Above the trees and all the action, Devlin gazed over the scene. A lot of it was just water types acting as firefighters. Others were wrangling the stray salandits who thawed out. Each group had their job but the only ones of note to Devlin was the one that had his students in it. Sure they weren’t really different from the rest but that wasn’t the point. Mons like Esme were students of the Devlin Academy of Flight (trademark). If there was any nepotism about to go down, his students were gonna get to enjoy a wave of it.

As he landed in the tree tops, he looked out at the damage. A burnt tree here, a Salandit’s limp body being dragged off over there. With the sheer amount of rocks and frosts and burnt things in the area, a battle had certainly taken place. Judging by the utter devastation and the fact that the lizard guy who shouldn’t be standing right now, won. Good on them. Though that Costello guy that got Soren into it was not looking the best, to say the least. That, however, was none of his business as he flew off to make sure the rest of his students and their assorted groups weren’t too grievously injured.

Meanwhile, Liam and his gang, sans Costello were standing in a room with Thea, Morris, and Styles overlooking them. While both Styles were impressed and Morris less nervous than usual, Thea was less than pleased.

“So you attacked the queen.”

“We had no choice, ma’am. “ Liam made sure to stand up as straight as he could for professional reasons.

“And in the process, one of your teammates got severely injured.” Thea’s feathers ruffled a touch. “While it is lucky he wasn’t harmed worse, he is still in the midst of recuperating.”

“For the buck-” Zata bit her tongue. “For Costello to be harmed was unfortunate but couldn’t have been unseen, Guildmaster. With full knowledge, you sent several grass types to fight as well.”

“The goal of the mission was not to confront them.”

“A-actually. The goal was to keep track of them and engage if necessary.”

Morris had to silence himself under Thea’s side eye.”

“Yes, Thea. Are you going to get on their backs because of this issue? They did well to keep these Pokemon from going any further and what with 30 number of them, I said we did pretty well.”

“Do you know how Costello is?”

“I don’t. Was meaning to visit him in the med once we gave our reports.” A small smile struggled to form on Liam’s face. “Honestly, Cos is going to be fine.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Cos was going to walk his way to the hospital if we didn’t stop him. Honestly, he was fighting the stretcher once we got out of the forest. All the time saying “I’m fine, tend to the others, stop touching me.”

“Yes, unfortunately dear Costello wasn’t one for the healing process.” Floe’s smile was sort of mocking but in good nature. “However, Alzbell was able to keep him from fussing too much.”

“Caspian still needs to thank him for saving his ass anyway.”

“Ion?”

“I mean she’s right. I wouldn’t phrase it like that, but she’s right. If I didn’t lose that letter, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

"Eh, I wouldn't put that harsh, but I would've liked to not get burned up like that. But we'll settle that later. " Sera dramatically moved her barely touched leaves.

"I will certainly keep that in mind, Sera."

Thea raised a wing towards the Totodile. “Enough. It has been taken care of. I’ve read it and Styles has read it too. And this conflict was inevitable. If we didn’t deal with it now, who else would take them on? How much would have been stolen?” Another ruffle of her feathers. “With all things considered, I guess you did well.”

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The awkward delivery of that line did not help the group feel any better about the situation or Costello’s injury, but as Liam looked out the corner of his eye, it seemed that Zata was on the verge of tears.

“With that said, however, you will need to identify every one of them. All of you.”

A groan resonated through the halls and that signature smug look on the faces of those who heard it. Truly that group were members of the guild.

Yet not all of them were able to hear the cries of witness testimony. For some, they were currently on their lunch break. For others, they were laid up in the bed of their will. The one, in particular, wasn’t one for such endeavors. Rest had a time and a place and being stuck in bandages was not something that the lizard would take lying down. As much as his body was busy fidgeting, so was his mind.

“Why were we so focused on the Totodile?”

He went to Alzbell, you know he went to Alzbell.

“Yes, ok he went to him but so does everyone. The quack is a therapist. An unlicensed one at that. To say he went to Alzbell would be the say that everyone stepped through the front door. We’re only assuming he even went to Alzbell instead of talking to him. Why do I even want to talk to him? He’s a co-worker, nothing more.”

“He is a teammate. Get to know your teammates.”

“You didn’t want me to get to know Arno or Lumi or the Lucario.”

They were threats and combatants, did you want to spend time alone with them after they attacked you?

“...Fair point.”

The window next to Costello’s bedside revealed the outside of Castle Guarde. Each of them with and without their issues. It had been several hours since they put him in here. There was an odd look on the Chansey’s face when he walked in with the wound on his neck and charring on his scales. Not to mention all the worrying about-

“How are you still standing?”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Don’t get out of bed, you’re making it worse.”

Absolute weirdness. He wasn’t dead, everyone else was fine. By all means, they won and did a good job at it from the goals given.

…

The bandages did itch a little.

Within the house of Braviary,Liam and Costello; the bird and the rabbit were have a civil discussion.

“Why did you let Costello keep going?” Mr. Braviary wasn’t mad. Just disappointed. And disgruntled. And a bit confused. A lot of things mad-adjacent. Liam had just gotten back and was feeling attacked at this point.

“We were in the thick of it! I couldn’t just stop and tell him to walk it off!”

“You had 3 Pokemon weak to fire and you didn’t think to keep them in the back lines?”

“I told him that he had to stay back, I can't control what Cos does and doesn’t do. Once he got hit by that beam, I did what I needed to outside of fighting and having someone biting down on my shoulder.” Liam pointed to the bandage for dramatic effect. “Was kinda busy there, if you didn’t notice the wound!”

“I’m not mad at that, I’m just… annoyed that your first instinct was to fight them all.”

“You trained me, I can handle them. You wouldn’t have let me do this if you didn’t feel like I could handle it, right?”

“The reality hits me every day.”

“Well, we all did well and Costello is going to get better. We’ve sparred with Drestal before, he can take a hit.”

“Just … think it through better next time.”

“Have faith, ok? Cos and I aren’t too dumb or too weak to get taken out like that. He’s fine!”

“Mother.”

Only a Secptile. Maybe a Grovyle if they rushed into it.

“Father.”

Much harder. Could be an Abomasnow. Could be a Salandit.

“Really?”

Really.

“Small world.”

Imagine.

“Not one of the ones we fought though.”

You could’ve beat up your father. Skip right past the resentment and into the physical confrontation.

“Weird.”

Very.

“What were we before this?”

I know as much as you.

“But that’s not true. You know that it's not true.”

Everything you know is what I know. If you need to bridge this gap with an imaginary voice in your head, that’s what you got. Alzbell called it Third Mon syndrome during one of your sessions. Guess you have that. But constantly.

…

The sun was going down. Pokemon all falling into their own homes, own lives, own businesses. Each of them has their own thing. Each of them has their own lives.

Such a nice night out.

“No one visited today.”

They’re all busy. Didn’t Floe say that they had to get through all the meetings and info and make sure the Mangezone had all the right people?

“They all get busy. All of them are busy.”

It was a nice night out. A very nice night.

You know that no one’s here. Gotta sketch one of the books to clear room for the rest. No one’s gonna know.

It was uncomfortable, yet at the same time a relief. A stress off his back as hot tears flowed.

You served your purpose for today. And tomorrow you will be given a new purpose. That’s why you’re around. You won today and you’ll win tomorrow. As it should be.