Act 60: Stop the Fires!

After probably a night that was not easy to sleep through with the knowledge of the Grove's plans, Luca and Ranii wake up to a new day. This will likely be a long day too...Perhaps they should go see Aceo again and see what he came up with.

An idea that Ranii shares. "Comeon Luca..." She taps his shoulder as she turns to go see the general. She hopes that during this night he's at least come up with something.

When they get there, they see Aceo is still awake, maybe he hasn't been able to sleep. He is staring at the map of Dryhaven with his tired eyes. Luca decides to speak up. "...Did you thought of anything?" The Glaceon looks at them and sighs. "We are going to have to attack Dryhaven head on." He says, grimly.

"But if we do that..." Ranii protests, "They'll start burning the place to the ground!"

"I know..." He nods. "But this is why we are going to be needing you and Luca again." So it would appear that he has SOME plan at least, but he doesn't know if it's credible. "What do you want us to do then?" Luca asks. They can't just let Dryhaven burn like that, can they? "You two got in there once, and got out. Tell me, can you do that again?"

"Well, we know where the secret way is. So yes." Ranii replies.

"Hhhhmmm..." The Ice-type nods. "Here is the plan, you are going to sneak in there tonight again. Figure out something with the Wallbreakers, perhaps something that can stop them from lighting the fires just enough for us to overwhelm them and stop them all together. The window of time for you and the Wallbreakers to do your thing extends to when the moon is at it's highest point...that's when the attack will begin."

"Alright. We'll try." Ranii replies.

Luca inhales and exhales as he thinks on this, it is an idea but he is really hoping it turns out to be a good. "Yeah, will do."

"Alright. Let's go." Ranii tells Luca as she turns to head out.

The day just started so they got some good amount of time to prepare themselves until the time comes for them to start sneaking. But before that time comes, Luca wants to talk with Ranii a bit about the current situation. "I can't imagine how bad things would have been if we just went on the offensive before we knew about the Grove's plans..."

"Or if he had just gone with a frontal assault anyway." Ranii added on.

"Yeah, he kind of scared me for a moment but I'm glad we are going to at least try to do something about that. Hopefully the Wallbreakers have more to tell us when we are in there."

"... yeah." Bringing up the wallbreakers again makes her wonder for a split second whatever happened to that inteleon.

"Well, guess we should prepare for tonight now. I guess Aceo thinks it's safer for us to move in the dark."

"I'm inclined to agree with him."

The rest of the day passes, and when the sun set it was time to move. Thankfully this time Ranii and Luca do not need aid from a third individual to get by the wall, for they know about that secret tunnel that the Wallbreakers have dugged, no reason it can not be used to go in instead of just out.

"Well..." Ranii says to her partner as she looks into the hole. She extends a claw towards it while looking back at Luca. "After you."

"Alright then." He climbs down the ladder on the hole to go down to the dark tunnel once more. The Lucario is praying that when they get to that Wallbreaker hideout that smelly pokémon won't be there.

"Let's hope that skunk isn't there." Ranii tells him, sharing his feelings. "I'd rather not have to try to resort to sign language to protect my tongue."
They reach the end of the tunnel, and crawl up the ladder, Ranii going first. She opens the hatch and crawls through it and...
She's prepared to close her mouth to avoid the foul smell of the skunk-person. But the hint of his stink doesn't enter her tongue. She gasps a sigh of relief.
"Oh good. Seems like he's not here." She says. 
"Well... well..." She hears a voice say from behind her. "If it isn't..."
Before she can even turn around, she feels a large, lizardy hand on her shoulder
"My little not-hawlucha!" She turns around suddenly and sees the form of...
"John!" She says happily as she sees the 'boss' wallbreaker once more, giving a chuckle. 
"No no, it's Deacon around here." Jo- er, Deacon, corrects her. "Still, so good to see you!" He gives her a sly grin.

Being right below her on the ladder, Luca can't tell what is going on up there exactly but that voice and Ranii's reaction say enough. "That Inteleon from before?" He is surprised to know that he is here, it looks like the Wallbreakers are really going to do their best here, huh?

John leans in to kiss the avali , but out of one of his eyes he spies another climbing up the latter.
"Ah, and I see you brought your other half. Bravo!" He instead settles for giving the Avali a kiss on the forehead.
"I didn't think I'd see you again J-Deacon." She quickly corrects herself. 
"I had heard you were here, and I after being told what was going on by my... " He looks around with both eyes. "Friends, I had the feeling it was only a matter of time until you returned, my dear little not-hawlucha."
"Speaking of what's going on here..." Ranii interrupts him. "Do you know about-"
"The plan to burn down the town? Yes, I'm quite aware. As I said, I heard it from my friends that you told."

Luca nods. "Yeah, those Grove scum are planning that." He sighs. "They really want to leave us with nothing if they can help it, huh?" It is then that the Sentret from last night comes in, noticing that they have familiar visitors and that their boss is here. "Hey, Deacon." He greets him. "Ah, those two from yesterday."

"Quite so." Deacon says proudly as he pulls Ranii into a surprise hug. He sneaks a glance over at Luca to read his reaction.

Luca raised a brow for a moment and seemed a tiny...miffed, but he isn't quite complaining and brushes it off pretty quickly. "So you have a thing for feathery things, Deacon?" He sounds like he is joking there too.

Suddenly, Deacon grabs him and pulls him into the hug on the other side. "And I can't forget about blueberry here, now can I?" He jokes.

Now that's another surprise for the Lucario. "Just watch the spike okay?" He wraps his arms around the both of them in a proper hug, seems like he appreciates this. 

"I'm so glad to see ya both!" He says happily. "Here's hoping to have more fun! But... first..." He frowns as he lets them go. 
"We have work to do." He says seriously as he folds those large thin arms of his. "And lives to save."
"Right. So what's the plan?" Ranii asks as she folds her arms as well. "What have you found out since we left?"
"Okay. So..." He begins. "You should know by now  that the Grove's forces consist mostly of grass, water, and normal types with a sprinkle of flying and fighter types in it right?"
"Erm... yes?" Ranii is still not 100% up on her mon types. After all, 700+ types is a lot to memorize. 
"Well. Fire types are at a premium when it comes to the Grove. Quite rare there. And you need fire types to start the fires necessary. Or at least, in that short amount of time."
"They couldn't just light torches and toss them all over the place?" Ranii questions.
"Even then, the fire still has to come from somewhere." Deacon responds. "Even if they could start it manually, it'd take time that they don't have, and they know it. So it seems the plan is to use these fire types to start a few fires, and then the rest of the soldiers spread them around. Our plan is to find and take out these fire types to slow down this plan of theirs, if not stop it entirely."
"So do you know where these 'fire types' are located?" She asks.
"If that were the case, I assure you that they'd already be dead." Deacon sighs. "No. We've tried to find them, but it seems they're on some level aware of infiltrators, so they've kept them well hidden." 

"That does sound like a plan..." Luca said with a nod. "However, the rest of our forces are planning to attack the town, it's going to happen when the moon is at its highest, until then we can make plans and preparations to deal with the Grove's plan to start these fires."

"Alright." Ranii says. 
"Sent!" Deacon shouts to the sentret to get his attention. "Where exactly did you say the most likely places they will show up will be?"

The Pokémon stands at attention when his name is called. "Yes, right...There is talk that the Grove intends to have priorities for their plan. They want to cripple the town's most important thing first, that is the docks, and there is also a storage there filled with supplies...that's where we think they are going to be starting all of this."

"Sounds like areas to keep an eye on." Deacon says. "Between all of us, do we have enough to do so?" he asks.

The Sentret nods. "Yeah, well...excluding me, I think the three of you are quite skilled in what you do. We still got a good number of mons on standby though." "HHhmmm, in that case, can i ask for them to do something about the Grove guards in the watchtowers and the entrance?" The Lucario enquiries. The normal-type blinks and raises a brow. "Yeah, I suppose it is possible to do that. Why though?" "Just so they have problems seeing the invasion coming." He begins explaining. "If they are too slow to respond this means we got more time to act and they got less time to start burning things......i hope."

"Sounds like a plan." Ranii nods in agreement.

"Then i think that's all that needs to be said." Sent said. "Alright then, I suppose we should be on our way now, right?" Luca goes over to one of the windows to take a peek outside, looking up at the moon. "Unless there is something else, Deacon?"

"Nothing else..." Deacon says. "At least for now." A grin comes across his features. "Once all's said and done, yeah. Maybe there'll be time for... fun. Time to catch up on not so old times. But for now..." his grin fades. "Alright everyone, we all got a job to do, everyone, get out there and do it."
"You don't need to tell us twice." Ranii says as she heads for the door.
"Oh, and Ranii..." Deacon gets her attention one last time.
"Yes?"
"Do survive." He finishes sadly.
"yeah..." Ranii replies back just as somberly. "You too."

"Yeah..." Ranii couldn't not have said it better really, Luca doesn't want Deacon to perish either, but it looks like they will be going together so perhaps they can keep each other safe. 
Now all four of them head out into town to sneak towards Dryhaven's port. It's around there that they see a big storage building, most of the town's important resources are located there such as food, drinkable water and some naval supplies...and the Grove plans to burn it all down to deny it from the Republic of Sands's war effort.
Luca remembers seeing that place from afar, when he and Ranii were infiltrating here the first time, but he didn't know it was going to be this important up until now.

"Well, this is one of, if not the first targets." Deacon says as they reach there. 
"Sooo what now?" Ranii says with a sigh. 
"Now... we play the waiting game."

And the waiting game begins...other than some guards around the storage place there isn't much to worry about, for now at least...They can just hide in an alleyway where they can have some view of the storage place by sticking their heads out a little.
After a good amount of time passed, the moon was high up in the night sky...and some time after that Ranii could hear sounds of fighting happening in the distance, so the Republic must be making their move now.
"Now we gotta keep our eyes open, try to stop anything that looks like a fire-type pokémon..." Luca says to his other three companions.
There isn't exactly anything like that coming...but there is a Sunflora making its way into the area, and it seems like she is going to talk with the guards.
"Hhhmm, what is going on over there?" The Sentret asks as he watches on from their hiding spot.

"I can listen in and repeat it as they say it." Ranii informs them quietly. "My kind's hearing is second to none."
"With four ears like those." Deacon teases her softly. "I'm not surprised."
"Not now jo-er, Deacon." She says.

By the looks of it the Sunflora came here to deliver the orders that they have to start getting the place ready to burn down, by spreading about anything flammable to make sure everything burns easier. As for what this flammable things are, from the shouting it looks like they are trying to find things such as wood or sails to strew about the storage. There are also some questioning the decision to let all of this go to waste but another one shoots that down with an argument that they don't have time to move all of this in such short notice.

All the while Ranii repeats it word for word to both Luca and Deacon.
"Well, now we know what they intend to light." Deacon mutters. "Now we just have to pinpoint the spark and put it down."

"Look!" Sent points up at the sky, he must have seen something!
What is up there? Well there are two mons flying in. One looks to be a big orange lizard with wings, it has a fire burning at the tip of its tail. The other one looks to be some sort of avian pokémon, looks like a falcon with red-orange plumage that tapers off into a flame pattern.
"There is someone else coming by ground too!" Luca warns them.
There is a third possible fire-type approaching the storage very quickly by land, it looks like a tall canine pokémon with an orange pelt marked by jagged black stripes while the rest is covered in shaggy, beige fur. 

"I'm going to guess from the coloration and the fact that one of them has a burning tail that those are our targets?" Ranii asks the two of them.
"Unfortunately, yes." Deacon replies. "That first one, the one with a  burning tail, is a Charzard. Big old dragon type. Second one, the one that looks like a falcon, is a Talonflame. Not surprised they'd have one on hand. But the last one I am surprised at, it's an Arcanine. They're usually more of a Snows thing, ironically enough. Maybe a mercenary of some sort?"
"Well that's all well and informative, but who do we deal with first?"
"Well obviously, dealing with all three at once is not a good idea. especially if they have backup like this. So we'll have to wait a bit until they separate, if they separate. Once they do..." His voice goes grim. "Take out the Talonflame first. It's faster than the other two, and can cover more ground. But it's also a bit weaker than the other ones. From what I've heard..." He looks at her. "I hear that magic spear of yours can take down a flier quite fast?"
"Yes." Ranii replies, not summoning it just yet as to not give away their position. "It tends to seek out whatever target is closest to it. Though... that can sometimes work against me. I can't always pick out what I want it to."
"I see." Deacon says. "All the more reason to get it separated, my dear."
"Okay, and then what?"
"Next target will be the Charzard. It might look tougher, but it's only a little bit stronger, and its a might bit slower. If it wasn't a flier I'd actually go for the Arcanine next, but it is, so it's the #2 priority here."
"And then we put down the orange mutt." Ranii finishes.
"Exactly."
"And what of you?"
"I'm a water type myself." Deacon says a bit proudly. "That means I'll be directly effective against them, and since none of them appear to be wielding weapons, that gives me much more options. Though, if they manage to start some fires, I'll have to divert my attention to that before they spread."

Looks like the fire types are somewhat spreading out. The Arcanine is being followed by a trio of grass-types from the Grove into the storage to start the fire on the inside, meanwhile the Talonflame and the Charizard are going to be setting fires to the surrounding boxes and buildings...though out of these last two the latter has better moves to start burning things.
"Should we begin?" Luca asks. "It looks like they are going to get it started...maybe they aren't expecting us."

"Yes. As long as we have the element of surprise, we should be able to take them out without notice. Or at least, delay said notice." Deacon says with a nod.

When it looks like the enemy is distracted enough with the arso, it was time to move in. First to deal with fliers...
The Charizard lands with a loud 'Thumb!', He really is as heavy as he looks. Without further ado he begins breathing fire on a pile of wooden boxes. The Talonflame is the fastest but not the most efficient though, she can not breath flames like the fire lizard so she has to make do with the ambers that scatter from her wings.
Now...it should be time to strike.

"Alright. Big lizard it is then." Ranii reaches out her hand and summons her spear, the mythical metal object appearing in her hand. She takes careful aim at the beat's heart, and throws it, hoping nothing else gets in the way of its flight, and hopes it doesn't suddenly decide to seek out something else instead...

The Talonflame spotted them approaching from up there, and also saw Ranii throw that attack. "Watch out!" She dove towards the spear to try to pin it down before it hit the charizard...However she did not expected the spear to suddenly turn mid air and skewer her through her right wing. "GAAAAAHH!"
Unfortunately this now alerts the Charizard, who looked at the fallen bird for a moment. "What the...who?!" He looks to Ranii and the others. "You are going to pay for that!"
Luca can tell that this fire-type is going to attack, but he is more worried about Ranii possibly getting caught in fire-type move as he knows Avali don't do well with fire. "Ranii! Take cover!!"
Sent is with them but unsure of what to do right now, he doesn't want to get in their way.

"Shit!!" Ranii yells as she waits for the spear to reappear in her hand. 
Unfortunately it is time she does not have, as that flamethrower comes right at her!
"Woah!" She yells as she leaps out of the way just in time, the flames barely missing her. She can still feel the heat as it passes by

What must have helped her not get hit was Luca trying to put himself between Ranii and the wave of fire. The pain he feels is quite super effective as he gets blasted away.

"LUCA!!" Ranii yells as she sees him get blasted into a nearby building. The spear reappears in her hand, and she growls in a primal rage as she grips it. "You SON OF A BITCH!!" She screams as this time, she doesn't chance throwing it again, she simply leaps at the charizard, spear aimed straight for his oversized head.
At the same time, Deacon, who had remained hidden until then, launches his own Liquidation attack at the charizard.

If it wasn't for the Inteleon hurting that fire lizard with a water attack, Ranii probably would have been burned to a crisp in mid-air. But this stopped the lizard from breathing more fire at her and gave her the window she needed to spear him through the head.
The Taloflame is still alive, keyword being 'still', she is bleeding more than a little bit from her wound.
Things aren't going to be quite calm right now though. "Guys! Guys! There's more Grove coming!" Sent warned.
Looks like two of the guards are here to see what the commotion is all about and these are armed with flint spears, a Pansage and a Nuzleaf. Unfortunately the latter of those two is not the same one that is on the side of the wallbreakers.

"Well, shit. Time to speed this up." Deacon says as he takes out a pair of his own knives, running up to the injured Taloflame and putting a knife to her throat.
"I hate to kill a hot girl like you, I really do." He whispers to her. "But... Your death will save many lives. Nothing personal."
And with that, he slashes her throat, leaving only the Arcanine to take down.

And that's another one down.
The Pansage and the Nuzleaf look at each other and nod. What could they be up to? Now something odd began happening, the Nuzleaf dropped its weapon and began charging at the Inteleon as fast as it could.
This is...strange, why did that Grove member just drop its weapon like that? Sent isn't quite sure but this let him move in to attack without fear, so he hits that Grass/Dark type with his tail, Slamming it on the Nuzleaf!
Though the Nuzleaf was hit, what happened next was...not good, as it settled with attacking now that it feels that it is in danger. Its body began glowing and then...it unleashed an Explosion that engulfed the wallbreaker that was pretty much on top of it, it also made the ground quake and the blast was still big enough to knock down Deacon and Ranii.

Deacon and Ranii both get blown back from the explosion, the avali hitting a nearby brick building and bruising her somewhat. "IICH... OW!!" Ranii says as she struggles to get up.

When the dust settled it was shown that the explosion left a small crater on the ground...and amazingly, even after something like that the two pokémon that were at the center of it appear to be only unconscious.
 That sure hurt quite a bit...Luca only managed to get himself up now, and his armor gained some warping from that Charizard's attack. He stumbled back into where the fight is taking place and shakes his head. "urgh..." Now he has a proper look at what just happened and...what happened here? It's bigger mess than he remembers. 
Meanwhile the one grass-type that is still standing is fanning dust away from his face and coughing. He looks over at the aftermath of that explosion to see if there is anyone still standing. Wait...was that Lucario here before?

Ranii holds her shoulder in pain as she stands there. She summons the spear with her other hand, and when it appears, she struggles to stay on it, using it for support. Deacon slowly starts to stir in the crater, that big hand rubbing his head as he gets up. "Uuugh" he growls.

The Pansage is hesitant to act while outnumbered...but then the Arcanine showed up. 
"What is going on out here?!" The Fire dog yelled as he approached, analyzing the situation. He sees that his friends are dead and that it appears like there are Sand forces here already. "Damn it..." He growls. 
The Lucario gets one of his swords ready to fight this fire-type. If it is strong with its fire like the Charizard was then he thinks he is going to be in trouble...but he needs to do something to get attention off of Ranii and Deacon. "Hey! You are going to be fighting me now!" He exclaimed, announcing his presence. 
The other canine pokémon saw him and began dodging the swings of his swords. "Why are you just standing there?! Attack him!" He orders grass-type. All this happening at once is leaving the grass-monkey overwhelmed, but he obeys and tries to go for a stab with his primitive spear; his attack was parried though.

Ranii, though in pain, rears up her spear, aiming at the Arcanine. 
"Hey mutt, CATCH!!" She yells as she tosses the spear right at him, hopefully it will make its mark.
As deacon gets his bearings meanwhile, he sees that fight happening. While he knows that isn't going to be effective, he shoots a watergun right at the grass-monkey, to return the favor to Luca for buying them both time.

Unfortunately that is exactly what the mutt went and did, he caught the spear with his paws. though one of said paws did so around the blade and got some nasty cuts from doing that. "Nghhh!!!"
The Lucario decides to take the time to deal with this small fry with the spear, especially since he looks like he is reeling from that attack Deacon hit him with. A single swing of his sword to open up a wound across chest was enough to take it out. Dividing his attention at this moment was not a good idea though...
The Arcanine takes this time to attack, and as much as he wishes it was with this spear he just got, one of his paws got cut up pretty bad by it. He sends another Flamethrower at the blue jackal instead, managing to engulf him with the fire.

"LUUCAAA!!" Ranii screams. She frantically looks to Deacon. "Quick, put him out!!" She yells.
"But I..."
"DO IT!!"
Deacon nods, and shoots another watergun, this time at Luca to try and put out the flames.
Ranii, momentarily forgetting and ignoring her own pain, rushes at the dog as the spear disappears from the Arcanine's grasp. "DIIIIEEEE!!" She screams as she pulls the spear back, and leaps direclty at him, spear aimed at his heart.

Luca is left injured and unconscious on the ground, thankfully nowhere close to death. Another good thing is that he is not on fire thanks to Deacon.
Screaming, the Arcanine tried catching the spear again by it's shaft just like last time, but with Ranii pushing it this was way less successful and he only managed to stop it from getting through his heart at the moment, but he still speared in the chest. The Avali just needs to put a little more pressure and it will skewer his heart for sure...

"RAAAAGHHHH!!!" Despite her small frame comparatively, Ranii pushes the spear as hard as she can, applying as much pressure as she can in her rage-filled state.

The fire-type canine fell to the ground with her on top of him, and him coughing out blood and his grip on her spear weakening is a good indicator that life is leaving him very fast...

With a final grunt, Ranii pulls the spear from the canine's body. With a cuple of huffs, her rage begins to subside... and the situation becomes clear once again...
"Luca..." She huffs. "... LUCA!!" She runs over to him, seeing the wet scorch marks on the ground, and Deacon kneeling at his side. "P-Please tell me he's-"
"Fainted." Deacon replies before she can finish. "He'll live, Ranii."
"Oh thank the N- I mean, draught."
"Ranii..." Deacon says softly. "I know what you are, remember? You don't have to hide it from me."

Luca is indeed very much alive and doesn't look like he sustained anything life threatening, despite how he was engulfed in flames for a moment...Pokemon moves work in strange ways.

She looks to deacon as he takes out something from a small pouch.
"Open wide." He orders Lucario as he opens the dog's mouth for him, and quickly shoves something inside and closes it.
"Deacon, wha?"
"Just a little berry for blueberries." Deacon replies to her unasked question, that familiar twinkle back in his eye.

The effects of the berry given to Luca were immediate, the burns he has are visibly healing.

"Now we just need him to wake up." Deacon says as they both watch.

It takes some time but Luca begins opening his eyes again, though he let's out a pained groan right afterwards. "What just happened...?"

As soon as he says that, Ranii hugs him tightly, only taking the barest of cares to avoid the spike. "That big dog blew fire at you and and I thought I'd lost you..." She says.

Luca sighs and hugs her back. "And leave you? No, I'm not going to go anywhere Ranii." He says to reassure her. "...You give me a little help to get up though?"
Though the fire types were eliminated, it looks like the Arcanine still managed to set a fire in the storage place. That might need some attention...but the damage could have been a lot worse if nothing was done about this whole situation.

Ranii opens her mouth to say something to Luca, but a particular smell tingles at her tongue. The smell of smoke. 
"Erm... Deacon?!" She says as she points to the fire. 
"Oh, right." Deacon gets up, and goes to use his water moves to put it out.

While the Inteleon goes to work on putting out those fires, this leaves Ranii and Luca alone for a moment.
"I guess we are almost done here, right? We should go see how things are going in the rest of Dryhaven."

Ranii breathes a sigh of relief, though in truth, she is a bit mad that the ship, and with it, most likely those responsible for this, got away. ... Or did they?

"Hhmmm...it looks like retreating was their priority besides trying to destroy Dryhaven." Luca comments. "But I guess things didn't quite pan out how they were planned."

"Yeah..." She looks to Deacon. "Thanks to a few friends."
Deacon is treating the fallen Sentret, who took the blast for all of them.

With Dryhaven taken, it was time for some rest for some of the republic's forces...Ranii and Luca included given how the latter of the two is still sore. So it's back to the camp with them.
"hhhmmm..." Luca sighs and sits on a bed inside the tent. There is something that has been bothering him. "Ranii, I'm sorry about my armor, they really messed it up..."

"I'll have to take a look at it later." She says as she helps it off of him. "Once I get some off time to do so." 
She smiles at him.
"I'm just glad the person wearing it is alright."

He smiles and gives her a pat on the shoulder. "Yeah...though sorry if I worried you so much back there." Then Luca gives her little kiss on the forehead.

Ranii blushes a little and returns a kiss, on his cheek.
"So Deacon is still tending to the wounded..." She says.

"Hhmmm-hhmmm..." He nods. "I heard talk of other Grove soldiers exploding to take out as many of us as they could. Plenty of injuries around so i guess we will lay down here for a bit."

"Yeah." Ranii says. "So much for the after-action celebration." She sighs.

"If he is still around here by tomorrow, I hope he at least gets to properly thank him." He sighs. "Come now, let's get some rest."

"Yes. Let's." Ranii says as she snuggles up with him, being mindful of his chest spike.

Luca hugs her with one arm and as he lays there with her, closing his eyes to sleep.