Act 19: Calm Before The Storm

The usual Whimsicott guard at the entrance jumped when he saw a sudden flash of light. After blinking a few times he sees that it's Luca and Ranii. "Oh, h-hey, The Guildmaster has been expecting you two to report it."
Luca nods. "Right, we will be over right away."
The Whimsicott can't help but look at the Lucario's new armor, pokémon wearing metal like that is not something one sees everyday.

Ranii gives a small nod towards the Whimsicott, and says "good luck to you today, Whimsy." 
She then follows Luca in

When they got there to the Guildmaster's chamber, they see that Stic is not there alone, there are two other pokémon sitting around his table. A Electrabuzz and a Glaceon who are also ace rank, just like Luka.
"Ah, the two of you have arrived, good, please take a seat." The Guildmaster says to the two who just arrive. "I got important tasks for the three of you for the upcoming battle."

"Indeed." The Meowstic nods.
The Glaceon, or rather Aceo, looks to Luca. "Oh, so you get armor huh? Who made it for you? your girlfriend?" He is always like this, and it might sound like he is looking to insult his fellow Ace here but... "It looks nice."
"Guildmaster, we should get to the plan." Elec, the Electrabuzz says, getting to the point because time might be of the essences. "We can't let them take us by surprise."
Stic nods. "Alright...so the first line of the defense was something I thought of on the fly when I saw what these 'crossbows' could do. Some of our ground types will hide under the sand, they will start creating an imbalance on the sand in which the enemy will step on, so they will begin to sink in it. This should make them easier to fire upon but it won't deal with all of them." He gives a moment of silence. "They are certain to get to the gates and the fighting might break into the town itself. I want Luca and Ranii to help hold their main force coming at us from the front."

Ranii gives Aceo him a raised eyebrow. He isn't exactly wrong, but....
Rather than reply, she pays attention to the briefing.
"We'll be ready to do our part." Renali gives a nod, clenches her fist, and places it over her heart in a salute.

"I shall do my absolute best, Guildmaster Stic." The Lucario said that with a sharp and determined Gaze in his eyes.
"Now here comes the other issue..." The Meowstic begins explaining again. "We are going to need to evacuate the town too. Make no mistake, the walls do protect the town, but pokémon from the grove are no stranger to climbing, compared to the main force it is not likely to be many but they will still circumvent the entrance so it is important to watch your backs too. Elec, Aceo, I want you two to handle the matter of evacuating the citizens to the nobles mansion."
They both agree but Elec has his doubts, which he proceeds to voice. "The nobles? they aren't exactly known for being 'helpful' to the people, Guildmaster."
"Absolutely. But do not fret, I have someone on the inside who will be sure that the doors will be open. He will also be keeping an eye on the nobles."

"Not to mention there are mons that can fly." Ranii adds into the issue. "or just ones with very strong legs. Myself included."
"Yes." The counselor nods to the last part. "Especially if our... plans regarding them... are to come to fruition. Can't have them running off when we're not looking."

"Indeed. Yet we still know nothing about what move the Sandstone Guild will make, I'm afraid, but they do not know what we are going to do either. But thanks to Khaako's drone we can keep an eye on their movement when they act, in fact their usage to keep an eye on the Grove's troops so far has been very useful."
"Well, so when do we begin?" Luca asked.
"When they begin making their approach." The Guildmaster said to him. "When that time comes i shall alert everyone to get to their posts, in the meantime i order you to remain within the guild and at the ready."
"Hhmmm, so can you tell me more about that package? what is a 'glitch'?"
"Why don't you go see him yourself?" Aceo said to him. "You really should, you will be amazed..."

Ranii knows what a 'glitch' is, both meanings of it. And she is 99.9% sure they don't mean they're a problem with a computer... especially considering that drone with Khaako aside, there aren't any here. 
She decides not to ruin the surprise, however, so she says nothing. Merely nodding.

"Where exactly?"
"You heard that shouting?" Aceo is referring to the one in the background. "Just follow it."
"Okay then." The Lucario looks at Ranii. "Let's go check that out while we still have time?"

Ranii gives a knowing chuckle.
"Definitely. I'd love to see the looks on your faces when we get there."

"Alright, let's go then." Luca got up from his seat and walked out of the guildmaster's chamber, following the sound of the shouting to get to its source.

They walk down the hallway, towards the noise. Which gets more clear as they get to it. The sounds of metal being clanked against wood. Presumably test dummies.
"Irritated. Load it faster, peasant! The enemy is not going to wait for your meatbag hands to fumble the bolt on!!"
"Yes Sir!!" A shout comes from a mon.
"Disgusted. Put some muscle into that thrust! The idea is to stab them, not tickle them to death!"
"Sir yes sir!"
"Belligerent. Line up those shots! What, do I have to draw the target around the arrows?!" 
"No sir!!"
"Directional. Back, thrust, twist, out! How hard is that to understand?!"
"Yes sir!"
"Instructional. Back of the head for knockout, Back of the legs for knockdown. Into the brainbox for results."
"Yes sir!"
"These are potatoes, Sir Steelwalker. Why are we using potatoes instead of real bombs?"
"Annoyed. Because real bombs are valuable. In fact, they're worth a lot more than you are!"
"uh... uh of course. My mistake."
They round the corner, and see a bunch of mons training with iron weapons. But not just swords. Halberds. Spears. Maces. And in the center... 
One might be forgiven for thinking the person in front of them was wearing a very heavy, very metalic, very thick, very expensive suit of armor, with all the metal and the glowing eyes coming out of the 'helmet'. One that was wearing a set of clothing over the top of the chest and legs, for some reason.
But Ranii knew the truth.
This was a 'glitch', a robotic person from a civilization forever stuck in what earthlings would call the 'middle ages'. Well, most of them anyway. Some had broken away from the 'hive mind' as it were, but were likewise slow to develop modern tactics and weapons and such, instead choosing to adopt and create much more 'advanced' versions of the medieval weapons. modernized crossbows, swords, spears, maces, armor suits, etc.
"So the 'package' was of glitch origin, and came with one free glitch man-at-arms." Ranii comments.

The Lucario is left in awe not just from seeing so many weapons in one place, but also what appears to be a creature that is entirely composed of metal. "Is he all...iron?" He questions.

"Close." Ranii replies quietly to him. "Not Iron, Steel... or Tungsten."

He then looks to all the weapons around, he can tell that there is more quality than the average iron work produced, and there are some weapons he never saw before...spears with axe blades? Very small spears that are shot out of those weapons? "Hhhmmm, I can't understand some of these weapons."

"So I take it that means you'll stick to your swords, then?" Ranii asks Luca.

"Swords I can understand. I'm feeling a hint of sadness at the prospect of having to put these i have away, i have had them for a long time. But it would be logical and prudent to grab better ones, I know I'm gonna need all the advantages I can get."

She puts her hand on his shoulder. "Give them to me, I'll put them in my matter manipulator for storage. Then, once the two of us get something resembling a permanent home, I can put them on the wall somewhere as decor."

He smiles and nods. "Alright then." He reaches over his back to removes his swords from there, sheaths and all, and overs them to her. He looks at his two soon-to-be-former weapons for a moment, mentally saying 'goodbye' to them.

"They'll be safe, don't you worry." She says to him. She doesn't tell him just how bad of a condition theses are, and internally, she's surprised they've lasted this long. 
The swords disappear in a flash of light, similiar to the teleports they use.

He sighs. "Alright...now it's time to get a new pair now." Luca then goes over to the Glitch to speak with him. "Hello?"

"Angry. Why are you trying to take the pommel off the sword?"
"B... Because I had the idea that I took the pommel off and threw it at them, it would distract them long enough to stab them?" The little flaafy asks.
"Dumbfounded. ......." The Glitch's eyes narrow as he edges in closer to the flaafy, who is getting rather scared.
"S-Sir?!"
"Enraged. YOU MOORRRRRAAAAAAAAAAANNN!!" it screams in a metallic voice. "You are not to disassemble your weapon in combat!! You-"
Luca approaches him in the middle of his rant. The very angry glitch looks at the lucario.
"Still enraged. What's your excuse, blueberry?!"

Oh, it looks like he stepped in at the wrong time. "......Did i catch you at a bad time, sir?"

"Enraged. I AM NOT A SIR! I WORK FOR A LIVING YOU MOROOOOOON! You will call me Quartermaster, or Quartermaster Steelwalker, Do I make myself cle-ar!!"
"Cool it tin-head. He's with me." Ranii growls at him.
"Angry. Did you say something ma-" 'Quartermaster Steelwalker' turns to Ranii. 
"... Apologetic. Sorry 'mam. I thought this guy was another one of the scrubs." He points with an open palmed hand towards the other mons trying to figure out how their weapons work, with... varying degrees of success. 
"Polite. So how can this knight help you?"

So his tune changed just now, that's nice. He finds it a little odd how the Glitch says what emotion he is talking with before properly speaking. "Alright then, Quartermaster Steelwalker. I am in need of a pair of weapons, swords you see? Two identical ones if possible."

"Annoyed. If you weren't with that Avali, I would say, 'Oh oh oh, two swords? What? You want to feel SPECIAL or something?!' I will run on the assumption that you actually know how to use them..."
"Additive." He adds. "I would recommend a shield instead of a second sword as it would serve you a lot better, but far be it from me to question my hosts."
He walks into the back part of the room, and returns with two blades that are of a similar make as Luca's old ones, but a bit more... black. Tungsten shortswords. 
He also comes back with a shield.
"Neutral. Two tungsten short swords. And a shield in case you'd rather have that instead of the second sword."

The Lucario takes the swords...and the shield too. However this last one is one of the things he doesn't understand. "Okay, i will consider this...shield? what's this big, flat piece of metal for?"

"Proud. Ahhh the shield. It is mostly for defense, to block blows from attacks, ranged or melee. However, it can also be used in an attack role as well."
One eyes dims while one eye brightens, as if he were raising an eyebrow.
"Tempting. Would you like a demonstration?"

This is something that he considered for a moment. "Hhhmm...Yes, please do enlighten me on it, Quartermaster Steelwalker."

The glitch takes the shield back, holding it with his right arm.
"Instructive. Attack me."

Does sounds like this Glitch knows what he is doing. The Lucario draws one his new swords and performs a basic slash against him.

The glitch blocks it with the shield, almost effortlessly, perhaps even boredly, the blade glances off the shield, a spark or two flies. 
"Instructive. Again. But this time, put a little more effort into this.

He takes a couple steps back, then dashes forward while swinging his sword, the result is a similar attack but with more momentum and power put into it.

The glitch once again blocks it, the blade being deflected off the shield. However, this time the experienced quartermaster goes on the offensive, bashing the shield forward against the lucario's chest, knocking it against the chest spike. The combined weight of the shield and the metalic glitch using it is more than enough to knock the unprepared lucario onto the ground. He climbs over the lucario, raising the shield up, putting his other hand on top of the shield, and thrusts down...
... Stopping mere inches from the lucario's neck.
"Smug. Are you enlightened, yet?"

He remained frozen on the ground for a split second, his eye wide in surprise at the incoming attack that stopped before it connected to his neck. ".....Yes...very enlightened." He lets out a sigh of relief.

The glitch holds out a hand to help him up.
"Chastizing. I will be honest here. You are actually disadvantaging yourself by using two shortswords.  They get in each others way and restrict your movements more than they help. "
"Recollective. I have seen many opponents attempt to dual wield short swords, daggers, or other weapons. Even maces and axes, for maker-knows what reason. I have never seen anyone wield dual wield two swords, maces, daggers, etc. effectively." 
"Wow. That guy really kicked Luca's ass." One of the mons in the background whispers. 
"Never thought I'd see the day." Another one adds.

Well now this is starting to feel embarrassing. Regardless he takes the glitchs hand to get back up on his feet. "I will...consider it." He sounds a little doubtful now after being knocked down so easily. He puts his sword back in the sheath. "Can i have the shield back now?"

"Friendly. Of course." He hands the Lucario the shield.
"Polite. And you, madam?" He turns towards the Avail. "What do-"
Ranii holds out her hand and summons Gungnir from thin air.
"I'm all set. Thanks anyway." She says.
"Impressed." The Glitch says as he looks upon the golden spear. "Indeed, it does look like you're well to go. Very well then."

Currently Luca is trying to figure out just how he is going to carry this shield on his back given the fact that his swords are there too, maybe he could put it over them, not like it would get in the way...or maybe he could carry the swords on his sides? He was about to walk out of there when he heard a familiar voice from a mon leaning on the wall nearby.
"Don't get too bothered about that." It is Aceo, he is speaking in a low tone, almost whispering. "The guy might as well be a king of iron. He is giving iron, and IS iron...heh...yeah i might have learned that before you."

"He isn't wrong." Ranii says. "That's a Glitch. The mons here... they sometimes use iron, yes. They use iron leftover from decades ago, but they don't really know iron. How it's made, how to use it for the most part. Those 'glitch' guys? They're forged in it, they're one with it. Especially knight-classes like Steelwalker there. They're trained how to use these kind of weapons the moment they're 'born'." She says 'born' with air quotes. "Imagine a society where the rule of the 'Iron King' never ended. Only there were a lot more 'Iron Kings' running around. That's basically Glitch society in a nutshell."

The Glaceon looks down and begins laughing in silence. "A world of Iron Kings...that's either an paradise...or an existence of utter suffering for everyone...hehe..."

Ranii shrugs. "Depends on the kingdom, largely." She says. "But you still have to remember that for the large part, they're still not modern societies like the avali have. Nor a more 'familial' tribe like my adoptive family's. Soooo, on the whole, not all that much different than this society, but minus the whole 'killing sapient creatures for meat', as that's more the Floran's thing and they only eat robot-food anyway, and less hyper-obsessiveness on rape. Because kinda-sorta hivemind and because their reproduction doesn't work that way."
Ranii chuckles a bit.
"... And I just realize that I sound like a nerd, don't I?"

"Is a 'nerd' someone that says stuff you don't understand?"

"It's.... uh.... well... Yeah, let's just... go with that explaination."

"It is time." The Avali heards the voice of Stic, and seems to have come from the inside of her own head somehow, this must be telepathy. It looks like everyone else is hearing it too. "The Grove has began moving towards Sandstone. All of the Four Eyes guild, mobilize now."
Aceo blinks for a moment, getting his back off the wall. "Alright...try not to die, 'nerd', i have feeling Luca would be very sad if you did..." He begins moving out of this chamber with the other pokémon.
"Ranii." Luca said, going to her side. "You heard that right? It's time."

"Yeah. I heard." The Avali replies darkly, holding out her hand and materializing her spear. "Let's go."