Emmet got himself involved twice over. The first time, he didn’t even realize what was happening.

All he’d had the time to process was the too-large unidentified Pokemon that charged up to him, sniffed furiously, and, with a disgruntled look, tore away again. Later in the day, he’d hear stories about it scaling buildings and screeching from its various perches, among other minor nuisances, but the city’s fascination was the Pokemon itself.

Of course, the incident– while not forgotten– was quickly overtaken by the news coming out of Virbank, Nacrene and Opelucid. People had appeared, en mass, with no idea how they’d gotten there or even where they were; it was a [revelation] accompanied by the sudden appearance of an unfathomably huge Avalugg in the Moor of Icirrus and sightings of other odd, if more reasonably sized, Pokemon.

It stood to reason that Emmet’s strange encounter had been with one such creature.

Curious as it was, he wasn’t officially [associated] until a week after the fact, when he was asked to receive and corral a number of their odd visitors so they could [meet/collaborate] in the halfway point Nimbasa represented. It was meant to be a brief task– to ensure that nobody got lost before they met at the designated gathering point– but all it took was one particular set of words for Emmet to decide it was his business.

The first group arrived with little fanfare, later than he’d anticipated. They stared longer than was polite, but Emmet said nothing on the matter; perhaps, wherever they came from, it wasn’t considered rude. The girl leading the pack sent a sharp look toward a man who’d refused to button up his shirt, and then began whispering furiously to the other two women accompanying her. The group’s youngest member said nothing, but pulled the brim of his hat down as he continued to [stare], as if to camouflage what he was doing.

Through irked, Emmet paid them little mind and ensured that they were all settled before checking his timetables. This group had missed their scheduled train, and he wouldn’t have time to see them off before the second [group] was set to arrive. It would be fine; he could coordinate large gatherings, and the first party seemed easy enough to work with, if lacking in common courtesy.

Fortunately, the second set of travelers arrived right on time. The man in charge was the last of his [pack] through the doors, and spared him a nod and a lopsided smile on the way by.

“Warden,” He greeted, “I’d nearly forgotten what you looked like beneath that ratty old coat.”

The one who’d exited ahead of him stopped abruptly, whirling around to give Emmet an unabashed once-over; the leader sighed and took him by the shoulder before he could start anything, “Not now, Melli. We have a schedule to keep.”

Melli continued to give Emmet the stink eye until the other man tightened his grip and dragged the both of them to where the others were waiting. The girl from earlier was already standing to greet him and, while Emmet busied himself with arranging further transport, the two spoke amongst themselves.

It eventually culminated in a plainly offended, “Do you think I can’t recognize my own Wardens, Adaman? The first I appointed after earning my position, even? I don’t know who that is, but he is not Ingo.”

[…] “Correct! I’m not Ingo. I am Emmet. A Subway Boss– one of two.” / “My brother has been missing for a verrrry long time. But you know him well enough to tell us apart.” At the tension rising in the groups, he forcibly calmed himself and, more [defeated] than he meant to let slip, added, “Can you tell me where he is?”

The girl, at least, looked far more sympathetic than she had initially, “I wish we could. We’ve made every effort to regroup since coming here, but,” She waved a hand toward the rest of her people, “He’s the only Warden who never responded. That was odd enough in and of itself. We saw Lady Sneasler once, but as soon as she realized he wasn’t with us, she ran off again.”

Emmet nodded vaguely, still listening, but his focus drifted with the negative answer. Wherever his brother had been, it wasn’t Unova– not if these foreign visitors knew him well enough to recognize [how odd his tardiness was]– so the initial effort had been doomed from the start, but maybe…

His hand dropped to the second pokeball on his belt. Several heads shot up at the motion, wary; others, like the two leaders, looked on in distaste. Emmet ignored the lot of them and released Chandelure.

It had already been a week without any [reaction] from her, but she hadn’t known that the circumstances changed, or made an active attempt to find her trainer. If so many people had been sent here from… wherever Ingo had wound up, there was a chance it could work this time.

“I’m sorry to ask you again, Chandelure,” / “Can you sense him? Is he here?”

She chimed at him, concerned, but obligingly teetered in the air; the light in her globe slowly pulsed as she focused on her task. After a moment, her flame stabilized and she looked up at Emmet with the same sad yellow eyes as always.

He tried not to let the disappointment show, resting a hand on her glass and quietly thanking her.

Emmet truly didn’t believe he was being lied to; the entirety of the first group had reacted to the sight of him without consulting one another, and two separate members of the second had been familiar enough to acknowledge him in radically different ways. There was no arguing against the fact that they knew someone who looked like him and who bore his brother’s name for godsake– but he trusted Chandelure’s senses without question.

He had no idea what to make of this, but it was the first solid lead he’d had in months; a small thing like a lack of logical consistency wouldn’t deter him.

His Xtransceiver pinged, informing him that the next leg of the groups’ journey was set to begin.

How nice for them.

They weren’t leaving his twice-damned sight.

—

Drayden had arrived in Nimbasa earlier that morning, and was, in fact, the person who’d requested Emmet’s help to begin with. He was one of several people already waiting in the meeting hall when the largest factions filed in, and was the first to notice something amiss.

He was not, however, the one who called it out.

“Door to door service, huh? Really going Pidove and beyond here.” Elesa said as she sidled up next to Emmet, and, when he failed to respond, puffed a cheek in irritation, “Seriously? Nothing? I spent a whole fifteen seconds on that one– at least tell me all my hard work shines through.”

Completely ignoring the complaint, he asked, “Are you at all aware of what’s going on here?”

“Vaguely. I’m only talking if you Fess-piquen up, too.”

“No more puns.” He said flatly, not even dipping into the well of fond [exasperation].

“Man,” She said, dropping the pretense, “I thought you were just making sure everyone got in okay, but you sound pissed. What happened?”

“I am trying to understand precisely that.” / “Can you tell me who these people are?”

Elesa hummed, twisting a strand of hair between a thumb and forefinger, “Purple hair– that’s Melli. The day everyone showed up, we hosted the weird Electrode at the gym, right? He’s the Electrode’s… caretaker or something.”

“Its Warden?”

She snapped her fingers, “Yep, that was it. Kept up with all this talk about a Diamond Clan, so that has to be who he walked in here with. The three up there are from a ‘Galaxy Team’. No idea about the rest. For real, though, why are you here?”

“The leaders immediately began to argue upon arriving at the station.” Emmet said, and Elesa nodded along, following his logic so far, “The Diamond leader believed that I was Ingo. The other insisted that I was not, and that she knew better.”

Elesa’s lips parted as she tried to formulate a response; the best she managed was, “…what?”

He hummed in agreement. “She was correct. To be fair.”

[…]

A great deal of information passed through the various factions, most of it coming from the visitors– Hisuians– as the rest of them tried to keep up. At one point, one of the Galaxy people had honed in on a map of Unova and come to the conclusion that the relative positions of everyone who’d been shifted still matched– that it made sense for Virbank, Nacrene and Opelucid to have received the worst of those displaced because they [corresponded] to Hisuian settlements. The Galaxy Captain had taken to the theory and favored him with an expression that most would charitably call dour, but Emmet had the [experience] to recognize as genuine appreciation.

While the last of the Galaxy representatives was paying enough attention to be an active participant in discussions, she spent most of it tapping frantically at her phone or watching Emmet out of the corner of her eye. Given the reception he’d found from the Pearl Clan, it marked her as someone he needed to speak to as soon as the gathering ended.

“All permanent residents of the village have been accounted for, and most of our stray corpsmen have found their way to our current accommodations; my Survey Corps have actively deployed members to assess the situation.” Cyllene reported, inclining her head shallowly to the teenagers beside her to illustrate the final point. “The Ginkgo Guild are still missing those members who had been traveling at the time. Some have since contacted us, but we can’t speak to the rest.”

Chin resting on one palm, Adaman nodded, “We’ve got a few with us– some Security Corps, too. Sabi spent the first few days out with Lord Braviary and brought everyone she could back; we’ll compare lists once we’re done here.” He raised his head and gestured vaguely to those gathered behind him, “With our Nobles’ help, the Diamond Clan’s headcount broke even, so there’s no need to worry on our behalf.”

There was a long silence, and then a deliberately even sigh as Irida bit back her frustration.

“The Pearl Clan’s situation is… similar. Several merchants and Galaxy recruits have found a haven in Opelucid City along with my people, but, to address the Avalugg in the room, one of my Wardens is still missing.” She tapped at one of her overlarge bangles and looked to Cyllene, “I’m certain you would have said so much, but it isn’t possible he’s been assisting Galaxy Team?”

“He’s not, I’m afraid; the help would have been welcome, and, doubtlessly, the offer would have been deafening.” The woman’s attention shifted, briefly alighting on Emmet, “Am I to assume the man who accompanied the clans here is not, in fact, Warden Ingo?”

Across the room, Elesa twitched, primed to hear from Irida or Adaman, but not Cyllene, who’d had no contact with Emmet and theoretically no business knowing Ingo’s name. Likewise, Drayden’s gaze moved from the Captain, to Emmet and back again, slowly honing its intensity.

“Subway Boss Emmet received the Diamond and Pearl representatives as a favor to me,” He said, voice deceptively even, “Subway Boss Ingo has been missing for several years, now. Are you implying that you’ve been in contact with him?”

[…]

“I’m aware of the urgency behind all of our [?], Captain, but [speed] can be make or break in a missing persons case, and this lead is already [a week?] out of date.”

“I’ll help you,” Said the Survey girl– Akari– standing abruptly from her seat, “Ingo’s my friend, so I’ll probably be able to tell you more– and that way Cyllene can coordinate who’s where.”

As she spoke, Irida briefly turned to one of her party.

“Warden Calaba will tell you what we know,”  She said, after they’d come to some kind of conclusion, “I’m terribly sorry not to [help], myself, but it’s my responsibility to see to the clans’ safety. I trust each of my Wardens implicitly, and it’s quite likely she can provide more information than I.”

[…]

‘do you know what happened’ idk/c who.

The Warden’s brows raised, and she gave a rueful chuckle, “Seems to me this may not be as productive as we’d hoped. No, I’m afraid Ingo’s arrival in Hisui was a mystery we never traced to its roots– and if you’re asking me, I have to assume you’re none the wiser, either.”

“He vanished.” Emmet said flatly, “Mid-commute. Nothing unusual registered on the security cameras. He was simply there one moment and gone the next.”

Lips pressed into a thin line, Elesa took over for him, “You said it was instant for you guys, right? It doesn’t seem too out there to think that the same thing could have happened back then.”

“It’s impossible to say. We’re told that one fell from the sky,” Calaba nodded to Akari, who grimaced and hid her lower face beneath a scarf, “But we have no such witnesses when it comes to Ingo.”

“And he was unable to give an incident report?”

“Sinnoh, but you are related, aren’t you? Do an old woman a favor and speak what you mean.”

“He never told you what happened?” Drayden asked smoothly, eyeing Emmet in preemptive warning.

“Can’t say we ever got a straight answer from him. Have you ever thought you were talking to an Unown, only to realize it was an ordinary wall? It was something like that.”

Tightly, Emmet asked, “Because of the way we speak?” and Elesa patted him on the shoulder blade, both [warning] and a comfort.

“Well, it certainly didn’t help,” She sighed and shook her head, tucking her hands behind her back, “It’s not my intention to cast judgment. The first few days were difficult, but I can hardly blame him for that; I never was able to determine whether the problem stemmed from the fever or the head wound.”

“I still think it might’ve been Uxie– Lake Acuity’s super close to the Pearl Settlement.” Akari put in, nibbling at a thumb nail.

“Stop.”/”What?”