"We're not going to let you get away!" three voices yelled.
Across a grassy plain with few trees ran a frogadier with a fearful look on its face. It held a white burlap sack over its shoulder that was filled to the brim with both round and angular objects, to the point where bumps and spikes could be seen all around it. Despite the weight it carried, though, the frogadier kept running as fast as it possibly could.
Unfortunately, from behind it came a blur of yellow that quickly overtook the Pokémon, turned around, and slammed into its stomach. The Pokémon, a green-scarved pikachu, flipped over and landed on the ground as the frogadier was sent back. Once he landed, he looked behind the frogadier at his allies and yelled out to them.
"Alright, you two, hit him with all you've got!" he called out.
From behind frogadier, a fennekin wearing a similar green striped scarf that the pikachu was wearing and an espurr, both concentrated and summoned several multicolored psychic orbs. The fennekin did a spin to throw the orbs while the espurr merely pushed her arms forward. The orbs hit their mark and the frogadier was quickly knocked out by the combined Psychic attacks.
"Ha, yeah, that was awesome!" the fennekin cheered, doing a backflip as she did so.
The espurr just rolled her eyes and walked forward to the outlaws. "Come on, Fennix, we've still got work to do," she said.
"Oh come on, Espurr, you can't tell me that wasn't fun!" Fennix said as she walked up to the outlaw with her. "Tell her, Light!"
Light just chuckled while rolling his eyes, having already reached the outlaw. The pikachu gently reached his left paw over to the frogadier's side and took the bag away from it. Light opened up the bag and looked to see what items were inside of it. Inside there, he found several berries of multiple different colors, some blue, some pink, some yellow.
"Yep, the Chief was right," Light said as he looked. "These are the berries taken from Kangaskhan's supplies. That means this frogadier was definitely the outlaw we were looking for."
"The Chief is pretty good at figuring these things out," Fennix said. Light looked up to see that both her and Espurr were already on the other side of the knocked-out outlaw. "The Expedition Society is really good at finding information. That's why I'm proud to work with them!"
"And I thought I'd be hearing less constant praising of the Expedition Society when you finally joined them, not more," Espurr said.
Light shrugged while he reached into his scarf, feeling around for the cold metal pressed against his neck from his snug scarf. "You get used to it," he said.
"Hey!" Fennix yelled at both of them.
Light finally pulled out a golden badge from his scarf and held that badge in front of the frogadier. A bright golden light surrounded the Water-type, blinding the three Pokémon watching the event happen. Once the light dissipated, the frogadier completely disappeared, no trace of his being still existing on the plains, aside from the bag Light repossessed. The pikachu knew he was transported to the police, though, as all outlaws were when the badge teleported them.
"Still, that's kinda amazing," Espurr said after everything was all said and done. "Your badges actually have the ability to teleport outlaws to Officer Magnazone. How does that even work?"
Light shrugged before setting his badge back inside his scarf. "I don't exactly know how it works," he admitted. "It's thanks to Psychic-types, I know that. But badges just have the ability to teleport Pokémon around. They're used for rescue requests and outlaw missions, and it's honestly pretty good that it does. I'm not entirely sure how, though."
"Still, it's rather interesting," Espurr said. "My Psychic-type power is rather strong for my age, and even I can't imagine concentrating it in a badge to use whenever someone needs it." The espurr looked off into the distance with a wistful look. "I wonder if I'll be able to do something like that when I grow up."
Light stood up straight and stretched, feeling the tension leave his muscles as he did so. "Well, that's our mission for the day," he said once he lowered his paws back to his sides. "Thanks for joining us on this, Espurr."
Espurr smiled and nodded. "Thanks for letting me join," she said. "It's honestly kinda fun doing Expedition Society work. Too bad we couldn't go to a new continent, or anything, though."
"Sorry, that'd take too long," Light said. Fennix walked up to his side while he was talking. "Even if we were just going to the Air Continent, it still takes a while to go between continents. You've got school tomorrow, and it'd take half a day just to get to the Air Continent."
"Yeah, I know," Espurr said. "Maybe next time there's a school break, or something."
"You know, you could always joi-" Fennix said, but Light quickly pushed his left paw on her mouth to silence her. Fennix gave him a glare before puffing hot air on his paw. Light felt the heat on his paw and quickly removed it, looking over to see Fennix's glare at him.
"What was that for?" she asked softly, yet harshly. Light was glad that the fennekin figured out he didn't want Espurr hearing this.
"We've already asked why Espurr doesn't just join our team, and she changed the subject on us," Light reminded her in a whisper. "We should just let her be."
"…Fine," Fennix groaned.
"Well, let's start heading back then," Espurr said. "No use hanging around here."
Light looked back at her to see she was just standing there. A part of him wondered if the telepath happened to look into their minds to gauge what conversation happened without her, but since she didn't react, he decided not to worry about it.
"Sure," Light said.
So the three of them began walking eastward back towards the Expedition Society. "So, how's the Expedition Society doing anyways?" Espurr asked on the walk back.
"Fine," Light said. "Actually, there's been renovations done to the place for a while now."
"Renovations?" Espurr asked.
"They're building a medical wing," Light confirmed. "The Chief found a doctor for us. They both should be here by tomorrow actually, by which the medical wing should be finished."
Fennix smiled. "Yeah!" she said with boundless energy and excitement. "We're finally getting a doctor! And a new friend!"
"Well, took you guys long enough," Espurr said. "What species are they?"
Light shook his head. "We don't know. Ampharos just mentioned that we were getting a doctor one day out of the blue and that he was going to be gone for a few days in order to bring them. We've heard nothing else about them. Honestly, though, that is kinda exciting."
"Yeah, I'll bet," Espurr said. "You'll have to tell all of us in Serene Village about it next time you visit."
Light and Fennix both nodded. "Sure we will," Fennix said. "We'll be happy to talk all about it later!"
Later that night, two Pokémon walked through a cloudy night on a dirt path surrounded by plains as far as the eye could see, their figures obscured in darkness so only their forms visible. One of them was clearly taller than the other and walked on two legs instead of four. They both walked with purpose, though the tall bipedal Pokémon walked a bit faster while the smaller one walked slower and more hesitantly. The taller Pokémon noticed that eventually and stopped to look at the smaller Pokémon.
"Are you ok?" the taller Pokémon asked. He had a smooth male voice as he spoke.
"What do you think?" asked the smaller Pokémon. Her voice was feminine, though harsh and gravely. "If I didn't want to go through with this, I wouldn't have accepted your offer in the first place. I'm fine."
"…I haven't known you long, my friend, but even I can tell there's something on your mind," the tall Pokémon said.
"You're not going to stop asking until I tell you, are you?" the Pokémon sighed, something she's noticed that she's done a lot lately. "Fine. It's been a long time since I've interreacted with a bunch of Pokémon like you. That's it. Nothing too big."
"Well, you can be sure the Pokémon you are about to meet are all nice and friendly," the large Pokémon assured her.
The small Pokémon scoffed. "I think that only makes it worse, to be honest." However, the anger quickly passed with a small sigh. "But I'll live. I have to do this, so I won't complain. Even if it sucks sometimes."
The tall Pokémon sighed. "Please try to interact with the other members. I know that will be difficult for you at first, but…"
"I'm kinda forced to," the small Pokémon said with a sigh. "I'll get by somehow. T-thanks for this chance…Ampharos."
The morning sun rose over Lively Town in the Water Continent and the sudden brightening of the world caused a stir in Lively Town's largest building, the Expedition Society Headquarters. Within the crew rooms specifically, several Pokémon were beginning to wake up as the morning light flooded into their rooms and those that did moved their tired bodies out of their respective rooms and into the central meeting room.
In Light and Fennix's room, the pikachu was the first to wake up. As his eyes opened up, he turned his head to the right to look out the window at the sunlight pouring down on his face. The pikachu closed his eyes for a few seconds and sighed, stretching his arms over his head as he did so. After stretching, he opened his eyes back up again and got off his straw bed. He stretched once again after standing up before looking towards the fennekin.
"Geez, for how excited you were last night, I'm surprised your asleep right now," the pikachu said with a chuckle. "Figured you'd be the first to wake up for once. Great, now I need to wake you."
The pikachu walked over to his brown bag, which was lying next to the wall under the window, and wrapped the strap over right shoulder. Using his left paw, he frisked through the bag, feeling the various objects until his paw wrapped around something round and squishy. He quickly pulled out the blue berry and placed it in front of the fennekin. He waited a few seconds before the fennekin's eyes opened and her mouth quickly consumed the berry.
"Mmm…morning, Light," the fennekin said after eating the berry, with boundless energy despite having just woken up. "Only an Oran Berry? Really? Can't you do better than that?"
"Morning Fennix," Light said, rolling his eyes. "And no. The berries you like are expensive. Oran Berries are cheap and can be found in most dungeons anyways. Besides, you should wake up with the sun like most normal Pokémon."
"Being a normal Pokémon is boring," Fennix rebutted. "Besides, you and I are both anything but 'normal Pokémon.' So why should I bother?"
Well…she's got a point, Light thought as he looked down at her. A human who transformed into a pikachu. The Mythical Pokémon Mew reincarnated as a fennekin. As much as we might look it to most Pokémon, we're anything but normal.
"Because it'd make my life easier," Light suggested with a shrug. "Besides, I'm sure our past lives managed to wake up normally, anyways. So I don't see why you can't do so as well."
"Hmm…" Fennix walked close to Light, standing awkwardly close to him for a few seconds, before walking towards the doorway. "I'll think about it!"
"You're impossible sometimes," Light said, though he didn't expect the conversation to go anywhere else. "Well, you know what happens today, right?"
"Yep!" Fennix said with a happy nod. "We're getting a new friend!"
"And the medial wing is finally opening today," Light added. "Don't forget, they're also a doctor."
"Yep!" Fennix said with a jump. "Let's go, Light!"
And without giving Light a chance to respond or anything, Fennix rushed out of the room and took a left to head to the meeting room. Light shook his head and smiled at his partner's sudden burst of energy when she remembered what exactly was happening that day. He himself stretched to relieve the rest of his tiredness before walking out of his room to follow her.
Once he got to the meeting room, a cacophony of sound reached his ears. The rest of the crew were all talking with each other in various groups and their chief was nowhere to be found. Light didn't even need to pay attention to the various conversations going on in the room to guess at what was exactly on everyone's minds. So he unhurriedly looked around the crowd for Fennix, eventually finding her talking to Dedenne.
"Do you know what kind of Pokémon the Chief is bringing?" Fennix asked just as Light walked up to the group.
"I know she's a girl," Dedenne said. "But the Chief never told me the species. If anyone knows, it's Mawile, and she's been keeping it hush as well. So sorry Fennix, I can't tell you anything. I'm left in the dark too."
"How long until the Chief gets back, anyways?" Light asked.
"Assuming whoever he's bringing keeps him from getting lost, he should be here soon," Dedenne said. "He said he'd be here by the time of morning announcements. Whether that actually happens or not, we'll see."
"Not giving the Chief any credit, huh?" Light asked.
"I've been here long enough to know how the Chief works," Dedenne said. "He's a great leader, and you've seen him when he gets serious. I'll follow the Chief, and everyone else here will say the same. But he has no sense of direction and when things aren't serious he's…you know."
"Well, we can hope," Light said.
While waiting, he took another look around the room. At that back of the room, right next to the staircase that lead to the second floor, was a new hole in the wall. While it was too dark there to see, Light knew that was where the medical wing was built. Standing in front of it and chatting were Buizel, Archen, and Bunnelby, the later looking worn down this morning.
"I'm kinda surprised it took so long for us to get a doctor anyways," Light said. "You guys have been together for how long without one?"
"Yeah, you'd think the Expedition Society would have doctors lining up to work for us!" Fennix said.
"We're influential, but not that influential," Dedenne said. "Despite how much you build us up, Fennix, we're still not that large yet. We're well known enough throughout the world, but we are still a newer organization. That's why we had Lively Town's doctors help us out when we needed it. But now we have someone who works for us able to do that, which will be really nice. And less expensive."
"Yeah, I guess it makes things a little easier," Fennix agreed.
"And helloooo to you all," Ampharos's voice.
Everyone's attention was immediately turned to entrance where the yellow electric sheep came walking in. Their chief walked in with a confident smile on his face and his golden Expedition Society badge shining at the top-right corner of the white fur on his belly and chest. Once he knew he had everyone's attention, Ampharos struck a pose.
"The Dashing Wanderer is back!" Ampharos said.
"Welcome back, Chief," Mawile said.
"Welcome back!" everyone else except for Fennix repeated after her.
Fennix, instead, was looking around at the entrance to see any trace of the new Pokémon that was joining them. After a few seconds, Light looked to, curious as to where they were, since they saw no other Pokémon around. He thought of the possibility that the Pokémon was so tiny and hiding under Ampharos's fur, though, so he waited patiently for an answer. However, his partner was no so patient.
"So, where's the new Pokémon?" Fennix asked.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," said a voice from behind Ampharos.
Eventually, from the entrance, came the small new Pokémon. As Light saw the Pokémon, he recognized which species it was immediately. She was a hedgehog-like Pokémon with a white body and green grass-like fur on her back. On both sides of her head, just behind her white ears were two pink flowers. Light recognized the Pokémon as the Mythical Pokémon shaymin.
"Another Mythical Pokémon?" Jirachi asked. "Really?"
Light chuckled at Jirachi's outburst. "Dedenne, is there something about this place that attracts Mythical Pokémon? First Jirachi, then Mew for a few days, and now a shaymin. I don't think three Mythical Pokémon meeting in once place is exactly that common."
"I…don't know," Dedenne said, her words slow from shock. "I really don't know."
"So my friend, would you like to introduce yourself?" Ampharos asked the shaymin.
The shaymin sighed, but did so anyways. "Hello. Yes, I'm a Mythical Pokémon. Faster you get over that, the better. I'm not interested in getting any special treatment just because I am one. Otherwise, I'm here to heal you guys, not to socialize. So don't expect much chatting from me. I'm not here to listen to your life's story anymore then I'm interested in any of you hearing mine. Also, if you're going to refer to me, call me Amaranth. Not Doctor Amaranth or even Doctor Shaymin. I'm don't care for fancy titles. If I so much as hear Doctor come from your lips, I'll ignore you."
"She sounds…uncomfortable," Fennix whispered.
"Sounds like a pain if you ask me," Dedenne whispered back.
"I wonder what her story is," Light said. "Because most shaymin I've met are much more cheerful and happy than she is. I know she said she's not interested in talking about it, but I'm kinda curious why she's the way she is."
"Can introductions be over already so I can get to business?" Amaranth asked Ampharos. "You've already given me a basic idea of who everyone is, and I'll eventually be forced to get to know them anyways, so we might as well not waste time."
"Sorry Amaranth, but introductions are part of your inauguration into the Expedition Society," Ampharos told her. "Besides, these are the Pokémon you'll be working with so you should get to know them a bit before that happens."
Amaranth sighed. "Figures," she said. The shaymin looked back at the rest of the Expedition Society. "Alright, fine. But make it quick."
The Expedition Society memebers were silent for a few seconds due to Amaranth's abrasive attitude. Light couldn't blame them, as he wasn't sure what to make of the Pokémon in front of them either. However, Fennix recovered quickly and it didn't take long for her to break the silence in the room. The Fire-type did a twirl, grabbing her badge with her right paw while she did so, before posing with her right paw extended as far as possible, Expedition Society Badge shown off proudly.
"I'm the Fiery Spirit, Fennix!" the fennekin said cheerfully, ignoring the disinterested look Amaranth gave her. "I'm one half of Team Rebirth, a team dedicated to both exploring the world and helping other Pokémon out through the Connection Orb! It's nice to meet you!"
Light figured with that, he should go next. "And I'm the Luminescent Blade, Light," the pikachu said, tripping over his title a bit as he wasn't ignorant of Amaranth's look. "I'm the other half of Team Rebirth. If you need help with anything, just let me know and I'll try my best to help you."
Light stood back so that the rest of the Expedition Society could introduce themselves. While they were doing so, though, he couldn't help but feel his own embarrassment over his introduction. The title Fennix gave him wasn't one he normally found embarrassing to say, but the look of disinterest he saw on Amaranth's face didn't help him at all.
I almost feel like she doesn't want to be here, Light thought. Maybe I'm just wrong, but she doesn't look like she's interested at all in being here. But if that's true, then why did she join in the first place? Or why did Ampharos let her join?
The rest of the Expedition Society introduced themselves and when they were all done, Light could have sworn he saw Amaranth breathe a sigh of relief. "Alright, now onto business," Amaranth said. "By the end of today there will be a sign-up sheet above the medical wing door. I want each of you to sign up for some time to meet with me sometime next week. I know many, if not all of you, have had some sort of rudimentary inspection by Lively Town Medical, so you might think this is redundant or something, but I want to do an inspection myself to ensure I have a handle on your various situations, should I need that knowledge. That will be all for now."
And with that, Amaranth passed through the crowd of Expedition Society members and walked towards the newly built medical wing, which was located to the right of the staircase leading to the second floor. Everyone silently watched her walk in before closing the door, isolating herself from the rest of the crew. And, if Light had to guess, that was something that she would continue doing while she worked there.
"Well that was…kinda unpleasant," Dedenne said.
"Maybe she's just shy," Fennix suggested. "I'm sure after working here for a while, she'll be much nicer!"
If you say so, Fennix, Light thought to himself. But I don't know, I think something's up. I still can't shake the feeling that she's not interested in working here. Which makes me wonder, why?
Author's Note: Hello ! Finally able to get to an author's note since this is a brand new fanfiction for this site, instead of just past stuff I'm submitting here. Anyways, I do hope you all enjoy this chapter of Amaranth!
So for those of you who read my Explorers fic, you would know that I already have a Shaymin main character. So you might be wondering why I am using one in this fic too. Well, don't worry viewers, I do have my reasons and I didn't just chose this character to be a Shaymin because I like them (though I can't pretend that wasn't a reason). All will be revealed soon.
So I thank you all for reading this and have a nice day!
Beta reader is TheGOAT