Act 32: Day of Infamy

Both of the females sleep peacefully through the night in each other's embrace. Morning then comes with the rise of the sun.
"Ranii!" A muffled voice calls out from somewhere, it sounds familiar. "Ranii!"
This wakes up Ara from her slumber. "Huh...? Whatsthat?"

"Gruhgrugh.... what the?" Ranii grumbles as she shakes herself awake. "Whash happening?" 
She rubs her eyes, trying to rub away the last bit of sleep.

"Someone's yelling?" The Abra asks.
"Ranii!" This sounds like...Luca, it sounds like he is in the building but somewhere else.
"Hhhmmm...is that him?"

"We better teleport to him" Ranii says as she gets up. "He sounds distressed."

"Yeah, let's go." She places a hand on Ranii's shoulder so she can teleport both of them back to where they were yesterday night, behind the bar counter.
And Luca is there. "Oh, there you are!" He says to his partner as he approaches the bar counter.

"I'm here Luca. I'm here." Ranii confirms as he comes closer. "What's going on? Is something wrong? You sound agitated."

Ara notices that none of her employees are here, which is strange since they usually start arriving at this time to get ready to work.
"We have just begun evacuating the citizens to the mansion again." Luca starts explaining. "The Grove has been gathering for another attack, they have more forces this time..."
"Oh..." The Abra can see that by the look of things, this day is going to be another very hectic one.

"Dammit!" Ranii shouts, her hand extended and her spear appears in her hand. "I knew those bastards were up to something!" 
She looks around, frantically, and then at Ara.
"Ara! Get out of here, we'll handle this."

"So everyone's evacuated to the Mansion already? Are they already here?" The Abra asks, worried.
"No." Luca shakes his head. "Not yet but they can start charging at Sandstone at any moment so we are getting everyone to the mansion before anything bad can happen. It's a proactive evacuation that Stic ordered."
"Right..." She nods. "Then i think my girls are there too, alright i'm gonna go-"
All of a sudden someone comes into the establishment. "Hey boss! I'm ready to work!~" This voice and enthusiasm is unmistakable, it's Mr. Fluffybuns. "...Where is everyone?"
The Lucario narrows his eyes when he sees that it's her.
"Oh, hey big girl." Ara waves to her and sighs. "Today's gonna be complicated again..."

"Don't go crazy again." Ranii warns Josclyn. "I do NOT want a repeat of last time. Remember my warning..."
She then turns to Luca. 
"Okay, so are we going to the front right away or are we meeting with Stic for some sort of plan?"

Jocelyn lets out some nervous laughter at that. "I know..."
"Don't worry, I'm going to the mansion with her, and I will make sure she stays there until this all blows over." The Abra said before she started going over to the Lopunny.
"We shall meet up with Stic for now, which means we need to go to the mansion as soon as possible." Luca gets an idea and looks at Ara. "Hey...you're going to teleport to the Mansion right?"
She looks at him. "Yeah, of course." But she realizes what he has in mind, doesn't even take mind reading. "So I guess you want me to 'give you a ride'?"

"That would be heavily appreciated, yes." Ranii says. She puts her hand on Ara's shoulder, and nods to Luca to do the same.

Luca goes to put a paw on Ara too.
"Alright, first we are going to pass by a place nearby real quick." She grabs one of the rabbit's ears before teleporting herself and everyone in front of a small home not too far from where they are.
"Huh?" Luca is a bit confused. "Why did you bring us here?"
"I wanna see if Igon is still around, if not, we can go." She leaves the three of them out there for now and heads in there.

Ranii waits for Ara to return, looking around nervously as she does.

There are a number of things happening around them, there are civilians hurrying over to the mansion, with some Four Eyes members being the ones going around and warning everyone of what's going to happen and that they should go to the mansion.
"I figure you would have been flying there already." They hear Ara's voice speaking, and sure enough she comes out of that small home with Igon, it seems she is talking with him.
"I was just gathering everything of value I could." He responds to her. The Flygon is holding a bag in one of his claws, and must have the Poké he doesn't want to leave behind. He then noticed the three other people out here. "Oh, it's you guys...what are you doing here?"
"They are coming with us to the mansion." Ara said before going back to Ranii and the other two.
Igon blinks and waits. "Wait...you are going to teleport all of us all at once? At such a distance?" He sounds worried for her. "Are you sure...? There is no need for you to push yourself, I can fly you know?"

Now Ranii is slightly worried as well.
"If it's too much trouble, Luca and I can make our way there on our own." Ranii reassures the Abra. "We have our own shortcuts there."

"You do?" Ara hesitates to say 'yes' to that for a moment but she knows how the Avali is full of surprises. "...Alright then." She then looks to Igon. "Well?"
"Like I said I can fly, I will get there quickly, don't worry." He said to her, it sounds like the Flygon really doesn't want to be a burden to her.
Considering she is letting Ranii and Luca take their 'shortcut', she can't really stop Igon from doing the same now. "Alright...fine, but I better see you there! no getting sidetracked, got it?" She is sounding a little stern with him, she doesn't want him in danger after all, considering that when the town gets deserted it can be quite dangerous. "Alright big girl, let's go." She grasps one of the Lopunny's fluffy ears.
Jocelyn smiles and waves to them before she and her boss get teleported away.
Igon sighs and looks up, preparing to fly...But before that he looks at Ranii and Luca. "Say...you are going to win this right?" He asks them.
Luca nods, he has complete confidence that they are going to win, with the town being led by them they can prepare far better than when the first attack happened, not to mention the help from the Avali. "Yeah, everything's going to be fine."

"Yeah, we kicked their asses once, we can do so again." Ranii says to him. 
"Especially this time since we don't have to worry about secret conspiracies this time." She adds under her breath.
The avali looks to Luca and gives him a nod.

"Alright then, you two be careful." Igon says to them before flapping his wings and flying off towards the mansion. "That's that I suppose..." Luca then looks down at Ranii. "So about this Shortcut."
Ranii takes Luca by the arm. They are surrounded by light, and are teleported back onto the ship. They do not remain there for long, as a few seconds later, they are teleported back to the mansion's courtyard.

Luca looks around to reoriented himself, seeing that this is the mansion's Courtyard. "Alright let's go."
Now they head into the mansion together. On the way to the war room they pass by the entrance hall, the place is getting filled up with Sandstone citizens, just how it was that day...When they get to the war room, they see that the round table in the center is mostly occupied, there is still, Aceo and Elec and the Combusken.
"Master, we are here!" Luca calls out.
The Meowstic raises his head to look at them. "Good, please join us here, if you would."

Ranii nods and approaches the table. "It sure didn't take them long to break the neutrality, did it?" Ranii quips as she and Luca take their places at the table. 

"It was to be expected really." Stic said before looking at the map in the center of the table.
"So I have been told that we got a large number of Grove soldiers coming our way..." The Chicken says, pointing to the south of the map, and circle a claw around it. "They are all around here, and it looks like they are all going to go straight for sandstone head on, on the front gate."
"Could we put SOMETHING on the wall next time? I mean, if there is a next time." Aceo says. "I don't know, spikes or something?"
"Don't be so faithless, Aceo!" Elec yells at him. "Look at Stic, he doesn't even seem worried, we can win this. Right stic?"
The Meowstic nods. "As all of you here know, we are being aided by the Avali, they have established a base in Dynamo Sands."
"A base? Inside the Mystery Dungeon?" Luca asks.
"Yes, indeed."

It's at that moment that Khaako's drone activates and the councilor decides to join in on the coversation.
"Yes indeed." Khaako confirms what the Meowstic just said. "I also have it in good faith that the artillery is just about online and ready to go."
"Ground based artillery, huh?" Ranii asks the hologram. 
"Yes. Space to Planet bombardments of any kind are banned by the Kantares 3 War Accords." 
"I'm aware." Ranii was forced to study those upon her entry to the Exploratory Fleet. And while certain factions in the universe might not be following them, the Reborn Illuminate was very keen on both following and enforcing them.
"We're already stretching the 'rules' as is with the artillery, but luckily the gun's maximum outputs fall well below the maximum allowed energy allowed by munitions." Khaako admits a bit nervously with the first part, but sounds more confident with the second.

"This artillery..." Stic decides to explain to them, because he knows some of them might not understand what it means. "If we were to put into words that can be truly understood by all of you, well...Khaako told me that it will allow the Avali to support us in the battle by raining fire from the heavens onto our enemies."
The other three pokémon present are surprised and in awe at this explanation.
"Raining fire you say...?" The Combusken asks. "Can you elaborate a little more? is it going to be safe for us?"
Stic nods. "Yes, and I am hoping this can make the Grove turn tail and flee as soon as it begins. It should be utterly demoralizing for them when they start getting bombarded from above, even with their numbers i think it is impossible for them to not scatter."

"Yes, let's hope the psychological scare works." Khaako sighs. "we hate to kill people like this, but if a few hundreds must die to save hundreds of thousands..."
"Yes, indeed." Ranii sighs.
"And speaking of the Kantares 3 War Accords, we're going to have to talk about those later." Khaako says to Stic. "I didn't bring them up before since they weren't relevant to the current situation, but once you start liberating towns, these are going to be an issue. We of the Reborn Illuminate are both faithful followers and ardent enforcers of the Accords. So, if you want to join the intergalactic community, you will have to follow them." 

Stic nods to the Avali Councilor. "Alright, I'm not sure what these Accords are but...I hope they help in the end."
"So what is the plan?" Aceo asks. "Are we just going to wait until they come to us and this 'artillery' will take care of them?"
"Yes." Stic replied. "But I still want everyone taking defensive positions, we have the Avali on our side but this doesn't mean we are to slack off.
An explosion can be heard, it's far far away though.
Everyone looked around, they didn't quite hear very well what was, with the exception of the Avali here.
The Meowstic isn't all that confused though, he just sighs. "hhrrrm..."

"One moment..." Khaako's image turns to the side, and the audio switches off. Khaako's mouth can be seen speaking, but they can't hear her. She raises her arms in the air in frustration, as she carries on a short conversation with someone off screen, before turning back to Stic with a worried look.
"That explosion wasn't us." Khaako says with concern.

"I have been guessing last night what was that strange thing with the prisoner exchange." Stic begins. "I didn't know up until now so I was waging the possibilities. And it would appear that there were infiltrators among the Pokémon they handed over to us, the new faces were just to keep us guessing in case we looked into it."
"So that was...?" Elec was about to ask.
"Yes, I'm pretty certain that it must have been the Grove's doing." The Meowstic raises himself from his seat. "Alright, we have our plan thus far, all of you go to the entrance of Sandstone and prepare to mount a defense against the Grove forces. Whatever that explosion was, the enemy will surely begin moving because of it."
"Riiight then, guess today we learn what the Avali can really do..." Aceo said before getting up from his seat and running off after Elec and Ken as they leave the war room to make their way to the battle that is about to begin.

"I knew there was something up with that prisoner exchange." Ranii growls. "Looks like we have spies to hunt down-"
"Later." Khaako interjects. Her attention returns to Stic.
"Alright. The guns should be ready to go within moments. I'll let Ranii know via DM when they are online. Ranii."
"Yes, Councilor?" Ranii asks.
"Once the guns are ready to go, you will be responsible for spotting. The app I just sent you will help you do just that."
"Yes Councilor." Ranii gives a bow to the hologram.
"Alright. Is there anything else?" Khaako asks to Stic

Stic shakes his head. "No, I have nothing else to say for the moment. Lucas, Ranii...you should go too." He places his paws behind his back and walks over to his table, looking out a window in the direction of the town's gate...which is wide open now, that must be what that explosion just now was about.
"Right, master!" Luca gets up from the chair he was sitting on, looking at Ranii as he waits for her to come. "Let's go?"

"Let's go." Ranii gets up as Luca. She joins her partner and the two of them set out.

Both of them leave the mansion and pass through the deserted down of Sandstone, it's pretty silent...but they begin hearing the commotion happening as their allies prepare to defend the town, even with the gates wide open. The crossbow mon up in the wall are talking aim and waiting orders to fire while down on the ground fighters are with their iron weapons at the ready.
That Ampharos guard from before comes walking to Luca, to report the situation to him. He walks back as they move forward. "S-sir, the gates were blasted by bombs, the culprits of that is a strange Linoone and a Kangashkan. We don't know where they are right now...furthermore the enemy army has started advancing towards us!"
"That is...fine." Luca says to him. Looking at the gate he can see that they really did a number on them, so this was their plan...take out the gates so their forces could come in force easily. "Let's deal with them first." He looks up at the wall. "Ranii, Khaako told you to do 'spotting' right? I'm not exactly sure what that means but you should probably get up on the wall to have a good view."

A new item pops up on Ranii's hud. 
Artillery Crews preparing guns. ETA: 3 Minutes 
"Great, you could have given me a timeframe here, Khaako" Ranii argues under her breath. 
"Okay listen up." She turns to Luca. "The guns are setting up, we need to buy time for them. We need to hold them at the gates."

"Really?" He sighs. "Alright then, I guess we are going to have to put some fighting in this."
The enemy ground came within range in a little more than a minute. Unfortunately there is something else to deal with before that...there is a formation of Pidgey and Fletchinder approaching much faster by the air.
"What the...damn it we got flyers! aim up! aim up!" One of the crossbow mon up in the wall commanding the other one shouts, telling them of the threat above. "Shoot them out of the air! Fire!" And so bolts are let loose against the birds, some getting struck and falling dead from the sky. Those still flying begin their descent towards the wall, sounds like they plan to harass the crossbow mons on the wall...
Luka and pretty much all the defending forces armed with melee weapons can't do much from where they are. Well, Luca could at least throw an Aura Sphere, probably.

Ranii grabs her spear, and chucks it up at one of them. it hones in like a missile towards one of the Fletchinders, piercing it through the heart and causing it to crash into the ground. The spear disappears from their body and reappears in Ranii's hand, and she repeats this, downing a few more off the flying mons above. 
Artillery Crews preparing guns. ETA: 2 Minutes

When whatever surviving birds retreated with their lives, the crossbow mon on the wall were free to take aim at the approaching Grove forces, but the distraction allowed them to get pretty close, and with the gates wide open like they were...
Luca gets a small idea though. "Remain close to the gate, as wide as it is, it's still a tight opening for so many mons! We should be able to hold them off for a time if we only need to fight some at a time!" So basically his plan for this prioritizes the gates as a choke point.
Whatever mons that are nearby that hear him obey his order, preparing a sort of defensive formation to block off the entrance and make sure no one passes through...for as long as they can that is.

"ONE MINUTE!!" Ranii shouts in addition to Luca's declaration. "I NEED ONLY ONE MINUTE!!"
Ranii grabs her spear, and tosses it into the crowd, the spear picking a random target and impailing them. The spear reappears in the Valkyrie's hands, and she gives it another toss. There's too many of them for her to take on alone though, and they're getting closer and closer...
"Come on... come on..." She groans looking at her built-in HUD.

The fighting gets to the gate, and at the moment Sandstone's forces are being able to stop them from coming in through the choke point, but of course they are not ignoring the chance to climb the walls and even with their crossbow and explosives the mons providing ranged attack from above are already engaging a few of the climbers. While Grove mons are certainly being dealt with, their numbers really is nothing to scoff at...

Ranii throws her spear one more time into the croud. Just when it's starting to look like a loosing battle...
ARTILLERY READY TO FIRE
A very large, green round holographic circle appears in front of her eyes, one she finds she can move around with her mind. No one else can see it of course, it's part of her built-in HUD. This is part of the spotting mechanism Khaako mentioned.
She lines the circle up with a particularly close group of the Grove mon mobs, and then...
"And here. We. Go." Ranii says to herself. 
She clenches her fist, and the circle turns red.
ARTILLERY FIRING.
There are a series of loud pops that come from the direction of Dynamo Sands. A few second later, there are a series of loud, horrifying screeches as the shells fall from the sky, the ground at which they hit erupts into a series of loud, massive explosions and screams. Sand, blood, gore, and body parts fly in all directions from the impacts, one after the other. Where there was once a 50ft group of mons advancing to the gate, there is little more than a series of craters and gore.
SALVO COMPLETE. RELOADING ARTILLERY GUNS.

Now this outright stops all the fighting. At first everyone was left confused at what just happened, then the Grove soldiers noticed what happened to their comrades, how they were reduced to a pool of blood and limbs in craters of sands by that massive explosion. Panic set in immediately, the Grove forces are mortified and are scattering, screaming and fearing for their very lives.
High up into the air, Duci had watched everything, how a sizable portion of the Grove's attacking force got decimated by that thing that fell from the heavens. Suffice to say this left her at a loss for words at the terrible power that is aiding Sandstone. "We can't win...we can't...win..." She mumbles to herself over and over again.
There is no celebration from the mons that defended Sandstone too, they had won, and yet the sheer brutality and aftermath of how the Grove was swiftly defeated left everyone stunned in horrified silence by the aftermath. Indeed the only sound being heard right now is coming from the fleeing enemies.
Luca is petrified as anyone else around him, not even the other Aces beside him can muster a word at what they just witnessed. Aceo who was looking forward to see how the Avali were going to help, had what he wanted, but in hindsight...if he knew it was gonna be like this he wouldn't even have wanted to come here.
Stic also had watched everything play out thanks to Khaako's drones. When he first heard of the accords he was not sure what to think of, but after this...he can see why those accords were to be mandatory. Such terrible power, even if he had a good idea of what would have happened, it did not quite prepared him to see the aftermath with his own eyes, all four of them. 

Ranii sees what she's brought about. She sits down, on the wall, and puts her head in her hands in shame. Yes, they defended Sandstone, again. And hopefully for the last time. But... seeing everyone else like this, in awed silence, and the guilt of having essentially pulled the trigger. All the gore, all the blood...
It's too much.
She shakes in her spot. She hopes whatever gods are listening that she doesn't have to do that again...

After all the Grove forces that are still alive finally leave, there is only the deafening silence...and the howl of the wind.
Everyone begins snapping out of the shock, and begins talking among themselves in terrified whispers. 
Luca began looking for Ranii, he had a good idea where she went so he found a ladder to go up the wall to look for her there. "Ranii...?" He still sounds absolutely shaken.

"...." Ranii is still shaken. 
"Di... Did we win?" She asks shakily, not even turning to see him. Seems she's not used to this either.

He...doesn't know how to answer that frankly, he surely isn't feeling like a winner, he is terrified. Words fail him, so the only thing he can do right now is go to her and...give her a hug.

Ranii shakes in the hug, but as they sit there, she begins to shake less and less a little. "T.... Thanks Luca..." She whispers softly. She turns around in his grasp, and returns the hug.

"Yes, let's...let's go..." He slowly gets up on his feet, and also helps Ranii unto her feet. Luca doesn't want to let go of her so he will be holding on to her hands as they go.

They get off the wall, and make their way to the mansion... slowly. In her shellshock, she forgot about her 'shortcut'. She looks around, at the defenders looking at her, feeling rather small. She wonders if they're afraid of her now. Or if they hate her. 
She probably would, if she was in their shoes, and she had to see this for the first time.

"Hey Ranii..." Luca says. He can notice that she is not feeling very well after what happened, now that things are calming down his worry for her is taking center stage. "How are you...holding up?"

"Am.... Am I monster?" Ranii answers his question with another question shakily and sorrowfully.

"No..." Luca sighs. "You are not a monster, Ranii. Why would you think that?"

"I feel like one today... after I killed so many of them... the way everyone, even my own friends... were looking at me..."

"..." The Lucario gets up on his feet to go over and sit by her side. "Yeah...i know, that shocked everyone, even me. But...I don't really think less of you, I'm sure the others won't either...There was really no other way for us to have won otherwise." He looks down. "Everyone...us included, we just might need a moment..." 

"I...." Ranii pauses, not even sure of what to say at this point... other than... "Thank you, Luca."

"You are welcome..." He smiles a little to try to comfort her. Now he is just gonna sit here to be close to her. "I think you already know this but...i love you, Ranii."

"I... I think I do... and..."  She leans in close to him. "I love you too, Luca."

He silently hugs her once more with one arm, bringing her into his loving embrace. "It's going to be alright...everything is going to be fine..."

"Yeah...." She says softly into his ear. "Yeah... I... I think it'll be fine..." 
She stays like that for him for a moment. Before she kisses him on the cheek
"I'm glad I got assigned to you." She whispers in his ear.

"I'm happy to be with you too." He happily whispered back to her.
They remain resting here, together. Time flies...and eventually the establishment's doors swing open as someone comes in.
It's Ara. The Abra seems to be followed by her employees as well. "Oh, hey, you guys! you are alive!" She sounds happy to see them. Then she gets worried when she sees their expression. "Are...are you two alright?"

Ranii smiles back, still a bit shaken from today, but a bit more cheery.
"I'm.... I'm fine..... mostly." Ranii says, finally letting go of Luca, a little embarrased that they got 'caught' here together like this. 
"You alright now, Luca?" She asks.

"If you are fine, I am fine." He says to her.
Ara can't help but smile at this, the two lover birds...heh. She had the feeling that they were more than just partners, maybe she is not wrong.
Luca looks to Ara. "Say...why are you here? You guys were taking shelter in the mansion right?"
"Yeah, everyone's fine." Ara said. "There were these big noises that got everyone in a panic in there but...yeah everything's fine, apparently none of ours died in that fight." The Abra looks to Ranii, as if assuming they might have her, and some other 'friends' to thank for that. "Some were pretty shaken though, what happened? Was it those noises...?"

Ranii looks off to the side a little bit. 
"Yeah.... it was the noises." She sighs.
"Oh..." She looks at Ara with a hint of worry. "Whatever you do, don't go to the front gate, or anywhere near it for the time being. Believe me.... you don't want to see it." She looks to the rest of the employees as well, including Joselyn. "That goes for the rest of you as well."

Ara nods. "Yeah you don't have to tell me...the guards are already doing that."
Jocelyn, thinking that she is, decides to be a rebel and begins slowly edging towards the door behind her.
The Abra catches her moving though she predicted it. "No."
Like a child not being allowed something, the Lopunny groans and lowers her head.
"Anyways..." She looks at the two of them once more. "You guys should probably go see your boss."

"Yeah... Yeah we should" Ranii nods to her slowly. "Come'on Luca. We gotta go report to Stic... even though he probably already knows by now."

"Yeah, alright." The Lucario gets up and goes towards the exit, walking past all of Ara's employees and not even looking at Jocelyn.

They make their way through the town, again, walking their way to the mansion. The quiet murmurs of the mons returning to the town catch the Avali's ears. Some of them have seen the carnage at the gate, some have not. Those that have looked at Ranii and Luca, and Ranii does her best to try and not feel ashamed at their stares.

When they arrive at the mansion they see that every mon that participated in the defense of Sandstone is there, they are all in a neat formation. Why is that? well it appears that they are about to hear a speech from Stic who is by an open window there on the second floor.

Ranii wonders if they are to stand in line with the rest of them, or go up front, or what.

Well it doesn't look like there is much need because Stic is already starting. 
"First of all, I shall state the obvious of what happened today. We were attacked a second time by the Grove, and we achieved a total victory, we haven't lost a single mon from our side today, there were wounded, yes...but no deaths." Those are good news of what happened but now he will move on to the more important part of this speech. 
"...I understand what you all might have witnessed today, thanks to the Avali's aid the enemy was routed to say the least, it was a terrifying display of power, almost...divine." He is not sure how uneasy this is making everyone, but it is what is, he can't not make light of any of this. 
"However...this was all for our own good, with this the Grove will not come back to attack us again for sure. Sandstone is now definitively and truly free. We shall now begin a campaign to liberate other towns captured by the Grove, but before we continue talking about this, I must first state something. We will not use the amount of force that we saw here today, it's not just because it is impractical...but because I will admit, it was not morally right, and if we are to really on it we will leave a legacy of hate and unrest worse than the Iron King." 
At the start of all this he even thought something stronger than iron was needed to secure a future, but having reflected on what might happen if this idea were to go unchecked he decided to take it easy, it's not what he wants, it's not what his previous guildmaster would have wanted. "If after all of you wave witnessed this day your resolves might be...shaken, and you no doubt want something to blame or hate. I will completely understand, do any of you have anything to say to this?"

Everyone below has already been talking amongst themselves, whispers of uncertainty...however one of these voices raises up.
"I'm still gonna stick with you."
"Yeah, you have saved this town twice over already!"
And just like that other voices begin speaking too, with positivity, it looks like they all still have faith in him, and the Avali too.
"Thanks to you it really looks like we can all have a better life, what happened here today surely doesn't change that."
"So...please don't stop leading us! I haven't stopped believing in you! WE haven't stopped believing in you."
"I have never seen such carnage before, and hope I never see it again. But...I'm still willing to serve under you, as I have for years now."
Right in the back of the crowd, Luca looks on at what's happening. It looks like things are...starting to feel a bit better. At least it looks like the majority of everyone here understands that what they did was for good. 

Ranii sighs a sigh of relief at the reactions of everyone else to the speech. Seeing everyone else continue to support Stic despite this carnage makes her feel at least somewhat better. 
Though that part about the liberating of the other towns captured by The Grove.... she knew it was coming of course, it's the next logical step afterwards. But, well... she knows her fellow guild members and whatever army Stic throws together are going to be in for similar rough times. For other reasons.
She's been through that before, she was briefly assigned to an Apex Rebel force for a time. And when she was assigned to liberate a town of Felin from the Miniknog who'd captured it illegally, well.... she shudders remembering the horrible things she saw on that campaign.
The Grove isn't the Miniknog, true. The latter is far worse by every metric. But still...

Stic is a bit happier that some are still willing to follow him, but he still feels some unease amongst the crowd of pokémon, this isn't particularly good but it could be worse, he just has regained his trust with them over time. "Your words are helpful. As for the campaign, it won't begin right away." He places his paws behind his back. "Sandstone will be changing, and for a period of two weeks these changes will take effect...first of all, I'm no longer a guildmaster, the days of being a guild are behind us, but our guild did not perish, it evolved into something better. Now we are Sandstones, with me as it's ruler, and you as it's soldiers. Our old guild shall become a training ground for our current and future troops, we got promising recruits that were rescued from the traitorous Sandstone Guild last night so we can look forward to more monpower. And this mansion will also see renovation, it's not a luxurious home for nobility, it is a base." He gives a small pause and...narrows his eyes a little bit. "I have said this before, but I will say it again...please do not let this authority go to your heads, we must remain disciplined so we can be better than decadent nobles who once steered this town into a bad path. In this two week period we shall help make Sandstone self-sufficient and conduct training exercises for our future endeavors." And with that his speech is pretty much concluded. "Rest yourselves for the remainder of today, I do know you all need it..." The Meowstic then turned around and walked away from the window.
The crowd that has gathered here now begins dispersing since they were dismissed. Some go into the mansion, some head off to town.
Seeing everyone going their separate ways, Luca looks down to Ranii. "Hhhmmm, i still wish to talk with Stic personally. Do you want to come with...?"

"Of course," Ranii replies to Luca. "I get the feeling they'd probably ask for me anyway."

"They? You mean the Avali?" He asks as they step into the mansion.

"Well, Khaako and Stic, yes." She replies bluntly as she follows him to their destination.