[SEASON 2] The Stalkers RPG - Main Action and Team Status [ENDED... FOR NOW]

[Neo Emolga]

14. Fern the Illumise has been murdered by the Stalkers.
Fern's side mission has been reassigned to Lychee the Scolipede.

Location: Outside of Northwind School
Cause of Death: Poison trap prior to extreme lacerations

Fern, the Illumise police Sergeant that had been devoted toward helping Pormalu put an end to the Stalkers, was found by Lychee after a tip from an anonymous caller. Unlike the many times before, this time the Scolipede was really hoping it was a prank.

But it wasn't.

As the rain was coming down, Lychee had arrived on the scene to find Fern, her coworker and mentor, killed in one of the most deplorable ways she could think of. The Stalker that had killed her went out of their way to cut up Fern's body and completely rearrange it in all the wrong ways, like a puzzle forcibly assembled incorrectly. It made it hard for the Scolipede to accept the nightmarish sight she saw before her was even real.

Pormalu had arrived with Sequintia, only told this time, it was "especially bad news." When the Arcanine, accompanied by his Pyroar mate, had arrived, he had seen who the victim was and fell completely silent in response. Not only was Fern dead, but she had been killed in an absolutely disgusting and deplorable way that not only mocked what Fern stood for, but spat on the ongoing police effort as a whole. It was clear to Pormalu that this travesty was how the Stalkers regarded the police force of Silvercoal City.

All the while, the rain still came down upon a very dark and grim scene...

"She..." Lychee struggled to tell the tiger-like Pokémon, "Pormalu, I think she died very... p-painfully."

But Pormalu was silent. All the while the rain fell upon him and matted the fur on his face. His emotions were fighting a civil war, and the battlefield was all in his mind. To everyone else, they didn't know of the invisible war that the Arcanine was dealing with... and how utterly ferocious it truly was. And it made everything else around him suddenly blur.

"Boss, judging from..."

"...poison might have..."

"...Boss, did you...?"

"Pormalu...?"

To Pormalu, it was like being unable to wake up from a nightmare where you're running and running away from the killer only to fall helplessly on your back. And in then grave fear, you look up to see them and stare at them in the eyes only to find it was actually yourself that you were running from the entire time. And he knew it was what they wanted.

They wanted him to become as much of a monster as they were in trying to seek revenge.

"They want to make this personal," Pormalu muttered, trying to contain his anger. "Fern wanted everything for this city. And she paid for that dream with her life. Because she knew Silvercoal did not deserve this."

"I promise, I will do whatever I can do continue her work," Lychee told the troubled Arcanine. "I'll work nights, weekends, as much overtime as we need to. It's what she would have done for me. It's what she would have done if this happened to one of us!"

Pormalu could only nod in response. He knew the way to fight back against evil wasn't to seek revenge. That was what the Stalkers were hoping for. Evil in response to evil ensured the corrupted would still march on and take the innocence and sincerity of the entire town down with them. And no one could ever call something dark like that a victory. It was worse than being defeated. It was worse than the entire city collapsing.

"Fern deserves to be put back together," Sequintia spoke, sounding angry. "She was a police Sergeant that died in the line of duty and she's a hero for it. I want this... travesty undone as soon as possible so Fern can be respectfully buried. And I want to know who did this before they get the chance to do it again."

And yet, they had already lost several police officers to the same Stalkers that had killed Fern and so many others. But they showed no sign of stopping or slowing down. And once again, they were faced with the reality that they were running out of time and it was taking a piece of them down each time something like this happened.

------

After ten minutes of being contacted, Reddan the Volbeat had arrived on the scene. He looked stressed, crestfallen, and crippled in emotion. When he arrived at the scene, Pormalu and Sequintia had looked on him with their hearts hardened while it was Lychee that looked the Volbeat with sympathy and respect. This part was never easy and it never would be.

"Could I please... at least see her...?" Reddan asked as his tears mixed with the falling rain. "Please? I know you said it was really bad over the phone, but I... I need to-"

"No," Lychee told him in a serious tone. "No, Reddan, I can't let you see her. She was my friend, she was my mentor, and... she was my colleague. She... she would not want you to see her like this."

"Please..." Reddan pleaded. "She was... my entire world. I was... I was nothing to anyone before I found her. She entered my life, opened me up, and now... what... what the hell am I now without her? Please, officer, I need to-"

And it was then that Lychee knew what it was like to have emotions wage a civil war in her mind in the same struggle that Pormalu was dealing with. She had to make a choice. And there was no good choice in this decision.

"N-no," Lychee declared again, standing by her decision. "I can't. I can't let you see her. Not after what was done. Remember her when she was alive. Remember what she looked like when she was happy. And when she was with you."

Despite being told to remember those thoughts, it didn't stop Reddan from breaking out in tears.

As the crime scene investigation team had taken away Fern's body that was now covered with a black plastic sheet, Lychee, despite Reddan's pleas, knew this was for the best. She was already aware of what happened when friends and family of the victims looked upon the results of what the Stalkers had done. But she could see in the Volbeat's eyes that if he looked upon what had become of his mate, it would ruin him forever. It would render him into a crippled husk of his former self and she absolutely refused to let the Stalkers to claim another victim like that.

"FERN!!!" Reddan shouted out in despair as they put the body in the back of the hovertruck. "I'm... I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT THEY DID TO YOU!!"

After the hovertruck sped away, all that was left was the weeping Volbeat and Lychee, Pormalu, and Sequintia just looking at Reddan on his knees, completely ravaged emotionally.

And all the while, the rain kept coming down...

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