Act 50: Sending a Message
Back in the camp, Ranii awakens from her slumber with a loud yawn, next to Luca. Far from the cold, roomy confines of her ship, they share a tent with at least 10 other mons. 
Well, no matter. As she waits for her boyfriend/partner/CO to awaken, she decides to do a few stretches to wake up a little more.

Ranii is likewise frustrated at their lack of 'alone time'. Oh well, something to look forward to once this place is taken. Oh boy, does she plan to go all out...
But here and now, she hears him stir, and turns from her exercises to him.
"Ah good. You're finally awake." She says. For a moment she considers making a WindSky joke about crossing the border, but decides against it.

He raise a brow at that. "Hhmmm? 'Finally'? Did i overslept?" He remember going to sleep early so he is a little confused. And of course there is no way he can catch that reference.

"Well, not really..." She extends an open palmed hand to the door, and sees that there's still a bit of darkness outside. The sun is coming up, but just barely.

"Ah, alright then..." He sits himself and does a little stretching of his own. He remembered that thing yesterday. "So...that place where we buried that meat, you think that 'mon kept his word?"

"We could check quickly before anyone else wakes up if we want to be 100% sure." She says with a bit of irritation.

He gives a nod. Frankly that whole business still pisses him off a little. "Yeah, let's go give it a quick check. If we caught him in the act he is going to get it..."

"Alright." She nods. "Better safe than sorry, right?"

The both of them step out of the tent to go check that spot outside of camp where they gave a burial to those pieces of meat. They find that everything is still how they left it, it wasn't disturbed and doesn't look like anyone tried to dig it up.
Well...Luca thinks this is better than expected. "Huh."

"Hmmmm...." 
Ranii looks around, for something. Seeing that there's no one around, and not seeing what she's looking for, she takes out her matter manipulator. Pointing it at the ground, she clicks a button. A small beam shoots out, to where the meat was buried but rather than absorbing the ground or picking something up, something materializes out of it. Stone, to be precise. A small block of it. She traces it up, and soon the stone resembles something. A small t, or for those of a certain faith, a crucifix.

"Huh? What's that for?" Luca asks, not knowing why she just built this stone T thingy.

"Just figured they could use a tombstone of sorts." Ranii sighs. "A little marker used to mark a resting place for the dead. A bit better than a simple hole in the ground, wouldn't you say?"

"Hhhhmmm, that does sound nice." He nods. Well it seems like this ended well, he looks around just to be sure and doesn't see Slasher hiding anywhere nearby. "Let's go see if we got any assignments to do today?"

"Yeah... Maybe while we're at it we can ask what exactly they did with Slash... or whatever his name was."

"Aye, let's go." Back to the camp's commander tent it is.
When they arrive there both of the general, Elec and Aceo, are there.
"Well, here they are. Good morning I guess." Aceo greets them. "Good thing you just arrived here actually."
"Yes, indeed." Electrabuzz agrees with what the Glaceon says.
"Why? Is something the matter?" Luca is wondering what this is all about, but it seems important.
"We have a bit of a delicate situation to deal with here." Aceo explains a little.
"And since even in our guild days you were our most reliable mon, we want you to handle this one." Elec added.

"Lay it on us, you guys." Ranii says as she crosses her arms, and listens intently.

Aceo is going to explain a part of it. "So we thought of a way to make things for us to take the Grove's camp. They know we are here but they do not know where exactly, and they are inching to strike at us to 'snip their problem in the bud' so to speak. All they are waiting for is some confirmation of where we are so there more advanced groups of scouts combing the desert looking for us."
And Elec adds the rest. "So we plan to get them to go somewhere else. There is a messager that we want to intercept, we don't know exactly who this messager is but we know there is this landmark that anyone that travels uses for direction, he passes by there. We want you to take his delivery and bring it back to us."

"We recommend you don't bring a team, really." Aceo said. "You two together should be well enough."
Elec does have one more thing to say. "The messager also has a badge that you will have to take. As for where you need to go. Just go northeast, it's a bit far but eventually you should spot an unusual sight, a big statue...or what remains of it...called 'Stone Blade'. You can't miss it."
"And that's pretty much all..." The Glaceon finishes with a shrug.

"Alright..."
She's just about to leave with Luca, when she decides to ask one more question.
"Erm, unrelated, but before we go, I thought we should ask.... what happened to that Slash guy or whoever he was?"

"Oh...that one..." Elec sighs under his breath.
"We had a pretty long talk with him, he begged to stay, like a lot." Aceo starts explaining. "Anyways we will let Sandstone know about his 'friend' when we can. As for him, he is still with us but we told him to kick that habit, and if gets in any sort of trouble again there will be no second chance."

"Mmh, fair enough." Ranii replies. She realizes that she might end up being the one to relay the message once she gets the opportunity to teleport back to the ship without anyone noticing.  But she isn't about to make a special trip just for that. Especially when there's real work to be done.
"Alright, that's everything." She turns to Luca. "Alright, let's go."

Well, Luca doesn't need to add or say anything, Ranii already said it: It's time to go. On their way out they can see that others around the camp are already out and about too.
"Going out already huh?" They hear the familiar voice of Pachi comment, she is nearby and just saw them about to pass by.

"Yeah. We got another mission." Ranii greets her. "Though before you ask, no, we're not putting a team for this one."

"Aaaaw, so we won't hang out this time?" She jokes. "But why though? Usually being in a team is a good idea, right?"
"We need to be absolutely inconspicuous for this one, We need to acquire something and then get back here fast." Luca says.
"Right then, well don't get caught or anything. And good luck." Now that the conversation is done, she lets them both be on their way.
Luca and Ranii begin venturing in the direction they were instructed to go to. And as they go things begin to get hotter as the sun begins rising into the sky with the passing of time.

"Alright, so we're approaching the intercept point soon, right?" Ranii asks Luca, beginning to show just a bit of heat exhaustion? "Sooner we get this done with, the sooner we can get out of this sun."

The Lucario is placing a paw over his eyes to keep the sun off of them as he tries to look further ahead. "I see something...is it just me or is it just a strange rock formation?"
What Luca is seeing is the remains of a large statue, it looks like time wasn't kind to it as only the legs and a single arm that seems to be holding a sword up high. The sword is easy to make but the rest of the statue...not so much, too old and destroyed.

Ranii takes a look at the statue, a claw going to her chin in thought as she looks up at it. She gives a small whistle.
"Wonder how long this thing has been here for?" She says to herself. "Couldn't have pre-dated the Iron King. But for something only a century old it looks rather worn."
After examining it for just a few seconds longer however, she turns to Luca. "I'm guessing this is the landmark Elec was talking about. Now, we just need to wait for our ... unfortunate courier to show up."
She thinks a little more.
"I'm guessing we're supposed to kill them? I mean, it wouldn't do to have them running back to the Grove camp and have them be warned about it?" She curses herself for forgetting to ask, but as she said, this is what she assumes the task entails. "Feels a bit... wrong. Killing some hapless courier that's more than likely a conscript over a piece of paper. An important one, but a piece of paper nonetheless."

"You mean like pickpocketing him?" She asks. "I'm not sure. I mean..." She takes out the matter manipulator. "I mean if I concentrate this on him I could pull it away, but it would require them to hold attention elsewhere. Plus there's still the issue of what will happen when the messenger arrives at the destination and tries to give them the orders..."  She sighs. "They'll realize we, and the orders we gave them, were faked. Not really a better outcome than if we'd simply knocked him out and stolen it from him. Or her. Gods, please don't be a her"

"If they are small, maybe we could take the messager AND the message." Luca presents another idea forward. He isn't exactly sure what option they will ultimately settle on but at the end of they day they must get the courier's delivery.

"You mean capture?" Ranii asks. Before he can answer her, she nods solemnly. "Worth a try."

"I suppose now we gotta wait here, yeah? Under the statue maybe? There is some shade there."

"Sounds good."
So they wait. Under the relatively cool shade of the large statue.

As the two of them wait here for a time, they spot something coming along, but it's exactly a mon, it seems to be a caravan but it doesn't appear like it is from the grove.
Luca raises a brow at what he is seeing. "Hmm...it seems these are just civilians?" It sure looks like so. "Regardless, it's not quite what we are looking for, let's just let them pass and wait some more."

"Hmmmm....." Ranii thinks aloud. "You sure you don't want to socialize? Learn a thing or two about what's going on out here? Also, there's also the possibility that our courier is using it as a cover... Unlikely, but possible."

"Hmmm....." It would be no harm in doing this, could be useful in the end. "Yes you are right, it's worth checking. Let's try to approach like we are just passing by at the same time they are, if they see us coming out of hiding they are going to be getting suspicious."

"Alright. I'll follow your lead" Ranii says cheerfully. As she had said, this might be a chance to learn something useful.

Ready to get moving, Luca goes back and around the ruined statue, and begins pacing towards that caravan.
The cart is bigger than the last one they saw yesterday, and it's being pulled by a strong Mudsdale. Sitting on the cart wearing a red cloth jacket is an Umbreon that must be the leader of this caravan. It's not unguarded either as there are some rock and dragon types such as a Archeops and Hakamo-o.
The Lucario and the Avali are within plain sight and it doesn't look like the caravan is going hostile, some of the guards are eyeballing them though.

"Shall I leave the talking to you, or?" Ranii whispers to Luca as they draw near.

Luca looks at her. "You mind if you do it? they might get weary if someone with iron approaches, and i have these swords on my back at all times. I guess you could tell them that i am your bodyguard?"

"Alright." 
She approaches, and raises her right claw non threateningly, and puts on a warm smile, followed by an all too familiar greeting. 
"Warm days!"

"Oh?" The Umbreon raises a brow. He pondered for a moment. "Okay stop for a moment." He orders the equine pokemon to stop pushing the cart along for a moment. Then he proceeds to give a proper response to this individual that just approached. "Well then...how was it that they say? 'Warmer still'?" He must not be from around here.

"Ah, I see. A fellow foreigner." Ranii decides to use the obvious fact that the umbreon is not from around here to their advantage. "It took me a while to get used to that greeting too. You did get it right though, have no fear of that."
She maintains her warm smile.

"Huh. I had you figured for a local when I heard the greeting." He said. "This is the way to Bleached Bastion, right?"

"Yes, I've been here a while enough to get the local greeting down, though I'm from colder places myself. Me and my bodyguard both." Ranii replies to his small talk with her own, and referring to Luca with the last bit. "And yes, it is. If I may be so bold to ask, what exactly brings you to this miserable heat pit?"

"Business of course!" The Umbreon proudly exclaims. "I heard things have calmed down in Bleached Bastion, the Grove has total control over it so they are letting merchants in for trading. Hoping there are better deals then the ones before the Grove took over."

"I see." Ranii hides her displeasure at the prospect of doing business with a bunch of murderers, rapists, and thugs. "What else have you heard from there? Just out of curiosity. Or for that matter, heard anything else of interest while out on the road?"

"Well, there is some talk of trouble hiding about. Looks like that the Grove haven't quite managed to get some good measures against bandits." He sighs and shakes his head. "But they assured us that the main routes are safe. And I have enough guards with me to deal with any issues that pop up."

Ranii decides to take somewhat of a chance in this conversation. "I'm honestly more worried about the Grove soldiers themselves. I've had friends that had encounters with them. They're.... not nice, to say the least." This isn't exactly a lie.

"Hhhmmmm..." The Umbreon thinks for a moment. "Well, they can be quite the brutes, yes. I just try not to get the wrong kind of attention from them." He then smirks. "But having a good position also helps."

"Ah, then I take it you're a high level merchant? Figured as much from the cart and company." She goes back to flattery. "Say, just out of curiosity, have you considered trying your luck in Sandstone?"

"Sandstone? Eh, not really." He shrugs. "I heard it managed to survive the Grove's assault unlike the other towns. Who knows how long they will last, but it's probably not long so...i rather play with the winning side, you know?"

"Actually, from what I've seen and heard, the Grove has pretty much given up on trying to take it." Ranii replies. "So it might not be a bad idea to check them out. Heard they're starting some new construction projects over there. Might be a good time for a good look-see."

"Really? Well I ain't really holding my breath for whatever they got going." He looks pretty disinterested in the topic of Sandstone. "They need another miracle if they want to get our attention..."

"Say, just curious, but do you often take passengers on your cart?" Ranii asks.

"Hmmmm...." Ranii thinks. She doesn't have much of a reason to not believe him but he does seem a bit loyal to the Grove for some reason. .... On the other hand, if she presses the issue, she might raise suspicion. And it's not like they were believing that the courier is hitching a ride on a random caravan. Ultimately, she decides to drop the issue. "Say you seem to know a bit about the Grove, have you ever been there?" She asks.

"Well let me tell you, it's not hot like this place." As if to put emphasis on that, he fans himself with a hand. "But yes, I have been to that land of green."

"Well what's it like over there?" She realizes she's about to get a rose tinted view of the place, no puns intended, but still, it would be nice to know something.

"Oh it's simply green and vivid! When you go out to take a breath of the forest air you can feel how alive the place is. Grove towns are simply one of the best places when it comes to the business of food, with many farms growing plenty of food." He is indeed giving her a rose tinted view of the place. "Some Pokémon there practice the art of making berries into drinks that are simply divine!"

"Hmmmm" Yup. DEFINITELY Rose-tinted. Though it doesn't sound too dissimilar to a few other places she's seen every now and then. Though, one such 'similar' place was underwater.
Regardless, it does not seem like there is really anything else she is going to learn from this merchant.
"Interesting. Well..." She looks at her wrist, as if looking at a watch. "I'm afraid it's time for us to move on. Safe travels, friend." She says with a wave.

"Ah, going already? That's quite alright?" He nods. "But in case you are looking for something in particular and have the poké...i might have a few artisan goods that i can sell to you." Seems like he wants to try to pitch a sale before going though.

"I'm afraid not" Ranii waves to them without looking. "Though I appreciate the offer."

"Well, alright then." The merchant finds that a little disappointing but doesn't push it any further. He orders his caravan to keep moving forward and they continue on their way.
After all that, Luca and Ranii are back at their hiding spot, going back to waiting for their target.
"So, who was that guy?" The Lucario asks his partner, wanting to know what was about with that civilian caravan.

"Hell if I know." Ranii shrugs. "Seems like just your regular-grade merchant that had a hardon for the Grove for some reason." Though if it's as economically well as the merchant sounds like, they can hardly blame them. Still though, she highly suspects there's something the grove isn't telling their citizens. After all, if they were that economically prosperous, they wouldn't be sending their armies to plunder and raze the rest of the world... Perhaps she should have asked if they were a grove citizen or not... well, no matter. It makes little difference in the end anyway.

As they wait they see someone else approaching, someone in a hurry. It's a Servine, and they have the typical grove leaf-cape too.

"99 poke says that's our courier." Ranii says, getting up and dusting herself off. She stretches out her hand, and her spear appears in her hand instantaneously.
"Alright... Let's do this." She says grimly.

Luca gets up and stretches his arms a little. "So how should we do this? We talked about our options hours ago."

"We're going with capture, like we said." Ranii says, twirling her spear in her hand. "Hit him hard and fast before he has any idea what's going on. I'll use the flatside to knock him out. You hit him with your aura spheres or punches. With any luck that cape of his can work as a bind."
She grabs her spear in her hand, pointing it outwords.
"Okay. On my mark..."

Well, he won't really judge the Avali for wanting to take the most peaceful option. He lies in wait with her.

Ranii doesn't know this fact just yet. 
"5. 4. 3. 2. 1.... GO!!"

Luca rushes forward, jumping out of their hiding spot and landing right in front of the Servine, who is caught by surprise and is left stunned.

Using the momentary distraction, Ranii hits the Servine right in the back of the head with the flat end of her spear, much like she did with Joscyln so long ago. She hopes it has a better effect than it did then.

The Servine shrieks in pain at the blow to the back of her head, which made her fall but she is supporting herself on the sand with her arms. She is barely hanging to consciousness but this doesn't last long as the Lucario brings his fist down on top of the back of her head.

With that blow, Ranii watches as the Servine falls flat onto the sand, face first. 
"Well... that went well." She says with a pant. She takes the moment to kneel down onto the sand and put a claw up to the servine's throat, pressing her finger lightly against the side, checking a certain artery. "Yup. Still alive. Good. Nooowwww...."
She searches the unconscious body, and finds...
"Ah yes. Here we go." She holds up the note, and then quickly hands it over to Luca.

Luca is going to hold on to that. "Alright, we got it..." He looks down at the Servine one more time. "I hope she doesn't wake up on the way."

"...She?" Ranii takes a quick look down there, moving a leg, and giving a a small blush before putting the leg down. "Yeah. A she." Ranii feels a little better about going the non-lethal way for this.  Not that she would have deserved to die if she was male.
"But back to the point..." The Avali looks at the 'cape' the Grove courier is wearing. She reaches over, and tears it off, both pieces. It looks like a leaf at first glance, but holding it makes it clear that this isn't a leaf, but rather an ornate cloth of some sort. Or maybe it is a leaf that just has the consistency of cloth? Either way, it should serve what she has in mind. 
Ranii moves the Servile's small hands behind her back, finding it difficult to do so, but eventually managing as she ties her hands together with one half of the 'cape'. 
"Should I wrap the feet together too?" Ranii asks as she looks up to Luca. "or should we have her walk as we bring her back? In that case, I'll gag her with this other part instead."

"I think it's best if we gag her. I can carry her over my shoulder and it would be good if she can't scream and attract attention." 

"Alright." The Avali opens the unconscious servile's mouth, and wraps the leaf-like cloth around her head, and over the mouth, gagging her, before tying the end in a knot.
"That should do it." She says, getting up and nodding to Luca. "Let's get back."

The Lucario picks up the unconscious, carrying her over his shoulder. "Let's move now."
Now begins the trip back to their camp, with the message and messager in tow.

Ranii keeps an eye on the prisoner, just making sure she hasn't secretly woken up. But it seems the trip is uneventful as they arrive back at the camp, unconscious prisoner in tow over her boy's strong shoulders.

Great, they have arrived back here and are all still in one piece, this went well. But this isn't over, at least not quite yet until they finally get to the Commander's tent to report their success.
Aceo is there to greet them. "Ah, there you are, was it very difficult? You two sure took a while."

"Not really." Ranii says dismissively. "We just had to wait for some time."

"And who is that you are carrying?"
"The messenger." Luca replied.
The Glaceon blinked. "You brought the messenger too? Not to joke about your dedication but damn..."

"Well, you weren't really specific on what exactly we were supposed to do with the messenger." Ranii explains, her hands out as she talks. "So rather than kill her we decided to bring her back here to take as a prisoner. I'm sure you'll agree there are... worse alternatives, for everyone involved."

"Yes, of course." Aceo nods. "Actually...it might be a good thing that you brought the messager too."

"Oh?" Ranii asks. She knew it was already better for the messenger to bring her here. But how so for them?

The Glaceon doesn't say anything, he just vacantly stares at the table in front of him and gives it a few knocks.
Now something begins crawling out from under the table, slowly, and begins climbing up one of the table's legs. It's a pink blob-like thing. Luca isn't too alarmed from seeing this, he knows who this is.

"Oh... I see the 'captain of the guard' has retired." Ranii remarks upon seeing the ditto again. 

"It wasn't quite easy to finally stop being him without anyone noticing." The pink blob with beady eyes and a mouth said. "But Stic found a way."
"Kind of messed up that he was dead all along and no one knew it..." Aceo comments with a shrug. "Well, at the time things were pretty intense with the first Grove attack so we had to this i guess. Not that i'm saying this messager here will die. Anyways, the message?" He reached out one of his paws, waiting for one of them to give him what they set out to take.
The Lucario steps forward and hands over the rolled up paper to him. "Here it is."
"Well so far it all appears to be in order..." Aceo says as he unrolls the message and begins reading it. 

"Well, what's it say?" Ranii asks curiously.

"Well they are looking for us, alright. But they don't know exactly where we are... but are getting warmer." He says. "We and Elec are going to make some changes to this and give it back to the Grove."

"Yes indeed." Ranii says. "Them finding us here would be... most troublesome to say the least."

"Very much so..."
"So is there anything else?" Luca asks.
"Oh." He looks up at them. "Not exactly, our best infiltrator can take it from here." The Glaceon said as he petted the pink blob. "So you two are dismissed, just leave the prisoner here and i will arrange some temporary 'accommodations' for her."

"Alright. I'm actually pretty interested to hear how the conversation goes with our... 'guest'" She looks over at the captured, yet miraculously still unconscious female courier. "In the mean time... yeah, I think I know what to do. I'll head back to Sandstone for a while. Besides, someone needs to tell them about the creepy cannibal-enabler running around." She raises her hand before he can protest. "Don't worry, I'll be back by tommorow morning. Don't you worry." 
She looks to Luca.
"You're coming, right?"

The Lucario drops the Servine on the ground, getting a small 'oof' out of her. "Go with you? to Sandstone?" That is he is allowed to do that too...
"Honestly I don't know about that..." Aceo sighs. "Sure, you could go, Ranii. But I think people might notice a captain missing. I was also going to ask you to oversee a training exercise and then...other things."
Oh well, it would appear that he will be busy with work and will be unable to go. "I see..."

"Oh, well. In that case... maybe only for a couple of hours? Also, Other things? Like what?"

The Glaceon just...shrugs. "Well, you know, boring stuff. Help check if every crossbow is working perfectly, rationing food for everyone. That sort of thing."

"I see..." Ranii sighs. "Well very well. I'll just deliver Stic the report about the Cannibal guy running about, maybe drop in and say hi to my girlfriend, and come right back and do the... boring things. A quick little trip. Won't take long."

"Alright then."