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Description
Many houses was destroyed and the Rescuers' headquarters had crashed down, causing Spinda café to have a violent cave-in. It was now not much more than a big hole in the ground. A furnished one, but still mostly just rubble. There was still people in there, because of the birthday party that had taken place, just a few hours earlier. Most had managed to make it out in one piece. It is a shame you cannot say that everyone did.

The place was completely silent, however. Except in a certain place of the café, where a radiant green bug had emerged from under a big pile of dirt and rocks and was gasping for air at the side of it.

- "Hahh... What the... Hell...? You could've... just said 'wake up'..."

Slowly, he made it onto his feet and looked around. He did not like what he saw, but he was also relieved over the things he did not see. He started walking towards where the exit used to be, thinking of what might have happened while he was asleep at the table. The thought of that he didn't wake up by the roof falling on him, made him start chuckling.

- "Caeomhin is a Hell of a sleeper, but I don't think even he woul-... Oh no..." He turned back to the table and stared at it for a long time. "No... No no no... NO!"

With great haste, he ran back and proceeded to wipe off the dirt from the table, when something felt completely off. No matter how much he tried, his left arm would not move.

- "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."

Enraged and filled with concern, he started removing the dirt, only using his right arm. Since he was left-bladed, it took a lot longer time than wanted, but soon the dirt was all gone and he sighed in relief:

- "Thank God... He's not here."

A voice that made the Bug type jump in start was then heard from the other side of the café. It was not a very deep or intimidating voice, but when you're alone, there is much that could scare you.

- "So there is someone alive, here. I was starting to get worried." The voice said as a figure emerged from behind the counter. "Are you in one piece?"

The figure got closer and Ischyas could see that it was a Leavanny the voice belonged to. He seemed to have no trouble navigating in the almost pitch-black room.

- "Who on Earth are you?"

- "A person who took the responsibility to look for people who got left behind. The name's Mikhail."

Ischyas only stood and looked at the bug type, who came from nowhere.

- "Well, now. You could talk just a few seconds ago." The Leavanny walked up to where Ischyas was standing by a pile of dirt and rocks. "You would not happen to have a name, would you?"

- "W-well, yah." The Scyther was still a bit confused after waking up completely buried and not much later be met by someone almost two heads shorter than him. "People call me Ischyas, bu-..."

- "Ah, so YOU are the missing one! Your tiny hard-to-understand Weedle teammate was looking for you a few hours ago. I think you usually call him Kevin or something similar."

- "Caeomhin? Have you- wait... How did you know aboot me and him?"

- "Well, I have a bad habit of eavesdropping, so I have heard some of you and your mate's conversations."

That confession made Ischyas both delighted and a bit upset. Eavesdropping is not something you talk about openly. In this case, it was a bit of a relief, though, since he, by that, knew about Caeomhin and maybe even of his whereabouts.

- "You..." Ischyas started, but did not really know how to proceed. "you haven't happened to see him, have you?"

- "Nnnno, not really. Though, I heard him with some 'knee' person. Never really heard of him, though. Can you lift your right arm, please?" The Leavanny said and made a slight wave to the right.

- "What?"

- "You heard me. Not forwards, though; I do not want that blade in my face."

Ischyas hesitated at first. Why should he lift his arm? That wouldn't get them anywhere. After a short ponder, he gave in and held up his bladed right arm.

- "It's... up...?"

"Good." The Leavanny nodded and started touching all over the arm. Ischyas stood motionless as the slighly shorter pokémon inspected it. Out of confusion, he did not say a word, either. The only one making a sound was the Leavanny, who only hummed and kept looking, until he suddenly stopped and turned to face the Scyther.

- "Well, it seems like this arm is in complete health. Nothing broken. Have you been working out, though? This arm seems quite buffed."

- "Err... wha-"

- "Ah, I'm just joking. You're a bug type. You can't feel the muscles from the outside, as they are inside the exo-skeleton."

He then let the arm fall to the side of the mantis pokémon and stood himself in front of Ischyas again with his leaf-arms behind his back. "Now, can you do the same with the other arm?"

The Scyther shook his head.

- "No... I can't..."

- "You can't? Let me take a look at it."

This time, this mysterious pokémon walked to the Scyther's left hand side and started inspecting the arm. He started with pushing it slightly, to make it swing for a bit. He pushed the arm a few more times before holding it up, doing the same procedure as he did with the right arm. Different from the right arm, he knocked on the exoskeleton a few times and faced Ischyas again.

- "Did you feel that?"

- "No, not real-"

- "Well, it seems like this arm has taken quite a beating. It has become completely paralyzed. Don't worry, though. I do not think it is permanent."

Again, he let the arm fall to Ischyas side and placed himself in front of him. This time, a bit closer. Ischyas flinched as the Leavanny quickly held up one of his leaves to the left of his head.

- "Look straight forwards. How many leaves do you see?"

- "Err... one?"

He started waving the leaf back and forth.

- "Can you see it moving?"

- "Uhm, yes."

- "Good. That eye is fully functional." He took his leaf down and held up the other on Ischyas right side. "How many leaves do you see? Keep looking forwards."

Ischyas tried looking, but it was only dark. - "I... I see nothing."

- "Not even if I do this?" He started waving the leaf again, but the Scyther only shook his head again. Mikhail kept waving, in wait for an answer. "... Well?"

- "No, I can't see anything."

The Leavanny stopped waving and just stood there with his arm in the air. He mumbled for himself for a couple or two seconds and started talking to Ischyas again.

- "Can you even open your eye?" He said and walked to the right of the Scyther.

- "No, I can't eve- AGH! WHAT THE-!?" Ischyas screamed as Mikhail suddenly held his eyelid open. It did not hurt, but it had him a bit surprised. "What are you doing?"

- "Stand still! Can you see me now?"

- "YES! Couldn't you have warned me?"

- "I could, but that would only waste time." He said and started waving his hand in front of Ischyas eye. "Can you see it moving now?"

- "B... w... yes! I can see it move!"

Mikhail started mumbling again. He waved his free hand around the air as if he was trying to place pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. For a third time, he looked towards Ischyas and started talking to him.

- "It seems like you have taken a beating on your eye, as well. Not the actual eye, but your eyelid has some damage, causing this inability to open it." He let go of Ischyas eyelid and clapped his leaves together. "Well, this place is full of dirt. We could get sick if we stay in here for too long. Let's head outside!"

With those words, Mikhail started walking towards the exit. Ischyas stood where he was, just trying to find out what the Hell just happened. He now knew that Caeomhin was safe with Nhee and hopefully also Kekliss, so some worries were gone, at least. It took a little time for him to set things straight, but soon he was also heading outside together with the odd Leavanny.

Once outside, Ischyas got his first sight of Tao Village's state. It did not really look as he remembered. He breathed in several times to say something, but the sight kept him speechless and only sighs came out. However, that was not the case with the energetic Mikhail, who was smiling and taking some deep breaths.

- "Aah... A lot better. Now, can we go to a place a bit more private?"

Finally, Ischyas found some words. However, it was not many he had found.

- "Private...?"

- "Yes, the things I'm going to do to you are seldom done in public."

- "... Well, there's no one here."

- "but what If someone comes here while we're going on? Don't you think they will find it a bit inappropriate?"

- "... What... What exactly are we doing?"

- "Well, what do you think?"

- "I... I can't really say..."

After that one comment, the area became silent once again. All that could be heard was the wind breezing through the leaves of the fallen Rescuer HQ and some water dripping from a few of the busted houses in the village, down into small puddles of water. The village had gotten warmer while the somewhat crippled Scyther was sleeping.

- "Is that everything people think of, nowadays!?" Mikhail suddenly barked back at Ischyas, who performed a nice little jump, without giving a response. "For God's sake, I'm going to do a check-up, to make sure you are without any internal injuries and such."

- "I-I..." Ischyas stammered and relaxed again. "I didn't mean to..."

- "Well, at least you were subtle. A few days ago I met a male, who was ANYTHING, but subtle. I'm flattered about somenoe finding me attractive, but I clearly told him that I lacked interest. I never thought he would give up that... yuch."

- "Do you... have something ag..."

- "Of course not. I am not one to question someone's preferences. Although, I don't prefer the thought of me, having someone else's... Usch..."

Ischyas rolled his eyes in irritation. Not because of Mikhail's comment, as the Scyther was not one to judge pokémon by their opinions, either. He basically found the Leavanny exceptionally rude. Ischyas had now been interrupted several times, touched without him properly approving it and on top of that, this stranger was not even looking at him either when speaking or being spoken to.

- "Well! We've wasted enough time!" Mikhail exclaimed and began walking off, crossing Ischyas' field of view. "Why we even stopped is probably a question that's not going to be answered soon."

He was then abruptly stopped when bumping into a blade, hindering him to walk any further. The shocked Leavanny turned slightly and emitted a questioning hum.

- "Just a minute, Speedy." Ischyas grumbled and pushed the shorter bug back a little bit. "You have asked me a week's worth of questions, but there's a few things that I would like to get answered, as well, if you wouldn't mind..."

- "Of course!" Mikhail replied, slowly pushing Ischyas' arm out of the way. "Can they be answered while we walk? If it now turns out that you HAVE some kind of severe internal injury, it would be best if we were not in the middle of nowhere."

- "... I can't argue with that..."

- "I thought not. Now, is there anyone you know living nearby? You don't seem too keen on the idea of walking away with a complete stranger."

At first, he hesitated to answer. He had just met this Leavanny and didn't know his actual intentions, so leading him to anyone he knew, could end in disaster. On the other hand, as Mikhail had said, it would be better if there were people around him, IF something would happen. After a disbelieving grunt, Ischyas had made his mind up.

- "You listen to people's private chats..." He started and once again took a glance over the village. "You walk around the village and pick up any stranger and helps them, just like that and you're not making any eye contact, whatsoever..."

- "As you said, there's no one here, except us, so eye contact is not re-..."

- "... AND you don't let people speak whole sentences before opening your mouth again. No sense of either privacy or respect. You are the kind of person I'd never waste any time with and even less follow... but at the same time, I just described my teammate, who is someone I've promised not to leave alone and since you are the only option I have, as I don't know where the doctors are, I'm not going to take any unnecessary risks."

Mikhail started walking again and let out a disappointed sigh.

- "Well, then." He mumbled. "I hope that we some day will meet again."

- "... Hmm... what differs you from Caeomhin, though, is that you're much worse than him at interpreting messages."

For a second time, Mikhail stopped and turned around, slightly confused. - "Excuse me?"

- "What I was saying, was that I would trust you for once, as I would rather be alive when I meet Caeomhin again."

- "... I knew that... I was just testing you..."

- "Mhm? Did you also know that I'm just a malformed Kabutops?" Ischyas responded with a teasing smirk.

- "Ok, Jester..." Mikhail grunted. "I misunderstood you. That happens to everyone."

Ischyas chuckled and led the the ridiculed Leavanny to where he was certain he would find at least three pokémon he knew pretty well.

Description
Many houses was destroyed and the Rescuers' headquarters had crashed down, causing Spinda café to have a violent cave-in. It was now not much more than a big hole in the ground. A furnished one, but still mostly just rubble. There was still people in there, because of the birthday party that had taken place, just a few hours earlier. Most had managed to make it out in one piece. It is a shame you cannot say that everyone did.

The place was completely silent, however. Except in a certain place of the café, where a radiant green bug had emerged from under a big pile of dirt and rocks and was gasping for air at the side of it.

- "Hahh... What the... Hell...? You could've... just said 'wake up'..."

Slowly, he made it onto his feet and looked around. He did not like what he saw, but he was also relieved over the things he did not see. He started walking towards where the exit used to be, thinking of what might have happened while he was asleep at the table. The thought of that he didn't wake up by the roof falling on him, made him start chuckling.

- "Caeomhin is a Hell of a sleeper, but I don't think even he woul-... Oh no..." He turned back to the table and stared at it for a long time. "No... No no no... NO!"

With great haste, he ran back and proceeded to wipe off the dirt from the table, when something felt completely off. No matter how much he tried, his left arm would not move.

- "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."

Enraged and filled with concern, he started removing the dirt, only using his right arm. Since he was left-bladed, it took a lot longer time than wanted, but soon the dirt was all gone and he sighed in relief:

- "Thank God... He's not here."

A voice that made the Bug type jump in start was then heard from the other side of the café. It was not a very deep or intimidating voice, but when you're alone, there is much that could scare you.

- "So there is someone alive, here. I was starting to get worried." The voice said as a figure emerged from behind the counter. "Are you in one piece?"

The figure got closer and Ischyas could see that it was a Leavanny the voice belonged to. He seemed to have no trouble navigating in the almost pitch-black room.

- "Who on Earth are you?"

- "A person who took the responsibility to look for people who got left behind. The name's Mikhail."

Ischyas only stood and looked at the bug type, who came from nowhere.

- "Well, now. You could talk just a few seconds ago." The Leavanny walked up to where Ischyas was standing by a pile of dirt and rocks. "You would not happen to have a name, would you?"

- "W-well, yah." The Scyther was still a bit confused after waking up completely buried and not much later be met by someone almost two heads shorter than him. "People call me Ischyas, bu-..."

- "Ah, so YOU are the missing one! Your tiny hard-to-understand Weedle teammate was looking for you a few hours ago. I think you usually call him Kevin or something similar."

- "Caeomhin? Have you- wait... How did you know aboot me and him?"

- "Well, I have a bad habit of eavesdropping, so I have heard some of you and your mate's conversations."

That confession made Ischyas both delighted and a bit upset. Eavesdropping is not something you talk about openly. In this case, it was a bit of a relief, though, since he, by that, knew about Caeomhin and maybe even of his whereabouts.

- "You..." Ischyas started, but did not really know how to proceed. "you haven't happened to see him, have you?"

- "Nnnno, not really. Though, I heard him with some 'knee' person. Never really heard of him, though. Can you lift your right arm, please?" The Leavanny said and made a slight wave to the right.

- "What?"

- "You heard me. Not forwards, though; I do not want that blade in my face."

Ischyas hesitated at first. Why should he lift his arm? That wouldn't get them anywhere. After a short ponder, he gave in and held up his bladed right arm.

- "It's... up...?"

"Good." The Leavanny nodded and started touching all over the arm. Ischyas stood motionless as the slighly shorter pokémon inspected it. Out of confusion, he did not say a word, either. The only one making a sound was the Leavanny, who only hummed and kept looking, until he suddenly stopped and turned to face the Scyther.

- "Well, it seems like this arm is in complete health. Nothing broken. Have you been working out, though? This arm seems quite buffed."

- "Err... wha-"

- "Ah, I'm just joking. You're a bug type. You can't feel the muscles from the outside, as they are inside the exo-skeleton."

He then let the arm fall to the side of the mantis pokémon and stood himself in front of Ischyas again with his leaf-arms behind his back. "Now, can you do the same with the other arm?"

The Scyther shook his head.

- "No... I can't..."

- "You can't? Let me take a look at it."

This time, this mysterious pokémon walked to the Scyther's left hand side and started inspecting the arm. He started with pushing it slightly, to make it swing for a bit. He pushed the arm a few more times before holding it up, doing the same procedure as he did with the right arm. Different from the right arm, he knocked on the exoskeleton a few times and faced Ischyas again.

- "Did you feel that?"

- "No, not real-"

- "Well, it seems like this arm has taken quite a beating. It has become completely paralyzed. Don't worry, though. I do not think it is permanent."

Again, he let the arm fall to Ischyas side and placed himself in front of him. This time, a bit closer. Ischyas flinched as the Leavanny quickly held up one of his leaves to the left of his head.

- "Look straight forwards. How many leaves do you see?"

- "Err... one?"

He started waving the leaf back and forth.

- "Can you see it moving?"

- "Uhm, yes."

- "Good. That eye is fully functional." He took his leaf down and held up the other on Ischyas right side. "How many leaves do you see? Keep looking forwards."

Ischyas tried looking, but it was only dark. - "I... I see nothing."

- "Not even if I do this?" He started waving the leaf again, but the Scyther only shook his head again. Mikhail kept waving, in wait for an answer. "... Well?"

- "No, I can't see anything."

The Leavanny stopped waving and just stood there with his arm in the air. He mumbled for himself for a couple or two seconds and started talking to Ischyas again.

- "Can you even open your eye?" He said and walked to the right of the Scyther.

- "No, I can't eve- AGH! WHAT THE-!?" Ischyas screamed as Mikhail suddenly held his eyelid open. It did not hurt, but it had him a bit surprised. "What are you doing?"

- "Stand still! Can you see me now?"

- "YES! Couldn't you have warned me?"

- "I could, but that would only waste time." He said and started waving his hand in front of Ischyas eye. "Can you see it moving now?"

- "B... w... yes! I can see it move!"

Mikhail started mumbling again. He waved his free hand around the air as if he was trying to place pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. For a third time, he looked towards Ischyas and started talking to him.

- "It seems like you have taken a beating on your eye, as well. Not the actual eye, but your eyelid has some damage, causing this inability to open it." He let go of Ischyas eyelid and clapped his leaves together. "Well, this place is full of dirt. We could get sick if we stay in here for too long. Let's head outside!"

With those words, Mikhail started walking towards the exit. Ischyas stood where he was, just trying to find out what the Hell just happened. He now knew that Caeomhin was safe with Nhee and hopefully also Kekliss, so some worries were gone, at least. It took a little time for him to set things straight, but soon he was also heading outside together with the odd Leavanny.

Once outside, Ischyas got his first sight of Tao Village's state. It did not really look as he remembered. He breathed in several times to say something, but the sight kept him speechless and only sighs came out. However, that was not the case with the energetic Mikhail, who was smiling and taking some deep breaths.

- "Aah... A lot better. Now, can we go to a place a bit more private?"

Finally, Ischyas found some words. However, it was not many he had found.

- "Private...?"

- "Yes, the things I'm going to do to you are seldom done in public."

- "... Well, there's no one here."

- "but what If someone comes here while we're going on? Don't you think they will find it a bit inappropriate?"

- "... What... What exactly are we doing?"

- "Well, what do you think?"

- "I... I can't really say..."

After that one comment, the area became silent once again. All that could be heard was the wind breezing through the leaves of the fallen Rescuer HQ and some water dripping from a few of the busted houses in the village, down into small puddles of water. The village had gotten warmer while the somewhat crippled Scyther was sleeping.

- "Is that everything people think of, nowadays!?" Mikhail suddenly barked back at Ischyas, who performed a nice little jump, without giving a response. "For God's sake, I'm going to do a check-up, to make sure you are without any internal injuries and such."

- "I-I..." Ischyas stammered and relaxed again. "I didn't mean to..."

- "Well, at least you were subtle. A few days ago I met a male, who was ANYTHING, but subtle. I'm flattered about somenoe finding me attractive, but I clearly told him that I lacked interest. I never thought he would give up that... yuch."

- "Do you... have something ag..."

- "Of course not. I am not one to question someone's preferences. Although, I don't prefer the thought of me, having someone else's... Usch..."

Ischyas rolled his eyes in irritation. Not because of Mikhail's comment, as the Scyther was not one to judge pokémon by their opinions, either. He basically found the Leavanny exceptionally rude. Ischyas had now been interrupted several times, touched without him properly approving it and on top of that, this stranger was not even looking at him either when speaking or being spoken to.

- "Well! We've wasted enough time!" Mikhail exclaimed and began walking off, crossing Ischyas' field of view. "Why we even stopped is probably a question that's not going to be answered soon."

He was then abruptly stopped when bumping into a blade, hindering him to walk any further. The shocked Leavanny turned slightly and emitted a questioning hum.

- "Just a minute, Speedy." Ischyas grumbled and pushed the shorter bug back a little bit. "You have asked me a week's worth of questions, but there's a few things that I would like to get answered, as well, if you wouldn't mind..."

- "Of course!" Mikhail replied, slowly pushing Ischyas' arm out of the way. "Can they be answered while we walk? If it now turns out that you HAVE some kind of severe internal injury, it would be best if we were not in the middle of nowhere."

- "... I can't argue with that..."

- "I thought not. Now, is there anyone you know living nearby? You don't seem too keen on the idea of walking away with a complete stranger."

At first, he hesitated to answer. He had just met this Leavanny and didn't know his actual intentions, so leading him to anyone he knew, could end in disaster. On the other hand, as Mikhail had said, it would be better if there were people around him, IF something would happen. After a disbelieving grunt, Ischyas had made his mind up.

- "You listen to people's private chats..." He started and once again took a glance over the village. "You walk around the village and pick up any stranger and helps them, just like that and you're not making any eye contact, whatsoever..."

- "As you said, there's no one here, except us, so eye contact is not re-..."

- "... AND you don't let people speak whole sentences before opening your mouth again. No sense of either privacy or respect. You are the kind of person I'd never waste any time with and even less follow... but at the same time, I just described my teammate, who is someone I've promised not to leave alone and since you are the only option I have, as I don't know where the doctors are, I'm not going to take any unnecessary risks."

Mikhail started walking again and let out a disappointed sigh.

- "Well, then." He mumbled. "I hope that we some day will meet again."

- "... Hmm... what differs you from Caeomhin, though, is that you're much worse than him at interpreting messages."

For a second time, Mikhail stopped and turned around, slightly confused. - "Excuse me?"

- "What I was saying, was that I would trust you for once, as I would rather be alive when I meet Caeomhin again."

- "... I knew that... I was just testing you..."

- "Mhm? Did you also know that I'm just a malformed Kabutops?" Ischyas responded with a teasing smirk.

- "Ok, Jester..." Mikhail grunted. "I misunderstood you. That happens to everyone."

Ischyas chuckled and led the the ridiculed Leavanny to where he was certain he would find at least three pokémon he knew pretty well.