Short-Lived Scam
Twenty steps away from the fountain, facing west. Free of water or secret weapons. Just past sunset... my clients were supposed to have shown up already.
I flitted about, growing somewhat impatient, becoming more intrigued by the fountain than the status of those meant to deliver me my relic. The fountain was carved intricately, littered with designs of creatures I did not understand, but could recognize vaguely from my Precursor studies. A four-legged beast, a two-legged stranger...
Atop the structure, there was a statue of what I was certain had to be a Precursor. It was sculpted in a way that made the figure look like it was covered in some kind of cloth, form-fitting and held up by a sash around the waist, wearing some kind of bag with sticks on its back and holding a much longer, curved stick in one arm...
I reached for my explorer's bag, letting my two-pronged claw dig around for something I desired. I had to keep record of this-- I would be doing my studies a disservice to leave such a strange sight undocumented.
Eventually, it ocurred to me that I had left the specific vessel of documentation I desired at home. My claw ended up aimlessly wandering over the several powerful wands I brought for my protection...
"This's a bad idea, jus'... jus' drop it."
My antenna twitched at the noise. One of my clientele had arrived.
I spun around, descending onto the side of the dry fountain, letting the wand slip from my claws and placing both hands upon my lap. "Greetings to the two of you."
The pair of walking anomalies entered, one of them chattering on to the other, neither of them seeming to notice me.
"Regardless of how good an idea you think this is, you've gotta admit that this is pretty sweet," said the disconcerting one. She spun something flat and circular atop one of her four tendrils. As she focused her attention on the object, it began to float.
Suddenly, the Torchic took notice of my presence. "Di, stop it. She's here."
I waved a claw, adjusting my goggles and straightening my coat. "Indeed I am. Have you brought what you tempted me here with?"
My claw floated back to my bag.
"Oh boy, have I!" Diana sung, already getting uncomfortably close. "Professor," she laced the title with acid, "you're going to want to see this."
Diana backed up, tossing the object into the air-- and forcing it to a stop a few feet away from my face.
The object in question was... poorly-done. I could see paint already flaking off the TM underneath it. On the obvious forgery, however, I was able to make out the strange image of a black disc. It had light-grey lines drawn atop it, circling around the center of the TM as if to resemble grooves, with a white section in the middle that had incomprehensible runes scribbled atop it. The object continued to spin in the air, with Diana holding a tentacle atop and above its sides, occasionally turning horizontally to give me a better view of the obviously-orange sides of the disc.
"...this is not a relic," I stated plainly. I rose from the fountain, brow furrowed, and took a look at the torchic...
...whose expression seemed to be one of utter embarrassment. He spoke up quickly after. "No, it--"
Diana threw a tendril at his beak so quickly that he nearly tipped over. "--'s a valuable relic, for sure! I know it doesn't look it, but this baby's real old. That's why all the paint's flaking off. It's just that decrepit."
I began to question whether this pair had ever seen a true relic before. My arms began to fold, of their own volition of course, while I eyed the entrepeneurial alien with a suspicious brow. "I do not appreciate this insult to my work. You are very clearly presenting me a Technical Machine, yet claiming it to be something else."
The pair bristled, Diana seemingly twitching a tentacle in irritation before composing herself, Apollo refusing to look me in the eyes and beginning to frown.
"You probably just haven't seen this one yet," Diana sneered, "because I can promise you that this is the real deal. I've seen one of these babies myself. Take it as a generous gift that I'm willing to part with even one. So... prices, prices," she began to shuffle back and forth, her mind already focused on a transaction that was never going to happen. "How about... thirteen-hundred poke?"
"What?" I scoffed, offended. "Is insulting my intelligence not cruel enough for you? Must you insult my business sense, too?"
That was enough for me to procure a wand. It wasn't a combative one-- no, this was simply a Stayaway wand-- but I suppose it looked enough like one to prompt an aggressive response...
...which was soon thwarted by Apollo, of all Pokemon. "Stop this!"
The torchic jumped in front of his partner, taking the brunt of a Power-up Punch seemingly aimed at me. "Stop-- Di, this's crazy! You've already lost her, don'... don' force this!"
Diana backed up, clearly infuriated both at Apollo's intervention and the situation at hand. "She's pulled a wand on us, and you just want me to sit there and ignore it?"
The torchic nodded. "Yes, come on! I told you it was a dirt-poor fake 'n you didn't believe me. She's not blind, she knows."
He turned back to me and hung his head. "Sorry about all've this, truly. I don'-- I think it's nasty, what she wants t' do. There's no reason we should be scammin' people who do good work like you do."
"Good work!" Diana objected, loudly. "She sits around rifling through paper all day. How is that good work?"
"It helps people, Di! If it weren't for her, we'd know nothin' about what happened here!" The torchic replied, not giving his partner the courtesy of a look back. Instead, he rummaged around in her bag-- briefly, even while being flicked by her tentacles and told to 'buzz off'-- before procuring... what looked to be some kind of image.
Apollo lay this image in my lap, his expression still deeply apologetic. "This's the least I can do t' make it up to you. You don' need t' pay fer this. It's... some kind've drawin', I think, that I found in an album of 'em."
I brought the image closer to my goggles and took a better look. It clearly had some evidence of burning near its edges, but the picture was otherwise clear. In the middle, there stood some kind of Precursor. Its belly was swollen, possibly from disease, but it paradoxically seemed to be smiling. Another Precursor stood behind it, one arm over the swollen one's shoulder, grinning towards me.
"Don't need to pay for it! Apollo, have you forgotten what we're here for?" Diana threw her arms to the side, exasperated. The floating disc nearly dropped to the ground, but the anomalous one managed to regain her focus quickly enough to return it to her bag.
"I don' care what we were originally here for, Di. We can jus' go explorin' and make up fer the lost profits." Apollo looked back at the alien, allowing me to spend more time examining the image. "Better we do that than piss off the townsfolk."
I flipped the small portrait Apollo had given me onto its back. This left the portrait blank, but showed me some rather interesting runes. This would definitely make for a good addition to my collection...
"We don't mean no trouble. I don', anyways," Apollo grumbled. "Di came up with this big dumb plan 'n I didn' have a say in it. This's the least I can do t' apologize."
The chick leaned over my lap, peering at the image I was examining. He continued to speak. "I's... interestin', isn't it? I don' know what these are, but I really like 'em. If I could visit the Park, I'd-- hrk"
Apollo was pulled away from me by the same power previously keeping that disc afloat. Diana looked absolutely livid, giving the chick an intense stare-down... but I kept myself preoccupied with Apollo's gift.
Back on the other side of the portrait... I could make out a faint background. It wasn't too different from one of the plethora of ruins in the Labyrinthine Suburbs, but this example looked... clean. Well-maintained. I could clearly see the commonalities of the ruins in its design, but the way they all fit together...
"Thank you," I looked up to say...
...only for the pair of grifters to have already vanished from my sight.