In mid-June of 2020, Viola swung through town. She seemed busy and intent on getting stuff together for some kind of trip. Alexa knew her sister well enough to know that she had her nose into something interesting.
Alexa offered to take her lunch on her last day in town—in part to butter Viola up enough that she might share what she knew. Of course, Viola was secretive; she probably hoped to get some good pictures out of it and didn’t want Alexa to scoop her. But she gace away just enough information to get her started: Viola was headed to Santalune City on short notice, where she got a ‘cool lead’ from a friend of hers.
Once Viola had left, Alexa started digging. She began dregging through social media posts connected to the area; the city, the gym, the forest, the surrounding routes; anything. She also started to call up her usual contacts, asking if anybody had heard anything unusual out of Santalune City.
She mostly came up with dead ends. However, she hit it big after meeting up with Jacques; a former smuggler and all-around scoundrel who seemed to know a little bit about everything that was going on around Kalos.
Apparently, something was going on in the forest. People moving in across the forest’s north border, coming down the river from the mountains. Rumors of an extinct Pokemon wreaking havoc. Hikers going missing.
The situation was alluring. She tried to talk to the chief about it, but he dismissed it all as heresay.
“Until there’s actually some news to report, don’t waste your energy on it.” he said.
Fine. If he wasn’t going to do anything about it, she’d do it herself. She cashed in all of her vacation days, and began to prepare for a trip into the Santalune Forest. She bought and borrowed supplies, and she contacted a handful of guides local to the area who were familiar with the forest. Mos tof them fetched a high price, but she was willing to spend a little money to get to the bottom of what was happening out there.
She assembled a group of three people to help her; two guides, named Shane and Francis, and a trapper named Geoffrey. She took the train to Santalune City and met with them. They looked over a map, and going over all of the information she had, they figured the most likely area to investigate. The most common route would be to take one of the main trails for a while to get into the forest as deep as they could before turning north and cutting through the Desert Within the Forest. However, the desert was dangerous. These guys knew another way; it was half as long and bypassed the Desert entirely. It was rougher and more difficult to traverse, but Alexa didn’t mind a little challenge.
Alexa and her guides ventured into the Santalune Forest. It was beautiful, almost otherworldly so. Alexa could understand why Viola seemed to love this place so much. She wondered where Viola was, or if she was already in the area.
Two days into the trip, Geoffrey found evidence of human movement. They followed the tracks for awhile before setting up camp in a small grotto. That night, Alexa couldn’t sleep. She laid there awake in her tent, staring at the wall. She kept going over the information, over and over, trying to piece things together. It was clear there were people in the area, and they were likely up to something illegal. What that something was, though…she couldn’t figure it out. Illegal logging operation? She couldn’t imagine that was terribly profitable…
Suddenly, she felt the air shift. Something was wrong. She slowly sat up, and fought the urge to call out to Shane. Suddenly, the ground began to shake. She heard one of the men calling out, there was activity, and then someone screamed.
Without hesitating, Alexa sprung up from her sleeping bag; she just grabbed her bag, dug out her survival knife, and cut a long gash along the back. She slipped out—she carried her shoes, not wanting to take the time to put them on—wearing her pajamas. She saw Shane on the ground, gored by a Rhyhorn. His body was lifeless and broken. She covered her mouth to stifle the scream she felt building up in her chest and her throat.
Glancing to the side, she saw a huge man saunter into their camp, illuminated by the firelight. Two Rhyhorn were tearing up camp, and she looked away just in time to not see Geoffrey crushed by a Stomp attack.
She began to run, just a straight shot into the woods in the dark. She was tripped by a vine, hitting the ground with a thud. A Carnivine beared down on her, jaws open. Thinking quickly, she pulled her flare gun from her bag and shot it at the Carnivine. It screeched and reeled back, enough for her to get free, grab her shoes, and run. This time, she disappeared into the trees. Unfortunately, the man couldn’t have missed the flare.
She felt as though she were a kid sneaking through the night to escsape the horrors of war again. She moved through the dark, darting between bits of cover and waiting, crouched and breathless, for minutes at a time before continuing.
She would double back here and there, tyring to make dummy trails or hide her tracks where she could. She didn’t wear her shoes, either, not wanting to leave an obvious trail. Her feet were literally bleeding, but she kept going.
When the sun came up, she climbed a tree and hoped the thick, leafy canvas might hide her. She took the time to drink some water, change into actual clothes, and finally put on her shoes. She found that the Carnivine had actually hurt her; she had a fairly nasty cut on her leg. She didn’t dare sleep, but she could at least catch her breath.
She shook in that tree, trying not to think about the sounds of those men dying. It was hard not to think about. She tried to focus on the sounds of the birds and the insects around her. The wind against her face.
Up in that tree, she heard footsteps and saw, after she’d been up there about an hour or so, that huge man and his Rhyhorn. They weren’t directly benneath her, but she could see them passing her tree, about a hundred feet away. He’d managed to follow her after all. Dammit, she thought. She tried to get a better look at him, but with the way he dressed and the distance, it was hard to make out much detail.
Not long after, the wind picked up. Rain began to fall. Dammit, she thought; she’d have to get down or else she’d either get blown out or washed out, and neither would feel very good. She climbed down, and decided to head in the general direction that she’d seen the Rhyhorn guy head.
Time passed, and the storm only increased in intensity. She found it difficult to progress or keep her footing through the slick rock and muddy ground. She pushed on, but before long, her leg refused to take her further. Figuring she’d be hard to track in the rain, she decided to find somewhere dry. She followed the rock face she’d been keeping to her left (leaning against a rock wall for a moment to catch her breath before she started climbing) and pulled herself up, carefully inching up a narrow, flooding path until she found a relative dry, out of the way cave. It was shallow, but you know. Dry. She’d be able to hide here and wait out the storm, she thought to herself.
She sat there for nearly an hour or two without doing more than trying to wash her leg with rain water and just…catching her breath. She fought not to pass out. The darker it got, the colder she got. She was shaking so badly, that she pulled out her electric lantern in the hopes that the bulb might warm her hands.
She sort of zoned out for a minute, trying to warm her hands, when she heard a voice call out to her. He claimed to be with the Ranger’s Union, and had followed signs that indicated someone might be injured or in distress. She held her breath; she couldn’t know it wasn’t Rhyhorn guy without looking—and if it was, she was toast.
When he called out again, she replied, asking how she could knew he wasn’t trying to hurt her. He assured her that he wasn’t, but Alexa wanted to know for sure. A second voice called out that they couldn’t prove it, and also something else but she wasn’t paying attention to that anymore. Instead, she realized she recognized the voice.
“Mige? Mige Fjord? Is that you?”
Surprised, Alexa greeted Mige with a grateful smile. It was nice to see a friendly face. The ranger, a man named Alan Nash, seemed to know who she was—he was friends with her sister. Wait, was Viola with them? Mige nodded. Nash offered for Alexa to come with them, and she agreed.
They met up with the other two—a Deputy named Selene and Viola, who seemed shocked to see her.
“Alexa?!?”
“Viola, what are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Viola demanded. Alexa explained how she’d worked it out. Viola bandaged Alexa’s leg as she proceeded to answer Nash’s questions about the attack. With a bit of difficulty, Alexa recounted the facts.
Nash agreed to keep Alexa with them; they didn’t have time to bring her back to their base camp. But she had to listen to Nash and keep her head low. Alexa had zero problems with that.
As they began to push on, Alexa felt a little more at ease. She was with a Ranger, a Deputy, and an experienced trainer. Before long, Viola fell into step beside her. She was concerned enough that, despite her relief that Alexa was okay, she was quite bristly toward her.
“You shouldn’t have come out here.” Viola grumbled.
“I couldn’t agree more, Shutterbug.” Alexa said.
“Seriously, you could have gotten yourself killed. You still might!”
“You’re so encouraging.”
“I’m not joking.”
“That’s a first.”
“Alexa! I’m serious. Whatever’s going on out here is dangerous. If we hadn’t have found you, who knows what—”
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know, Viola.” Alexa snapped, “I appreciate your concern, but I’m an adult and this is my job. It’s a dangerous job sometimes, but it is what it is. You know, I could be saying all of this stuff to you too.”
“It’s not the same thing.” Viola scoffed. Alexa’s expression turned strict, like when she’d reprimand Viola for pouring champagne into a host’s house plant.
“Of course it is. You may not have a sense of self-preservation, but it’s the exact same thing; don’t pretend it isn’t." Alex said and sighed, rubbing her eyes, "Look, I’m tired so let’s not do this here. Can we just…agree that this was stupid for both of us and watch each other’s backs?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.” Viola said but she couldn’t help but worry. Alexa took Viola’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She wanted Viola to know that everything would be okay. She smiled, but in reality, she was as worried about Viola as Viola was worried about her.
The forest began showing signs of activity; trees with deep gouges, other cut clean down. Viola took pictures all the while. The treeline broke, revealing acres of deforestation and devastation. It looked as though the dirty itself had been disturbed, the trees cut and ripped down, trunks pulled up, and then burned.
Viola took pictures, commenting how weird this was. Alexa agreed, pointing out that this specific practice of clear-cutting forest was really old; they only stopped using it a hundred years ago or so, when they invented machines that did the same job more efficiently.
Something seemed to click in Mige’s mind.
“It’s an old fashioned way you say?” Mige mused, “Would you say that it’s…_a relic_?”
It was definitely a lightbulb moment, and everybody felt it. Of course. Team Relic would be responsible for something like this. Alexa was a bit confused, though; they mostly just luddites who talked a lot of shit and started mailing bombs to Lysandre Labs.
They didn’t do clear-cutting operations or commit cold-blooded murder, did they?
Mige told the group that he had a lot of experience with criminal groups like Team Relic, and the main thing is to never underestimate what they’re capable of.
They pushed on through the devastation, before they saw people moving at the periphery of the field. Mige and Nash saw them, too. Right as Nash was instructing them to start slowly moving toward the tree line, the ground shifted and shook as a massive Rhyperior blasted out of the ground. Two large Rhyhorns began to charge in their direction.
Nash called out that he’d distract the Rhyperior; Mige and Selene run in one direction, while Viola and Alexa went the other. That way, the Rhyhorn would split up and they’d have a better chance against just one. They would meet at Seviper Rock.
Not having the time to argue, Alexa grabbed her sister’s hand and they began to run across the clearing, stumbling and clambering over fallen trees and shallow holes where tree trunks used to be. The Rhyhorn caught up with them pretty quickly. Alexa and Viola leapt to either side of the Rhyhorn right as it charged passed them.
Thankfully, Viola thought quickly enough to throw out her Vivillon, who dodged a Rock Blast and put the Rhyhorn to sleep with a Sleep Powder. Viola pulled Alexa to her feet, and they ran into the forest. They kept going, hearts pounding, not stopping or slowing until they reached Seviper Rock. Mige and Selene weren’t far behind. The formation gave them cover a little field of vision around them.
Nash wasn’t there. Viola actually lost her cool a little bit, worried that he’d been killed. Alexa tried to comfort both Viola and Selene, but it was Mige who was able to pull them all together. They had to think of a plan because whoever had that Rhyperior was going to keep coming after them next. Either they could hide or they could try to trap him. Alexa voted that they try to set a trap.
Their plan would be to set up a fake camp, dig and disguise a punch of pits, and hope he falls into one. It took about a half hour, but they had the trap set up. It was a rough trap to be sure, but it was the best they could do. Alexa volunteered to sit at the campfire; it would look more realistic if someone was actually there. Viola protested, but it was the best plan they had.
The man caught up to them. Alexa recognized his build right away; this was definitely the man who attacked their camp the night before. Alexa tried to convince him that she was by herself, but he didn’t seem to be falling for the ruse.
Suddenly, Mige appeared. He tried to reason with the man, and to convince him that the other two (Viola and Selene) hadn’t made it yet. Their attacker, calling himself Arsenault, was big and tough and he didn’t scare easy. Their plan was juvenile from the start and he saw through it. In the end, Arsenault attacked them all at once.
A tense battle followed, and Alexa felt out of her depths; she had only Helioptile and he wasn’t particularly useful against Rhyhorn. She and Helioptile did manage to paralyze Arsenault’s Machoke, though! Likewise, they eventually won thanks to Viola’s Vivillon using Stun Spore on Arsenault himself. The group tied Arsenault up and tried to interrogate him. Again, he didn’t scare easy, and he wasn’t about to be afraid of a bunch of kids.
Luckily, Selene had something: she could try to reach into his mind to find whatever it was he didn’t want them to know. Alexa was impressed; Selene was a telepath. Alexa had heard of psychics for years, but she’d never actually seen one at work before. Selene was successful at finding the information that they were seeking, though her nose started bleeding and she looked a little worse for the wear.
Selene knew where the Team Relic camp was, and while she couldn’t find the details, she knew that they were looking for something. They were desperate to find it. And…and Nash was alive for now.
That was enough to convince the four of them to push on. They couldn’t leave Nash to die with Team Relic. They ended up leaving the paralyzed and tied-up Arsenault inside the decoy tent.
Using the directions that Selene had pulled from Arsenault’s mind, they foud the camp with little trouble. It was bigger than they thought, with easily more than two dozen Relic grunts down there. It was set up like an old-fashioned logging operation.
They observed the camp from the safety of a wooded hill. Selene pointed to a tent, guarded by two men with lanterns. That’s where Nash was. She figured they might be able to sneak in through the rear of the tent but they’d have to move quietly.
After a quick moment they used to plan, they agreed that Viola and Selene would sneak down to the tent to pull Nash to safety. Mige and Alexa would watch from the hill and keep a lookout, coming down to help if there were problems.
Things started well, but Alexa noticed a pair of Team Relic thugs sneaking up behind the other two. She and Mige hurried down there, and by the time they’d arrived, there was a whole group of Relic grunts. Selene was unconscious, and her Patrat was trying to help Viola, who was in a chokehold.
One of them grabbed at Alexa as she rushed to save Viola. He tried to throw her to the ground, but she managed touse her taser to get him to knock him down. She was then attacked by an Ekans, who tried to constrict and choker her out. Mige’s Houndour came to her rescue, attacking the Ekans and pulling it off of her. Alexa scrambled to her feet, and tried to help Mige by jumping on the back of the guy who was currently punching him in the face.
The Ekans snuck up behind Mige and bit him from behind with a vicious poison sting. The poison slowed him and, after throwing Alexa flat on her back, the big guy downed Mige with another hit. Alexa tried to stand, but was knocked out with a kick to the head.
She woke up some time later; it was daylight and she was extremely sore. She was bound, in a tent with Nash, Viola, and Selene. Not Mige, though. Breathing hurt, which probably wasn’t a good thing. She calmly asked Nash questions and he answered: they were prisoners of Team Relic, and Mige was speaking with their leader. He didn’t know more than that. Viola was threatening their captors, and Alexa shushed her. Now wasn’t the time.
Time passed. Abruptly, their original captor returned—a woman named Lucille who had left a few hours before. She told the grunts to get the prisoners to their feet.
“Boss said to cut ’em loose.”
“But—what if they—”
“You wanna take it up with Josephine? She’s over in the nice tent if you wanna pull her aside and question her decisions.” Lucille said, straight-faced and calm. Almost like she was trying to be helpful. Lucille smiled and clapped himon the shoulder. “Good choice. Now get them to their fucking feet and walk them to the west edge.”
The grunts did as instructed. While Nash and Viola were given their bags, Alexa and Selene were not. Alexa asked where he bag was and the grunt said they burned it. She didn’t know if that was true, but she had no leverage to check. The grunts walked them to the very edge of camp, where they waited for about ten minutes or so before Mige approached with Lucille.
Alexa let out a happy laugh when she saw Mige. He was safe and, against all odds, he looked relatively unharmed. A little rough, maybe, but not injured. Had they healed his wounds, too? Mige seemed relieved to see that they were safe too. He’d explain what happened, but they needed to leave, like, right now. Nobody was arguing and they quickly left the Team Relic camp. Whatever happened, it felt real bad. It felt a lot like they lost.
Aftermath
Mige gave them the basic rundown as they walked back to camp. Josephine gave him the option of helping them find what they were looking for, because he could sense aura he guessed, or they would kill all of them. He seemed upset with himself, but Viola told him that he had nothing to feel bad about; he made the only decision that he could. Everyone was alive, and they knew more now than they did.
Alexa asked what they had been looking for and Mige said that it was some kind of old tablet. Like, really old. Just touching it made him feel weird. It was covered in carvings and maybe writing, but he couldn’t tell what it said. But Josephine seemed real glad to see it.
The thought that Team Relic managed to find whatever tablet they were looking for was concerning. Still, everybody was alive and okay enough that they could walk six hours back to camp. She decided to focus on that and felt immensely grateful.
They got back to camp and the group seemed relieved that they were okay. They explained what had happened on their end. Mige determined their exact location using his HoloCaster, and Nash called in for a ranger pickup.
The group cleaned up, with Viola and Alexa starting to dote on each other. Honestly, Alexa was exhausted. She hadn’t slept in almost three days; she was sore, she was in pain, and she might have a cold. She was among the first group to return to Santalune City when the helicoper arrived (it could only carry five people).
The helicopter ride was about an hour; it was loud and jostling and that, combined with how frayed her nerves were, meant that she was wide awake the whole way back to town. Her head was swimming with what had just happened. She cursed that she hadn’t taken any notes—and she had no pictures. Maybe Viola had some still. If she didn’t though, there was no way the Lumiose Press would publish her story about it.
When they arrived in Santalune City, Alexa managed to wake up Viola. Nash and Viola said their good-byes before the sisters left to find a motel room. While Alexa showered and ordered dinner, Viola left to run to the Pokemon Center. Alexa wasn’t really paying much attention at that point, but got that she had business with Mige.
Alexa showered, the hot water feeling so good that she almost cried. She got out, dressed in a bath robe (given that any extra clothes she’d packed had been burned apparently) and sat down on the edge of her bed. That was the last thing she remembered before she passed out.
