"I just can't understand why anyone would do something like that..." mused the Lanturn, staring into the swirling vortex of her handleless mug. The heat from the ceramic vessel flowed into her hands, filling them with a warmth that she desperately needed right now, ever since she had heard the news of the destruction of the statue she had visited mere days prior. Even now, at the hilltop beneath which she sat crosslegged in silent dismay, the ruined plinth loomed over her, around a dozen police officers swarming the scene, examining every inch of the monument's shattered remnants.
"The mind is a strange place," rasped a voice opposite. Skye turned her still sorrowful gaze up toward the elder Jynx, kneeling hunched and gaunt, yet perfectly calm and serene as she sipped the dregs of her own mug of the curious brew. The Ice-type and her aide had seemingly appeared from nowhere while the Lanturn was spiraling through a tempest of despair and anguish, offering a port in the storm, a chance to re-center herself over a revitalising drink, with the guidance of boundless experience along the way. "Often times, its language struggles to be understood," added the woman, extending the now empty mug toward her companion with a withered hand. "Jaclyn, if you wouldn't mind?"
A dutiful nod, and the Medicham carefully accepted the mug, settling her own on the ground in front of her. "Certainly, Edie," came the reply, and another helping was poured from the softly steaming kettle, the small bundle of kindling still burning peacefully away to itself within the ring of stones the kettle had been perched on a moment ago. "Are you quite sure you don't want any tea?" asked Jaclyn, drawing a fourth mug from a simple cloth satchel between the pair.
Roisin's attention was snapped away from the hive of police activity atop the hill, back toward the strange duo, and a quick glance into the Lanturn's cup of mysterious green sludge was answer enough for her. "Nah, I'm good," she replied, beginning to turn back to the statue scene before a question popped into her head. "Hey, how'd you two know about this, anyhow?"
"It's already on the news," Skye answered hurriedly, "it's in the papers, Roisin, this is a serious-"
"I know that part," the Staraptor cut her off, before the Lanturn dragged herself down that mental slide again. "I meant that they're monks," she elaborated, gesturing toward the robed duo. "And they live in Snowpoint, which is in the freezing butt end of the whole region, how are they gonna hear about it and have time to get down to Eterna before lunch?"
"Oh, the world speaks to us, child," Edie told the big bird, still smiling gently. "All one has to do is listen."
Roisin, though, couldn't help rolling her eyes a little at this level of spiritual talk. "Here we go..." she muttered to herself, going back to watching the dozen or so Arcanine investigating the statue on the hilltop.
The Jynx then turned her focus back toward Skye, now that the Staraptor had showed they held little interest in such matters. "The child of the seas, for instance," she began hoarsely, catching the Lanturn off guard mid-sip. "Yours is an uncommonly strong connection to the energies of this world. It speaks of a mind trained well to navigate the ocean we walk amidst."
A brief pause befell the group as it took a second for the compliment to sink in for Skye, through the thick fog of worry. "Thank you," she replied meekly.
"But yours is not a sentimental sorrow, is it?" Jaclyn continued, brow furrowed beneath their gold-studded headband. "You aren't simply mourning the loss of the idol, you can sense in that connection what this has done to the world, can't you?"
Skye stared, wide-eyed at the inquiring Medicham for a moment, taken aback by how clearly they could have gazed into her. "I..." she stammered, looking back up at the hilltop, and the shattered remains of the limbs where the totemic Dialga had so recently stood, truly taking in the scene. "...I thought it was just me, but..." she conceded, turning back to the monks. "...it's hurt. Isn't it?"
"Wounded," clarified Jaclyn with a somber nod. "Such desecration always leaves a scar, bound to heal with time and attention, but what happened here has cut much deeper." The Medicham turned their gaze downward, and sent their focus back over toward the vacant, rubble-smothered plinth high above them. Focusing on the residual emotion that lingered around the damage and the destruction. "This was done with desire," they said, almost in disbelief. "And bitterness, and hate...so much hate..."
The Lanturn's jaw fell open a little in shock. To think someone could possibly hold that level of vitriol within them, to have birthed such a hellacious, burning want for the statue's devastation, left her utterly stunned. What could possibly have led someone to think like that? What could have driven someone to act upon it as ferociously as they had? "That's..." she started, before words completely failed her.
"All good up there, officer?" Roisin interrupted, catching the attention of the other three to the uniform-clad Arcanine striding down the hillside to meet them.
"Unfortunately, no," stated Officer Barkley, tipping their cap forward a little to shield their eyes from the sun. "We've just discovered a semi-collapsed tunnel from the base of the statue that leads to a branch of the Underground Network, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
While the rest of the group looked to one another in slight befuddlement, Edie simply gave a small shake of her head. "Oh, I'm afraid not, officer," she told the Fire-type, "my student and I have only been here for close to an hour."
"And it wasn't there when we visited it," Skye added, nodding toward the Staraptor alongside her.
"Can I ask when it was you visited the statue?" pressed Barkley, popping open the top pocket on their vest and pulling out a plain black notebook.
"Would have been just before the battle tournament, right?" Roisin asked, looking back over toward the Lanturn.
"Three days ago," Skye confirmed.
Officer Barkley began scrawling a few notes as the inquiring continued. "Secondly," they went on, "we've also begun to receive a handful of witness statements reporting someone flying over the city at just after midnight last night, would either of you have seen anything like that?"
Roisin shrugged and shook her head. "Nah, we're sharing a room at the hostel," the Flying-type explained, pointing toward both herself and Skye, "we'd have been asleep by that point."
"Well, in that case," concluded Barkley, stowing their notebook back in their top pocket, "if you happen to come by any more information or unusual activity that could be useful in our investigation, do please let us know as soon as possible. Because whoever did this," they added, jabbing a thumb over their shoulder towards the smashed statue their fellow officers were still surrounding, "needs to be caught before they can cause any more damage of this scale."
A concerned glance was shared between the group, the Jynx being the exception as her eyes remained closed. The look hung, however, between Jaclyn and Skye, each similarly unsure what it would mean for the world if any more chaos was caused like this.
"But in the meantime, I'll be getting back to the main investigation," said Barkley, giving the four of them a brief nod of thanks. "Thank you for your time, and stay safe."
"You're quite welcome, officer," Edie croaked, before taking the last of her drink. "We should soon be returning to our temple, I feel," she pondered, setting her mug on the ground alongside her, extending a withered hand toward her companion. "Jaclyn, if you wouldn't mind?"
Another dutiful nod, and the Medicham took one more sip to finish off her own mug, and carefully took the Jynx's hand in her own, steadily helping the elder back to her feet. Shakily, the Ice-type rose up, with the assistance of the gem-topped staff that had been laying in front of her, and a couple of soft groans as her weathered joints creaked into place.
"You okay there?" asked Roisin.
A sigh escaped Edie as she settled back into her not-quite-upright stance, hunched over the staff with both hands braced atop the gem. "The flesh is not what it once was," she confessed, before that same gentle smile quickly returned to her face. "But I am quite alright," she reassured the big bird, "and thank you for your worry."
Jaclyn, in the meantime, was busy gathering up the remaining mugs, allowing Skye to finish off her tea by extinguishing the kindling. Removing the kettle and holding one hand just above the flickering flames, a faint white glow began to glimmer in the Medicham's eyes, and a sprinkling of tiny blue orbs floated down from her hand into the fire, dwindling it away into nothing, just as quickly as the similar orange orbs had lit the fire to begin with earlier. Another handful of the mystical blue orbs cooled the kettle and stones enough to return them to the satchel, along with Skye's mug, and Jaclyn stood up alongside her mentor, slinging the satchel over one shoulder. "I think we should be ready now," she told her, placing her own hand on top of Edie's, giving a parting smile of her own to the two still sat on the grass opposite. "Look after each other."
"You too," Skye replied quietly.
Beneath the two weathered, purple hands, the pink gem began shimmering brighter, a twinkling from within shining between the slender fingers of the Jynx. "'Til next we meet," Edie said.
Then, in the blink of an eye, a brilliant flash of white filled the eyes of both Roisin and Skye, before just as quickly, it faded, with both the Medichan and the Jynx nowhere in sight.
It took Roisin a few seconds to blink her vision back to normal after the sudden blinding light. "Didn't know monks could do THAT," She pondered out loud.
"We should go," the Lanturn suggested quietly.
"Yeah, I guess," Roisin agreed, pushing herself up, stretching out after sitting on the ground for so long. "Police probably won't want us hanging around any longer while they're-"
"No, I mean..." Skye interjected. "...to the next town."
"Hearthome?" asked Roisin, spinning around to see Skye still sat cross-legged on the ground, staring at the spot where the monks had been sat across from her. "Skye, the tournament's almost a month away," she informed her, tone softening a little.
The Lanturn took a deep breath, nodding slowly. "I know, but..." she began, peering back up at the Flying-type with her big, sad eyes. "I can't stay here," she regretfully admitted. "Not after what happened..."
The Staraptor felt the waves of her friend's woe beginning to lap at the back of her head, and her broad shoulders sagged, beak unclenching slightly as her intense demeanour dimmed by only a matter of degrees. But that was enough. Crouching down in front of the Lanturn, her vivid scarlet stare hovered across from the deep, dark gaze of Skye. "Listen, I know it's pretty awful that someone knocked down the statue of Dialga, but sooner or later, they're gonna find whoever did it," Roisin told her friend. "And when they do, I'll kick their head in for you."
Skye suddenly snorted out a chuckle at the offer. Whether made in jest or not, a small smile crossed the Lanturn's face for the first time since she had heard the news about the statue. "I appreciate that, Roisin."
The big bird, likewise, couldn't help a smirk herself. If only for seeing Skye smiling again. "C'mon, then," she started, planting a powerful hand on the Lanturn's shoulder as she stood back up. "We'll head back to the hostel, we'll let the others know, we'll get something to eat, and then we'll start packing."
"Thank you," said Skye softly, getting back to her feet, the two heading down the hill back into Eterna City, the police, the statue and the devastation all receding into the distance behind them.
