then she leaps from Chase's arms to scurry around this new room with a bunch of new people to meet and greet. She waves her paw, wags her tail, and offers her head for pets, moving on in the face of hesitation and being ignored rather than trying to push the point. There are just so many new things to investigate and sniff at at admire!

Chase heaves a sigh, seated on the ground in a dazed slump as he tries to process the Everything. He stares at Magilou a few extra moments in particular before looking up at the strangers.

He does not, at present, opt to get up off the floor.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Akigiri has posed.

Kaede has been here more recently than Claude has. She goes through a myriad of reactions to the golden light and the teleportation. The first is a flinch. That's not what she'd expected. From there it goes to relief. Then surprise. Then finally over to anger and she looks to Ethius, then the officer. She makes a sharp pointing gesture, then points to herself. The cat's out of the bag now at least.
 
 Clearly she has some... things to share with the intelligence crew running things.
 
 She catches herself short though. Looking around at all the others. Then with a shrug, she offers a wry smile and a wave to the rest of them. She's glad they're safe of course.
 
 There's the fact that she hasn't known a lot of them too long, so at least this isn't too awkward a thing.
 
 She checks her word briefly before sheathing it. Claps her hands against her cheek, shakes herself out (Complete with a decent amount of salt and dust. Sorry everyone.)
 
 Then she walks forward and stands at ease. There's a debrief. Hypothetical yelling can come later.

<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.

Mariel's own defenses were nothing as effective as Magilou's; her attempts to hold back the salt while holding the power from the Tree only had it eroded away with everything else, eaten away by the white - as it felt like her head was, honestly. Her ability to maintain couldn't keep up with it, and she felt like she was being scoured away with everything else. She would have died if it wasn't for Magilou.

She fell before, and she appears kneeling, holding herself up even that much with her Staff, which has bloomed into full flower and leaf; green leaves growing from the twisted branches, little white flowers studded within them.

She does not immediately rise, even though the sense of pain is gone - partially gone, anyway; the mental wounds are still raw. It takes her a moment to realize that she's somewhere else, not on Filgaia or Lunar (or Nede, as she now recognizes its sensations too).

Then she tries to push herself up, staggering on her Staff. "...Debrief?" she asks, quietly. She knows the word. She just wasn't expecting it to be applied to *her*.

Mariel looks around at the injured and blinks back bleary eyes, trying to focus through the headache. "Healing first. I can help with..." She's not going to be much help, given she almost falls again when she takes a step, but catches herself with the Living Staff.

"..." She hates this weakness, again. Give her a few moments. In the meantime, she looks around the ...ship? Taking it in for the first time, it's unfamiliar but in a familiar way. It bears some similarities to rooms she's seen before, not in contents but in style, and it takes her a moment to remember: Fila del Fia is where she saw metalwork like this before.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

Rena still doesn't really understand exactly what Lucifer did, she just had the overwhelming sense that she was going to die. And in that moment the closest person to her was Claude, so as Magilou's barrier begins to crack, it's hard to say what impulse took her. All she knew is that she didn't want to die alone, and she had maybe a few seconds.
 
So she grabbed his arm. "Claude I..."
 
She doesn't know what she was going to say, but part of her thought it might be 'I'm sorry' as Salt dusted the barrier and golden light took them over.
 
It floods her vision, and certainly she's not quite readily able to identify what happened, part of her still thinks 'death' except, it doesn't really hurt, either.
 
Her eyes blink, as with her free hand, she rubs her eyes, and looks at Dias, and Grace, and Ethius and Chisato- "We're not dead? We're alive!" She cheers in that moment, before realizing she's still holding onto Claude's arm and QUICKLY let's go, turning a touch red, before nodding emphatically to Magilou, "I can't believe you managed that for so long! If you hadn't..."
 
Rena looks at the woman speaking, then at Claude, "Kenny? Wait, that's your Dad right?" She asks, surprised, because it's been so long since the two met each other.
 
'Federation' is confirmed, and Rena smiles at the Federation Officers and at Magilou, "Thank you. Like Claude said - we were really in a bind, you came through for us."
 
As Claude notes he's Ensign Kenny, Rena takes a step back, there's a prolonged pause, then after the moment passes she whispers Claude's way, "Do we have to salute?" She murmurs, "Do you have to salute?" It's been a long time so she's not even certain if Claude remembers anymore.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia entertains the thought, during that washing of golden light, that perhaps she's going to Heaven or one of the Blessed Realms discussed here and there in theological matters (as well as fictional non-denominational representations of theological matters). Wouldn't that be funny? Then again, Venetia Vuong is confident that she has done very little wrong.

As the light fades, though, Venetia immediately turns her head and looks around, still breathing heavily from the exertion of battle. Her eyes pass back to the officers at the console.

They speak. Venetia can understand them. She opens her mouth, briefly interrupted when she hears a CLANG which gets an alarmed look followed by a snap back. Venetia raises her right hand, palm forwards, and:

Talks. "I greet you, brave sailors of the Pangalactic Federation, in the name of Mahabrahma; I have won this knowledge fairly, and," Venetia's stentorian attempt at a greeting falters audibly. She looks at others for a moment.

"Admiral Kenny?" Venetia wonders, looking DIRECTLY at Claude.

Venetia deals with the sudden train-wreck of emotional confusion by wagging a finger in the general direction of Claude. "I always knew there was something more going on with you, Kenny; you played it cooler than Hesiod but nothing gets by me. It's like that groundcant ballad, born in the darkness, raised in a cave, power and freedom is all that I crave."

Turning back to the officers, Venetia waggles a finger at them. "Bring your medics as well! These people need treatment," pika "as do their, hrm, associated and allied beings."

After this Venetia puts her hands on her hips. Her eyes turn to Mariel, but she strides forwards with effort, to put herself in front in that same swaggering posture. It *is* an effort and a pose, of course.

<Pose Tracker> Chartreuse Spinosa has posed.

For a moment, that seemed like it. The land and its people turning to salt around them, and the only thing between it and them Magilou's barrier. It holds, but then it breaks -

But it held long enough. Golden light floods around them - and when it clears, they're somewhere unfamiliar.

The structure isn't inherently strange to Chartreuse. It's not Nedian, she recognizes that much. But right now, she isn't worried about that. She's worried about -

"Flaaffy! Farfetch'd, Natu, are you -" Chartreuse calls out. She's interrupted by a certain fluffy, pink creature rushing at her with a 'baa' of relief, and Chartreuse catches her with a hug.

"Oh, you're alright..." Chartreuse whispers, exhaling. She feels two sets of wings fluttering nearby as Farfetch'd and Natu flutter onto each of her shoulders. "You're all alright..."

She breathes again, in and out, and then finally breaks from the hug, standing up and looking around. It seems that everyone that was fighting is here and okay, at least, but the town...

Chartreuse swallows. That's a lot to process for now. So, she'll set it aside. Because right now... there's a lot of unfamiliar faces.

"I'm glad you're all alright. And... thanks." She says looking around at everyone, and then to Magilou.

She looks to the security officers, and to the one speaking.

"This is a Federation ship?" Chartreuse says. They're here? "Where are we, right now?"

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    In the moment, Ethius can't say if he's scared more of certain annihilation or a memory that can never be distant enough from him - of that contact-less lift and drop. The cracking and shattering of Magilou's barrier added further sensory overload to what should have been the final conscious snapshot of his life.
 
     When they are on board, an exhausted Ethius is knelt down. The colors, the feel of the air, the lights... the faint hums of Pangalactic Federation spacefaring technology that he has never, ever found comfortable to be around.
 
     A hand to his forehead, coughing once before he can interrupt the speaking officers. When he's done wiping his face and giving away that he is still a human being capable of feeling the effects of stress and exertion, that's when he catches the look his way shortly after the affirmation that one Admiral Kenny is on his way.
 
 His eyes close with a truly defeated-sounding exhale at the mention of debriefing. He remembers - he remembers, all too well, how they struggled to communicate to a young boy what happened and why he cannot ever go back to the place he considered home his entire life.
 
     He catches Kaede's gestures. He holds up a hand, stands up, and sharpens his gaze with purpose and conviction. He has a duty here.
 
     "It's as the Ensign says," Ethius begins, firm of statement and daring to take several steps forward even with numerous security officers right there. "We do not have much time for 'figuring.'"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    From Ida's perspective, the transporter does its work seamlessly. One moment, she's standing behind Magilou's barrier, mouth moving in an improvised prayer. In the next, the world has color again, and shape.

    From the perspective of teleportation bay crew, the transporter does its work after throwing up a big 'EMERGENCY: PATTERN BUFFER CROSS-CONTAMINATION warning. A quick check of the log reveals the pattern was recorded in that state, meaning whatever physiological oddity caused the warning was already there. This is not going to be that kind of episode.

    "...preserve us," Ida croaks, as the adrenaline and terror reach a crescendo, and start to ebb at the sight of... people. Uniforms like Claude's. She stares, dumbstruck, tears in her eyes. Magilou's exhausted pratfall snaps her out of it a moment later. Ida takes a cautious step forward, glances between Claude and Magilou, and then looks out at the crew.

    "The Federation," she says. A glance at Venetia. "Then these are your people." And here Ida is, covered in dirt and blood and still scared out of her wits. She fusses with her collar and clears her throat. "I would be honored to speak with Admiral Kenny on behalf of ARMS and my people."

    This, despite Ida's voice sounding ragged, despite her looking extremely in need of first aid.

<Pose Tracker> Misty has posed.

One moment, Misty was watching in horror and creeping despair as the Ten Wise Men sucked the very life out of Marlind's Great Tree, reducing the land not to ash, but to salt. There is a complicated well of emotions that engulfs her as she watches the beautiful forests she had fought so hard just moments before to save are drained.

What appears on the transporter pad is a young woman with fists clenched until her knuckles are white, tears streaming down her face, and an expression that wavers between absolute loathing, utter despair, and furious indignation.

It takes her longer than it probably should to really acknowledge that she's not staring at the decimated landscape any longer. It's not until a strange, double-star creature suddenly appears in a flash of light from one of the strange red and white balls at her belt to nudge at her that she blinks and looks down. "... Huh?"

Then she looks up, blinking some more. "This... isn't Lunar's version of the afterlife, is it...?" She glances around at her fellow rescuees, as if posing the question to them.

The strange creature nudges her again, and Misty shakes her head, starting to wipe her cheeks before kneeling down to hug them. "No, I'm fine. I just..." She takes a deep breath in and then out, and repeats this several more times.

Then she finishes wiping her cheeks, stands up, and her demeanor shifts to being all business. "Okay."

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Grace has faced the fear of death more than a few times now. When Ethius tried to stop her bank robbery. When Solaris came for the Hightailer. Against the Ten Wise Men on Marduk, against Azoth, against the Fields.

    Even with her newfound resolve, it doesn't get any easier- and this time it feels like there's no way out- not even Magilou's shield can hold out against it. Sure, she may have finally gained her courage but-

    She still doesn't want to die. Not so soon. Not yet. More than that... she doesn't want any of the others to die either.

    So when the transporters light engulfs them and they are someone else- and she hears a voice that... well.

    Human Federation offices have a certain tone, even the nice ones.

    She opens her eyes gingerly and sees the uniforms. Her first instinct is to scan the room- they're all here, right? Claude, Rena, Chisato, Ethius, Dias... that's her team. Then she starts checking for everyone else. No one unaccounted for- Miss Magilou is face down on the floor and oh good Claude's on it.

    So then instinct two comes in, and Grace drops her gun as it reverts to two square boxes and puts her her hands up because... well. Old habits die hard, and she doesn't want to pick a fight with a ship full of feds after that.

    Then she collapses to her knees, with exhaustion when it becomes clear that they're not being IMMEDIATELY arrested.

    She *does* take a second to glance at Rena grabbing onto Claude's arm and... well. That's good. That's good!

    "Ha... ha ha...." She sags. "We made it... Thanks, Miss Magilou... you really bailed us out..."

    That's when Grace kind of processes what's being said and- "...wait. Wait. Admiral Kenny...? Like... Hero of the Federation Admiral Kenny?" Her eyes go briefly wide and-

    Oh. OH. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh.

    oh.

    "...oh." Is all she manages to say, after Claude reports for debrief. Hooooo boy. "Wait so, you're one of..." Grace says, a little too loud, toward Claude, and decides a little too late to shut up and stop talking already.

    But she does shut up, for now, and edges toward Chisato a bit. She doesn't want to crowd Claude and Rena, but she's still pretty shaken.

    Also feeling a little uncomfortable. And not for the usual 'I'm in a room full of law enforcement' reasons.

<Pose Tracker> Chisato Madison has posed.

Chisato had her phone out, calling urgently into it for Nede's defense force. With a portal open, the signal should go, but--what could they do? In under a minute? More like less than ten seconds?

No...she was trying to send a final message out before her death. But a different light got her first.

"--trying to...!" tumbles out of Chisato's mouth before she stops herself. She recovers her poise in a way a journalist probably shouldn't have the experience how to do, phone slowly lowering. She'd call herself above-average in terms of being unexpectedly relocated to high-tech corridors (THANKS GIOVANNI) but it's never entirely pleasant. She presses a hand to her chest, breathing with slow, forced depth to calm her pounding heart. "Claude," she says, because she caught the same name as the rest of them. Rena seems to have, if not expecting this, at least prepared.

Inteleon is here, though the self-assured lizard man seems content to fade to the background as usual. He catches a signal from Chisato not to fully conceal himself for the moment. Folks like this would probably find a lizard with water laser fingers hiding with biocamo to be a Hostile Stance.

Chisato doesn't stop for pleasantries before plucking her notebook and pen from her jacket, going immediately to taking notes on what just occurred. "Pangalactic Federation Cruiser, huh..." ...Nede's successors, in a way. Her eyes cut to Grace, who of course, just recently told them quite clearly why she'd maybe want to keep her head down.

...she whistles, a quiet chirp, and tips her head to signal Grace to step behind her and Inteleon.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    It wouldn't be the first time the Super Courier has faced death.

    It *would* be the first time that death felt so overwhelming, rather than a private end that was a long time coming.

    Survive.

    "_Damn it_, we're not failin' now!!" Gwen's ARM noisily begins to fire up, yellow white energy painfully snapping its way into every nerve, starting with her shoulder, neck, chest, shoulderblades, cheek, eyes, nose, mouth, tissue, muscle, body.

    _Survive._

    Magilou's barrier cracks. Gwen can't do barriers, anymore than a single fist, held stationary, can stop a wave.

    __SURVIVE__.

    She shrieks aloud, like an angered beast. Logical thought is pared away. Fight it. Fight the salt, the creeping white death. Do it, even if it's impossible, because the part of you that acknowledged despair was stashed away along with reason and fear.

    -LIVE-

    A bright flash, and the small of salt is gone. There's nothing to push past, just a whole lot of pent up energy, and one confused courier, trying to pull back the reins at the very last moment.

    "..... Ngh....." She gathers in on herself, and, unceremoniously, Gwen Whitlock makes her first impression.

    .... By puking and dry heaving on their nice metal floor. Just... give her moment. She needs to roll up her nerves.

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

"Er... well, yes," the technician for the teleporter says when Magilou falls over. "That... does happen with people unfamiliar with teleportation..."

She looks at the others. There is a moment of hesitation, because she isn't really sure what to do with all of these people. Her eyes linger worriedly on Mariel, and then at Magilou. Then, she looks at one of the officers departing to meet the Admiral.

"Maybe... alert Medical, too?" she says.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Then, she looks down -- at Chase, for a moment, with confusion. But her eyes settle down on the Pikachu. Then at Chartreuse's and Misty's Pokemon, too. There is a moment inside of her when something changes forever.

"Oh. My. Gosh."

"M-Ma'am."

"R-R-Right."

Another of them looks at Kaede; recognitions sets in after a moment, before the security officer nods to her.

Some of the soldiers are looking at Grace. One of them gives her a once-over, then pulls out a datapad, and types something onto it. But he stops, when Chisato steps in front of Grace, and slides the datapad away.

Her eyes widen when Claude introduces himself. Reintroduces himself, really. "Ensign Kenny... oh my god," she says. "You're alive! We--someone has to let the admiral know!"

"On it!"

She looks at Rena, then, and she smiles. "We picked up a Federation signal -- in, um, in a really strange spectrometer reading. I'm glad we managed to find everyone near him."

Then she looks at Venetia. She blinks a couple of times, and then takes a step back, in a truly intergalactic expression: 'nope, gonna let my boss handle this.'

But she does look at Ethius, and nods. "He should be here soon."

Then, she looks at Chartreuse. She considers for a moment. "You're in a starship in geostationary orbit over the largest moon of this planetary system," she says. A beat. "If that didn't make sense, you're in the heavens on a metal ship that flies."

Which is when Gwen pukes on the floor.

"Also, custodial," she says cheerfully.

"They're on the way," an older man says, his voice deep and still confident -- but with an edge.

The Admiral walks into view. He is walking, but walking fast and with purpose. He is flanked by a number of officers. Aides, technicians, and a few soldiers in body armor. He looks over the group. His eyes linger on Venetia. Normally, he would follow the protocols.

But he looks past her, today.

Admiral Ronyx J. Kenny doesn't immediately look that much like his son. With black hair, though now mostly gone grey, and a beard, the semblance isn't striking. It's made less striking by his crimson admiral's uniform, with an officer's cap. But he has a similar tall, but lanky build, and the same blue eyes.

He pauses a moment when he sees them. An aide, next to him, is saying hurriedly: "Sir. That's Ethius Hesiod," he says. "He went missing, and we're sure he went rogue. We should--"

Ronyx holds a hand up, interrupting him.

He looks at Claude for a moment, and there is a war of emotions on his face. Utter confusion; anger; all of the things a parent should feel; and,finally, relief. Which is why, without a word, he grabs him and pulls him into a firm hug.

"You're late," Ronyx says, barely keeping himself from choking up.

There's murmured gasps -- and laughs -- from the crew. The aide beside the admiral is one of those who laughs, too. The security team never drew their sidearms, but they did have hands on them. They lower them.

And it might seem like what was being said about Ethius was forgotten. And it might take a second, with the crowd on the teleporter platform, to realize that someone else slipped in among them. He looks like he might be a Drifter for a moment. His light blue hair is peppered with grey and he has a sword at his side.

But his armor is a little too high tech. And he has a brown-furred tail, which swishes with alarm.

Which is when that sword is abruptly at Ethius's throat.

"Ethius Hesiod, as I live and breathe," Roddick Farrence says. "I have many questions. And as I'd hope you know... some very strong opinions about those who violate the UP3."

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Magilou murmurs something CLaude doesn't catch, but even if her hand is trembling she gets up--sure, with his help, but up is the important part. He nods firmly at her. "Yeah."

Definitely alert medical. And--Claude kind of had the same reaction to the Pokemon when he first saw them. He double-takes at Kaede as he looks around the room, but he's got a job to do here. And the woman advises herself--

"...Yeah," he says, to being alive. "Yeah," CLaude confirms for Venetia, "He's my father. It's kind of a long story..." Pause. "Well, power and freedom you'll... probably get..."

And then his father walks in. Claude has seen him recently, but not in the 'real' world. He saw him in a vision, so he knows exactly how he's looking these days. And he looks back; those feelings...

Claude clasps his father tightly in return. "...Dad," he starts. "I know," then, to 'I'm late.' "Sorry about that."

But suddenly there is someone else--

Claude pulls back immediately. "Uncle Roddick!" he starts.

Yes, Grace. He's that kind of Kenny. And he didn't have time to answer her before, because--

"It's not like that!" Claude says quickly. "He's with us--and the UP3 on this planet is kind of..."

He founders, there. "There's so much we need to talk about," he says, but can't actually start it yet.

He just looks at Ethius in alarm and--well--trust.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Akigiri has posed.

First things first, with the Admiral showing up, pissed off or not, Kaede does at least snap a salute. Which probably further solidifies a few things. She might have a decent poker face, but it's not fully in effect right now as she just barely escaped a botched mission from the ground up!
 
 That out of the way? She turns on her heels to help out instead. It hides how angry she is now that she's not tense, stressed or feeling wildly unprepared for what the mission had ended up being.
 
 With the comments about the UP3 violation, she does briefly turn, snaps her fingers (Because poking an admiral with a psychic finger is probably a court martial waiting to happen.) She shakes her head, running her finger across her throat. Killing the idea so to speak.
 
 Claude's double take is given a snicker. More of a faint rasp, but the motion of laughter is hard to hide. It's funny. If it weren't so serious.
 
 All things said, it goes a bit sideways with the blade and a thorough breakdown of the situation. Most of which Kaede hadn't had a chance to actually do anything with yet.
 
 There's not much she can add. Other than the phone. Which she's holding up. She waggles it even.
 
 Not that there's anything she can do beyond that. He's definitely better clued in. And she still needs to do her own duty so this should.. be an interesting mess.
 
 For now, she pockets her phone and turns to help Gwen. Though as she moves away, she just puts her hands up and instead tries to avoid making things worse.
 
 A sidelong glance is given to Misty. Maybe she can help out the situation?
 
 There's an errant thought that if she'd been there sooner, this would have been eaiser to smooth over. If she'd gotten there later... she'd probably be on the other side of things. It's funny in a way.
 
 Claude jumping to Ethius' defense, combined with the story does create a feeling in the back of her mind that this is either going to get really mess, or messier though. And she can't pull rank, or duty here either. To make things shakier.
 
 At the very least though, she's going to try and put herself between the Admiral, staff and the Nedians?

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    There are many people Ethius would turn around and try to comfort and reassure if he could, despite the nature of his work and lack of specific training there. He has a specific responsibility here - as he always has, even to people unaware of his presence.
 
     It is put to the test by Roddick Farrence himself, blade at his throat. To call Ethius by name is to be aware of what he can do - no amount of Symbological trickery would get a sword of that make off his throat, nor overcome a warrior of that caliber.
 
     Claude makes the effort.
 
     "Ensign," not 'Mister Claude,' "my station requires I speak my reasons." He appreciates the gesture, but this part...
 
     He does not throw his hands up in surrender, though he keeps them where they can be seen, held exactly as they are as to not even betray the suggestion of sorcerous gesticulation.
 
     "The feeling is mutual, as my service record would reflect." Even a man of oft deadpan stoic demeanor knows he's looking a man who has him dead to rights. He has one chance, before some of the most influential figures of the entire Pangalactic Federation military.
 
     "One of the planets of Kepler-186 - and at least one of its satellites - are indeed inhabited. The vast majority of the civilizations present show technological and cultural development equivalence on a range between the 16th to 19th centuries, give or take a few notable eccentricities."
 
     Which should put them under protection of the UP3 - and the Federation has its doctrine for those who have seen and heard too much because of those who violate it...
 
     But he's not done talking.
 
     Just about everyone here has already sacrificed much to save their world and loved ones from things that should never have menaced them, nor even have been in their reach to overcome - and in at least one stand-out series of events, on his behalf.
 
     Now it's his turn. He takes in a breath.
 
     "I can confirm the presence, past and present, to no fewer than at least three visitations or migrations by civilizations who had access to, or were introduced to, FTL interstellar space-flight technology, across a span of thousands of years."
 
     Fantastical, but he says this as plainly as he can.
 
     "At least one by a believed deceased World Eater who had overtaken a world they called 'Hyades,' at least one civilization that previously lived upon the planet in years past and returned in an ongoing conquest effort, and... we are in the presence of at least one individual better equipped to go into further detail to speak on behalf of their own people."
 
     He gestures with his eyes to Mariel.
 
     "To say nothing of the location of the missing colony ships of 10217 SD, the recorded use of advanced genetic engineering, widescale terraforming with the most triumphant example of one of that world's satellites and the construction of a separate artificial one," he means Lunar and Marduk, "and countless examples of nanotechnological development across numerous facilities evidenced of at least one collapsed civilization." Zeboim.
 
     And then, thoughts to the Nedians caught up in the web of another civilization's intrigue, after keeping to themselves for so long.
 
     "To say nothing of an existential threat posed by individuals of a society of origin showing Symbological development far beyond any known example in Pangalactic Space, which... I believe could be amptly demonstrated just by looking at them."
 
     A mere Pokeball would blow minds.
 
     To this, the Flametaker stands resolute before Roddick, and can state with his full authority and confidence...
 
     "What's going on here is beyond the protection of the Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact - to the point I have no further precedent to cite." He looks away, at last, to the others, away from Roddick.
 
     "Other than that the gathered here are who I would entrust above all others in any mission or plan to see to its resolution."
 
     Then, forward again. "My previous assignment has since been completed in the interim, pending re-establishment of contact which has been accomplished."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

It takes Xantia some time to calm herself enough to start looking around and examine her new surroundings, slow to get to her feet in the wake of all the sudden mortal fear. But once she does, it doesn't seem to take her long to at least appear at ease. Somehow, it doesn't appear as if she's experiencing as much wonder as one might expect from someone who just abruptly got beamed on board of a space vessel the likes of which she couldn't possibly have seen before. She always has been quick to adapt, and accept new developments as part of her 'normal'

Any concern shown to her by the medical staff is deflected by a smile and a shake of her head - indeed, she doesn't appear to be injured at all. She definitely was before, as those who saw her fight could attest. But during the course of the battle, even her most grievous wound healed in no time flat. Not unlike the Wise Men's... but now's not the time to worry about correlations, is it?

Curious about the conversation that she's been catching scraps of, she makes her way over to where people are talking to what she's gathered are crew of this ship they're on. The bracers she's wearing might be eyecatching in particular, given that to the experienced eye, the fact that they are technologically weapons is likely obvious. But that doesn't even occur to Xantia, she just stepped forward because among the subjects of conversation, she hasn't yet heard a direct answer to what's most important to her, so she just goes ahead and butts in to directly ask herself.

"Excuse me. I appreciate the rescue, but... we're not prisoners, are we? You're not planning to take us away from here, are you? We--"

She looks around a moment, considering those among the group who are clearly far more familiar with the current situation. Pointedly at Claude and Ethius, who, judging from what she caught of the earlier dialogue, might belong here. She probably shouldn't speak for everybody when she says this.

"...Some of us can't stay here. We're in the middle of a crisis, the Wise Men are killing our world. We can't afford to waste any time, we've got to head back right away and--"

A very loud grumble of protest interrupts Xantia. The protest also came from Xantia, specifically her stomach region. She sheepishly rubs her neck.

"Before that, um... do you have food, anywhere around here...?"

Xantia, as always, has her priorities straight.

<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.

    With the situation no longer life-and-death, Dias notes the way Rena has grabbed onto Claude's arm. He gives Claude a knowing look, even as Rena snatches her hands away a moment later. He otherwise lets himself get a breather once he's got that wall to lean on. Many of the others are having a Moment, including that one woman who's upending her guts, which means it's easier for him to have a lower-case moment and take in everything else that's going on.
    
    Chisato, for one, continues to be more than her appearances suggest, with her also recovering with speed and aplomb. Ethius and Claude make sense--these are the Federation people, they know who they're dealing with--but there's another person Dias doesn't recognize who also seems not just at ease but even like she belongs here, even as she fails to speak. (No, not Chase; Dias knows him. Chase's floor slump is very understandable, but it's just like Pikachu to take this as an opportunity to immediately run around to meet new people and receive pets.)
    
    Grace also seems to recognize who they're dealing with--even refers to Admiral Kenny as a 'hero of the Federation'--and suddenly a lot of things Dias half-knows about Claude make a lot more sense. Venetia and Ida take charge in their own ways, or at least show more forthrightness than some of the others; Dias glances at the Federation officers to see how they take it. They seem to take it as someone else's problem.
    
    And that someone else is the famous Admiral Kenny, who pulls his son into a hug. It's a sweet moment. Dias flicks his gaze away for a moment. It rises again when Roddick arrives and says (and holds) some pointed things at Ethius. But Claude immediately comes to his defense, and Ethius speaks for himself too--so Dias keeps his peace.
    
    And Ethius has a LOT to say for himself. Dias had make a promise to Claude if he managed to convince the Federation, but it might be Ethius who pulls it off instead.

<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.

Mariel is searching through her satchel to get Gwen something when swords are drawn. She nearly drops the little bottle she's holding, filled with something watery and grassy green, like a tea or tincture.

"No!" Mariel raises her voice, suddenly and somewhat uncharacteristically. "Please, put the sword down!"

She swallows, to cover her nervousness at making herself the center of attention for a moment, especially when Ethius looks at her. She is momentarily taken by a fit of shyness, but after a few moments, Mariel speaks. "My name is Mariel," she says, speaking at a normal volume instead of her previously nearly inaudible pitch or her sudden yelp of alarm. "I am an Elw, one of the indigenous species to Filgaia - the planet, rather than the Moon," she clarifies, because she has no idea what the Federation believes its name to be. Ethius says Kepler but she's not sure whether that's the system, the planet, or the moon.

Her ears shift slightly as she deliberately wiggles them, to draw the Federation officers' attention to them and also to give herself a moment. And she *never* does that.

She continues once she's sure she has at least *someone's* attention. "The Elw were capable of long-distance space flight before withdrawing from Filgaia, though we are so tied to the planet we chose not to leave for the rest of space... we put teleporters in orbit, and the second moon is artificial, built by Elw working with humans born on Filgaia. The humans of Zeboim - a Filgaian nation, no longer existant - also reached their moon under their own skills, among other technological feats. You aren't breaking your laws to speak to us, even those of us not from Nede, because I have been aware there were other peoples on other planets for hundreds of years. Since I was a child," she clarifies.

"...Also, we have been invaded at least twice by beings from other systems," Mariel adds. "Once, a long time ago, and more recently, within human living memory. I don't think anyone here would be surprised you exist... only that you chose to make yourself known. And, perhaps, that you look human, though that would not surprise any Elw, if any others remained on Filgaia to see you."

She falls quiet afterwards. That's a lot for her to say, and she still has a pounding in her head that's making it harder to concentrate than it should be. "...Please, I would appreciate it if we could calm down. And sit down," she finishes.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia glowers, a little, just a little, at the technician. It's the glower that's meant to say 'I am in charge of this classroom.' Sheer fury at her own weakness is keeping Venetia from swaying and sitting down. Someone has to be in front. She can do it long enough, she's sure.

The technician is enchanted by the chubby little symbology animals. Venetia's lips thin. At least, she thinks, we have something in common -- but then! The Admiral himself. Venetia looks at him, he looks back -- then he looks past...

Venetia's head whirls.

Someone's going to kill Ethius?! Venetia is peculiarly under-shocked, although concerned. She reaches for her Crest Pouch but does not open it.

Ethius speaks. At some length. Venetia is initally puzzled, particularly at the references to centuries, but she begins to get the gist. "My school was founded by a Minoran man," she states, "who wed one of my people. He left us treasures, which only came to light when one of suitable wisdom and devotion could decipher his personal documents."

that's her, with suitable wisdom and devotion

She continues, with some force, to speak more lightly: "He was alone and I believe his craft failed, so I don't think I'd call that an invasion." Her eyes turn towards Xantia as she speaks up, and then back to the red-clad Admiral.

"Just as she said," Venetia says, her arms folding again, if less tensely.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "Heh... they're late," Magilou murmurs, and it's a testament to her weariness that she does take Claude's hand. He will feel it trembling, though she's able to stand with just a little stumble as she gets her feet beneath her again. She laughs, and it's a little out-of-step, a little breathless, a little manic. She looks to Ida, for a moment, before she focuses on the words being said to her. "Hahahaha... what's a little... end of the world against me?" She asks Rena and Grace, looking to one, then the other. And to Chartreuse, as she adds, "No... no problem...!"

    It might have been a bit of a problem.

    "If... if you people want to debrief me," she adds, on the heels of Mariel's question, "you had better buy me a drink first." She knows what the word means, too; she's just like that. ... and trying to reclaim some normalcy after almost dying, probably.

    "Hey," she adds, a hand reaching up to her chest. She pulls -- something out of there, for those with the sensitivity to see; Bienfu is a Normin Seraph, so not everyone can see she's scruffed something in her hand, there. He dangles, as she holds him up, her smile lopsided. "Stop crying in there, we're fine," she berates him, before she tosses him carelessly aside --

    -- well, not that carelessly, apparently, because Bienfu lands right next to Chase. And Bienfu knows just what she was getting at, even if she didn't say anything, because he reaches his little cat paws up to pat Chase's face. "Biennnn," he says, adjusting the top hat which covers his eyes (it's okay, he has eye-holes). "Hey, little guy! Are you okay?"

    Magilou's hand comes to rest at her hip, reclaiming some measure of normalcy, as the Admiral comes around. Claude's father... huh. She watches them with hollow eyes, lips pressed together. And then --

    "Do you get that reception everywhere you go?" Magilou wonders, in Ethius's vague direction if not entirely directed at him, seeing that sword at his throat. It's a comment which suggests she's familiar with him, at least. Terrible!

    She listens to his explanation, though, and doesn't intervene. Except to say -- "An artificial satellite? If you're talking about the Black Star, that's been there for at least a thousand years," she adds, waving her free hand. "Well, that's when I last visited it before the recent hullabaloo, anyway. Looked quite established when I got there, frankly. Hello, hello," she waves a hand, again, absently. "You're in the presence of Lunar's foremost sorceress, Magilou Mayvin -- I don't tend to give my last name, these days, but I suppose this is something of a crisis. We've always had interesting artifacts which we can use for horrific human experimentation, I assure you. So I do hope you're not calling us primitive!"

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

Magilou nearly collapses, as Rena looks on her with alarm, and symbological power gathers before she adds a healing spell into the fray, as a soft green glow falls upon her like a droplet of water. "Even so, please don't overdo it." And Gwen...? "Um." For her she hands a handkerchief, while trying her best to keep her composure despite the emesis.
 
And as Rena is told by the officer how they located them, Rena smiles, "I see!" She says in wonder, "Looks like all those times Claude snuck off to check his communicator when he thought I wasn't watching really paid off."
 
When Grace hides, Rena gives her a curious look, before realizing why she might be nervous, and tries to instead give her a reassuring one, "It's going to be okay." She murmurs.
 
As the Admiral walks in, Rena considers him for a moment, then smiles as he grabs and pulls him into a firm hug, not interrupting the moment. 'You're late.' She does her best not to laugh, at that one, bug the side of her lips tugs into a smile.
 
And then- another man, Roddick...
 
... Claude jumps to Ethius' defense, and Rena speaks up right after, "It really isn't like that." She echoes firmly. But Ethius speaks, and Rena listens, she doesn't QUITE know all the words he's saying, but she can work many of them out through context, through the events, through all they've been through.
 
When he's finished, there's a nod from her, before she herself adds, "Sir. My name is Rena Lanford. I've been travelling with Claude for the past seven years. So if he's late... I can't help but feel like I'm a little responsible for that. I know you have your laws - but as Mister Hesiod said, there's so much at stake here, and everyone that would possibly be in trouble has been doing nothing but trying to help us through a crisis threatening all of our worlds. Please, I only ask that you not rush to judgment here."
 
At Xantia's final comment though, Rena looks surprised then, "Uhm, hold on, I think I have-" Rena reaches into her pack and takes out some Nedian 'Sealware' with a Sealeo emblazoned on the lid, releasing the seal to show some leftover Chicken Skewers before their latest foray. "They probably have a way to heat them up here." She looks towards Claude to confirm?
 
Taking out Shorty right now is probably a bad idea.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Trying to process the Everything is not going well for Chase. There keeps being more to process. Only his eyes move from figure to figure as he tries to piece together where they are, what's happening, and most importantly, where this is all going next. His hand hovers over the Poke Balls on his belt, feeling heat, vibration, and misty air. They're anxious, but ready for anything. He doesn't want to reveal his hand too soon, if having a metaphorical hand is something he needs.

...But it seems like it's a friendly space? Maybe. The fact that these people seem to know Claude is clashing with Chase's general discomfort with the aura of orderliness and discipline coming from the Federation.

He blinks owlishly back up at technician. Pikachu gives her an extra wave as she is changed forever. "Piii Pikachu!"

Beinfu's paw pats his face. Chase looks back at Bienfu with a slow, automatic nod at first. Then he casts a glance back at everything before answering Bienfu more honestly with a tense shrug of his shoulders.

Everything about him is sluggish and hesitant up until THERE IS A SWORD, and suddenly Chase is trying to get between Bienfu and Roddick, if not the Federation in general.

A small creature has entered his vicinity and is under his protection now.

His fingers twitch in a subtle gesture, and his Pikachu gives an intense, "Pika," of attention, snapped directly to his side. Her cheeks spark with her trainer's agitation as she eyes Roddick. If there's going to be a fight, she wants in on it...! Chase lowers his palm toward her, and though her sparks calm, her readied stance on all fours does not ease. Not, at least, until Ethius starts explaining.

Eventually, she plops down on her haunches and simply listens, ears twitching and flicking. Maybe she finds his voice calming...? She reaches into Chase's bag for a Poke Puff, munching on it while she listens, and rips off a piece of it to offer Bienfu.

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Grace does not take much prompting to get behind Chisato and Inteleon, but not before the scan begins- and these things don't take long. She's not... cowering, exactly, but she is definitely going for non-threatening body language. A bit late for that. Rena tries reassurance and Grace nods. "...Yeah, I hope so."%r She finally notices another tetrageniot among the soldiers too- the first she's seen other than her mom in more than four years. That's, uh.

    Wow she did not expect that to uh. Hit that hard. She stares for a few moments, before looking away and rubbing her eyes. This is real, then. Actually, genuinely real. A way home is finally here. She's on a real ship, from a real civilization, from the wider galaxy.

    She presses up against Chisato's back a little, trying to hide how close she is to full on ugly crying at the light of possibility. Look. It's been like a fifth of her life here, she's allowed to get emotional.

    Unfortunately, she absolutely does not notice ANOTHER Hero of the Federation suddenly appear behind Ethius and shove a sword to his throat until it's already happening. "Wh-" Oh this feels. Bad. Really bad. Really really bad all of a sudden. "Wait, hang on, Ethius isn't-"

    Claude stepping in is gonna carry more weight than her, some tetrageniot nobody who REALLY shouldn't be here. Maybe if she was a scion of one of the four families, or something, but... What would one of them be doing out here?

    Somewhere on Filgaia, a blonde haired woman in a black dress sneezes, then readjusts her rifle to look down the sights. "There you are~"

    Ethius, however, is more than capable of speaking for himself, and Grace is kind of astounded- she never realized he could be eloquent. Or... y'know. This persuasive. "...wow." She manages. "Even Ethius can be kinda cool... like... lawyer cool but still cool."

    Still... all of this, all of Ethius not getting skewered in the throat depends on Claude and Ethius and the Elw...

    And that's really more important to Grace right now than the idea of food, or a drink or sitting down or any of that. Instead, she peeks out from behind Chisato and Inteleon, waiting to hear the decision.

<Pose Tracker> Misty has posed.

Misty, once she composes herself, is looking around and checking on the other people that were involved--especially Chartreuse and Kaede, who she brought with her. There's a glance to Kaede, and she raises her eyebrows as if to suggest 'Wait that's the guy you were looking for? An admiral's son??'

She has a reassuring hand for Chartreuse's shoulder, though. (Which might look odd as she is both younger and shorter than her.)

Gwen has a perhaps understandable reaction, and Misty looks down to STarmie. "Starmie?" she says quietly. "Scald."

Starmie trills an acknowledges that and goes over to help clean up the mess with some superheated steam. Which it summons from out of nowhere, in front of the red gem at its center.

And then someone comes in and just puts a sword to Ethius' throat. "Wha--" Starmie immediately turns, their gem flashing a dangerous red color, but all Misty has to do is say, quietly, "Starmie."

Starmie stands down, for the moment.

She listens, with interest, though... and after a moment slips out her cellphone and starts furiously taking notes. Ethius mentions the advanced symbology and she pauses, suddenly conscious of the device in her hand, the six pokeballs at her belt.

She clears her throat and puts her phone away, then stands up straight. She's wearing her usual cropped top, shorts, and red shoes, with a light blue jacket over it. "My name is Misty Kasumi." She pulls out her Trainer ID. "I'm a Gym Leader and probably the closest thing here to a representative for the Pokemon League--" She pauses. "... and you don't know what a pokemon is, or the Pokemon League. Okay, later. I'm from a planet called Energy Nede. Almost 40,000 years ago we... we lost most of our planet."

Literally, but there is... a lot to explain there.

"Ten soldiers we created, called the Ten Wise Men, were locked away, never to be seen again. They escaped captivity, and returned to Energy Nede. In the process they brought many of these people--" she gestures to the Drifters "--with them. Then, they created rifts between our worlds, draining energy from Filgaia and Lunar of energy to fuel their own ambitions."

She speaks confidently, and with authority, despite being so young. But she falters as she gets to the next point. "... They stole all the energy from a Great Tree on Lunar--the whole city. And that man was fighting with the rest of us to stop them. To protect all those lives."

She's pointing at Ethius.

"So if you've got a problem with him--" She's addressing Roddick, now. "Then you've got a problem with me. I don't know what this UP3 is, but I'm not going to let give the Ten Wise Men another victory. Not today."

Starmie was just one creature that emerged from a pokeball. Misty has six at her belt.

<Pose Tracker> Chisato Madison has posed.

Chisato steps slightly away from Gwen because an OL has to look after her shoes. Yes she still claims to be an office lady, sometimes, when it gets her into the better parties.

Still...Chisato's eyes are keen as people file in and out. Smooth processing, proper handling...she's being allowed to take notes openly which is a sign of something that can at least pass for trust and good intentions at a moment like this. It's not that she doubted Claude's trust or his people, per se, but a woman in her position can't afford to trust the narrative. She has to find the facts, and build reality back up out of them. Ronyx...her lip quirks up just a little. Not a bad guy. Nice to see it from the outside.

Then Inteleon clicks at her, a quiet signal, and Chisato half-turns just in time to see Roddick with blade drawn. "...fast," she says, appreciating. Observing. Ethius gives his report and it's as compact of one as she's ever heard for the purpose. "So that's the priorities, huh," she says, because she's had to rebuild what exactly is criminal in the UP3 from mentions. Venetia's explanation; Mariel's, too. Notes, notes, hand moving speedily with rapid yet precise shorthand.

Then she claps her book shut, and a look goes to Dias, briefly. "Probably time," she reflects, and tucks the book away, then steps forward. She reaches up to that big red armband of hers - a holographic projection from an emitter, a red and white band that says JOURNALIST in Nedian script. She thumbs a pad on it and it flickers before shifting to a stark gold-on-black. It says AGENT now. "Y'all aren't the only ones with a checklist," she says, stepping up to right beside Claude and setting her hands on her hips and daring to meet the Admiral dead in the eyes.

"Chisato Madison, Energy Nede Central Intelligence," she says, tapping the ID card pinned to her chest (which says she's a journalist, because what special agent has an ID card? c'mon now.) She motions to Inteleon, behind her. "He's my partner."

"I've been keeping an eye on your boy ever since he fell out of a wormhole created by some Nedian mistakes from a few thousand years ago. I can confirm there's at least 3 planetary civilizations at play here."

She holds a hand over her chest. "I had the intelligence boys prepare an introduction packet, if you'll allow me to reach for my pocket." ... "Though I can't promise you'll be able to read it. It's been a few dozen thousand years since Nede had a star fleet. God only knows what y'all have done to the data standards."

Meanwhile, Inteleon remains in a cool pose because Pokemon are extremely good at holding posture, for instance directly in front of a scared party member.

<Pose Tracker> Chartreuse Spinosa has posed.

Chartreuse can't help but smile a little on the officer's reaction to the presence of Pokemon. They have that effect on people. She looks toward Misty, then, as she rests a hand on her shoulders, and offers her a small, grateful smile.

She listens, then, as the officers answer questions - which can't be easy, with so many people here, and as hers is addressed...

"I see..." Chartreuse murmurs, nodding. She understood that perfectly, as it happens, and it shows on her face. So they're in Lunar's orbit right now... How long was the Calnus in position? "That puts a lot into perspective."

She looks up, though, as a man with authority arrives. That must be the admiral. Chartreuse stands up straight, turning to give him her attention. Next to her, Flaaffy does the same. Farfetch'd watches them cautiously, leek shouldered in a sign of respect and peaceful intent, and Natu...

...Well, Natu looks much the same as ever.

She looks over Admiral Ronyx - and then to Claude. ...Oh. The admiral is his father... This reunion must be a long time coming.

...But then there's another man, who holds a blade to Ethius's throat. Ethius explains himself, then - and some of that is an eye-opener to her. They've been through a lot, huh...?

"...Yes. We're not from here." Chartreuse says. "Unfortunately, some of the recent problems are our ancestor's mistakes coming back to haunt us - and causing problems for everyone."

She could elaborate a bit more - but her contributions would be a bit more on the archaeological side of things, and that might not be fitting for this conversation right now. So she goes quiet, letting Misty talk - and the nodding.

"Ah... I'm Chartreuse Spinosa - an archaeology student from Energy Nede. I'm with her." Chartreuse agrees. "We're here to help - not cause any problems. We've all been through a lot today - can we relax, a bit?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Gwen pitches forward. Ida blurs forwards, grabbing the courier by the collar and steadying her. Her face twists in mild discomfort of her own, but it fades to calm, deeply-ingrained stoicism moments later. "Let's get you some water," says Ida, beneath her breath. "They should have water." What kind of ship doesn't have water aboard, especially if it's in space?

    The Admiral is on deck. Ida glances between him and Claude, watching the reunion; a bit of earnest happiness cracks the facade. She knows Claude hasn't seen his father for seven years. She's about to tell him just how brave his son has been when suddenly, there is a man among them who was not there a moment ago.

    "What--!?" Ida squeaks, eyes widening as she whirls to face Roddick. She lets go of Gwen--who hopefully has steadied herself, by now--and takes the slightest half-step towards Ethius and his captor(?).

    "...He's not lying," Ida says, once he and Mariel have said their peace. "And neither is Mariel. Ethius in particular--he came here because he was tracking down an illegal terraforming device. It would've destroyed our world if he hadn't helped us locate and destroy it." It feels... strange and sad to talk about Demetrioi that way, but it's true. "And if you don't believe the part about the alien invasions, you're welcome to scan me and learn more."

    Normally, Ida would say nothing to draw attention to that, much like Mariel and her ears. But it's been a long day for everyone, really.

<Pose Tracker> Misty has posed.

Chisato Madison, Energy Nede Central--

Misty's eyes bug out and her attention abruptly snaps to Chisato. "Central what!?"

(Starmie, however, is keeping their focus directly on Roddick. It might be hard to tell, but that is where the core is pointed.)

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Chase's attention snaps to Chisato, face blank in his shock.

She introduces Inteleon as her partner and his shoulders relax again.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen had wondered what it'd be like to meet people from the 'space' outside whatever surrounded their worlds. How will she make a good first impression? How would she win them over? Her down-to-earth charm? Successful business sense? Her array of stories and tales about the varied, clever, and colorful people of Filgaia and Lunar?

    It's unfortunate that First Contact instead came at such a terrible time.

    "Ethius risked his life for us," Gwen mumbles, halfway between her last dry heave and the next as Ida keeps her from forward. Rena's poor handkerchief is taken with a grateful, understated 'thank you' to her, and Misty's Starmie.

    They're in the space beyond the space between worlds, on a metal ship. How is the ship being held aloft? How did they get here? What about the land they left behind? What's going to happen, as that death spreads outwards?

    Ida stops in the middle of helping Gwen get some water as Roddrick points his sword at Ethius's throat. By the time Mariel's potion has tumbled to the floor, Gwen's stumbled away from Kaede's steadying grip, moving to try to position herself between Mariel, Ethius, and the blue-haired armored man.

    She doesn't really succeed at either, but it's the thought that counts. "... Take... yer... Universal Postage.... n'...." She then presses Rena's handkerchief to her mouth, and coughs.

    Xantia proves to be better at expressing what's really the matter here. Gwen can't be wasting time like this, either. "... We have friends, down there. We can't let that stuff spread... If we need t'... throw technology on the pile, in order to get out of this place... here." She presents her ARM, palm held up. "My ARM. Keeps me alive. Hybrid of ancient Hyadean, Filgian, n' modern Veruni technology. Managed... to nick some energy from... that muscley Wiseman before things went south."

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

"Nothing to apologize for, son," Ronyx says. He pulls back, smiles, and claps him on the shoulder. "I know. The reunion will have to wait. We--eh?"

There is suddenly a sword drawn. This has Federation soldiers going for sidearms -- to back Roddick up, in all likelihood. Roddick, for his part, gets wide eyes when he sees Claude. "Claude!" he says. "Then--"

His eyes widen. His tail swishes, with alarm, as he looks at Ethius. He listens to him describe the situation, and he keeps his blade where it is for a moment. His eyes narrow, though, as he explains.

"Three?" Roddick repeats, uncertainly.

Ronyx and Roddick share an uncertain look, which is interrupted by Xantia's question. Ronyx looks at her. He hesitates for a moment. "You're not prisoners," he says. "We'll return you. But we do need to determine what happened. And what course of action we'll take. And..."

Her stomach rumbles. "...find some food, clearly."

Roddick's eyes shift from Xantia to Dias. He catches that look; he might be in his forties, now, but he knows a swordsman when he sees one. He is putting himself facing Dias, as much as Ethius. But he looks to Mariel, as she explains.

"One of the indigenous... hell," Roddick says. He pauses, then laughs, and drops his sword away. "This is a lot more complicated. But... I can't see why you'd lie to me, Miss Mariel," he says, looking at her. "Invaded twice...?"

He looks at Ethius. "And these Symbological constructs, that you mentioned..." He looks at the Pokemon, then back at Ronyx.

Ronyx hesitates, before he nods. Then, he looks at Venetia. His eyes widen for a moment. "...I see," he says. "This sounds like... like this world has had a lot of people visiting."

Roddick looks at Magilou. He hesitates a moment, before he smiles. "Roddick Farrence. I'm just a swordsman, from the Planet Roak. I did help train Claude, here."

Roddick looks back at Rena, then he nods. "Sorry. It's a... little personal, so I get a bit jumpy," he admits. His tail swishes. He looks at Ida, then he smiles. "My world had some problems with people doing less-than-savory situations. But... this seems different."

Ronyx glances to an aide. "Send Dr. Silvestri-Kenny a message," he says. "Tell her... that Claude's back onboard." He smiles a little. Giving his wife good news, despite everything is worthwhile. "And ask her to have the Science Department look into these 'Elw.' I want to see if there's anything in our databanks." Then, a look at Claude -- and a nod.

Their reunion will have to wait, if only for a little bit.

Roddick does have a moment of distraction, as he looks at Phi -- did that animal just try to challenge him -- but he smiles at her, then at Chase. Then, he looks at Misty. He blinks.

Ronyx blinks, too, at her story. "Forty... thousand?" the admiral asks. "And--and you said, your people made them? Then--"

He shakes his head, firmly, then looks at Ethius. "I'm beginning to see what you mean," he says, with a glance at the Starmie. Then, at the Pokeball. His eyes narrow. "How... no, later." He looks at Chartreuse, then he nods.

"We'll... see what we can do to help. We should look at the entire situation," he says. Then, he looks at Chisato. The Admiral's eyes widen for a moment. Another representative of--

Of another planet.

"Of course," he says. "Thank you for bringing it. And... for looking after Claude. We do have universal translating programs, so at worst we wait for that to work. Really, forty thousand years?"

He looks between Chartreuse, Misty, Chase, and Chisato then.

Then, he looks at Gwen -- and from her, to her ARM. "I see... that could be useful. We'll get you taken care of," he says, "Don't worry."

He steps back, and then up some of the stairs leading into the hallway -- so everyone can see him. "Let's make our way to the bridge," Ronyx announces. "We'll get some food and drink brought up -- and medical staff, to see to your needs. Serious injuries will need to go to the medbay. But we'll do triage on the bridge, since I want to go over what we saw of this attack by these... Wise Men there."

The Admiral turns, and starts walking for the bridge. The sea of aides, officers, attendants, and soldiers follow -- though they space out, to start looking people over. One soldier does slip up to Xantia and, wordlessly, off her a candy bar.

A head of pink hair bobs from behind the crowd of Federation officers. A middle-aged woman looks up, trying to peer over shoulders. She has a datapad clutched in her hand -- her eyes scan over the group, before landing on Grace Harvey.

"That's who you are!" she says. Her pink tail, now silver at the tip, swishes excitedly behind her rather fancy and modern robes. "Miss Harvey, I do hope you're not here on behalf of your family. That would make this complicated. But if you're here on your own... then we can totally do that!"

A beat, then she smiles. "Millie Chliette, special attache to the Calnus and consultant for Federation Intelligence!" She winks. A Symbologically-made heart drifts away from her cheek.

"I know you'll be on your best behavior!"

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Unfortunately, Ethius' moment of Lawyer Cool is fully and totally interrupted by Chisato revealing she is... The Cool Spy! "W-wait, really?" Grace says, sticking with Inteleon as Chisato walks forward up to the Admiral. "...So, you're not a Journalist after all...?" There's a long pause. "...That's rad!"

    Grace is easily won over, it appears.

    The explanation of Nede's history kind of goes over her head, to be honest, she's pretty damn overwhelmed by now. The upside is they're not all getting put to death for breach of the Federation's most important laws!

    The downside is she is suddenly caught off guard by someone approaching with an explanation, and Grace stares at YET ANOTHER of the Federation's Greatest Heroes because apparently this is one of those days? And she's interested in her...?

    Unfortunately, Millie's comment on her family gets a look of total and utter confusion, her three eyes blinking. "...Huh? My family?" Grace is, already, not a terribly good liar so confusion this genuine is probably... genuine. "The only family I've got are Momma and Bea, and they're..." Still on Filgaia.

    The heart is a neat effect though, and Grace feels like she's being... maneuvered? Handled? Like trying to get away from Millie would be a bad idea? She casts a look to Claude, as if to ask 'hey, uh, what do i do here' since he's the authority.

    "Uh, yeah, of course. I'm not gonna cause any trouble or anything! Honest! I'm not... doing that stuff anymore. Promise." She has to mean the whole... criminal record, right? That's what Millie's talking about, surely.

    Still, she does look a touch at sea, as she looks again to her friends like they might know more.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia once again regards her colleagues. Magilou remains somewhat flopped but seems to be getting upwards. Bienfu receives a passing nod as her eyes pass over Rena, Kaede, Chase and his colleagues...

Grace makes her snort a little with amusement. Misty makes her brow furrow: the question is all but written on her face, to wit, 'how do you LOSE part of your planet.'

Then Chisato steps forwards. "What in Dinoginos's name," she says, thunderstruck. It's enough that she ends up swaying a little, reaching out to put a hand on the reassuringly metal wall for a moment. "... Yes. Yes, food and the medics. Good plan." She takes a deep breath, shakes her head a little, and straightens back up to troop along.

Grace gets some side-eye as a woman approaches and winks~<3 at her, although the wink~<3 makes Venetia look at Millie with some incredulity.

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

"...Thanks, Dad." Claude smiles back. "Right," he starts, and before he can say more, there's some chaos. Ethius has a lot of explanations--he even remembers the one involving the Elw, which Claude had meant to bring up too, but figures it's beter coming from Mariel herself anwyay. But the missing ships, "Right. I've seen the wreckage of the 'Philadelphia' with my own eyes."

He is glad when the weapons go down. Until then, he's still tense.

Claude winces as Rena mentions she saw him checking his communicator. "Ah. So you knew..."

"...Right. Mom's here," Claude says, as if he knew that rather than being surprised by it. "I'll stick around to talk to both of you, but I'm concerned about what's happening down there, too--"

'Debrief' Magilou. Claude opens his mouth and closes it again. He does not have an answer to that one.

Venetia mentions--"Oh, yeah. I couldn't say anything about it because of... I wasn't actually sure if it was illegal," Claude admits to Venetia, "But I'm pretty sure it isn't. And I just got into the habit of keeping it secret... But I've heard of the Minorans. THey were covered in my classes on Federation religions."

He nods to Mariel. "..Thanks," he tells her. Dias, of course--well, Dias suddenly gets a crash course in why Claude makes sense. But Xantia's question gets an uncomfortable look from Claude--because he's not sure if they are prisoners.

He's only reasonably sure that he's not.

Rena at least has, "Yeah, though I'm not sure they'll let you warm that up, they might want to quarantine food from a new planet--"

Misty's Starmie does a thing. Ida mentions her body. "Ida--"

Chartreuse he doesn't know, and apparently, there's a lot about Chisato he didn't--

"Oh, that explains a lot," Claude reflects. "Like the bombs. And the intel. And why a reporter would--"

A lot of things. Something at least distracts him from that.

"Right," Claude finally explains. "He trained me in the sword... though I didn't really appreciate his lessons properly until I got to Filgaia and put them into practice." He's gotten much better since then. "These are--well, they're a lot of things, but some of them are my friends. And the rest I'd like to be."

He walks with Ronyx and the others towards the bridge; he knows the way, of course. "I'm fine," he says to a medical officer who approaches him. "Rena has me covered when it comes to staying fit for fighting."

Then he brightens. "Millie!" Claude greets her cheerfully. "I had no idea you were here--"

Grace? Family? Claude blinks, looking betwen the two of them, especially when Grace is so confused. Grace is definitely being 'handled', but--

"It's OK, Grace. You can trust her. She won't do anything to hurt you."

"I'll stick with you for now, OK?"

<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.

    Chisato glances at Dias, and Dias gives her a steady look back. He didn't know what she goes on to explain about her being in Energy Nede's Central Intelligence, but it's not shocking. He's suspected something like that about her for a while. It certainly makes more sense than a normal journalist running around after them to get a good scoop.
    
    Even if that part is also true. Sometimes people are more than one thing. Still, it's ironic that the people who're most shocked about it are other Nedians.
    
    Dias gives Roddick an equally steady look when he finally looks at him directly. He's certainly noticed that his stance put him on the defense not just against Ethius but also Dias. Still, Dias continues not to draw his sword or bring attention to himself by speaking. He gives Roddick a slight, curt nod of acknowledgement, and that's it. Even if he is intrigued by the news that this is the man who taught Claude how to fight. That'll have to come later, though.
    
    Admiral Kenny has more to say--thanks for looking after Claude, an announcement that they'll get them fed and patched up, a call to Claude's mother--and Dias listens. That's... also it. Really, there's very little for Dias to do here. That's a good thing, given the only thing *he's* good for. He'll let a medical officer do triage on him too, if while giving them a baleful stare.
    
    But when that one woman addresses Grace--Dias peers pointedly at the two of them too. Grace, however, seems just as off-put. It's Claude who handles that matter, though, and just as well.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Upon the offer of food, Xantia's attention is immediately drawn to Rena to the exclusion of all else. She will never understand how people manage to carry food around like that and not eat it immediately, but she won't question it. Especially not when it's taking every ounce of her willpower not to immediately snag it, though the grabby hands are there. "Oh! Really, can I have this? It's fine if it's cold, I don't mind at all!"

When Xantia's hungry, she is hungry, not picky. She can use Ether if she really wants something to be warm, but at times like this, after a hugely energy-intensive activity, she absolutely doesn't care. In fact, even at the best of times, leave it to her to just be entirely unappreciative of the momentous occasion going on around her in favor of some cold leftovers. And so...

"Oh, good," she responds in a simple, distracted manner to the confirmation of not being prisoners. She may have needed to do a double-take there if the response hadn't been positive, but as it is, well, it doesn't sound like she needs to be too concerned about anything, so she can keep her focus on the more important matter of filling her stomach.

Make no mistake, she does hear everything that's being said. There's just little reaction to it all. The blessing of someone who got used to accepting life as it comes, no matter how unusual the developments she gets caught up.

Predictably, she only fully turns to pay attention again once the words 'food and drink' are spoken. Even with Rena's offer, there's plenty of room for more! She's all too happy to accept that candy bar too, giving the soldier her brightest smile and a cheerful, "Thank you!" This really seems to be all it takes to put her at ease with everything that's happening.

She does, eventually, gravitate back towards long-time friends Gwen and Ida, who she'd originally followed to Marlind to begin with. "You okay?" she asks of the pair in a lowered tone of voice. "I don't think they're lying, but. Just so you know, if we need to escape for any reason, I'm ready for anything, anytime." She pauses, before adding, "Just, I'd prefer the time to be after we get done with food." Because she really needed to clarify that.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Akigiri has posed.

A single finger is raised when she's questioned by Misty. In no real words. Then Kaede holds up a second finger. She was looking for two people!
 
 She does agree with.. the last part. That the people present were trying to stop a threat admittedly! She even takes a moment to hold up her notebook out of habit with the words, <This is not a localized threat.> Trying to stress things. Sure she's... not a senior agent persay. She'd like to think she has some sway though?
 
 She has a sinking feeling her report will be binned. In more ways than one.
 
 She resists the urge to reach into her coat to show off her own sole pokemon. Even if it might help, reaching into your coat's not the right call right now.
 
 Ida... both catches Gwen, which at least means Kaede doesn't feel too bad that she didn't follow just in case. And then brings up an interesting point. That means both her, and her sister were sent out here on bad intel, with bad intel and... that angry look pops back into her thoughts. She's really, really going to have some sit down time with the people putting packets together. She's even fiddling with the device pinned to her jacket at the moment.
 
 Even if she pulls a funny face when it's turned on.
 
 That out of the way. Chisato's reveal is met with a look that suggests she's not surprised. Surely there's a joke somewhere buried there. Kaede's not explaining it any time soon though.
 
 There's also surprise there, but it's you know, not showing.
 
 A nod is given to Millie as well. Advisors don't get her ire over this mission. Even if she probably should have had more insight too. That's a later thing.
 
 She does hold a hand up, not... fully up like she's in class, but once she has attention, holds up her notebook that states simply, <I'm going to go get my stuff from quarters if we're doing a debrief.> Which at the very least, suggests a uniform for herself. If she's going to do this, she might as well do it right.
 
 Even if food actually does sound nice at least.
 
 There's... definitely a curious look shot towards Grace though. That's a name she should know somewhere. Too many reports, it's just an inkling at best.
 
 She might.. also adjust her own sword with all the talk of swordcraft. She's happy with her own work, even if she's not some well known heroine. Yet. (This is a bad thing in your line of work Kaede.)
 
 Should she be dismissed, she'd be pretty quick about changing and showing up with some extra kit to help things out! In theory.

<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.

Mariel retrieves the bottle so she can be sure to get it to Gwen. (It tastes faintly minty, soothes a stomach, and helps with nausea. It doesn't help with injury, but it's a lot better than nothing!)

"I swear it is true. Though, I suppose you have no reason to trust me... Claude can confirm what I am, at least. What an Elw is. Filgaia has lost a lot, over time... technology and people both. But we have gained a lot also." She reaches back into her bag, and pulls out a small notepad and a pen. The one that's an ARM, to anyone from Filgaia, but modern (if fancily so) to the Nedeans and Federation: a small stylus, topped at its tip with a metallic tip that leaves a line of purest black behind as she writes with it. The black metal pen is decorated, along its length, with tiny images of winding vines in copper, burnished by fingertips and gloves over the years.

Using it, she writes several symbols onto a page of the notebook, then pulls it out, offering it to Roddick. "These are Elw writing. This character means Elw," Mariel says, "and so does this one; this one is written, and this one is usually carved, though I've done it in penlines. These two are the name of our planet, Filgaia, written both ways. This one means human and it only has one form; it isn't normally carved, the carved language is older and it uses a compound word for humans... or a number of them. If you can search by image and it is untranslated, these are what you are looking for... if something was found in space, and we put it there, it will certainly have one of the first two on it, etched on crystal or metal."

Does... she know how optical searches work? (Yes.)

Mariel is grateful for the others supporting her, and also for filling in the gaps - she knows little about Nede (though it doesn't surprise her that they have an intelligence agent along), only some things about Lunar, and nothing at all about the Federation beyond what she's already said.

But Claude says something -

"That's it...! Fila del Fia." Mariel pronounces it slightly differently; she doesn't normally have much of an accent speaking the common language anymore, but she puts the weight on the syllables differently; more at the end of the word, less in the middle. "I've seen it also, and where I've seen metalwork like this before." She taps her staff against the flooring.

...

"I would like to know, though, why you are here," she says. "Why you came, and why you interceded when before you have never done that..." Unless having Claude here counts. When Mariel moves along, she moves with Venetia, or Magilou - people she knows, who are (probably) on her side. "They probably think everyone who has not left the planet is primitive," she says, quietly, to the two. "Don't tell them we travel between them, and to Nede, regularly... they may be confused."

Is that a joke? Here? Now? From MARIEL? (Also yes. She's trying to get her brain working again and feeling less brain-burned. Levity might help.)

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

"I did." Rena confirms to Claude, almost apologetically, "You took a lot of walks at night, and sometimes I just saw you while I was out myself."

Misty tries to step up and explain things as a representative of Nede, and Rena smiles, but then Chisato- "Wait- intelligence!?" She seems momentarily shocked, "I really thought you were a Pokemon Training Martial Artist and Journalist..."
 
Which when she thinks about it, really does feel like a spy? She looks sheepish, "Wow." Roddick does however apologize, and she smiles, "It's alright. I understand why you might be concerned..." His tail swishes, and Rena tries not to look at it, because it feels rude. "... it's just personal to me too."
 
Rena readily hands it over to Xantia, "Here- you're welcome- just I'd like the container back later." She lets her know, because they're a godsend when they're on Filgaia and Lunar. As the Admiral speaks of Dr. Silvestri-Kenny, Rena gives Claude another look, and her eyes light up, "Your Mom's here too? That's great!" She enthuses. "I imagine she was so worried..."
 
Mostly however she falls into allowing the others handle this, and follows Ronyx towards the bridge when he announces that's where they're going. She just bobs her head at Claude's statement. "I do my best to keep him fighting fit. It's a little harder when the battle's a 'two out of ten'." As she lightly teases Claude's habit of rating fights.
 
However- a pink haired woman calls upon Grace.
 
"She's really not!" Rena replies to Millie, before... the symbologically made heart drifts off of her cheek and Rena looks at that gesture in something between 'wonder' and 'trying to decide if she's terrifying' but clearing her throat she speaks politely, "It's very nice to meet you Ma'am. I promise - Grace isn't a troublemaker. She's been a big help to us in this whole crisis." As if she were just trying to back up Claude's words there.
 
She looks towards Dias in that moment, perhaps just checking to make sure he won't disagree... that tension was so recent.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida looks back at Claude, her whole face tightening in a strained smile. "It's proof the invasion happened, right?" she says. "Nothing native to Filgaia looks like that, biologically."

    And--Ida does not say--if anyone has the technological means to help her reach resolution with the dead man in her head it has to be these people. Right? Perhaps it's a vain, desperate hope, but it's been a really long day.

    But the collective explanation seems to convince Roddick and Admiral Kenny, or at least make Roddick less likely to stab someone. Ida takes a deep breath, and lets it out.

    "We appreciate your kindness and cooperative spirit," Ida says. Did she mangle one of Ethius' signature not-explanations on purpose? "Several of us are sorcerers, and more have additional metabolic needs for other reasons. So yes, medical treatment and food first." She looks back at Xantia, and nods. Don't worry, she's got you covered. She pauses a beat, before drawing up her reserves of Civilized Composure and addressing Admiral Kenny again. "As I'm sure you know, Admiral, you transported us off-moon from the site of a draining of planetary energies. Do your people... have an eye on what's happening down below?"

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Bienfu nibbles at his Poke Puff. "I'm not a Pokemon," he reminds Chase, "but these are pretty good!" If he can motivate Chase by being someone to protect, that's fine by him.

    "On my life, I would never confuse anyone," Magilou assures Mariel, quietly. (This is also a joke.) "We might be fine, since they know some of us, but... just keep an eye on it." She can't discount that things might go wrong for them in an instant.

    For instance --

    Magilou saunters over to drape an arm over Grace's shoulder. "Now don't go telling me you're implying anything about this cute young lady!" She insists, to Millie. "She's been incredibly helpful to us down on our planets, don't you know? Of course, we all figured her for a Beastwoman, but here you are now!" Well, someone probably figured Grace for a Beastwoman at some point.

<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.

    Dias gives Rena a little shrug and a slight shake of the head. He's not going to publicly disagree with her. Especially when there's plenty of people willing to say something or another about Grace--that witch over there, for example.

<Pose Tracker> Chartreuse Spinosa has posed.

Chartreuse does a double-take as Chisato's words register. Wait, they had a member of Central Intelligence here the whole time...?

There's rumbles of confusion - but things ultimately end peacefully. Roddick explains himself and that - makes sense... It's no wonder why he would be suspicious, when it seems as if there are others planning to do the same to a different world.

"Thank you." Chartreuse says with a nod, as Ronyx says he'll see what they can do to help. "The Ten Wise Men... they aren't going to stop at just Filgaia and Lunar, or Energy Nede. This affects the whole universe."

She nods, then, as he announces that they'll be heading to the bridge. Foor, drink, and medical staff... Chartreuse breathes a sigh of relief.

"You're... a bunch of real lifesavers." She says. She starts to follow him, occasionally glancing around at the others, and at Ronyx's people. Flaaffy follows her, too, staying close by her side. It would probably be easier for everyone if she sent her back to her Pokeball... but Chartreuse needs her here, right now. Needs her, and Farfetch'd, and Natu. She idly runs a hand through her wool.

...She does add to the air, after a moment of thought with a nod at Flaaffy,

"She's okay with pets."

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Smiled at, Pikachu brightens and waves to Roddick like she hadn't just been considering joining in some blood sport. "Piii Pikachu!" Chase hesitates at the smile, but lifts his hand in a wave. Everything... is okay?

Bienfu clarifies he's not a Pokemon and nods, while eating his own bite of Poke Puff. Well, at least Bienfu being fed Pokemon food isn't a point of misunderstanding.

(But is it a good idea...?)

(It's matcha flavored. It's a fantastic idea.)

Gwen offers throwing her technology that keeps her alive into the pile, and while she probably meant supplying a charge, Chase panics and grabs his Pikachu, holding her up. Pikachu catches on quickly and begins sparking at her cheeks, wiggling in his grasp with an attention calling, sing-song "Piii pika chaaaa, pika pika chaaa~." Pikachu can charge things...!

She stops suddenly and rolls in Chase's grasp to look down at him. "Pii pika? Pika pi?"

Chase shakes his head rapidly, as if she were asking if this means she can fly the ship. But that's probably not the conversation that's happening. Right? Yeah it's fine.

They both go quiet, listening again to what Chase knows is deeply important, but isn't sure what the priority actually needs to be. An opportunity for everyone to rest and recover seems the most important, so as long as no one's going to fight, it's okay, right...?

Maybe he should take notes? Never mind, there is a someone communicating with a notebook and he does not want to be mistaken for trying to join the conversation with actual words.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    One by one, many vouch for - and try to protect - Ethius, even after some of the outright mean things he did that appeared entirely bereft of context or reason. His posture does not slacken at release from Roddick's threat. After all, a Threadcutter's over there and whoever assigned them might be higher on the chain than the Admiral.
 
     "Your coop-- support, is appreciated," he says, broadly, to all of them. His work isn't done, though - there's so much more in-depth debriefing and he's making sure he's still got some of the maps so he can mark places of immediate interest for observation and excavation.
 
     Xantia's words in particular strike at the frightened inner twelve-year-old he once was when he was forcefully retreived from the world of his birth.
 
     He knows the enormity of a gesture in which Dias has expressed trust in his ability to exercise what authority his testimony has even in this extraordinary situation.
 
     That Mariel gives further, useful clarification he cannot know nor give on his part is of immense help.
 
     He makes the decision that any interesting discoveries Venetia may make on the modern Periodic Table of the Elements is hereby the problem of the Calnus' science officers - though her earnest testimony about the visitor from Minora doubtless gave critical weight to his own.
 
     "Gentler than the assignment prior to the one that saw us cross paths," he says to Magilou with no humor or irony, as she helps illustrate that she bore personal witness to the artificial satellite (the Black Star, as she calls it).
 
     They wouldn't be here as it is without Rena's care - as a person and as a Symbologist of a level of mastery previously unheard of prior to Nede.
 
     Ethius has no idea what must be going through Chase's feelings in having to listen to all of this of a man who presented himself as just a xenoanthropologist.
 
     "There are times I need to be an advocate in my line of work," he leaves that cryptic for Grace. He's some strange kind of weird... magister luddite magi, or something?
 
     Misty stepping forward as the closest thing to an authority that'd be able to further clarify matters on the Nede side in a more than satisfactory manner takes an interesting turn as the Inteleon in the room is finally addressed - that's Chisato's. The strange tall blue lizard-like Pokemon that had all but been playing glorified hide-and-seek with him is Chisato's.
 
     "I see." Is the closest Ethius can say to acknowledging she has proven that Nede, in fact, absolutely understands the concept of 'opsec' on some level. He stands corrected, to his embarrassment.
 
     With Chartreuse further adding an angle of authenticity to the entirety of Nede's situation and its own people, and Ida herself as living evidence of the presence of one of the aforementioned FTL-bearing civilizations, Ethius nods along. In the past, he'd have shut down any mention of Demetrioi, but that day is long, long, long past.
 
     To say nothing as to how Gwen already introduces the truth of her own prosthetic arm and heart.
 
     "...I would have done the same in your situation," he says to Roddick, at the end of that round of hostilities. There will be other entities he has to defend his actions with, down the line, once again. A hand goes to his forehead - it's not every day you are in the presence of *this many* heroes of the Federation, but first, the maps. That paperwork needs to be prepared. He starts to shuffle through his inventory for them in preparation of further debriefing, as Millie makes her appearance and draws attention to Grace.
 
     "Miss Grace," he raises a hand, "you cooperated in matters critical to ongoing investigations and I will vouch for that in further reports," he says as his eyes go to... maps. He can trust most the rest to the debriefing and preparation for food, medicine, and other necessities. (Ethius hates being on spaceships and cannot relax. Work, of any reason, is a good enough distraction for the sensory overload.)

<Pose Tracker> Misty has posed.

Starmie trills to Gwen to acknowledge the thanks.

But Roddick puts the sword down, and Starmie stands down, too, their gem safely releasing the stored up energy.

Misty gave the overview, but... "Well, I think it's closer to 37,000?" She glances to Chartreuse. "I'm sure Chartreuse could give you a more detailed overview of it than I could." She stepped forward to take charge, but it really is more in Chartreuse's wheelhouse, after all.

"There's... kind of a lot to explain," Misty admits, regarding pokemon. And Nede's technology scale, in general.

There's talk of triage and healing--which sounds really good to Misty right about now. Not that she was fighting herself, but... "Do you have an open space where I can call out my Blastoise and my Gyarados? They were doing most of the fighting just now." She's already pulling out her Pokedex--another Nedian technological marvel--and pulled up the entries for Blastoise and Gyarados so they can get a sense of the size involved.

Blastoise is 1.6m tall. Gyarados is 6.5m tall.

"... I did bring some supplies, if we need them..."

Venetia will probably get an explanation in short order, if more explanations are given to the Admiral. (Or Chisato's intel packet can be read.)

2 people... "... congrats?" This is a good thing, right? She's... not exactly sure. "--Wait, so you're with these people, then?" If Claude was the son of the big Admiral guy...

Misty looks to Chase. "Chase," she says gently. "You wanna stick with me and Chartreuse? It might be easier to get our pokemon taken care of if we can all help them through it together." There is a lot going on, and she's offering help... but leaving it up to Chase to accept it.

Misty is firmly in 'I am ready to take care of business mode' as she follows along to the bridge... but she glances to Chartreuse as they go. "Did you even know we had a central intelligence department?" she mutters quietly. "Who would we need to gather intelligence on, anyway?"

Starmie fires one last blast of superheated steam at the spot on the floor and then lazily drifts behind Misty.

<Pose Tracker> Chisato Madison has posed.

Chisato gives her companions a slightly crooked smile. "Six of one, half a dozen of the other? There's some nuance to it. We'll talk later. I suppose I owe you an explanation or two anyway."

Inteleon seems to have recognized his Job at the moment is to make sure Grace navigates this mostly intact, and slides to the side when Millie approaches. He doesn't know Millie from Adam, of course, but she does not project hostility in a way his honed lizard mind can detect, at least.

He turns to stare at Ethius. Blink blink. Is this like a cat, is the blinking good? Probably??

Chisato meanwhile has reached into her pocket and produces a Nedian compact disc - it's basically a Technical Machine, except it contains things other than symbological techniques - which she offers with a professional, corner-gripped edge. "A little Nedian history, and an introductory message from Mayor Nall. Like Miss Misty here says, most of Nede's gone, so that's about as far up as our government goes, these days. Some astrogation data from the old days, too. He thought you'd find that compelling as proof of our claims. Right now, we're not sure what the Wise Men are up to, exactly, but we just watched them turn a huge portion of another world to salt. This is the most aggressive thing we've seen them do." She grimaces, and finally loses the authoritative edge, hands landing on her hips. "Ah!" she groans. "Nobody likes pushy guys! I swear!"

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Claude reassures Grace that she can trust Millie, and Rena and Magilou and Ethius come to her defense which. Okay, it's really nice, honestly. Claude offering to stick with her is comforting too. Looks like she didn't burn all that trust after all. "Thanks," She says, to Claude being willing to stick with her, "but I mean... if you vouch for her it's okay, right? Besides, isn't this like... your first time seeing your parents in ages, right? I'll be fine!" She's still a little nervous, though.

    Magilou's contribution of casually leaning on her helps. "Thanks, Miss Magilou." Has she been a tremendous help beyond the all important task of occasionally stoking Magilou's ego? I mean, yes, but that other bit is important too. "See, fine, really. Miss Magilou's way better at getting into and out of trouble than I am! So if she's helping out, we've got no problem!"

    This is, perhaps, not the most ringing endorsement.

    Rena's very earnest endorsement- after recent discussions- does make Grace smile a little awkwardly. "Thanks, Rena. I mean it." That Dias isn't contributing is probably a plus too. Probably? And Ethius' comment on reports...

    "I mean, if it comes to it I'll ask my federation appointed lawyer to ask for you as an expert witness," Grace jokes, lacking a little enthusiasm. "...Thanks, though." Kaede may glance her way, but she doesn't say anything and Grace, frankly, is still kind of finding her feet, but Inteleon watching over here is helpful too. She gives a quick thumbs up to the Cool Spy Lizard over her shoulder.

    It'll be fine. She trusts Claude's judgment here.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Mariel's bottle is accepted with a nod and a thank you, and its contents are quickly uncorked and drunk down to the last drop. The courier lets out an appreciative sigh as she pats the cork back on, offering the empty bottle back to Mariel. "... Thank you. My throat was burning up. That ARM stuff... really dehydrates you." It may have no effect on her injuries, but it does help center her, and soothe her throat.

    However, it does mean her stomach will soon be back online, and just as ready for calories as Xantia's. But this moment of peace is one Gwen is ready to savor, even if the catastrophe going on below(? where are they in the space??) still is at the back of her mind.

    She nods to Xantia. ".... These are Claude's people. Even that Roddrick guy... he had a solid look to his eyes." Even if she almost told him to take his universal postage and-- "T'think that time I trained with him, forever ago n' never knew that he was using skills he learned from other people from this space..."

    Her stomach growls, but Gwen's eyes are still worried. "... I'm worried. About what's gonna happen. Are they gonna port more people out of the way as that death zone expands? N' then what?"

    Despair licks at the back of her mind, inviting a different sort of thinking, of crow black feathers and ink.

    Gwen's lips pull tightly in refusal. Her left hand tightens around Rena's handkerchief. ".... I'll charge the dang thing myself if that'll be what it takes. Lunar... is called home by some people I'd gladly lay my life down for. They'd do the same for me."

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

"Hmm." Millie looks at Grace -- squints for a moment -- then she nods her head.

Even if she seems concerned, for a moment.

"Good!" she says. "Glad to hear it. You do have a lot of people vouching for you, which is important." She winks once, before she turns and hurries ahead. Though, she does look at Millie. As she does, she shrugs; her pink tail arches, too. "It's all about style, you see," she tells Venetia.

And she looks at Magilou -- and her arm about Grace's shoulders -- and then she smiles at her, without even hesitating. "Oh, no no, I'm not implying! Perish the the thought. Don't worry, we're all good~"

Then she looks at Claude -- and she beams at him. "Hey, kiddo! Boy, your mom is gonna be so happy you're here," she says. "You had us worried... but I knew you were okay!"

She looks at Rena -- there's a moment's pause, before she blinks. Not human, she thinks. But she looks like Chase, Chisato, and the others, too. But she isn't dressed like them...

"I"m glad you vouched for her. It's nice to meet you, too!" Millie says. "Friend of Claude's?"

Then she looks at Kaede, smiles, and she nods in her direction. "Let's head to the bridge," she tells her.

"I know," Ronyx says, in regards to Claude's concern. "Whatever happened, it's a problem. We'll... have a look at it. And decide the best course of action." That course of action, suffice to say, isn't necessarily sending Claude back down there.

Then, he looks at Ida. "We do. We were monitoring it on the bridge, and I've got our scientists working on what the hell is happening." He frowns. "We'll be able to get a bird's eye view -- and then some -- up there."

Then he looks at Chartreuse. He considers for a moment, and shakes his head. "...Honestly, we've got a history of boldly sticking our nose where we shouldn't," he says. "But it's worked out so far."

He does look down at Flaaffy. He considers, for a moment. "I'll have to let Ilia know."

Then he looks at Misty, and his eyes widen for a moment again. "37,000... I'm not sure it's much of a difference. But--" He looks at the Pokedex. Then, he shakes his head. "We're a bit cramped. We'll get some space when we get off the bridge."

A beat. "If they can stay in those, safely."

Then, he looks at the offered disc -- and shakes Chisato's hand, too, for good measure. "Good to know. We saw that too, of course. It's... a problem. We'll look at it and figure out what we can do."

Roddick looks at Mariel. He hesitates for a moment. "We detected Claude's signal," he says. "And we came to retrieve him. It took awhile to convince the Federation to let us through the blockade -- we keep the planet blockaded, after ships went missing over history, in this sector."

He hesitates for a moment. "Then we picked up strange readings. The science crews have been baffled," he admits. "But..."

He looks at Claude. "That's Ronyx's and Ilia's kid. He's like all of our kid. We weren't going to give up on him."

He looks at Ethius, then, finally. He nods his head. "I imagine so," he says. "Still... good job, considering everything you found down there. That's enough to boggle the mind."

He does glance at Gwen, when she mentions him. There's a smile, before he keeps walking.

Ronyx leads the way down the hallway. There are large double doors that open onto the bridge: a wide room, tapering gently to a point, with numerous stations throughout. Chairs line the walls at the end with the door, too, giving a place to sit.

The bridge of the Calnus gives an awe-inspiring view. No one here is really an old hand at space. They are treated to a view that very few have seen: the glimmering blue-and-green of Lunar, spread out below. The observant might notice that the "window" is a screen, and there are readouts.

Apparently, the Calnus's sensors are looking through Althena's illusions that make it look like a barren rock to the naked eye.

"We saw the affected area, here. Computer, magnify," Ronyx commands.

They see the outline of southwestern Hyland -- Marlind, to the edges of Glaivend, and almost as far east as Rayfalk -- has been turned a solid white. "Salt," Ronyx says. "Something drained the vitality of the land. We're not sure of the exact mechanis--"

"Admiral! Massive Symbological reaction detected!"

"What!?" Ronyx asks. "Computer, bring it up on the main screen!"

The view of Marlind fades. Instead, they see Lunar's orbit -- in the distance is the blue sphere of Filgaia -- and then a large portal appears, ringed by Symbols. It shows, albeit in a hazy fashion, the spires of Phynal fortress.

"Massive energy spike detected--"

"Everyone!" Ronyx shouts, turning to look at the Drifters. "We're preparing to take evasive action! And if you have anything loose--lock it down!"

There are only a few seconds to do what the Admiral says -- and a lot of people all looking for the same set of chairs against the wall, but also netting and harnesses built into some walls. First, you need to find a place to secure yourself.

"Grab one of the Symbological Egress Devices!" Roddick shouts, as he secures his straps. "It's a wristband, like this--" He holds his arm up, showing a wristwatch-like Device. "If you get blown out of the ship, this will activate a barrier rated to survive most crashes!"

Second, you need to find your S.E.D., and put it on.

Then, Ronyx calls out again: "And after that, make sure your gear and your--uh--companions--" He means Pokemon. "--are secure! No shrapnel in here!"

Finally... make sure your equipment and Pokemon won't go flying!

_____________________________| QUICK TIME EVENT!!!|_____________________________
_                                Brace for Impact                              _
_                                                                              _
_                                                                              _
_  Gwen Whitlock, Grace Harvey, Chisato Madison, Misty, Ethius Hesiod, Chase,  _
_ Chartreuse Spinosa, Dias Flac, Magilou, Ida Everstead-Rey, Kaede Akigiri,    _
_ Xantia, Claude C. Kenny, and Venetia Vuong:                                  _
_  +qte/react <guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>   _

QTE!!! Challenge Result: FAILURE! Rena Lanford takes 142 damage and gains 60 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Claude C. Kenny takes 108 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: FAILURE! Kaede Akigiri takes 149 damage and gains 60 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Mariel takes 78 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Chase takes 107 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Grace Harvey takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Magilou takes 71 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Xantia takes 79 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Chartreuse Spinosa takes 71 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Venetia Vuong takes 77 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Gwen Whitlock takes 110 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Ida Everstead-Rey takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude will definitely want some sit-down time with Kaede later. Knowing she was looking for him, even more so.

But Rena, "I see. Well, I wasn't very good at hiding who I was anyway..." He remembers the whole 'sword of Light' thing very clearly, after all.

As for his Mom, "Yeah. I'll be glad to see her again, too. She taught me a lot, you know. About martial arts-it was mostly her and Roddick here who handled my training. ...I never had much aptitude for Dad's Symbology." A smile again to Millie. "Did you?" he asks. "I'm glad. I didn't even know if I was, for a while. ..But it's going to be really good to see her. And it's good to see you!"

Claude grins a little about rating fights. And he looks at Dias, who he noticed noticing Roddick. "..He's a good man," Claude assures Dias. Magilou in the meantime appears to help again, and Claude opens his mouth and closes it again. He realy doesn't have a lot of retorts to a Magilou.

"...True," Claude admits to Ida, and worries a little in Chase's direction because he is SO QUIET. ...Under other circumstances he would be glad to pet Chartreuse's Flaaffy too. But what she says, "She's right. The Ten Wise Men want to conquer everything. THey know about the Federation."

Misty is an authoritative figure, though her question, "...Maybe the shuttle bay?" Claude guesses. "Not my call. But they really are that big. I've actually got some of them myself..."

He looks over at Chisato, and nods. "Yeah, let's talk later. I'm not mad, but I do think we need to get our..."

He pauses, and looks at Dias. Dias will remember what they talked about. He glances at Ronyx. "...Assuming I'm..."

He's worried about that. But when Grace offers about his parents, "Well.. I do have some things I need to talk to them about," he says. "But I won't leave you hanging, all right?"

He doesn't hear Gwen reassuring Xantia, but he'd appreciate it if he did.

"And right!" Claude says to Mariel. "You saw it too, then. Yeah; it's our work." As for why they're here... Well. That's up to the Admiral.

ROnyx says decide that course of action, and Claude knows full well he'll be reluctant to send him back. But Roddick explains. "So you really made it through for me..."

Then he sees the globe ahead. "It went so far..."

Massive energy spike--

Claude doesn't go for the wall but for one of the chairs on the consoles that's closer, buckling himself in--or trying to. It doesn't go that well, and it means he doesn't find the S.E.D--but he's able to secure, "Rena!!" His equipment is strapped to him, but he reaches for Rena's arms and moves to grab hold of her, and braces himself against the wall as best he can. "Hang on!"

He wedges himself between two lockers in hopes that it'll be enough.

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Ethius Hesiod takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: FAILURE! Dias Flac takes 142 damage and gains 60 FP!

<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.

Mariel tried levity, which almost worked - especially when Magilou replied in kind - but then she remembered Marlind, and the humour went right out of her. It doesn't help that, teleported away from Filgaia and Lunar, she feels a bit lost; now that she can actually feel the environment around her, a ship is no match for a planet. Even Nede's life and ley feels more complete than the Calnus'.

She settles for just going where they need her to go - she has some more questions of her own, and it sounds like they'll have some for her.

At least Roddick was willing to explain a little. "Missing?" she asks. "I don't know why that would be. Perhaps one of the old civilizations left something...?" It could be the Elw, but Mariel considers it more likely to be Zeboim, or even Hyadean remnants, if there's something automated destroying ships.

Mariel has seen Filgaia from orbit before - the satellite Jairon was linked to. But that was Filgaia; she's never actually seen Lunar the same way, not without the illusions in the way. She looks, places some of the continents she knows to orient herself... and the white. Which spread further than even she thought; chills run down her spine as soon as she sees it, and her ears flatten against her head in an attempt to hide her dismay.

"They damaged the Ley," Mariel says. "The - natural flow of life energy. Elw are attuned to it, but almost everybody can feel it, a little - or use it. They have been stealing it slowly from Filgaia, and it has little enough to give; from Lunar, which has more, they took - "

They took everything. Mariel fails to say anything more, swallowing heavily.

And then again, when an alarm sounds. Mariel has never heard this alarm before but any alarm like that, on anything, is bad news. She is almost immediately back up, clutching the Living Staff close to her. Symbology, at least, is something she can use - oh, not to cast, she doesn't have any tattoos, but using Symbological equipment is a lot easier for her than a Crest Cap. She gets the S.E.D on before anything else, and only then starts looking for the netting. "Everyone! Here, you can bind yourself in this - "

Well, on the plus side, Mariel is little; shorter and slighter than the average human. She doesn't take a lot of room in the netting and can fit between people where someone else might not fit. But on the minus side, she is also juggling a long branch of wood (with leaves on it, now) and a satchel full of lots of small breakable objects, which was never meant to be stowed or thrown around. She buckles it tight, but there's only so much she can do if it decides to pop open.

And, unfortunately, the varied contents - herbs, flowers, packaged fruits, vials, bottles, unguent jars, oils, and a few odds and ends like her notebook - are particularly prone to going every which way if they get out. Mariel does her best by trying to hold it down, but then she can only tuck the staff under her arm.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    "Yes. I have had years to be boggled," he replies to the Admiral. Under the hard face of the Flametaker, Ethius' mind is a flurry of activity. It is normal to never have any sort of lingering attachment to anyone on the field, for obvious reasons - he won't get much opportunity to see Jay and the Caravan Kinship over recent events.
 
     Even so, he wonders how his foster parents and their (large... no... larger... further than that... that kind of large) extended family are doing, when he may have been declared legally dead in the interim. They don't know his actual work.
 
     He might be off the program after this due to being too exposed and known a factor, but for now-- he looks up as the Calnus' bridge to see that his fussing over the maps may not have been necessary.
 
     Good, he doesn't have to cross-reference with highly variable quality cartographical documents, meaning he has more time to deal with existential--
 
     'Admiral! Massive Symbological reaction detected!'
 
     Ethius stares blankly, and when he sees that view of Phynal Fortress - hazy or not, that shape is familiar from his time on Nede - he doesn't have to say it. Admiral Ronyx intuits his thoughts immediately.
 
     Ethius' next obstacle: did they make adjustments to the protocol for this situation in the last eight years? He knows the song and dance from *that* period of time.
 
     Any operative worth his salt would.
 
     "There," he points to others. "Against the walls." He moves quickly to secure his seat. And now, his hated enemy, The Universe Built For Right-Handed People.
 
     An enemy going strong even today, as he locates the wristband to his right. "Look to your right," he calls to anyone struggling to find it as they find their seats, "that's where you'll find the device."
 
     They didn't update the S.E.D. model. He still remembers all the fiddly little ways you have to navigate it to get it on and determine it's in functioning order. All clear. He takes a look to make sure those in earshot can follow through.
 
     After that, it's simple. Fold the maps into his person, check where he's stashing the Pokeballs, and other such items.
 
     "Brace for impact." That's the best advice he can give in the moment, in a world filled with dangerous alarms and sounds unfamiliar and scary to so many here--
 
     He can sympathize with the fright and uncertainty.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Akigiri has posed.

Kaede takes a moment, listening to the whole slew of things. It's always better to hear this first hand, and after the briefing she had prior? She'll take it. She'd also definitely want a sit down with Claude herself. Both just because he's changed a lot since she last saw him and partially because... she's technically supposed to. Ethius too.
 
 Misty's question is met with a notebook held up stating, <One of the workout rooms maybe.> Which would at least have the floor space surely.

 She's not badly hurt, as much as she could have been. She'll deal with that later. A clean uniform and her full kit is important. As is having a few other things back.
 
 She might have questions about some of the names she's hearing. Then wondering why this place attracted so many. Not that it's important. Just that morbid curiosity moment.
 
 She slips away. Clearly expecting to either spend more time shipboard, or joining in a more official capacity. So she returns to the deck, still working on pulling her coat on stiffly. What few injuries she had catching up to her and laughing at her pride.
 
 This is why the tanuki was distracted as she catches back up with the rest of the group on the deck. Wearing a.. creased uniform. It's been sitting in a locker for almost a month. She'll worry about that later. Nothing fancy, not like she's wearing a dress uniform.
 
 That's why the sudden evasive maneuver caught her off guard. She'd missed the first part of that warning and gets slammed into a wall as she tried to secure herself with crash netting.
 
 The look on her face would suggest she'd strip the paint off the walls if she could talk.
 
 She recovers, for now at least. Following proper procedure, she secures an S.E.D. for herself. Securing it in place. She checks her kit, strapping it in place, securing the blade with a strap, the usual sort of shipboard thing you'd expect. All with a silent string of foul language. She's almost radiating it. She swears it's one mess into another. It might be an ambience thing though.
 
 Still, she shakes her head, takes a breath and focuses. Then carefully, she moves to the locals. Trying to help either grab SEDs for them, or help them in putting them on, securing into something approaching crash readiness or strap kit down. Don't ask where the 100kph tape she pulled from her pocket came from.
 
 This isn't the safest thing she could be doing, all things told, but FOD from newbies is probably more hazardous. And she's worried about them beyond that. She's supposed to help others right? Kaede takes a spot in the crash nets after trying to hurry and help others.
 
 Kaede's not a Marine. She's not as used to shipboard life as some. She's trying at least.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou scoops Velvet up on an elongated shikigami, to take the collapsed Lord of Calamity along with her as they follow along down the hall. It's not that she doesn't trust this super-advanced civilisation with her Dark Lord, but...

    Okay, yeah, no, she completely doesn't trust this super-advanced civilisation with her Dark Lord, but it would also be bad for them if Velvet wakes up with no one around. It might be hard to explain all that carnage away. This is better for everyone; just trust her.

    The bridge of the Calnus... reminds her of a dream she's occasionally had, here and there. Surely it's a different ship, but Magilou hasn't been on many spaceships, really. She looks down at Lunar, and...

    The light flees her eyes, as she looks at that entire chunk of Hyland, gone to white. Her lips form a thin line, and she is silent.

    (Would it have made you happy, old man, to see everything so barren and pure? Wiped from all context, all struggles erased... well, it doesn't matter.)

    There's no time to collect her thoughts; Phynal's there, through that Symbological portal. "They're coming," she says, and there's no emotion to her voice. None of that jocular teasing which Claude had no answer to -- not now.

    She lunges forward to grab two of those S.E.D.s; why is made clear a moment later, as she secures one around the wrist of the fallen Velvet. And it's Velvet she takes along, on that shikigami, to strap into the chair on the wall, thinking of her safety first.

    Meanwhile, Bienfu latches onto Chase's shoulder, crying, "Biennnnnnn!!"

    "You're a spirit, stop whining!" Magilou yells, as she pulls her shikigami long around the securing bars of the chairs and uses that to secure herself to the wall, having used all the time she has on making sure Velvet's secure.

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Misty takes 113 damage and gains 45 FP!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

"Well you say that but - I still didn't really know what was going on." Rena notes to Claude, "Not until you told me." Before she asks curiously, "Oh yeah? She sounds like someone I'd get along with." She hopes.

It's a relief that the tension from the situation isn't so high that Dias would say something, Rena takes a breath after a moment, then smiles at Millie, "Yes, we met about seven years ago, just after he came to our world." She then adds, sheepishly, "I thought he was the prophesized Hero of Light when he saved me. We've become great friends over the years."
 
Rena looks to the other Nedians here, still amazed at Chisato being... "A secret agent... Wow."
 
Once on the bridge however, one of the officers mentions a massive energy spike and Rena looks in alarm towards a monitor which shows, "That's Nede! The Wise Men!" Ronyx takes charge, and Rena quickly tries to obey. However, as she's en route, the sudden spike - Rena is rocked off her feet, her head slamming into the ground hard, several objects scattering from her pack.
 
The impact shaves several precious seconds off as she stumbles towards- "Claude! I don't-! The wristband-" As he grabs her, and braces the two, she doesn't struggle, or fight it, she just lets him hold onto her. It wasn't so long ago it feels like they were in a similar situation, but without hesitation, as he holds onto her - she puts her arms around his waist, closing her eyes.
 
He doesn't hear her say anything else, just feels her nod against him.
 
She's not letting go.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Cnfirmation was all that was holding Xantia back, wasting no time in eating its contents right then and there. She doesn't ever actually take the container out of Rena's hands, she just empties it immediately, in no time flat. She must have been famished! (Xantia is always famished)

"Phew, I needed that. Those were great, thank you so much!" Despite eating like a barbarian, she does have some manners. Not enough to even think of sharing any of those chicken skewers once they're offered to her, of course. But many approval points were won this day - Xantia may suffer from amnesia, but rest assured that she'll never forget who gave her food to eat.

And yet, despite being so easy to please and seemingly so easygoing - if she had any reason to assume that she wouldn't be able to leave any time soon, everything would turn around so fast. No matter how casual the clandestine comment for Ida and Gwen's ears only, even the implication of being possibly trapped here, regardless of circumstances, would instantly change her demeanor. But as it is, she remains perfectly pleasant. Not showing much in the way of concern, except in occasional glances to her companions.

But her priorities shift much faster than she thought. That concern is back again in full force when she sees the full extent of what the Wise Men did. Her palms curl into fists, the urge to take action managing to overtake the promise of food in order of priority. She's about to make a comment to that effect, when--

As soon as that portal appears, she shouts in alarm, "It's them!" The danger is already made obvious without needing to add any more. Xantia feels a panic coming on, feeling she needs to escape immediately but not knowing how to.

Survival instinct kicking in, Xantia forcibly calms herself down, not losing much time to hesitation before realizing that she has little choice but to follow the instructions given. She's in a seat in no time flat, and doesn't begin to question the S.E.D., struggling only a little bit with strapping herself in, and her bracer being in the way of getting the wristband on. Not much in the way of equipment for her to worry about either, with everything she has secure on her person.

Will this really work to save them, though? She'd be lying if she claimed to feel more at ease at all...

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"Even if it were illegal, the man's been dead for a century," Venetia answers Claude. "What are they going to do, jail his bones? Erase our memories? Then someone's going to notice the erased memories!"

She is content to remain near Mariel during the walk. It is not done with obtrusiveness or more than a passing glance, but she can definitely go faster than that if she wants, and she isn't.

"Blockaded? For accidents?" she asks with something like incredulity when something is brought up.

And then the bridge.

Venetia marvels for long enough that it is a sudden start for her when the fact that SOMETHING is coming towards them arises. Venetia's head turns to look at that fortification in space.

Her eyebrow twitches. Not for the first time, she longs for the Star Blazer Crest Graph once again.

But then! Alert! Venetia turns to look towards the chairs for a moment, but there's those harnesses on the wall; seeing a crewbeing go for one, Venetia sucks in a deep breath and lowers her head to run for one of them, leaping --

And where she'd hoped to grab on with both hands she instead grabs with one, smacking against the wall with a "Guh!" With a growl, she simply pulls herself up the rest of the way -- while it's a strain, she does it with one arm, at least enough to get her other arm up. After some clambering, she gets into the harness. Fasten herself in, reach for one of the S.E.D.s and -

It topples out, falling downwards from where Venetia had pinned herself.

"Oh to hell with all this spaceman gimcrackery!! TO ME," Venetia shouts, grasping her Crest Graph pouch and opening it while reaching inside with a well practiced dive of her fingers, "MY SOUL'S ECHO! SIMULACRUM SIGN!"

The massive shadow of that strange figure appears and lunges downwards, grasping the SED and pivoting to throw it back towards her - the bronze-wrapped face turns as Mariel's equipment begins to tumble as well, the stone-shadow figure diving forwards and spreading out both hands.

The Simulacrum gets a second lease on life when Venetia shouts "SIMULACRUM SIGN" again, enough to press dropped objects back upwards. Venetia for her part fastens a strap over her gun holster and pulls her Crest Graph pouch into her lap, holding it tightly. Her other hand retains the Simulacrum Crest Graph as sweat beads like bullets on her forehead. A moment later, she realizes she has to *put the damn thing on*, producing more wriggling.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Chase hearing all of this from a man presenting himself as a xenoanthropologist is definitely one piece of a very chaotic web of thoughts he's trying to organize.

Someone says Chase's name and he flinches still. With a glance back, he sees it's the Cerulean City gym leader, Misty. Pikachu gives Chase's jacket a tug and a nod, and Chase nods back. Yeah. That's something he can focus on. Making sure all the Pokemon are together and get care and are calm... (It's an effective strategy for getting Chase to let himself be helped, in any case.)

He finally gets up, carrying Pikachu in his arms, and gestures to Bienfu and the others. Bienfu may not be a Pokemon, but he may still want to come along. When Millie gives him a look, he pauses to look back. Pikachu's ears twitches. So does Chase's own long Nedian ear, unconsciously aware of the subject matter in play.

Massive Symbological reaction detected.

Social navigation and information just became the least of Chase's worries. In the panic of the moment, he hurried gets his Poke Balls into his bag, suddenly afraid they could pop off his belt. He straps Pikachu in a harness, then hand goes to set on Bienfu's head (hat?) briefly in reassurance... then stays, hovering to keep him more secure as he tangles his other arm in netting.

But Pikachu spots a problem. There's no S.E.D. within arm's reach. She squirms out of her harness bolts off as Chase scrambles to grab and stop her, falling short as she fetches an S.E.D.. She's scurrying back toward him, but --

<Pose Tracker> Chartreuse Spinosa has posed.

Chartreuse looks toward Misty with a nod.

"Yes, of course. Though... it's something of a long story, so it might be best saved until after we're done here." Chartreuse says. That'll give her time to prepare a lecture on it, too. It's been a while since she's had to whip up one of those.

Misty makes an offer to Chase, though, and Chartreuse offers him a smile.

"Yes, of course. You're certainly welcome." She agrees.

She looks back toward Ronyx. Sticking their nose in where they shouldn't... She smirks, just slightly.

"Well... It can be a good policy." She says. A lot of people she's met up to this point seem to be the same way, and they're good enough people. But she nods - Claude's right. The Ten Wise Men's aims reach high.

As they're heading to the bridge... Chartreuse meets Misty's glance.

"It makes sense. Someone had to be keeping an eye on things..." She murmurs.

Finally, they reach the Bridge. Chartreuse walks through the door, eyes open wide in surprise.

"Wow..." Chartreuse remarks, impressed. She's seen space, of course, but only in pictures and videos. This is her first time actually seeing it, with her own eyes - and it's a remarkable sight.

"That's Lunar? It's beautiful..." Chartreuse remarks. But the affected area... a scar of salt across the world. Chartreuse grimaces. That's what they want to do to the world - to both worlds. It's... a stark reminder of what they're fighting against.

...And then, a portal appears. Chartreuse's eyes open wide. Phynal, and -

Evasive action. The ship lurches and Chartreuse stumbles. She only just barely manages to maintain her footing, and grabs for Flaaffy to keep her from falling over. Farfetch'd flies off her shoulder, while Natu lets out a rare, displeased chirp. She scans her surroundings quickly. Everyone's running to the chairs, so -

"Chase, Misty! Over here!" Chartreuse calls out, hurrying over to a set of harnesses on the wall. She moves to secure herself, and, heeding Ronyx's words and Ethius's advice, grabs the S.E.D. wristband to her right and slides it on, securing it to her wrist.

"Let me know if you need any help-" Chartreuse says to anyone nearby with a grimace through the movement of the ship. She considers the situation.

"...Sorry, you three. I'm going to have to call you back for now." She says. She'd prefer having them out... but they'd be much safer in their Pokeballs rather than being rattled around out here. She calls them back one by one, returning them to the safety of her coat. She double-checks the straps of her harness, and then her backpack's, as well. Everything's as secure as it's going to be... So for now, all she can do is wait, and brace herself for what's next.

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Chisato Madison takes 113 damage and gains 45 FP!

<Pose Tracker> Chisato Madison has posed.

Chisato favors Ronyx with a journalist's strong grip, nodding. "Anything to help. Nede won't shy from our responsibilities, but...the Ten Wise Men are a problem we don't have answers to alone."

She can recognize that this Federation may just be the kind of power that this problem calls for. The Ten Wise Men were an interstellar threat to an interstellar empire. Surely reaching out to the new one isn't so bad?

AND THEN:

The salted state of Lunar sees even flighty Chisato bring a hand up to her mouth, biting her knuckle for a moment. "Drained the life force..." she mutters. "These guys are already *fountains* of Symbological power, why do they need that much?"

And then, the gate. "That's Phynal!" Chisato barks, as the portal comes alive. She knows that sight at once, of course. "They're attacking! Already!?"

She actually reaches for her notebook, before Inteleon makes a noise at her. "Right, right," she grunts, and dashes for some crash netting. She's confident in her strength, let people who need it take the seats. She hooks her arm and leg through, and finds a clip to buckle her belt to. Decompression training is more of a 'if this is a problem you have we ARE *all* about to die' problem on Nede, but Ethius is good at prompt instruction.

Inteleon flicks his tongue at the matching SED and then pitches it at Chisato, who grabs it out of the air and slaps it on. "Thanks bud!"

Then she nods to Ronyx's final advice, and plucks something out of her shorts' pocket rather than her jacket, for once. An old, battle-scuffed pokeball, stickered up with faded hearts and sparkles. "Hope you've cleaned up in here! Return here, partner!"

He's gone in a flash. Then...

"Oh," she thinks to add, and whistles sharply twice. The little hovering rotor drone that hovers around her in battles rolls over to her, coiled up into a ball, and uses a forceful spring jump to leap at her arm. She attaches it across her suit's back.

"Well!" she says, fulfilling her party role of wisecracking to lower the tension in fairly direct response to Claude and Rena holding each other in preparation for imminent death. "Can't say we have this training video anymore!"

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Grace still seems confused by he attention, and Millie's... momentary concern. What could that be about? Claude reminds her he won't eave hanging.

    But then they get up onto the Bridge and Grace suddenly brightens, seeing the planet from the outside. Seeing the bridge- a real, actual ship- she can't help but run ahead to look out at the stars through the giant view port, the planets below. For a moment, there's just... true joy on on Grace's face, even letting out a laugh at seeing space again. She missed this-

    And then the screen focuses on what's left of Marlind. That kills the laughter. "...That's... the whole town's gone... How many people..."

    The energy spike warning stops her voice in her throat.

    And when the evac order is given, Grace moves like she's had this drilled into her dad at least as much as any Fed soldier-

    And that's because, in effect, she has. The standardization in seating and arrangement in the Federation is a plus, and Grace bolts for the wall and locks herself in to an anchor point, pulling straps out and securing them. She feels along the wall for the SED that should be next to it, finds it, and grabs it. Her hands move with muscle memory- slot in there, lock point one, lock point two, and... on. Her ARMs lock into the magnetic holsters and lock down, and she slaps a point on her jacket, causing the pockets to close up and keep the too many grenades sealed inside. Her messenger bag is the tricky bit- that she just has to hold on to. She's secure, but-

    Dias sure as hell isn't. Claude and Rena are between lockers, Ethius is secure, and Chisato... she can't see her right now.

    "Dias!" She shouts, grabbing another SED from the wall- a point someone hasn't and won't be able to anchor into in time. "Starboard bow, right at you! Catch it!" And with that, Grace *hurls* the SED toward him, on a very accurate trajectory. "Around your wrist, pull the strap through the slot, then lock at three and nine! Don't mess it up, got it!?" Despite it sounding like an insult, there's worry in Grace's voice.

    Maybe it's more for Rena than Dias personally, given what they talked about but...

    Even they can't really get stand each other at the best of times, she'd still rather have him around than not.

<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.

    Dias's gaze softens a hair as Claude seems happy to hear he'll see his mother too. Between that and what Roddick says about him practically being the entire ship's child, and Millie's faith that they'd see him again even though it's been around seven years, and it truly does seem like he's been missed. ...That's good for him.
    
    "Good to know," he tells Claude, of Roddick. He did already have that impression, though. He was willing to listen to everyone who spoke up for Ethius, after all.
    
    But there's another issue. When Claude looks at Chisato and then back at him, Dias does indeed remember what they talked about. That faint softness turns back to stone, and he follows his gaze over to Ronyx. "Do what you have to do. Make sure you don't have any regrets," he says.
    
    His gaze turns to the Calnus's viewscreens. Chartreuse speaks true: it's honestly an impressive, even beautiful view. He's never seen Lunar like that, and his gaze lingers on the blue-green moon. But then the viewscreen magnifies the now-salt portion of it, and then a portal from which a massive energy spike is emerging...
    
    Dias is instantly on guard. This helps him surprisingly little. He's never been on a proper spaceship before (the one to Marduk was nowhere near the level of the Calnus), and even with instructions on what to do, he doesn't know how to carry them out. Rena doesn't seem to know either--but Claude has her covered. Dias gives them both a sharp nod. As he told Claude, he trusts him to protect her. ...Dias himself, though...
    
    Ethius is a godsend in this respect; he points not just him but everyone in the right direction and tells them where to find an S.E.D.. Unfortunately, Dias is several crucial seconds behind the others, and so has to make do with grabbing hold of some netting in a back corner, which also means he doesn't have an S.E.D. to put on. Fortunately, Grace hurls a spare one at him and gives him an explanation on what to do. He catches it instinctively, red eyes widened in surprise; then he gives her a curt nod of gratitude and follows her instructions. He doesn't know about the conversation Grace had with Rena, but for all that their own relationship is basically nonexistent, he is reasonably sure she's trying to do him a solid. He's not so proud that he'll refuse the help.
    
    Whether he'll have time to secure his equipment at this point is to be seen. If nothing else, he'll grab tight hold of his sword. Anything else, though...

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "I'm glad," Ida says, managing a strained smile. "Mariel is our expert on the Ley. She's been working on repairing ecological and metaphysical damage for cen--a long time." As the group walks onwards, she keeps pace, while checking back at the trailing members to be sure no one's getting lost. "A blockade?" Ida was definitely snooping in on Roddick's conversation--her eyes grow round as she turns to Roddick. Wait. Didn't Ethius mention 'colony ships' or something like that, earlier? "Did the Federation... even know this system was inhabited?"

     As the double doors open, honest-to-God wonder lights up Ida's face, despite her injuries and fatigue. The bridge itself is a wonder--all those consoles, what do they do?--but the real prize is the spectacular view.

    Ida watches in awe as the view changes. It's just like the monitors in Marduk, but people can control it...? Her smile fades as the sensors zoom in to reveal the extent of the damage. "God have mercy," she whispers. Her hands clench and tremble at her sides.

    Then, the portal. "Them," Ida hisses, "That's--"

    There's no more time for talk. Ida settles into the moment as a fresh spike of adrenaline shoots through her. She darts across the bridge, careful to avoid anyone else doing the same, and straps in. She's had enough experience with seatbelts and crash webbing to know the general idea. The S.E.D. comes a moment later; Ida grabs hers from her pouch, and straps it into place. Once that's done, she secures the few loose-ish items on her belt--Pokeballs, flare grenades--and looks to her left, then her right. She secured herself, and can now help secure others.

<Pose Tracker> Misty has posed.

Misty might have a little accidentally stumbled onto the thing that will definitely get Chase's attention, but... not entirely, from her previous interaction with him. "Cool!" she says with a warm smile. "We'll... get this all figured out. Together."

Chartreuse comments it might be best saved until afterwards. "Yeah, fair enough... though I guess that disc Miss Central Intelligence gave them might have some of the information anyway... but it might be better hearing it from someone who can respond to questions."

They're working on figuring out what happened. "Are they also working on a way to reverse it?" She understands that figuring out what happened in the first place is important, but... to her, that's only half the story.

A bit cramped. Misty nods, patting two of her pokeballs. "They should be okay. The pokeballs create an environment that's comfortable for them, and it'll sustain them until we can find the space to get them more help." She says that like it's a perfectly normal thing. Like it isn't weird that she somehow has a 6.5m, 235kg (21'04", 518.1lbs) creature in a tiny ball.

Chase offers cargo bay, and Kaede offers exercise room. "I'll trust your judgements, then. Kaede, you in particular know how large Gyarados is." She's ridden into a fight on Gyarados twice now!

The view of Lunar is breathtaking... but as they zoom in on now salted area it strikes a very fresh wound again, and Misty's chokes up for a moment as she looks, her fists clenching. Starmie bumps into her side, and Misty puts a hand on their top ray. "The Ten Wise Men stole it to power up the fortress they've taken over on Energy Nede." Her voice is thin and tight, and very carefully measured. "... they said they want the whole universe."

And it appears in space. "That's it! That's Phynal!"

Seeing the devestation writ large on the viewscreen is bad enough--but to see Phynal again, and by association the Ten Wise Men, in a moment where she is already doing so much to try and maintain her composure from before...

She doesn't quite catch all of the directions, and it takes Starmie giving her a rather sound bump and a loud, urgent, trill, to kick her into gear.

Chartruese calls for her and Chase, and Misty nods. She races over, fumbling with getting herself strapped in, though Starmie levitates up the S.E.D. helpfully for her once she does finally get strapped in. "Thanks, Starmie. Check on the others." She's situated, and Starmie is helping any stragglers find a place... and then Misty calls her back with a beam of light from one of her pokeballs. (White on top, blue on bottom.)

She takes a deep breath, looking to Chartruese and Chase. "You two ready?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Roddick hears Gwen's mention of his name, and smiles at her. For a moment, she looks towards his back as he continues walking, and grins, rubbing her neck. "They ain't so different from us, really."

    Lunar awaits.

    Like a glass marble, in swirls of greens, reds, and blue. White clouds. If she looked closer, Gwen's sure, she'd likely see the ruined landscape she and the Fiends had visited not too long ago.

    Just, from far, far away. ".... So this is what it might look like, if we could see Lunar like they see us." Gwen stares in open awe. "It's incredible... just as beautiful as the Blue Star... Man, if Hiro n' the others could see this...!" The fact that it's a projection is lost on Gwen, even if she'd easily adjust to the idea of it. Is that really any different from a projector?

    Her smile fades as they see the white outline. "... No way... you can already see it?" It'd have to be huge, as big as the landmarks that Gwen herself has managed to see when looking up at the Blue Star.

    Before they have a chance to think on it too long, the ship is alerted. Gwen manages to snag a harness, but is forced to abandon her position when Ronyx --goddamn they may not have the same hair color but she can definitely see the resemblance-- points out the S.E.D.s. "Most crashes! Got it!" she bleats, trying to secure the wristband on, just before the ship goes cock-eyed.

    Gwen slams back with a yell, and barely manages to snag a spot next to Ida. "Not even my Gear's like this!"
    

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

"The Ley?" Ronyx asks Mariel, looking confused.

But really, there's no time for it.

With so many unexperienced and untrained people on the bridge, it's bedlam -- and the Calnus's crew is tryig to make sure the ship is spaceworthy and not destroyed in a single shot.

The ship shakes -- no, leans -- and that has the advantage of the floor shifting under Pikachu, sending her sliding towards Chase like a sled.

"Whoa!" Millie yelps, at Simulacrum Sign. She stares for a second -- then she clips on her harness.

"Energy build-up past that portal increasing!" a technician shouts.

"Ronyx," Millie says, "this is really bad. I can tell from here how powerful that portal is, that's not something Symbology can do I thought, but--"

"I know," Ronyx says, through gritted teeth.

"Energy beam, firing directly at us!"

A lance of white-gold light explodes off Phynal -- and straight through the barrier, crossing light years and possibility in the blink of an eye. There's a second before it strikes. The Calnus lists, even more sharply, to one side as it tries to dodge; there's the sudden lurch of the maneuvering thrusters.

A diagram shows the beam's trajectory -- and the Calnus's. The cry that comes out states the obvious: "We're going to be hit, sir!"

It happens a second later, though they feel it rather than see it. The titanic explosion rips through the frame of the Calnus, and the entire starship rocks violently, like an earthquake. Klaxons begin to wail and red lights start flashing. Everyone is shoved and thrown violently -- slammed against their harnesses.

"The ship has sustained massive damage--shit, we're going down!" a technician yells.

All of the lights on the ship flicker off, come back on, dim, and then come back on only half as bright.

The viewport turns solid black -- and becomes a clear window. For a couple of seconds, it looks over the barren, airless, cratered landscape of Lunar...

And then there is a terrific red glow, as the ship shakes violently, and then clouds and seas and green land all appear all at once -- as the Calus breaches the atmosphere. Ronyx sucks a breath in. "Brace for atmospheric entry! Divert all shields to cover the damaged sectors!"

Roddick calls out: "Duck your head low, and keep a grip! We're going down!"

You need to brace for atmospheric reentry, as the Calnus shakes, rattles, and violently shudders.

The Calnus plunges down, but the red glow begins to dissipate -- and then there is a loud, lurching RIPPING noise. Ronyx turns, staring. "Oh, shit--"

The side of the bridge rips open. The air is sucked out, as the Calnus's bridge depressurizes. Sirens wail continuously, but a computerized voice calls out over it: "Deploying oxygen masks! We anticipate crew members will be ejected in 5, 4, 3..."

Yellow masks pop out from the sides of chairs, from the harness structures, and other places, with a slim, square-shaped tank and a strap that could go around a bicep, a leg, or a chest. "...2, 1..."

Then, chairs and harness sections -- actually pods -- begin to separate, hydraulics hissing. And people begin to fly out of the gash in the starship.

Get your oxygen mask on before you're ejected!

In the next blink of the eye, everyone is in freefall. They plunge through a cloud -- and can see the Calnus, trailing fire and smoke, crashing down towards Glenwood. Which keeps them from falling away, but...

There is a beep from the Symbological Egress Devices. Then, a tinny voice announces: "Please activate me! I wish to save you! Please activate me!"

Time to press the big red button on the side of the S.E.D.!

Once pressed, there is a giant flash of aquamarine light around everyone, and then a sphere of blue-green erupts around them. Their ascent begins to slow... as they come crashing down towards the surface, towards Glenwood.

And when the first bubble hits, it bounces. Despite everything...

...it is kind of delightful.

_____________________________| QUICK TIME EVENT!!!|_____________________________
_                               Explosive Reentry                              _
_                                                                              _
_                                                                              _
_  Gwen Whitlock, Grace Harvey, Chisato Madison, Misty, Ethius Hesiod, Chase,  _
_ Chartreuse Spinosa, Dias Flac, Magilou, Ida Everstead-Rey, Rena Lanford,     _
_ Mariel, Kaede Akigiri, Xantia, Claude C. Kenny, and Venetia Vuong:           _
_  +qte/react <guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>   _

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Grace Harvey takes 110 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Mariel takes 111 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Chartreuse Spinosa takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Claude C. Kenny takes 109 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Kaede Akigiri takes 110 damage and gains 45 FP!

GS: Kaede Akigiri enters CONDITION GREEN!!

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Rena Lanford takes 80 damage and gains 30 FP!

GS: Rena Lanford enters CONDITION GREEN!!

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Gwen Whitlock takes 108 damage and gains 45 FP!

GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Venetia Vuong takes 78 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Dias Flac takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Chase takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Xantia takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Ethius Hesiod takes 107 damage and gains 45 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Ida Everstead-Rey takes 78 damage and gains 30 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Chisato Madison takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

"I bet you would," Claude assesses Rena and Ilia. "...But fair enough, I guess."

'Do what you have to do. Make sure you don't have any regrets.' "...I will," CLaude answers Dias. And this time, he means it. He's not the sullen boy he used to be.

For Venetia though, "True! I was more worried it was illegal for me to talk to you about it. ...But I don't think it is anymore."

The ship leans, and Claude holds on. THey're going to be hit.

And they're going down.

"Hang on!" Claude calls again, and keeps himself braced. He grabs a pair of oxygen masks from the half-broken locker and hands one to Rena, using his mother's techniques to slow his breathing such thta he won't need it until he can get it on. He's utterly calm, somehow--

No, not somehow. Because he knows what he has to do. Because Courage prepared him. Understanding his father... understanding himself.

They shoot outward, not in a pod but on their own, and Claude puts the oxygen mask on Rena.

He pulls his Phase Gun, with only one recourse to a situation like this...

QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Magilou takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Misty takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

Rena grips Claude for all the strength her arms are worth, as Roddick tells them to brace. It gets bad instantly, as the ship hits the atmosphere and the side of it rips off, the sudden rush of air forces Rena to look, as she gasps at the sudden gaping hole at a perspective she never expected to be looking from.
 
As Claude hands her an oxygen mask, she one handed puts it on, pulling the band over her head. Just in time, because the next moment - the two are ripped out of the gap in the ship, plunging through a cloud.
 
Neither of them have an S.E.D. even though she can hear the tinny noise in the distance from others, but in freefall, all they can do is hang onto each other, but as she spies the familiar scenery below as they flew over the Glenwood earlier.
 
"Don't let go." She asks of him, muffled behind the mask, even as she closes her eyes, and a moment passes...
 
... the ground is coming closer, and closer. "She's not going to make it!" Who!? As Symbological Power gathers and- "Tractor Beam!"
 
The two LURCH as suddenly gravity's pull stops exerting itself so strongly, in a tug of war for a few seconds, as Rena sweats and strains to try and pull them in the opposite direction. "Come on... come on!" Abruptly, the spell ends as it pushes her beyond her ability to maintain it, and they're in Freefall again.
 
There's a sudden swooshing noise in the air, and a blur of prismatic light, as a shape just arcs to intercept them both at high speed, as the creature screeches over the Glenwood.
 
"PSYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
 
"Thank you." She murmurs, drained, as she leans against Claude atop the Psynard, Lady Brightwing.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
The ship is hit!!

Is this why things keep crashing??? Venetia thinks to herself, even as the ship begins to shake and to tremble -- but it's not from the shot itself, Venetia thinks, vaguely, the situation with the lights concerning her rather drastically. She looks out then, at the barren image of Lunar...

... and then it begins to glow red...

Like they're falling into a furnace, Venetia thinks. The explanation is beyond her imagination, right now. She crouches down, muttering another prayer to Dinoginos under her breath before -- the ship tears.

It's not supposed to do that, thinks Venetia. A mask is given to her, and she fumbles it on, and she can feel something like panic, and then --

-- she's out in the great blue void.

In the sky.

She's falling but it's not instantly obvious. Suspended in a bright blue jewelbox.

Venetia, for a moment, feels faint. It might be hard to blame her. Not, what, fifteen minutes ago, she was in a pitched battle against horrific super-magicians from another era. Now she's in a ship and now she's OUT of a ship. She feels faint enough to do nothing for long seconds as the wind accelerates.

The wind steals away her hat. A few moments later, and this may be the more telling part, it whips off her mask, leaving her slightly baggy and otherwise unremarkable eyes shamelessly bare to the entire world and Althena too. It is when the wind catches the angle of her hair clasp, tugging it and then suddenly ripping it loose, that Venetia startles awake.

Her eyes turn downwards. They squeeze shut...

Alright, old girl, she tells herself: time to pay the bill. Her eyes half open again, and her hand moves against the steadily strengthening slipstream to reach into the Crest pouch. She feels through it, grinding her teeth against the effort, until she can find it - the familiar little notch on the excess mounting metal, the notches she uses to sort through them blind.

The Crest Graph is held *very carefully* and brought outwards, even as her other hand clutches the Simulacrum Sign against her breast. Her head turns now, eyes narrowed to slits of determination. The first person she can see is Mariel, recognizable from the staff. The Crest Graph is held, and muffled invocations go into the mask.

A streak of something like liquid ruby flies out towards Mariel, and though it has to fly a long way, it swirls around her abruptly. There may be a sense of certainty that comes with it: a bracing of courage.

Venetia turns her head. Someone else. The spy? Whatever, Venetia thinks, invoking the spell again. Another liquid streak of Death Defiance flies towards Chisato. She thinks to look upwards, slowly, and she can almost but not quite see someone there - they seem to move a little - but her eyes swim, fatigue reaching up to grasp her. There is another two heartbeats before she can push through it, exhaling with force as the spell is invoked a third time.

Venetia's head tilts down for a moment. Just a moment, she thinks, breathing in the space-men's supplemental oxygen with hunger. Just --

            beep!

'Please activate me! I wish to save you! Please activate me!'

Venetia stares at her wrist with utter confusion and horror. The message repeats itself. Venetia shifts her hands, but the Crest Graphs she holds are treasure, utterly irreplaceable, and after some fidgeting, she squeezes her eyes shut, counts three, and --

-- the purple stone statue appears again, one hand clasping the back of Venetia's seat and turning it about twenty degrees. The other comes down, and there is a satisfying "click" from the S.E.D. as the invocation of another world is what presses the button in the end.

Venetia, semiconscious, doesn't really take note of the delightful aspect of it. The Simulacrum turns her head around, scanning the horizon with the eyes that she does not have, before disappearing as the spell's charge dissipates.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Chase nods to Misty and Chartreuse in an attempt to acknowledge anything happening, thoughts racing with too many warring things. The tree fading to white. A portal open. Energy gathering. A diagram showing the way danger is coming for them. They escaped the first time, but the Wise Men don't seem to want to let go.

But none of that matters while Pikachu is out of reach. The ship tips and she sliiiides --

And then the turbulence hits.

"PiKA!"

Phwee is knocked upward, writhing through the air. She holds the S.E.D. in all four legs and Flings it, launching it toward Chase (and Bienfu) with a jolt of energy to send this critical safety item hurling one way --

-- and herself in another. One must imagine Chase would cry out, if he could. But where Chase is slow and hesitant in his trust, always uncertain and unsure about accepting help, his Pikachu knows what's up. Her trajectory is not entirely uncalculated. (How good is a Pikachu at math?)

She winks at Chase with a, "Chu!" as she flies, asking to be trusted. Chase takes a deep breath and forces himself, with shaking hands, to get his oxygen max and keep hold of Bienfu before the Calnus is ripped apart and Pikachu sails through the air. He is not wearing the S.E.D. so much as clutching it, but that's enough to heed the voice's pleas and sink his fingers into the button until his knuckles turn white.

He crashes down in a bounce. Another. A few more. The bubble if a shield rolls lazily, then unceremoniously dumps Chase and Bienfu onto the ground, unscathed. Chase pushes himself back up, checks on Bienfu, and looks urgently around for his Pikachu.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius can't take in everything that's going wrong looking from the outside in, and has to hope for the best as Phynal scores a direct hit against the Calnus.
 
     They didn't disintegrate into salt on the spot, as a blessing.Ethius' teeth grit as the Calnus shudders. He would like to not hit his head again. They don't have another five years or so for him to forget what he was doing and why, along with other difficulties that come from it. Then everything rips apart, and the air sucks out.
 
     Yellow masks. Again, from the right, but he can't call that out over the howling air leaving from depressurization. Five seconds. He's able to fit the mask over his head. The tank's strap--
 
     Gives out at impact, and now it's a crapshoot as to whether the oxygen tank itself is going to stay attached on ejection. Ethius goes on autopilot rather than admonish it as the pods are ejected. (The resultant pinging and bouncing of the tank's sound is heart-stopping and deafening.) The sight of the Calnus is ghastly, but now for the S.E.D.--
 
     'Please activate me! I wish to save you! Please activate me!'
 
     *That* voice is new to Ethius. How many accidents have they had with these in the last eight years?! Startled, he tries to jam a thumb into it to get it to shut up, but that bouncing oxygen tank - it really is well-engineered to survive this much pinging without rupturing but it proves a bludgeoning hazard as it strikes his forearm with deeply bruising impact, followed by him wincing and throwing his hand up high before that tank gets in his hand again and he has to settle with awkwardly slamming the back of his S.E.D.-clad wrist against something, anything, to hit the red button.
 
     (He is not going to speak of any of this to anyone. Not even if they ask where the bruises came from.)
 
     The aquamarine light goes off exactly three seconds before the threshold is passed. He empties his lungs in a prolonged sigh of a cacophony of emotions of just how quickly the last ninety seconds passed.
 
     ...And he doesn't have the communication equipment to identify his current whereabouts to the others, let alone confirm who survived.
 
     ...
 
     As the bouncing ceases and the pod opens, Ethius coughs a few times as he stands up on his less injured arm for support.
 
     He has the maps, at least - and looks overhead when he recognizes Lady Brightwing above.
 
     He ends the whole sequence just resting his better hand on his forehead.

<Pose Tracker> Chartreuse Spinosa has posed.

"Ready." Chartreuse says with a nod toward Misty as she gets strapped in nearby.

The energy build-up from Phynal increases. It's - well, to say it's bad would be putting it lightly. They've been noticed, by the Ten Wise Men themselves or automatic defenses... and then, from the fortress, a massive beam fires. There's only one possible outcome.

They're going to be hit. Chartreuse feels it. Her senses scream. The ship shakes violently and Chartreuse winces as she's thrown and shaken. She braces herself, keeping her head low and holding a tight grip onto her harness.

Once again, she's shaken. It feels like the world's spinning. Her heart beats fast. And -

The bridge itself is torn open. She doesn't need to be told twice. She reaches quickly for the oxygen mask and the tank, sliding the former over her mouth and nose and attaching the latter to her leg.

And then, the harness section she's in detaches. They all do, forming pods - and then, she's sent flying. Freefall...

...Ah. It's really something, to fall from this height. She can see the Calnus, and she can see Glenwood below rushing up to meet them. She's a little dazed from being shaken around so much - but the beep and the tinny little voice helps shake her out of it. Just enough. Chartreuse knows what to do with big red buttons.

Chartreuse presses the button. Who wouldn't?

There's a flash! A blue-green sphere surrounds her. Chartreuse shuts her eyes tight as she's about to find herself introduced to the ground, but then -

Boing.

Chartreuse blinks. She bounces. And then she bounces again.

"...Ah. This is... kind of nice, actually." Chartreuse says, still a little loopy. But then she shuts her eyes, shakes her head, and looks all around her - quite the feat, while the bubble shield is still bouncing.

Where is she...? Where is everyone?

"Everyone alright...?" Chartreuse calls out. Roll, roll, roll... and then stop. Chartreuse is deposited on her back, her backpack supporting her, and for now she's content to just kind of lay there like a turtle(or maybe even a Turtlez) flipped onto its back, her hat, glasses, and hair all askew while her senses and the situation catch up to her.

<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.

This is no time for Mariel to go into detail about the Ley. 'The natural flow of life energy' is as much as Ronyx is going to get right now!

Venetia helps Mariel hold her bag closed, by way of Crest Sorcery - or, at least, stop the entire area from being showered with plants, herbalism equipment, and medicine. (At least it smells good.) "Thank you," Mariel says, but she's a little occupied to do more than that.

She raises her voice to answer a question asked by the Calnus' staff: "They are powering it with the stolen energy, I think - whether Lunar or Filgaia's. They've been taking so much, and I do not know what they intended to do with it - " Surely it isn't just to hurt Filgaia. They must have a purpose. But she doesn't know what it would be.

Apparently, it's making portals. Very big portals.

Mariel clenches reflexively at the netting and harness when the ship rocks, letting go of her staff - which doesn't get far before she grabs it again, but it's a moment of near-panic as the whole thing moves beneath her. She tries to brace, but she's forced to un-brace to deal with the oxygen mask. At least she can figure this one out, but it takes just a moment too long; she's launched just as she gets it on -

For an instant, Mariel feels completely lost, adrift, as she is on no planet, connected to no people: just her pod in space, surrounded by tiny points of life. The poor ship, she thinks; the poor people on the ship! She reaches for the strap holding the oxygen tank, getting it over her chest, the tank against her stomach.

A pulse of red. Mariel doesn't know where it came from; she's disoriented from the sudden isolation, and the damage to the ship followed by her being ejected from it. She isn't going to complain, though there's little she can do to react to it; she breathes deeply for a moment, just as the S.E.D... begins to talk.

Mariel was not expecting it to do that. But it reminds her to push the damn button, a bubble of blue-green that somehow makes her feel even more isolated as it protects her from everything outside the little pod.

She does not find the impact delightful. She is terrified all the way down. And up. And down again. She may be screaming. She can't hear it over the rushing noise.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Akigiri has posed.

For the second time in just about a month, Kaede finds herself drifting towards the planet. At least last time, it was a proper little pod.
 
 The mask is pulled on in time, though it takes some fiddling to get it to cooperate with her so that the seal is complete. She secures the can in place and... uses a piece of drifting wreckage to smack the red button while she tries to orient herself, looking for others that may have needed help.
 
 This does punt her in a direction. Which might not be the worst thing.
 
 It also means she is slowly spinning through vacuum.
 
 She doesn't really have the magic to direct herslef as she floats.

<Pose Tracker> Grace Harvey has posed.

    Grace should be prepared for this sort of thing, she's done forced atmospheric reentry in this system before, after all.

    And that's exactly why when she braces, she starts shaking. "No no no no no not again not again..." She fumbles for her mask, and has already started to hyperventilate by the time it's on her face, and that doesn't help with it working properly.

    But... she got through it the first time. She can... she can do this. She forces herself to take a deep breathe as best as she can, and then another, and then-

    She slams the button on her S.E.D. when it calls.

    She's better prepared this time. She won't be landing with someone badly injured this time, she had time to activate the S.E.D. this time, this time...

    This time, she can do it. She's sure she can do it. She spreads her arms- and falls as best she can. She's not sure where she'll land now, she's not sure how it will go but...

    It's not so much that she's found power, wisdom and courage exactly- it's that she's has so many people she's got to find her way back to now.

    So she'll definitely survive this. No point thinking about the alternative- besides, coming back on from Atmosphere, there's no real reuniting on the way down. They land where they land- and find each other again after that.

    -=-=-

    After the bounce, and exiting the sphere... it doesn't take too long to find someone after all. In the distance, she can see Lady Brightwing fly overhead-

    And then, a few moments later, she sees someone... familiar and smiles.

    "Heyyyyyy, Ethius!" She calls, putting on some of that more cheerful, brave front. "Please tell me you know where we are, I've been on this moon like... twice. Mind navigating?"

    Yeah. It's not as bad as last time.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia's heart sinks as soon as she hears the word 'energy beam'. It couldn't be that, could it? From what she heard of the Ten Wise Men's ultimate weapon, she can't imagine a spaceship could stand against it, no matter how large it might be. Now she isn't so sure listening to the instructions was the right call. Then again, what choice was there? Where else did she have to go?

Not much choice now but to ride out the impact, which sounds... bad. Then she hears someone say 'we're going down', which sounds worse! Her instincts are yelling at her to run, despite knowing that doesn't make any sense in this situation. But is it really any worse than just sitting here and crashing? Doing something is always better than doing nothing! But, just as she's started fiddling with her harness--

A golden glow is emitted by Xantia's collar, and she abruptly falls limp. A moment later, her grip tightens around the sides of her seat, seeming perfectly calm as she braces herself, as if in a practiced manner. There isn't the slightest sign of panic or indeed any emotion at the following hull breach, Xantia reaching out for an oxygen mask as soon as one pops into view.

Following the forced ejection, Xantia is still handling the situation with abnormal calm, keeping her body relaxed even though she's falling like a sack of bricks. On the sound of 'Please--', she's already hit the button on the S.E.D., slowing her fall, then bouncingly harmlessly as it hits the surface.

Which is when Xantia's collar loses its glow, and she blinks in confusion, then yells in alarm as she's suddenly bouncing around in a large ball. "Ahhh, what happened, where am I, what is this?!"

Somehow, Xantia made it out safely. A pity that no one is likely to have noticed exactly how she managed it so well... including herself.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Grace can see that Ethius has a bruised forearm and hand and is currently looking like he's had enough for the day. He raises the had with the S.E.D. on in lieu of speaking, until he can pull himself out of the pod. He has a rough time of it.
 
     "...We're in Glenwood, on Lunar," he says matter of factly. This part of it... no, he doesn't need maps for this part. He can't possibly know the full extent of the ecological damage and change of topography the Ten Wise Men may have inflicted aside from that glimpse at the Calnus monitors.
 
     "...As it so happens," he says as he stands up, "I did do significant coverage of the area when investigating weapons smuggling during a conflict between the local nations here."
 
     He coughs twice. "The Marlind incident might have changed how we can traverse the area," he says to Grace, "but... I should remember the areas less likely to have foot traffic. We should lay low. Locals will be agitated."
 
     Back into the comfortable rhythm of his line of work as a cultural infiltrator.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou doesn't comment on the Earthpulse -- or the Ley, as Filgaia knows it. She rarely puts herself out, that way. And right now --

    "Velvet!" Magilou cries out, as the oxygen masks fall down. Luckily, she's secured herself to the side of Velvet's chair, which means they're in the same pod, technically speaking. She secures the KOed woman's, first; she's all out of breaths by the time she gets hers on, but it's hardly the first physical trial she's suffered. She knows how to hold her breath; has since she was young.

    She presses Velvet's button, as well, and her own -- Bienfu is still latched to Chase, but she knows he'll be fine. He's a spirit, so he can withstand a little physical torment, too.

    Bounce, bounce, bounce...

    "Biennnn," Bienfu whines, as he sticks with Chase. "This is so scarrryyyyyy!!"

    As if he's not over a thousand years old, and looking out for the youngster whose shoulder he's borrowed.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida whips to her right, reaching across Gwen to pull something free. "Right shoulder to left hip," she says, holding up the buckle of the safety harness. Once Gwen's got that in place, Ida holds up her arm, showing Gwen her S.E.D. "And tighten the straps!" She has no idea what the S.E.D. actually does, but if the Admiral says it will keep them alive, then it should keep them alive.

    Unfortunately for Ida, she's twisted in her seat when the ship rocks and shakes. The crash webbing pulls tight around her chest--her breath leaves her in a startled squawk, and while it keeps her from flying clear across the bridge, there's going to be bruises afterwards.

    Then the beam hits, and bedlam ensues. Ida stares in slack-jawed horror at the ragged-edged, sucking hole that used to be part of the bridge. The rush of escaping air pulls at her, but she grabs her oxygen mask and fastens it in place.

    Then someone's Pikachu flies directly at her face. Chase?! Ida thinks, with horror, but she has suddenly been given a new and urgent objective. "Hold on tight!" she says, and she hugs Phwee to her chest with both arms.

    The pod blows free. They're tumbling. The S.E.D. starts to chirp, and Ida presses the button. Exoskeleton extrudes from her skin afterwards, turning her arms into an improvised safety net to keep Pikachu in place. The S.E.D. extrudes its own protection; the bubble pops into place, surrounding both Ida and Phwee in a globe of relative safety.

    Ida keeps her eyes open the whole way down. The blur of green and brown and blue resolves into fields and lakes and farmlands. One section of farmland in particular grows larger, rapidly--a pasture, Ida realizes, as she sees blurs of white and brown that might be sheep or cows. After one last braking maneuver, the sphere hits ground, bounces, and rolls to a gentle stop.

<Pose Tracker> Misty has posed.

It is horrifying to watch that massive beam of energy erupt from the portal straight for their ship. There is a part of Misty that is still in anguish, being reminded of events that are, by all rights, still fresh in her mind--that are, by some measure, still happening.

But there is also danger here and now, and another part of Misty is asserting itself: the part of her that compells her to move when she sees someone struggling in the water, the part of her that keeps a calm head when she needs to administer aid a moment later, the part of her that can face a pokemon battle on multiple fronts and analyze a chaotic, shifting situation.

To Chartreuse and Chase, in particular, but also for any of the other Drifters near enough to hear her, she says, "If we get split up, I'll have Starmie and Dewgong send up a Signal Beam so you can find us. If I can get Gyarados into flying shape, he'll be looking for people, too. Okay?"

The ship lurches, and has sustained massive damage. Misty grits her teeth. If even a Federation flagship isn't safe... They'll have to work all the harder to stop the Ten Wise Men, won't they?

She ducks her head down, bracing herself... and then the bridge rips open, and atmosphere leaks out. Her mind briefly goes to her water-breathing spell, contemplating if it might work here--but the yellow mask stands out and she snatches it up, slipping it on and strapping it down. It's a slightly different configuration than she's used to, but she's familiar with the basic concept.

Her hand slams down on the big red button before it can even finish its first sentence.

There is a lurch in her stomach as she is set free of the ship, and she watches it with the same sense of despair she felt upon seeing the tree drained of its Ley...

But there'll be work to do, when she lands. People she'll need to find and keep safe. She keeps her focus on that, for now, recalling all of the training she's ever received. Search patterns, emergency first aid, triage.

She'll have time enough to work through her despair later.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

"Piii Pikachu!" Phwee greets Ida, right on her face. She is re-positioned and hugged, her face plastered with the same smile as always.

Except that it broadens as they make their decent.

Pikachu sticks her paws in the air, kicking her little legs gleefully as she giggles out a 'scream' appropriate for a roller coaster.

"Piiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaaachuuuuuuuuuuu~!"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Ida helps Gwen get strapped in. "Thanks!" Gwen stammers, looking over the rest of the crew. She was really looking forward to something to eat...

    There's no time.
    
    "They siphoned energy from the ley lines! Lots of energy, magical!" Gwen stammers out quickly, at Ronyx and Millie. "Like drainin' a giant battery! That's what's causing the salt!" Whether they may have heard Gwen's hurried words is another matter. There is, after all, no time.

    Because the ship's just been hit.

    Outside, the odd familiar craggy landscape of Lunar lapses with red into the one she knows is real, lush and green.

    It'd be so pretty, if there wasn't that gaping hole in the Calnus.

    Gwen reaches for the oxygen mask and takes a few precious breaths before she's left to spiral in the open air, away from the crashing Calnus.

    For a while, still shocked, she falls like that, numb and confused. The clouds, the sky, the land, the sky, the land, the clouds
        the clouds
                sky
    s p r e ad y our w
            i ngs and

    An old inborn instinct inside that oddly grafted part of herself tells her how to direct her body in that free fall, as one of her shoes comes undone and is stripped off her foot by the force of the winds.

    Blue and white fills the reflection of the sky in her eyes, and that something that is so old, and at the same time new, something ancient unborn, leaps in her soul out of breathless joy, eager to spread wings that Gwen doesn't have.
    
    "... sky...."

    'Please activate me! I wish to save you! Please activate me!'

    "Wh?!" Gwen fumbles, trying to press that red button.

    And that unearthly joy just escapes her as that stupid dumb bubble saves her stupid dumb ass from compacting into the ground below.

    Instead, she's bounced into a bush.

    ".... Gotta find the Fiends n' tell 'em..." Gwen grunts as she pops out of a bush, picking lut some leaves tangled in her hair. "... Surely it shouldn't be too hard..."

    ...... where are they again?

<Pose Tracker> Chisato Madison has posed.

However good the reason, Chisato feels less comfortable to have her partners off the field. There's people here she should help, maybe - kids, even, young Nedian pokemon trainers in WAY over there heads. But that's what she is doing, she has to remind herself. So that their journies can continue. She watches the unfolding violence outside. The bridge crew know their stuff, she knows better than to act like she owns the joint. She focuses on her training. On the next action to take.

Ronyx, at least, has the important instruction covered, as Chisato braces herself in her crash harness, fingers curling into the netting around her.

Then the masks are down. She knows that part, at least. She can do it quickly, however much she dislikes having to release her death grip to like, use her hands and brain to fiddle with an object. Still, she's used to this kind of acting under tension. She looks left and right, assessing what she's got to work with nearby.

She feels her gut squirm as various cosmic and symbological forces argue about which direction is which for several seconds - the ship falling away from her while she's thrown out into freefall. A chi-assisted flip lets her force herself into a spread-open freefall posture, and the mask lets her see without her eyes burning. One pick, one pick...The SED rings clearly despite the air roaring in her ears.

Then she sees something she can do in all this, and whirls. She remembers within herself the great lessons of the Bombirdier: Just Fly, Silly! Wuk Wuk.

With this in her heart, she's able to surge herself in the direction of nearby Dias, and cast her arm out to him. "C'mon!!" she calls. No silly names, not now. The SED is signaling...

<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.

    Dias gives Claude a faint smile of approval. It doesn't last because of what all happens next--but it happens.
    
    When everything does happen, and the Calnus is about to be ripped apart, Dias locks his eyes on Rena. She and Claude are curled protectively close to each other. He's relieved to see it. No matter what happens to him... they'll be safe, together.
    
    Though he can't secure his things beyond his sword well, he does at least hear the follow-up instructions and follow them closely. He ducks his head and keeps his body low as the spaceship rocks violently from the impact of the attack and then from re-entry, managing to avoid banging his head on anything. When the oxygen masks drop, he's able to infer what to do by the fact that they're called 'masks' and the attached tanks have straps on; he attaches one to his face and affixes the other to his arm.
    
    The decompression and ejection into freefall is a lot, admittedly. Even for him. One second, he's inside; the next, at the end of the countdown, he and everyone are ripped out from inside and sent into free-fall.
    
    His long hair whips around him as he descends. He blinks once up at the expansive blue sky. He looks around at everyone else falling with him. Then he twists around to stare at the rapidly approaching land below.
    
    It's all very beautiful in an imminently deadly way. As an experience, Dias lets himself have a moment to soak it in. Deep breaths; slow breaths.
    
    The tearing winds rip sound away, but he catches nearby motion in the corner of his eye. He looks over to see Chisato teetering near, one arm outstretched. It isn't something he'd have thought to do independently--even now, he's too used to being alone--but seeing that offer, he reaches back out and accepts it, his hand clasping her forearm and, presumably, vice versa. He wouldn't have made it even this far without Ethius and Grace's help. It only makes sense to accept Chisato's too, now.
    
    A button is pressed. The SED unfurls. There is a great BOUNCE. And then quiet.
    
    But the good kind. The quiet of two people who have survived something ridiculous--several ridiculous somethings--and are taking a moment to reflect.
    
    Given that one of those people is Chisato, the quiet will probably not last. But in the grand scheme of things, that's fine too.

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

The Calnus goes down.

It streaks over the skies of Glenwood. In Laashinstonbell, it's a daytime comet of fire and smoke that rushes across the sky. By the time it passes over Pendrago, a few seconds later, it comes with a titanic BOOM.

The shockwave shatters glass in storefronts and the Shrinechurch. People look up, screaming. Debris begins to fall off, smashing to the ground across Pearloats Pasture and the Meadow of Triumph. The starship turns -- rolls -- northward.

And, finally, slams into the earth at Aifread's Hunting Grounds.

It slams into the rocky hills there with force. The bow of the ship sends up waves of dirt and stone. Grass and trees are hurtled every which way, as the Calnus finally comes to rest, having carved a trench after it. Smoke rises, on the horizon.

-*-*-

"Gh..."

Ronyx pushes himself up to his feet, slowly. His eyes blink, as he looks around -- and sees a large, stone tower in the distance. His S.E.D. had already turned off; the wind is blowing fiercely, causing the grass of the meadows to sway.

He pushes himself to his feet, then shakes out his arm. Then he looks up--

--and Millie peers at him, squintig with one pink eye. "Huh," she says. "Looks like we're split up. This is familiar."

-*-*-

Roddick swings his sword down, chopping through the strange boar -- covered in some foul, miasma-like violet mist -- and it crashes down to his feet, the energy dissipating. He turns towards where the Calnus fell, easily a day's walk.

Then, he looks back at the escape pod that landed before him. He takes a step forward -- which is when another miasma-wreathed monster, this one some manner of manticore, with a massive scorpion tail, slams down. Its lion-like head roars, and Roddick raises his blade--

--when the escape pod's hatch explodes off. Ilia Silvestri-Kenny leaps into the air, then swings down a half-dozen rapid spinning kicks that cause it to burst apart. She lands in front of him, then dusts her hands off. "Well! That was exciting," she says. She looks around. "Separated, then? Just like old times."