Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Detectives Of Justice

by Tyranitar

He's a human turned Charmeleon with all the courage and fighting skills of a newborn kitten. She's an overly generous Braixen with no self worth and six hungry mouths to feed. Together, they fight crime! ...And possibly stop reality from collapsing into itself. ...Maybe. T for casual cussing, and probably suggestive themes and violence and all that good stuff too.

1. Chapter 1

Hi! I'm going to save my usual ridiculously large author's note for the end of the chapter this time.

---

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon and all that.

---

"...This one? This is the one you want? Truly?"

"Oh yeah. I know, I know, he seems a bit more... Odd than most of them, but hey, he answered the ol' 'hand in the toilet' question more honestly than anyone else that I can remember!"

"But... 'Run screaming and develop a bladder disease due to never setting foot in a bathroom again'? Doesn't that seem... Less than ideal?"

"Nah, he won't have to worry about that, there aren't any bathrooms where he's going anyways!"

"That's... Not what I meant... But very well. You may borrow him."

"Aw yeah, and that's why you're the man, you never let me down!"

"Yes, well... I just hope this one works out better for you than the last few did..."

"Please, why do you think I picked him? He's nothing like any of them, and I figured, hey, they weren't working out, so I might as well try something completely different! You'll see that my logic is flawless, as usual. Anyways, gotta run, thanks again pal, I'll catch you on the flipside once this little crisis has been averted. Later!"

"...Strange as always..."

---

"Geez... It's getting so hard to find food around here anymore..."

Braixen muttered to herself, looking down at the small satchel of berries that was clutched firmly in her hand, and sighing wistfully at the fact that it wasn't even halfway filled. Walking down the beaten path that led out of the forest she had picked the berries in, the sun was just beginning to dip over the horizon in front of her, casting a golden glow over the landscape.

"Mmm... Such a beautiful evening." Braixen hummed quietly as she continued on her way, before frowning and sighing again. "I wish I could enjoy it, it hasn't been this nice out in forever... But I've wasted enough time as it is looking for this pathetic haul, the kids are probably starving..."

Picking up her pace a bit, Braixen continued on her way home, entranced by the big, golden sun that just barely hung in the orange and purple twilight sky.

"I just hope there's enough here to fill everyone up..." Braixen grimaced as her own stomach growled hungrily at her, snapping her back to attention. "I'm going to have to figure something out, and fast... There's so little food left around here, but I can't let the kids down. If only... No, I can't allow myself to start thinking of such delusions, I have to stay focused."

Shaking her head firmly, Braixen continued walking faster, until her stomach growled again, much louder this time, causing her to groan and stop as her shoulders slumped woefully.

"Yeah, yeah, I haven't forgotten about you..." she muttered in annoyance to her stomach. "You're just gonna have to wait, though. I'm not about to feed myself when I know the kids are all just as hungry." As she steadied her resolve and got ready to get moving again, however, Braixen caught something odd out of the corner of her eye behind some bushes a short ways away in the distance.

"Hmm? What's that?" Braixen squinted into the distance to try to identify the strange shape, but couldn't make much of anything out from where she was standing. "That's strange, I don't remember there being anything over there earlier..." Frowning, she put her hand up to her face as she began to cautiously and curiously move forward again, not taking her eyes off of whatever it was that she was looking at. As she drew closer to the object, however, her caution and curiosity quickly turned into shock and dread, as she realized that the 'object' was actually a Pokemon, and it wasn't moving at all.

"O-Oh my gosh!" Braixen gasped once she realized what it was she was looking at, and without hesitation sprinted over as fast as she could to the Pokemon, kneeling down beside it and placing her berry pouch carefully to her side as she focused all of her attention on the Pokemon that lay sprawled out before her. A Charmeleon, it was collapsed on its stomach, a grimace displayed on its unmoving face, and to Braixen's dismay, its tail was completely flameless, something that she knew meant it was either dead, or very close to it.

"N-No..." she stuttered in a panic, horrified at the fact that the Pokemon she was looking at was most likely nothing more than a corpse. The very thought sent a chill down her spine. She realized there was still a chance, however, that it wasn't, and so bracing herself, she squeamishly did her best to roll the Charmeleon over so she could see if it was still alive. Slightly relieved that the Charmeleon at least didn't have any kind of horrifying, grievous injury, she was still filled with apprehension and dread as she gently placed her hand upon its neck, praying that she would be able to feel a pulse. After a few tense seconds, she was able to breathe a massive sigh of relief as she felt a slow, weak heartbeat. Her relief was short lived, however, as she realized that there was still something very wrong with it.

"Oh no, w-what do I do, what do I do?!" Braixen cried frantically, trying desperately to figure out some course of action. She still had no idea what was wrong with it, and even if she did, she had no way to heal it or help it at all. Panicking, Braixen began to tug at her ear fur in frustration, when her eyes fell upon the Charmeleon's unlit tail. She knew that an unlit tail was a very bad sign for a Charmeleon, but she didn't know what on earth she could do about it... But suddenly, an idea popped into her head. It sounded incredibly dumb to her, even in her head, but she didn't have many options, and she realized it was probably the only shot she had at helping the poor Charmeleon.

Breathing deeply, Braixen stood up, and grabbed the small twig that she kept stuck in her big, bushy tail. "Oh... I hope this works..." she whimpered to herself, as she pointed the stick at the Charmeleon's tail. Focusing all of her attention and energy, she stared intently at the Charmeleon's tail, and after a moment of charging, she cried out, "EMBER!", sending a small burst of flame shooting out of the end of her twig, directly at the tip of the Charmeleon's tail. The Charmeleon's reaction, while immediate, was not at all what Braixen had expected.

"YEEEEEEEOOOOWCH!" the Charmeleon cried in pain, regaining his consciousness and jolting awake instantly as the flame scorched the tip of his tail. Jumping to his feet, he hopped up and down as he clutched his butt, turning around and recoiling in horror at the sight of his tail on fire... Or, rather, the fact that he had a tail in the first place.

"O-Oh, god, what the hell?!" the Charmeleon exclaimed, gasping and double taking at the sight of himself. "H-Holy crap, w-why do I have a tail, why is it on fire, what the heck is going on here?!"

Braixen looked on at the Charmeleon's bizarre actions in complete bewilderment, too shocked to do anything. On one hand, she was relieved that the Charmeleon wasn't dead, but on the other hand, he actually seemed to be in pain from the fire on his tail, which didn't sound right at all... Was she not supposed to have done that? Should his tail not have been lit by an outside source? She had never heard anything regarding that, but even so, he was still a Fire type, and the fire shouldn't be hurting him much at all... Right...?

"O-Oh god, oh god, h-hot, HOT!" the Charmeleon cried, running around like a headless chicken and hopping from one foot to the other in a panic as he stared in alarm at his tail. Looking around him in a fervor, he was dismayed to see no water anywhere, and having no other idea of what to do, he clumsily grasped onto his tail as best as he could with both hands and began to try to blow the fire out with his breath as if it were a birthday candle. Unfortunately, instead of blowing the flame out, a short, steady stream of fire came spewing out of his mouth instead of air, much to the Charmeleon's utter horror.

"GAAAH! JESUS!" the Charmeleon's eyes bulged out in fright at the unexpected sight of what had just come out of his mouth. "W-W-WHAT IS THIS?!" His mind racing and his heart beating a mile a minute, the Charmeleon's eyes darted around wildly, the look of fear and confusion in them clearly evident to Braixen as they suddenly focused on her, causing her to elicit a small gasp in realization that she had just been standing there watching the entire time. For a brief moment, neither of them did anything besides stare at one another in wide eyed shock, both of them unable to speak up; Braixen due to the sheer weirdness of the entire situation, the Charmeleon because he couldn't so much as think straight, let alone form a coherent sentence. Realizing he was still on fire, the Charmeleon finally began stammering incoherently at Braixen as he began hopping from foot to foot again and pointing at his tail with both hands.

"W-W-W-What is this, w-why am I on fire?! WHY DO I HAVE A TAIL?!" As Braixen instinctively backed up slightly from his seeming display of madness, the Charmeleon let out a groan of futility. "Gah, and why am I trying to talk to a Pokemon?!"

"...W-What?" Braixen said, more confused than ever at the Charmeleon's ramblings. "...Y-You're a Pokemon too, what are you-"

"Oh god, of course, talking Pokemon, this is DEFINITELY some kind of insane dream!" the Charmeleon cried out, shaking his head and cackling madly. "And wait, wait, wait wait wait wait wait, what did you just say? You... You did just say something, right? I wasn't hallucinating that too, was I?"

Backing up even further from the Charmeleon, Braixen clutched her twig, just in case, as she tried her best to communicate with him. "...I... I don't...Y-You're a Charmeleon, you're a Pokemon just like me, why are you acting like you've never seen another Pokemon talk...?"

The Charmeleon's face contorted into a strange expression that Braixen couldn't even begin to decipher, before it slumped into a much more recognizable one of distress. "...B-Because, I HAVEN'T ever seen a talking Pokemon! At least, not in real life, not in person, anyways! I mean... Wait, no, that's not even... That's... I'M NOT A CHARMELEON!" the Charmeleon whined in dismay, clutching the sides of his head and shaking it back and forth violently. "I'm not a Pokemon at all! I'm a friggin' human! This... This isn't right...! This is some kind of messed up dream, it has to be!"

Braixen could do little more than stare back in a slack jawed stupor at the Charmeleon and his claims. She had NEVER come across a Pokemon who had thought they were a human before... She knew more and more Pokemon were going nuts and stuff lately, attacking other Pokemon and whatnot, but this was an entirely different kind of crazy... Still, he didn't seem to be dangerous, at least, not intentionally, and she couldn't imagine why anyone would lie about something so ridiculous for, so she decided to at least humor him and try to help him calm down before he really did end up hurting himself or someone else. Taking a deep breath and collecting her thoughts as best she could, Braixen placed her twig back in her tail and tried her hardest to speak as calmly as possible.

"U-Um... That... Y-You're not joking, are you?" she asked, to which the Charmeleon wailed a plaintive and emphatic 'no'. Braixen let out a sigh as her ears drooped, and she put her hand to her mouth. "Oh geez... I... I don't know how to respond to that... I mean, it's not that I don't believe you or anything, but... Well, honestly, I've never heard of ANYONE claiming they were a human before... I didn't even know there WERE any humans around here..."

"...Oh god... I'm... I'm not dreaming, am I...?" the Charmeleon uttered after a moment of horrified silence. Braixen could do little more than shrug her shoulders and shake her head, and the Charmeleon sighed heavily in response. "...Oh man... This is... I'm so confused... I'm... S-S-STILL ON FIRE!" As the Charmeleon caught sight of his tail again, he quickly went into another panicked fervor, much to Braixen's exasperation.

"W-Wait, stop, c-calm down!" she pleaded, trying to get the Charmeleon's attention, to no avail. "Y-You're a Charmeleon, your tail is SUPPOSED to be on-"

Before Braixen had time to finish her sentence, however, the Charmeleon had grabbed a hold of his tail once more, and promptly stuck it in his mouth, which was such a ridiculous sight that Braixen had to turn her head and put her hand over her mouth to keep from unintentionally laughing. Realizing instantly that this was no laughing matter, however, Braixen gasped and rushed forward towards the Charmeleon. "S-STOP!" she cried, hastily grabbing the Charmeleon's tail and yanking it out of his mouth, causing him to stumble and fall over. She was too late however, as the fire on his tail was no longer burning, having been put out by his own saliva.

Gasping, she fumbled to grab ahold of her twig again so she could try to relight his tail. "Y-YOU IDIOT!" she cried, as she finally got a firm grip on her twig and pointed it back at his tail. "You're gonna die if that goes out!"

Before she had a chance to use Ember again, however, the Charmeleon had scrambled back to his feet, looking none the worse for wear other than the still panicked expression on his face. "No, stop!" he shouted, shaking his head frantically as he stuck and hid his tail behind him before Braixen could reignite it. "I told you, I'm not a Charmeleon, I don't... I don't WANT any part of my body to be on fire, I don't want to be a walking fire hazard! I mean, look, I'm fine, see? I'm not dying, that crap's just an old wive's tale!"

Braixen stared back at the Charmeleon firmly, not particularly convinced that he knew what he was talking about. He stood staunch in his position, however, hiding his tail from her reach, and she eventually conceded, letting out an annoyed sigh as she put her twig back away. "...Fine, if you say so..." she muttered, shaking her head and folding her arms at him, as he grinned sheepishly back at her. "Just don't blame me if you suddenly drop dead without warning."

"Well, if I do, I doubt I'll have the chance to, so..." the Charmeleon said with a wry smirk.

Braixen merely rolled her eyes in response. "Well, at least you seem to have settled down a little. You were really starting to freak me out there for a while..."

"Er, sorry about that..." the Charmeleon apologized, chuckling lightly and scratching the back of his head. "I uh, well, I still don't know what in the world is going on... But um, I get the feeling I should be thanking you right now, so uh, thanks!"

"No need to thank me." Braixen said, shaking her head lightly. "All I did was find you laying there and then set your tail ablaze because I thought you were dying, so if anything, you should be upset at me for setting you on fire."

"Oh..." the Charmeleon muttered, furrowing his brow and folding his arms for a moment, before quickly shrugging his shoulders and grinning. "Heck, if that's the case, then I should be thanking you anyways, because who knows, I probably WOULD'VE died if you hadn't, so thanks! Again!"

Braixen raised her eyebrow in confusion at the Charmeleon's statement. "...I don't get you. First you say you don't need your tail fire to survive, now you're thanking me for setting it on fire in the first place because you probably would have died without it?"

"Well, yeah, pretty much." the Charmeleon said, nodding in confirmation. "I don't remember ANYTHING before you did that, so chances are I really was dying, but you setting me on fire gave me some sort of 'jump start', or something like that."

"...You're a very strange individual." Braixen stated after a moment, a slight, bemused smile appearing on her lips as she shook her head.

The Charmeleon laughed. "Well, you're not the first person to tell me that. Er, that is... Well, I guess technically you're the first Pokemon to tell me that... God, this is all so weird..."

As the Charmeleon stared down at his own body in disbelief, Braixen frowned. "So, you really, truly, honestly believe you're a human? Are you sure you didn't just conk your head really hard or something?"

"No, I swear, I'm a human... Or at least, I was..." the Charmeleon said, letting out a confused sigh as his head and shoulders drooped. "I realize I probably sound completely out of my mind to you, but um, well, I assure you, this is just as weird for me!"

"I uh, can imagine..." Braixen muttered, nodding in understanding. "...Well, regardless, I can't begin to fathom why you would bother lying about something so bizarre, so I suppose you must be telling the truth. Or at least, you believe you are."

"Well, personally, I'd find it stranger to meet a Pokemon who thought he was a human but really WAS a Pokemon, but..." the Charmeleon trailed off quietly.

"...I suppose so." Braixen said with a nod, though a frown still resided on her face. She quickly shook it off and replaced it with a friendly look. "But um, regardless, you're welcome, I guess... Oh, right, I should probably introduce myself. My name is... Well, Braixen, as I'm sure you've already figured out."

"Huh?" the Charmeleon cocked his head momentarily before a look of realization came over him. "Ah, I guess Pokemon don't really give each other names, right? That... Must be pretty confusing. But uh, my name is Wilco... I think. Pretty sure it's Wilco, at least. Though, honestly, just Wil is fine, Wilco is kinda... Dumb."

"Oh, right, you humans like to give each other silly little names like that." Braixen said with a small giggle. "It must be difficult to remember so many different names... But then again, I suppose it'd be pretty silly if you all just called each other 'Human', huh?"

"Yeah, that'd be pretty weird." Wil agreed with a chuckle. "I never thought about it like that before."

"Ha, neither did I. Now I'm going to start feeling self-conscious about everyone just calling each other by their species' name." Braixen said in slight bemusement. "I mean, it's not like there aren't any Pokemon with 'given' names, it's just pretty rare."

Wil shrugged. "Well, if you don't want to call me 'Wil', that's fine. You can call me 'Charmeleon', or 'Char', or whatever floats your boat, it doesn't matter to me. Er, besides Wilco, that is, that name is terrible."

"Ah, no, it's fine, Wil is a nice name... If a little strange." Braixen said with another small giggle. "Besides, I already know a 'Char', or at least, I used to..." Wil frowned as Braixen's voice trailed off and her expression doured, but she quickly shook herself out of it and smiled. "Um, regardless, it's nice to meet you, Wil."

"Uh, y-yeah, likewise." Wil responded, smiling and bowing back.

The happy mood was not to last, however, as a thought crossed Braixen's mind, causing her to frown. "Um, wait, you said you don't know how you got here?"

"Nope, I don't even know where 'here' is." Wil replied. "Course, that's probably to be expected, what with the whole 'suddenly a Pokemon' thing and all."

"R-Right..." Braixen muttered, putting her hand to her mouth and thinking for a moment, before sighing and opening her eyes. "...Listen, you... You have no idea what to do, do you?"

Wil frowned in realization and whimpered. "Oh, uh, w-well... Crap, yeah, I... I hadn't even thought about that... I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now, I've never been a Pokemon before..." Groaning, Wil slapped himself in the face. "Okay, that was a horrible, stupid sentence, pretend I didn't just say that. What I meant is, I don't... I don't know what Pokemon actually DO when they're not living with humans. I'm... Not used to roughing it in the wild..."

"...I figured as much..." Braixen said with a sigh. "...Well, if you want, you can stay with me, at least for a little while."

"Oh, n-no, I couldn't impose." Wil said, shaking his head firmly. "I mean, you barely know me, and I have no way of paying you or anything..."

Braixen shook her head and smiled. "It's quite alright, I know what it's like to not have a home, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, let alone someone in a situation like yours. Besides, you wouldn't be the first Pokemon to come into my home... And I don't want or need any compensation, I just don't want anyone to be without a safe place to live, especially in times like these."

"...Gosh, that's... That's really kind of you..." Wil said, nearly speechless at Braixen's act of generosity. "...I... W-Well, it's an incredibly nice and wonderful offer, but are you sure I wouldn't be a bother...?"

"Of course not, it'd actually be nice to have someone else my age around for once, usually the only people I come in contact with every day are my children." Braixen explained with a reassuring smile.

"Children?" Wil repeated, raising his eyebrow slightly. "You uh, have kids...?"

"O-Oh, n-no, not like that..." Braixen said quickly, shaking her head in embarrassment. "They're... Well, it's a bit much to explain right now, but no, they're not technically 'my' children, they're all orphans who have nowhere else to go, I just do my best to raise them as well as I can."

"W-What? All by yourself?" Wil said in astonishment.

"Well, yeah, I don't really have any close friends or family left, and they can't fend for themselves, since they're only kids." Braixen explained with a shrug. "I can tell you more later if you really want, but basically, just think of it as an orphanage, only nobody ever comes around to adopt anyone since most people can hardly take care of themselves anymore, let alone a child."

"Oh wow, that's... That's awesome, Braixen..." Wil said in genuine admiration. "...Um, gosh, I guess if you really don't mind, I'll stay with you, at least until I can figure out what the hell is going on... But you have to let me help you with stuff, I don't want to be a freeloader or anything like that."

"Oh, well, if you insist." Braixen shrugged. "I suppose it would be sorta nice not to have to do everything by myself... Uh, that is, if you don't mind helping me with the children, since they're pretty much all I do anything for in the first place."

"Of course." Wil nodded eagerly, happy to help Braixen out. "I'll try my best, at the very least."

"Don't worry, they're some of the nicest kids you'll ever meet." Braixen smiled. "And really, they're all pretty smart, too, so most of what I mean by 'help with the kids' is really just helping me feed them and keeping them happy." As she glanced up at the sky, Braixen put her hand to her cheek and gasped. "Oh geez, speaking of which, I need to get home on the double, they're probably starving and worried sick about me, I should have been home an hour ago!"

"O-Oh, s-sorry for taking up so much of your time..." Wil stuttered apologetically as he realized he was likely the main cause for her lateness.

"Oh, no, you don't need to apologize, I wasted most of my time just trying to find food, really." Braixen said gloomily as she began to make her way over to where she had set her berry pouch. "It's... Well, I'll tell you more about it when we get home, but right now, I... U-Uh..."

"Is something the matter?" Wil asked once he noticed Braixen was suddenly searching around everywhere for something in a panic.

"U-Um, th-there should be a small pouch around here somewhere, it's where I put the berries I picked for supper in..." Braixen explained nervously, as she began to search more and more frantically, unable to find the pouch anywhere. "O-Oh no, how did... Where did it go?! It was right here, I know I set it down right here!"

"O-Oh crap..." Wil stuttered in alarm at the news, quickly joining Braixen in her search.

"I-I can't lose those berries, those were all I had for supper for the kids!" Braixen cried in distress, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "They'll all starve without them!"

"Oh geez, that's... Not good." Wil muttered under his breath as he began to panic a bit as well, not seeing anything resembling a pouch anywhere. Suddenly, however, he caught sight of something moving out of the corner of his eye, and turned around just in time to see two shady figures dart out of a nearby bush and disappear into the treeline a short ways away behind him and Braixen, one of them carrying something in their hand, which immediately set off a red flag in Wil's mind. "H-Hey, Braixen..."

"H-Huh?" Braixen stuttered, sniffling as she turned her attention to where Wil was staring. "W-What is it?"

"What exactly did your pouch look like...?" Wil asked slowly, a bad feeling beginning to come over him.

"U-Um, it's just a small, yellow sack with a drawstring on top..." Braixen explained, looking hopefully in the direction Wil was looking. "W-Why, do you see it over there?!"

"Crap, follow me!" Wil said suddenly, breaking off into a sprint towards the spot in the treeline that the figures had disappeared into.

"H-Huh?!" Braixen cried in confusion as she hastily stumbled after Wil. "W-What are you-"

"I just saw two Pokemon disappear into the forest here, and one of them was carrying something!" Wil explained, pointing at the spot in the treeline as Braixen quickly caught up with him. "Something small and yellow!"

"W-What?!" Braixen cried in shock. "Oh no, no, this can't be happening!"

"Come on, we can still catch up with them, they can't have gotten very far at all!" Wil shouted, beckoning for Braixen to follow him as he too disappeared into the forest before she had any say in the matter. Having little choice at that point, follow him she did, and once she made her way into the thick, heavy forest, she and Wil began scanning the immediate area for any signs of movement, which was actually pretty difficult since it was nearly pitch black in the forest.

"Ah, hold on!" Braixen said, hastily grabbing her twig and holding it aloft. "FLASH!" she shouted, causing a bright, blinding light to start shining from the end of it, illuminating the area around them in a flourish. "Do you see anything?!"

Wil rubbed his eyes gingerly, before blinking to try and regain his eyesight after the sudden flash of light caught him by surprise. "No, not really..." he muttered, squinting and surveying the area as far as he could see once his vision came back, gasping and pointing as he caught a glimpse of the figures he saw earlier further ahead. "Wait, I see them, there!" he whispered to Braixen, trying not to alert the thieves as he pointed at them and began making his way towards them through the thick forest of trees and vegetation. Unfortunately, the flash of light seemed to have done just that, and they quickly disappeared further into the forest out of the light source's range. "CRAP!" Wil shouted in frustration, balling his fists up angrily. "GET BACK HERE YOU-"

"Wil, w-wait!" Braixen cried after him, grabbing his shoulder with her free hand to stop him as he got ready to rush after the two thieves.

"Huh? What is it?" Wil asked impatiently, glancing back and forth between Braixen and the direction the thieves went. "We've gotta catch those guys before we lose track of them!"

"I-I know, but there are a lot of dangerous Pokemon living in this forest, not to mention the thieves themselves probably won't go down without a fight!" Braixen exclaimed, giving Wil a worried look. "I mean, I can fend for myself well enough, but you've never had to physically fight Pokemon before, I can't imagine. I don't want you getting yourself hurt on account of me!"

Wil frowned, realizing what Braixen said was more likely than not true. He certainly had no prior first-hand fighting experience, and he hadn't even so much as gotten time to get used to his new form. Suddenly, the full realization of the situation he was in dawned on Wil, and he was scared. Very, very scared. As he looked back at Braixen's worried face, however, he knew now wasn't the time to be a coward. Braixen and her children needed those berries, and he wasn't about to leave her hanging. And so, despite the overwhelming feeling of dread that was forming in his gut, Wil pushed all of his mounting fear to the back of his mind as best he could and put on a brave face, hoping Braixen wouldn't be able to see through it and realize just how terrified he was.

"Aw, don't worry about me Braixen, I'll be fine. I've been in a scrap or two, I can handle myself." he lied with a grin, nodding just a bit too enthusiastically. "I may not be used to this body, but it can't possibly be THAT hard to figure out how to... Uh, do things with it... B-Besides, I'm not about to let those scumbags get away with your berries, and I'm sure as hell not gonna let you go after them by yourself! Now come on, let's go give those turdburglers a thumpin'!"

"Wil..." Braixen began in concern, clearly not buying Wil's confident act at all due to how nervous and fidgety he had suddenly become. "Please, I don't want you getting hurt. I can tell you're scared out of your wits, and I would probably be too if I was in your situation, so please, don't feel that you need to help me, I'll be fine. You've helped me plenty enough just by spotting those thugs, I can handle the rest perfectly well on my own."

"B-But..." Wil stuttered, shaking his head vehemently at Braixen's suggestion. "I... F-Fine, you're right, I'm scared as hell right now, I doubt I've ever been in a fight my entire life, and it's dark and creepy and just horrible in this forest... But I can't let you go after those guys by yourself, it's my fault you set your berries down and got distracted from them in the first place! And besides, I don't care if you say you'll be fine, two on one is not a fair fight, and who's to say they don't have more friends lurking around here? I may be scared, but I'm not helpless, and I'm not gonna let you go after them by yourself!"

"Oh... Alright, thank you..." Braixen quietly murmured, shooting Wil a slightly annoyed, but still very appreciative look. "You're more stubborn than the kids..."

Wil grinned. "Hey, I won't deny it. But uh, let's get to bookin' it before my mind decides to change itself against my will, alright?"

"Right." Braixen nodded. "Let's not waste any more time then, after them! Um, do you mind leading, though? I have to concentrate most of my focus to keep the light going, but if any aggressive Pokemon jump out, I'll still have your back, alright?"

"Right, you can count on me!" Wil said with a thumbs up, and as the two nodded in confirmation to each other, they took off as quickly as they could through the confusing, tangled underbrush of the forest in the direction the thieves had taken off in. Pretty soon, however, the duo reached a much clearer, though still narrow pathway, and they were able to move much faster. The pathway was still very cramped and mazelike, however, and soon enough, the single path lead into a sprawling, roomlike clearing with multiple other paths branching in several different directions.

"Crap!" Wil said in a panic, as his eyes darted frantically from one pathway to the next around the 'room' for any sign of the thieves. "...Argh!" he yelled in frustration as his search turned up fruitless. "Now what do we do?!"

"U-Um, just a moment..." Braixen said, trying her best to maintain some semblance of calmness, though it was clearly taking her a great deal of effort to do so. Taking a deep breath, then closing her eyes, Braixen put her finger to her lips to alert Wil to stay silent for a moment, and her large ears began to twitch ever so slightly as she focused much of her attention to using her keen listening capabilities to try and pinpoint anything that sounded out of place coming from any particular direction. After a few moments of listening in silence to the restless sounds of the forest, Braixen's eyes suddenly shot open, and she pointed confidently to the pathway that was to the northwest of them. "That way, I can hear their footsteps running away from here!"

"Holy cow, really?!" Wil exclaimed in awe of Braixen's abilities. "That's awesome!"

"It's nothing, honestly." Braixen stated modestly. "All Braixen have super acute hearing, it's generally more annoying than helpful most of the time when it kicks in involuntarily... But um, can we talk about this later? They're still getting away!"

"O-Oh, r-right..." Wil stuttered in embarrassment, quickly shaking himself out of it and pointing at the correct pathway in a 'charge' motion. "Let's get 'em!"

Without any further discussion, the two rushed forward and down the path that Braixen had pointed out. Following the path, they came upon another 'room' with multiple branching paths, but this time Braixen was prepared and immediately tuned into her hearing senses, finding the correct path in an instant.

"Their footsteps are getting closer, we're gaining on them!" Braixen proclaimed confidently as the duo continued to make haste down the correct path.

"That's... Good...!" Wil wheezed, his breathing much heavier and more labored than Braixen's. "Because I'm starting... To run... Out of breath...!"

Nevertheless, Wil continued running as quickly as his feet would carry him, Braixen following right behind him, and finally, after passing another room where Braixen pointed out the correct path, they came to a dead end clearing, Troublingly, however, the thieves seemed to be nowhere in sight.

"W-What the heck...?!" Wil panted, as he bent over momentarily to catch his breath, alarmed that the thieves seemed to have vanished. "W-Where did they go?! They couldn't have gotten away, I could hear their footsteps, and there's nowhere for them to have run, the treeline here is way too thick for either of them to have squeezed through!"

"I'm really surprised we didn't run into any aggressive Pokemon on the way here... This place is usually teeming with them..." Braixen murmured to herself, frowning at how strange it seemed to her. As she looked ahead, however, something caught her eye that made her gasp. "A-Ah, the berries!" she cried out, pointing to the small, yellow pouch that was now laying conspicuously out in the open at the end of the clearing, and before Wil had a chance to say anything, Braixen began to dart towards the pouch at breakneck speed.

"B-Braixen, WAIT!" Wil cried out with a gasp as he stumbled after the fox in an unsuccessful attempt to stop her. "It's gotta be a tra-" But before Wil could finish his sentence, Braixen had reached the pouch, and as she bent over to grab it, she was suddenly and violently yanked away by a vine that was sprawled out in front of the pouch which Braixen had merely assumed to be part of the forest.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Braixen screamed in terrified shock as she was pulled into the air by her foot, her branch falling to the forest floor where its light was extinguished instantly, causing the forest to become almost pitch black once again.

"BRAIXEN!" Wil cried in horror as he watched his companion disappear into the murky darkness, being just a step too late to reach her in time.

"W-WIL!" Braixen cried out from the darkness, as she dangled helplessly from who knows where, she herself unable to see anything as she felt another vine wrap itself around her other foot as she was lifted even further off the ground and into the treetops above. "H-HELP!"

"G-Gah, h-hold on Braixen!" Wil shouted frantically, as he rushed forward to where Braixen had last been, desperately staring and squinting up into the darkness looking for any sign of Braixen. Unable to see anything at all, Wil cursed and kicked the ground in frustration and panic. "DAMN IT! SHOW YOURSELVES, YOU COWARDS!" he snarled, shaking his fist in anger as he glanced all around him for any sign of the perpetrators. All too suddenly, however, Wil realized he was now alone in the dark, and all of that fear he was trying his best to ignore came rushing back to the front of his mind.

"Mweheheheheheheheheh..." A sudden, creepy laughter began to echo all around Wil, causing him to frantically dart his attention to and fro in wide-eyed terror as he attempted to pinpoint where it was coming from. Soon after, however, a sinister, disturbing voice began to emanate from the treetops above him. "...Yessssss, the boss will be very pleased with this haul... Verrrrrrrry pleased indeeeeeeed... And I'm sure he'll be EXTRA pleased with thissssss one... Oh, yessssss... So firm and teeeeender... So young and rrrrrrripe... Just how the boss likesssssss it... Mweheheheheheheheheheh... Exccccccellent job, you two..."

"Heh, you expected any less?"

Wil shot his attention in front of him where the berry pouch still lay, where he could just barely make out the eerily murky silhouettes of the two thieves, one of whom sneered smugly in response to the first voice's praise. "It was like taking candy from a baby! And then using said candy to lure said babies into our cunning trap! All according to our master plan, of course!"

"Uh, but Nuz, weren't we just tryin' to take their stuff?" the other thief said ponderously. "I mean, if them chasin' after us was part of the plan, do ya think you could tell me next time? 'Cuz it's a lot easier lurin' people than it is bein' chased by 'em..."

"Gah, shut up, you numbskull!" the first thief chastised, smacking his compatriot upside the head in annoyance.

"Hmmmmm, I figured as much..." came the voice from above in response to the thieves' claims. "Leave it to you two to get caught doing the one thing you're sssssssssssupposedly 'good' at..." As the thieves grumbled in frustration, the voice let out another creepy laugh. "...But neverthelesssssss, you finally managed to sssssssssteal something of worth, and you managed to bring in sssssssomething far more valuable in the processssss... Let's just chalk this up as one of life's... 'Happy accidents'... Mweheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh..."

"Uh, yeah, whatever..." the first thief grumbled, not sounding particularly pleased at his superior's assessment of the situation. "So, uh, what do you want us to do with the other one? I doubt the boss'll want anything to do with him..."

Wil gulped hard, as he felt all the eyes in the 'room' suddenly turn to him. Completely terrified at this point, he nonetheless was somehow able to keep enough of his wits about him to realize he couldn't let them see he was so scared if he wanted to have any chance of saving Braixen and her berries, and so he went into overdrive with his false bravado.

"H-Hey, s-screw you assholes, I'm d-d-done listening to you talk!" he interjected angrily, trying and failing miserably to sound intimidating. He looked up in the direction that the leader's voice from above was coming from and shouted. "Braixen, are you alright?!"

"MMNGMMNPH!" was the muffled reply Wil got in response, as Braixen struggled desperately in vain to break free of the vines that now constricted all four of her limbs and mouth.

"Ahhhh, I'm affffraid your friend is a little... Tied up at the moment..." the voice said with a disturbing amount of glee. "Sssssssso sorry, but I don't think you'll be ssssssseeing her again... Or much of anything elssssse, for that matter..."

Whimpering, Wil shook his head rapidly at himself, trying to ignore the mounting fear and replace it with anger. "You... You bastards!" he snarled in rage, balling up his fists. "Hold on, Braixen, I'll... I'll think of something!"

"Mweheheheheh, fat chanccccccce of that, fool..." the voice from above sneered, causing his two underlings to begin to guffaw obnoxiously along with him. "I'd like to sssssssssee you try to do anything in this darknesssssssssss... I'm afraid your pathetic eyeballs are not as accusssssssstomed to it as ours are... Mweheheheheheheheheheh!"

"Gah..." Wil muttered, realizing the voice was right. He could hardly see his hand in front of his face, there was no way he'd be able to fight anyone in such darkness. "Hhhhhngh..." As he seethed in anger, trying desperately to think of a plan and fast, his nostrils began to flare - quite literally, in fact - as small flames shot out of them, illuminating the area in front of his face ever so slightly. "W-Wah!" he uttered in shock, not expecting to see actual flames shooting out of his nostrils. Suddenly, however, a moment of realization came over him, as he remembered he could breathe fire now that he was a Charmeleon, and he could use that fire to light up the area around him, at least enough for him to see what he was up against.

Gaining a little bit of confidence, Wil grinned and shouted triumphantly for all to hear. "H-HA, AND WHO SAYS I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING?" As Wil stood there grinning to himself, the smile quickly melted away from his face once he realized he didn't actually have any way of keeping his flame going without constantly exhaling. There was nothing he had on hand that could hold a steady flame for him, and he groaned inwardly once it dawned on him.

"...Ha, what sssssssssort of gamesssssssss are you playing, fool?" the voice from above spat, chortling smugly at Wil once again along with his flunkies. "You think you can fffffffffool us with mere wordssssssssss?"

"Heh, you want we should just teach him a lesson already, boss?" one of the two voices on the ground asked.

"Yesssssss, teach this fool a lesson he won't ever fffffffffffforget!" the voice from above replied with sick enthusiasm.

"Oh yeah, DIS is gonna be fun!" the voice from below said with the same disturbing glee. "C'mon, Lomb, let's get 'im!"

Wil started to panic as he saw the two shadowy figures begin to make their way towards him. Darting his head back and forth, he searched desperately for anything within arm's length that he could use to hold his flame, but couldn't see anything in the near total darkness... Except... "...Oh, man..." Wil whimpered to himself, wincing as he realized he did indeed have something that he could use to hold his flame... His tail. With no time to be apprehensive about it, he braced himself, grabbed his tail, and blew on the tip of it, setting it ablaze with no effort at all. And just in time, too, as the light from his tail gave Wil just barely enough time to see and react to the two Pokemon who were getting ready to bumrush him, managing to sidestep out of the way just before they reached him, and causing the two of them to lose their balance and go crashing to the forest floor.

"G-Gah, what the-?!" one of the two Pokemon, which Wil could now identify as a Nuzleaf, cried out in shock as he scrambled to get back to his feet.

"W-What just happened, Nuz?!" the other Pokemon, a Lombre, asked dopily to his partner, rubbing his head in pain.

"You tripped me, you dolt!" the Nuzleaf said angrily, smacking the Lombre upside the head in annoyance.

"Yow! B-But Nuz, I didn't-" the Lombre began to plead, which only earned him another smack from the Nuzleaf.

"Shut your mouth and get him!" the Nuzleaf snarled, pointing and rushing at Wil once again.

"W-Wah!" Wil cried, just narrowly managing to dodge the Nuzleaf once more, causing him to lose his balance and fall flat on his face for a second time.

"Gah, why you-" the Lombre began, as he too rushed towards Wil. He, however, was much slower, and Wil easily managed to avoid him, causing the Lombre to careen directly into the Nuzleaf as he was getting up, knocking them both back down.

"You foolsssssssssssss, what is going on down there?!" came the voice from above, not pleased at all by the sounds he was hearing.

"Your boys are kicking their own asses, that's what!" Wil responded with a smug laugh, the adrenaline having taken over, causing him to ignore the fact that his heart was pounding out of his chest. Peering up towards the location of the voice, he still couldn't make anything out, and he cursed inwardly to himself at the fact. "Why don't you come down here and join them, you creep?"

"Hhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." the voice seethed, breathing through his teeth in utter annoyance. "...You foolssssssssss, get it together! There are two of you and only one of hiiiiiiiiiiiim! Thissssssssss shouldn't be so hard for you!"

"B-But, boss, we're not-" the Lombre began, immediately getting cut off by the voice from above.

"IMBECCCCCCCCILES!" the voice spat. "Hurrrrrrry it up, you know how the boss HATESSSSSSSSS waiting!" Scowling, the voice shook his head in disgust... Then sniffed the air curiously, as some sort of smoke was beginning to billow around his head. "...That'sssssssss funny... What could be sssssssmoking all the way up here...?" The voice immediately got his answer, as an intense burning sensation began to course through his body, the vine tentacles that he had been using to bind Braixen getting scorched by an incredible burst of heat that shot from Braixen's ears, a place that the voice hadn't at all expected her to be able to shoot flames from. "GWAAAAAAARGH!" The voice cried in pain, recoiling his vine tentacles by reflex, loosening them just enough for Braixen to wriggle and worm her way out from them. Unfortunately, this meant she was now plummeting towards the ground with no way to stop herself.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" she screamed in peril, putting her hands over her eyes instinctively, even though she couldn't see anything regardless. "THISWASABADIDEAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"BRAIXEN?!" Wil cried, startled by the sound of her sudden scream of terror. Instinctively, he made a mad dash in the direction of her scream, squinting and staring up into the pitch black canopy of treetops in hopes of seeing her. Wil finally caught sight of her as she fell into the range of his flame's light, and he lunged and dove forward with all his might to catch her before she smashed into the ground.

Fortunately, he managed to reach her just in time.

Unfortunately, he didn't really catch her so much as he broke her fall, as while she landed relatively safely, it was directly on top of him rather than in his arms as he had hoped for.

"...Owowow..." Braixen winced as she rubbed her backside painfully, it having caught the brunt of her fall. She soon realized that she hadn't landed on the ground, as whatever she HAD landed on was much too lumpy... And squishy. Glancing downwards, she gasped in shock and immediately jumped to her feet once she saw her 'landing pad'. "Oh my gosh, Wil! Are you okay?!"

"...Nnrgh..." Wil groaned in pain, his whole body numb from having become an involuntary cushion. Weakly, he gave Braixen a thumbs up, before his arm quickly went numb again and slumped to the ground.

"Oh, no!" Braixen cried, mortified at the state Wil was in. "C-Can you move, Wil?!"

"...Probably..." Wil muttered, as he struggled to push himself back to his feet, Braixen immediately coming over to help him up. "...Ow... I don't really want to, though..."

"Oh, Wil..." Braixen said in relief, before suddenly realizing Wil's tail was on fire. "A-Ah, your tail, it's...!"

"...Yeah, I know..." Wil muttered, shaking his head in chagrin. "It was an emergency... I couldn't see crap. It's going right back out as soon as we get somewhere with light, don't worry."

"Wil..." Braixen shook her head in response, unable to keep herself from smiling in amusement at the look of utter disdain that Wil gave his tail, finding it incredibly silly. "...Well, thank you for, er, 'catching me', ehehe..."

"Yeah, uh... D-Don't mention it..." Wil stuttered in slight embarrassment, grinning and chuckling dryly. "...No seriously, don't. I don't want to be reminded of it, it was... Painful."

Giggling at Wil's goofiness, Braixen soon remembered the predicament they were in, and gasped in realization that she had dropped her branch. "Ah, that's right, my stick! I must have dropped it when that creep grabbed me..."

"Oh geez..." Wil muttered, trying and failing to spot it anywhere within the small circle of light that was available. "How are we gonna find it like this?"

"Well, I suppose I don't really 'need' it..." Braixen said, shaking her head slowly as she took a deep breath. "I can still use most of my regular attacks, I just can't concentrate them as well... But from the sounds of it, we're not dealing with too big of a threat down here anyways, are we?"

"Hey, I heard that, you fleabag!"

All of a sudden, the Nuzleaf sprang from the spot he had last crashed into, catching Wil and Braixen by surprise. However, the Nuzleaf's little quip gave the two enough of a warning to simply duck out of his way, sending him careening through the air once more, landing in the darkness with another thud.

"...No, not really." Wil replied flatly. "It's a Nuzleaf and a Lombre, and both of them seem to be even clumsier than I am."

The Nuzleaf growled in the distance. "Gah, you gonna just sit there and take these insults, Lom?!"

"Duh, no, I'm standin' up, Nuz." the Lombre replied obliviously.

"You idiot!" the Nuzleaf barked, another angry growl permeating from within him. "Give 'em both a taste of your Water Gun attack, and get that jackass' tail fire put out while you're at it, they won't be able to see squat without it!"

"Right, good idea!" the Lombre said in agreement, turning his attention to Wil and Braixen.

"Pfft, like a little water is gonna hurt." Wil said, rolling his eyes and smirking at the so-called threat.

"Um... Wil..." Braixen whispered, nudging him in the shoulder urgently. "You're a Charmeleon, water DOES hurt... Usually a lot."

Wil's bravado quickly faded. "...Oh... Crap."

Taking advantage of his distraction, the Nuzleaf quickly snuck up and tackled Wil from behind with a Feint Attack, knocking him down and leaving him prone in front of the Lombre.

"WIL!" Braixen cried, moving to rush towards him to defend him until she too fell victim to the Nuzleaf's Feint Attack, landing a short ways away from Wil.

"NOW, LOM!" the Nuzleaf shouted.

With the two laying helpless before him, the Lombre wasted no time in blasting the both of them with a vile, vicious stream of water from his mouth. The both of them cried out in pain, as contrary to what Wil had anticipated, the water stung him as if it were acid, searing his skin even though it was nothing but cold water, albeit nasty cold water that had come from somebody's mouth.

"G-Guh..." Wil grimaced at Braixen as the both of them struggled to get up. "P-Please tell me that all water doesn't... Hngh... F-Feel this way..."

"N-No, j-just attacks that involve it..." Braixen responded, gritting her teeth. "B-But oh Arceus, does it ever hurt..."

"Yes, I've... N-Noticed..." Wil said, wincing.

"You moron, you missed his tail!" the Nuzleaf chastised, smacking the Lombre upside the head.

"Dah, s-sorry, Nuz..." the Lombre said with a whimper. Glaring back at Wil, he aimed directly for his tail this time, and shot out another blast of ick water straight at it.

"N-No you don't...!" yelled Wil, yanking his tail out of the way just in time to avoid the nasty spray, although it still splashed up onto him and stung him something fierce. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. Realizing that the thieves were now focusing solely on putting his tail fire out, he figured that his and Braixen's best bet at that point was for him to become a distraction, and he began to taunt the two grass types, trying his best to suppress as much of the pain that was still coursing through his body as he could.

"H-Ha, you w-weren't aiming f-f-for me, were you?" he grinned/grimaced, picking himself up and waggling his finger at the Lombre. "B-Because you missed me by a mile."

Annoyed, the Lombre hastily sent another stream of liquid yuck at Wil, this time just barely grazing his side, which while enough to cause him to stumble and whimper in pain, didn't deter him from his goal.

"M-Man, you sh-sh-shoot the same way Pinnochio over there looks, UG-LY!"

Grabbing onto his tail, he waved it in front of his face goadingly.

"Wow, h-how hard is it to hit such an easy t-t-target? And Shnozzmeister, are you just gonna sit there on your butt l-like a little wimp and let your lily pad headed idiot of a p-partner do all the work? Because I'm s-sure whoever the hell your boss is will give him ALLLLL the credit if that's the case!"

"Gah, you'd better shut the hell up while you're ahead, you fool, you're only making it that much worse for you and your little friend the more you irritate me!" snarled the Nuzleaf, who had taken the bait and was now chasing after Wil as well.

Narrowly avoiding another few angry blasts of water, Wil glanced at Braixen urgently in between poop-stirring looks at the Lombre and Nuzleaf. Getting the picture at what he had in mind, Braixen quietly snuck away into the darkness out of sight from the thieves, readying an attack and waiting for the right moment to use it, as Wil continued to taunt and annoy the two grass types to draw their attention away from her.

"Oh, oh, I got a good one. What did the superior Fire type Pokemon say to the plebeian Grass type after he had barbecued him to a crisp?" Wil teased, standing wide out in the open in hopes of giving Braixen enough time to launch a successful attack.

"It looks like you've..." Wil narrowed his eyes as the two drew near and put on the most horrible grin he could muster before finishing, "Been Flambebe'd!"

The groans elicited by the thieves (along with Braixen, involuntarily) at Wil's 'joke' seemed to indicate more pain than any attack could possibly cause.

"Ugh, you moron, Flabebe isn't even a Grass-" began the Nuzleaf, before being interrupted by the engulfing flames of the Ember attack that Braixen had blasted him with. "YAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

"Nuz!" cried the Lombre in alarm, as he rushed over to his blazing compatriot and attempted to put him out with a Water Gun. He didn't have the chance to, however, as Braixen quickly launched another fireball right at him, hitting him square in the face with a critical hit, and he fell back in a heap. Moments later, the Nuzleaf's flames extinguished, and he too collapsed a short ways away from his partner.

With the tables seemingly turned, Wil and Braixen firmly marched up to the now charbroiled villains and stared down at them in disgust.

"That'll teach you to steal from and ambush people, you jerks!" Braixen said, sneering angrily at the thieves.

"Nnngh..." the Nuzleaf grimaced in pain, shooting a hateful glance back at the two with the last of his energy. "You'll... Pay..."

"Ooh, we're so scared, hearing that from someone of your stature." Wil mocked, folding his arms and rolling his eyes at the Nuzleaf's threat.

"As you ssssssssssshould be, fools!" came the voice from above suddenly, causing both Wil and Braixen to shoot their attention back to the pitch black treetops. Rather than attacking, however, it merely sent down two vines that quickly tightened around the defeated thieves, and then yanked them both up into the darkness before Braixen or Wil could do anything further.

"Aw, what's the matter, too scared to come down and face us now that the shoe's on the other foot?" Wil called out smugly, though he and Braixen were both still prepared for another surprise sneak attack.

"Sssssssssshut your trap, you insolent whelp!" the voice hissed back. "You don't know what you've gotten yourssssssssselves into, but mark my wordssssssss, you will both deeeeeeeeply regret this once the boss hears about it! No one makes foooooools of Team Vile and livesssssss to tell about it..."

With that, the voice trailed off, and after a few tense moments waiting for another ambush, Wil and Braixen determined its source was likely no longer with them. Lettiing out some heavy sighs, the two stood in place briefly, catching their breath and waiting for the adrenaline to wear off.

"Oh man..." Wil said, clutching his chest once he had calmed down enough to talk normally. "That was scary... Thank God those guys were so dumb, I don't think I would've been able to do anything if they'd known what they were doing."

"I'm just glad they were Grass types." Braixen added, shuddering slightly. "I don't want to think about what would've happened if that creep that yanked me into the trees wouldn't have been so easily burned... But all that matters is that we're okay..." Looking at the pitiful state the two of them were in, Braixen quickly addended, "Er, or at least, not as bad off as we could be."

Wil nodded sorely in agreement, his skin still tingling uncomfortably from the acidic water and his muscles aching from breaking Braixen's fall. He soon gasped, however, once he remembered why they were there in the first place. "Oh shoot, your berries!" he exclaimed, as he stared in the direction the berry pouch had last been, not being able to see much of anything still beyond what his tail lit up. Hastily attempting to make a break towards where they had been with Braixen close behind, Wil promptly tripped over something hard a few feet in front of him and crashed face first into the ground.

"Ah, Wil!" Braixen cried, as she hurried over to help him up. "Are you alright?!"

Groaning, Wil spat in disgust to dislodge the grass and dirt that had gotten in his mouth from the faceplant. "Ugh... I guess... I think I found your stick, at least." As he wearily got up, Wil bent down to pick up the object that had tripped him and handed it to Braixen.

"Oh!" Braixen exclaimed in surprise, as she gave the object a once over. "...Actually, I don't think this is it, but they're both just twigs, so this one should work just as well." Holding the stick aloft, Braixen uttered "Flash!" to test it out, and the forest was once again illuminated with the light that emanated from the tip of the new stick.

"G-Gah!" Wil cried as he scrambled to shield his eyes. "Give me a warning next time you do that, please!"

"Oops, sorry about that..." Braixen muttered in slight embarrassment. "Oh, but look!"

Wil glanced over to where Braixen had pointed and was now rushing over towards once the spots had disappeared from in front of his eyes. He let out a sigh of relief as he too caught sight of her berry pouch, and he slowly ambled over to join her as she checked to see if the berries were still all there.

"Thank heavens, they didn't take any of them." Braixen said in relief, closing the drawstring on the bag and clutching it firmly once again in her free hand as Wil made his way over to her, still rubbing his eyes. As he did, she positively beamed at him with gratitude. "Wil, I don't think I can ever thank you enough for helping me get these back. If you hadn't been here, I..."

"You wouldn't have gotten in this mess in the first place, since you wouldn't have ever set your berries down to get stolen if you hadn't stumbled into me." Wil replied glumly, looking down in shame. "So you don't have to thank me, Braixen."

"Oh, but I do, Wil!" Braixen said, shaking her head firmly. "Chances are they would've ambushed me regardless, because that's sadly just how rotten this land has become. For all I know, they might've been following me that whole time, so If anything, I should be happy I stumbled upon you, or else... Well, nothing good would've happened, I'm sure! So please, don't feel bad about that!"

"...Uh, okay, if you say so..." Wil mumbled, still not particularly happy about making Braixen go through such a situation. "But um, you're welcome, I guess... Even if I didn't really do anything besides provide a distraction and run around like a big ol' chicken."

"Aw, don't be so hard on yourself." said Braixen. "That's all you really needed to do with those losers anyways, so don't sweat it. But regardless, it's getting really late, and I'm sure the kids are worried to death about me by now, so let's hurry back. It's not too far from here, and the least I can do for you is to give you a place to eat and sleep."

"Sounds good to me." Wil said, nodding wholeheartedly in agreement, as he wanted nothing more than to be able to just pass out for the rest of forever with the way his body was feeling.

---

Thankfully, the path back out of the forest was quick and simple, as the duo merely retraced their footsteps, and as oddly as before, there were no other Pokemon in sight, despite the fact that they could hear them moving around all around them. When they finally emerged and could see the sky again, it was filled with stars, the sun having set completely during their little excursion into the forest (Wil also kept his promise and had promptly extinguished his tail as soon as they got out, much to Braixen's exasperation). Braixen could tell Wil was completely drained physically, and she was feeling pretty sore and tired herself by that point, so she decided to keep quiet for the rest of the trip, figuring that they would have plenty of time to talk the next day. The walk down the singular, tree-lined path was short and pleasant as Braixen had claimed, and about ten minutes later, they had arrived at a run down looking wood and straw building at end of the road, with another crossroad running both ways in front of it. Wil could make out lights in the distance down the other road, indicating there was some sort of civilization down that way, presumably. He was far too tired to care about that at the moment, however, and was just glad to see that they were done walking for the night.

As for the building itself, it appeared to be rather dilapidated and worn, with large patches of straw missing from various spots, and most of the wood that was visible was either splintered or rotted. There weren't many distinguishing features to it, other than a couple of barebones rounded windows and a slanted, arched sign above the doorway that seemed to have said something at one point in a language that Wil couldn't even begin to decipher, but even if he could, it was so faded he likely wouldn't have been able to read it anyhow. All in all, it seemed to Wil as though it were a nice, cozy abode at one point in time, but that time had certainly passed long, long ago.

"Sorry, I know the place looks awful... I haven't really had much of a chance to fix it up, but it's not too bad inside, I promise." Braixen stated with a hint of shame, noticing the look of unease on Wil's face while he eyed the building, as she extinguished the light from the end of her stick and went up to knock on the building's only door. "Kids, it's me! Sorry for taking so long, I got kind of... Hung up, so to speak."

Almost as soon as Braixen had knocked, a loud, excited clamoring came from inside the house, and the door quickly and swiftly swung open, revealing a small army of tiny Pokemon who all rushed out to greet Braixen with a mixture of smiles and tears.

"Big Sis, you're home!"

"Wah, we were so scared!"

"We thought something horrible had happened to you!"

"Did you find any food?"

"Who cares about the food, are you okay, Sis?!"

"I care about the food, you dummy! My tummy is growling like an angry Abomasnow!"

"Hey, who's this guy? He looks suspicious!"

"Yeah, verrrry suspicious! You want us to bop him one, Sis?"

"WHEN'S FOOD?"

"Ah, s-settle down, everybody!" Braixen said, slightly overwhelmed by her reception, as Wil merely looked on in bemusement at the scene. "Don't worry, I'm okay, I brought dinner, and no, this is a friend, he's not suspicious. Let's head inside, alright? It's too late for you kids to be out here."

Happily obliging, the kids all rushed back inside, herding Braixen in along with them, then making sure to slam the door in Wil's face before he could make it in. As Wil involuntarily cursed and rubbed his nose in pain (and also wondered if there was any part of his body that wouldn't be throbbing in agony by the end of the night), he could hear Braixen scold whoever it was that had slammed the door from the other side, before she reopened it and stepped back out with an apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry Wil, they're just... Kind of overprotective of me..." Braixen said in embarrassment.

"It's okay..." Wil replied, smiling weakly back at her and the children, all of whom were giving him various looks of scorn and distrust. "I'm... Not sure I should intrude, though."

"No, no, I insist, come in this instant!" Braixen exclaimed, shooing the children out of the way so Wil could awkwardly shuffle inside, closing the door behind him and pushing a large rock in front of it to serve as a lock of sorts. To Wil's slight surprise, the place indeed looked remarkably better inside than it did outside. There wasn't much to look at in the main room that he and the others were in, but it had a certain air of homeyness to it that gave him a sort of strange comfort. A large, dirty, decorative rug was sprawled out just in front of the entryway, and an abundance of misshapen lamps bathed the room in a warm, friendly glow. In the back of the room stood a large, lopsided wooden table that appeared as if it could fit about twenty or so people at it, though the amount of chairs that accompanied it was far less. Other than that, the room was largely empty, though there were a few hallways at the far back of the room with curtains hung in front of them to serve as makeshift doors that presumably led to the living quarters and lavatory and whatnot.

Surveying the children, from what Wil could tell, they comprised of a Pichu, a Sandshrew, a Squirtle, a Torchic, a Chikorita, and a Bagon. None of them seemed particularly thrilled to see him in their home, and his second attempt at a smile only made most of them scowl more, and the ones that didn't merely hid behind the ones that did.

"Come on now, that's no way to treat a guest, you guys." Braixen said disapprovingly at the children's reaction to Wil, putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head. "Wil isn't anyone to be afraid of, I'll have you all know that he's a very nice, friendly person, and if it weren't for him, I would even be here right now, so please, don't treat him so rudely. If I can trust him, then surely you guys can too. He's going to be staying with us for a little while, so I expect you to treat him as nicely as you treat me, alright?"

The kids all looked at each other for a moment as if conferring with one another, then finally relented, as they all took turns apologizing and saying 'hi' to Wil, though the Squirtle and Bagon still seemed less than convinced of his trustworthiness.

"That's better." Braixen said with a smile, nodding at Wil and giving him a look that seemed to say "They'll get used to you soon, don't worry." Turning back to the kids, she cleared her throat and continued as they all stared at her obediently. "Now then, I realize that you're probably all pretty hungry by now-"

Before Braixen could finish her sentence, the kids had all cried out in disorganized unity, "YES!", and had crowded around her once again, waiting for her to produce their dinner.

"H-Hold on a minute!" cried Braixen, as she struggled to keep her balance amid the sea of antsy children. "Let me finish, please!"

With a collective whining noise that reminded Wil of the sound of air escaping from a deflating balloon, the children all returned to their previous spots and looked back at Braixen eagerly.

Glancing at the hopeful, expectant looks on their faces, Braixen frowned inwardly and bit her lip, struggling to think of a way to say what it was that she had planned on telling the children. Finally, after a few anxious moments that only served to make the looks on the children's faces that much more confused and worried, Braixen blurted out, "I-I uh, I found some super tasty berries today, everyone! N-Now, there's not quite as many here as there usually are, b-but that's only because these special, tastier berries are harder to come by and grow in smaller groups, s-so don't worry, the extra yumminess will make up for the slightly smaller portions, I promise!"

Wil glanced oddly at Braixen, curious at the suddenly forced and nervous manner of her speech. The kids seemed to pay no heed to it however, and merely erupted in celebration at the promise of extra tasty food.

"Oh boy!" cried Squirtle, who looked back at the other kids smugly. "See, what'd I tell you guys? Sis wouldn't keep us waiting unless she had a good reason!"

"I don't remember you saying that at all..." remarked Sandshrew, drawing a sour look from Squirtle.

"Yeah, come to think of it, weren't you the one saying she was probably taking so long because she was busy eating everything herself?" Torchic added suspiciously, drawing an even nastier look from Squirtle.

"Guys, stop squabbling and go get the table ready." Braixen said, folding her arms and giving Squirtle a small smirk, causing him to stick his head halfway into his shell in shame as he followed the other children down one of the hallways, the lot of them disappearing behind the curtain and reemerging moments later carrying all manner of plates, glasses, and silverware over to the room's lopsided table. Setting it with remarkable speed, they even bothered to set a spot for Wil, though likely only because they knew Braixen would have yelled at them if they hadn't. Braixen's spot, at the end of the table, was set with particular care, as she got the only set of tableware that wasn't chipped, tarnished, or stained in some way, and hers was arranged much more neatly than everyone else's. While they were busy doing that, however, Wil couldn't help but take notice of the dour look on Braixen's face as she stared at the pouch of berries in her hands.

"Hey, Braixen, is everything alright?" he asked her, making sure to say it quietly so that the kids couldn't overhear him.

"H-Huh?" Braixen responded, looking at Wil in a slight stupor before shaking her head and smiling a little too broadly at him. "O-Oh, yeah, of course, Wil. I'm just... Um... W-Well..." Her smile quickly dissolved, as she let out a long sigh. Glancing over at the children to make sure none of them were listening, she shook her head and frowned. "I... I don't really want to talk about it right now... I suppose if you must know, I can tell you later once the kids are asleep..."

"Um, alright then..." Wil replied, giving Braixen a look of concern. He didn't have a chance to say anything further, however, as the children had finished setting the table and had rushed over to drag Braixen to it so she could fix everyone's plates. He followed closely behind, and as he watched Braixen tentatively distribute the berries, he realized why Braixen had most likely been so glum. The amount of berries that she had done her best to distribute evenly to everyone (sans herself, whom she had given not even half as many to as everyone else) was modest at best, and once she had completely emptied the satchel of its contents, the look of worry and panic that she tried to conceal on her face as she looked around at the children only served to make Wil feel like even more of an unwanted guest than before. Thankfully, the children seemed content enough with their half-filled plates (though some of them seemed less than pleased that Wil had more than Braixen), and eagerly began to scarf their meals down. Braixen, on the other hand, ate her pitiful amount of berries slowly and deliberately, likely trying to get as much out of each bite as she could in an attempt to satiate her empty, wanting belly.

Wil, though just as hungry as Braixen was, could hardly bring himself to eat any of his berries. Not because of their taste; on his starving, empty stomach, they were the greatest things he had ever eaten in his life. No, he couldn't bring himself to eat because he knew they weren't his to eat in the first place. He realized Braixen had probably given him almost all of the berries that would have been for her had he not been there, and the thought gave him an awful, sinking feeling. It was bad enough once he realized that the kids hardly had anything to eat and Braixen had to make up a lie to keep them from realizing it, but watching her try to restrain herself from eating her tiny meal too quickly made it ten times worse. He knew his stomach would make him regret it soon enough, but before he could change his mind, he had pushed himself away from the table and stood up.

"...Gee, these are really delicious, but I'm, uh, super stuffed, I don't think I could eat anymore if I tried." he lied, sticking his stomach out to make it look full and rubbing it in fake satisfaction. As the children all looked at him curiously, Braixen could see what he was trying to do, and shook her head vehemently at him as he walked over towards her with his plate. "Here Braixen, you can have the rest of mine, since you hardly had any in the first place." he said, dumping his remaining berries onto Braixen's plate before she had a chance to say or do anything to oppose it. She again shook her head and gave him an upset look, but he merely smiled back at her and walked over to the front door, again before she had a chance to protest. "I think I'm going to go use the little lizard's room... Uh, assuming I can figure out how to do that with this bod-er, I-I mean, assuming I can figure out where to do that around here..." Wil's stomach picked that moment to let out a loud, almost menacing growl, drawing looks of bewilderment from the children and one of annoyance from Braixen. "Ehehe... So uh, back in a few, enjoy your dinner, everyone!"

"Wil, wait-"

Wincing as his battered body struggled to push the entry rock out of the way, Wil slipped out of the door before Braixen could get anymore out. Once he was outside, he let out a sigh. He hoped Braixen wouldn't be too mad at him for doing that, but he figured that even if she refused to eat it herself, she could at least give the rest of his to the kids. His stomach let out another hateful growl, not at all happy about what he just did, and he clutched it in pain.

"Ohh..." he mumbled, already feeling the effects of his actions. "Geez... What I wouldn't give for a cheeseburger right now... With thick, juicy onions, and rich, plentiful mayo, and jalapenos... So many jalapenos... Gah..." Slumping down to the ground, he groaned and stared off into the distance. He felt miserable. He was hungry, tired, aching pretty much everywhere, and above all, still scared. There were so, so many questions buzzing in his mind, questions that he knew he had no hopes of finding any answers to anytime soon. For all he knew, he really was just dreaming all of this... But it sure felt real to him.

Alongside all of that, there was nary a positive thought in Wil's mind at that point. He felt terrible for what he had put Braixen through already, he didn't want to bother her or her kids anymore, nor did he want to eat the little bit of food that she had. But what else was he to do? He had nowhere else to go, knew no one else at all, and certainly had no idea of how to rough it on his own in the wild, let alone in a foreign land, and in a foreign body to boot. Hell, he couldn't do anything besides run away in the one fight he had gotten into, what good would he even be to Braixen? It was all so overwhelming, all he wanted to do was cry, but the last thing he wanted was for Braixen to think he was even weaker than she no doubt already did, so he fought the urge and instead forced himself into sadomasochistic torture instead by thinking about food.

His tantalizing thoughts didn't last for very long, however, as he was interrupted by the door opening abruptly behind him. He didn't bother to turn around, as he knew the only person it could be.

"Wil, why did you do that?" Braixen asked in annoyance. "Don't be so stupid, I know you're starving, so please come back inside and finish eating." she continued, pleadingly yet forcefully, as she walked around to look Wil in the eye.

"No, really, I'm fine, I'll be back inside in a few, just go eat before the kids get worried about you again." Wil responded dismissively, forcing a smile.

"Gah, stop being so stubborn!" Braixen said irritably. "You can't just not eat!"

"Well, neither can you." Wil replied.

"Oh, never you mind what I do, I don't want you going hungry, moron!" Braixen stated, glaring at Wil.

"No, that's my line." Wil said cheekily. "Well, minus the moron part, that was kind of unnecessary."

"No it wasn't." Braixen snapped. "Only a moron would try and pull something as dumb as that little show you put on in there. I know you're hungry, stop acting like you're not."

Wil shot Braixen a look of irritation of his own. "Okay, fine, yeah, I'm starvin' like friggin' Marvin, but you're just as hungry, and I know you gave me your own berries, and I'm not going to eat your food, and that's that, so yeah."

"Ooh, you..." Braixen began, stamping her foot in frustration. "I gave you them because you're my guest and I don't want you to have nothing to eat. So stop being so ungrateful and come eat them, already!"

"W-Wait, no!" Wil cried, his voice dropping its combative tone. "I'm not trying to be ungrateful, honest! I just, I don't want you to have nothing to eat either! I feel terrible eating your food when you have so little, I don't care if I'm your guest, I should be the last one on your priority list, I'm just some random stranger you found on the side of the road, for crying out loud!"

"But... You're not, Wil." Braixen said, lowering her voice, not having meant to sound so angry. "'Just some random stranger' wouldn't have put themselves in danger by running into an unfamiliar, pitch black forest chasing after a group of thieves to help an equally random stranger that they had just met. No, you're more than that, Wil. I'd like to think that we could be friends, but if that's the case, then I want to be able to help you too, Wil, because that's what friends do, they help each other. So please, won't you let me help you by not letting you go hungry?"

Wil looked back at Braixen and sniffled, trying to keep himself from choking up. "...But what about you?"

"Oh, I'll be fine." she replied, waving her hand dismissively. "I've eaten less before, so don't worry about me."

"...At the very least, can't we share them equally?" Wil asked, desperate to find a compromise that wouldn't leave Braixen hungry either.

Braixen stared back at his pleading face before finally sighing and relenting. "Oh, all right, if it'll get you to eat." Her stomach let out a ferocious growl, almost as if in response, and she put on a small smile before adding, "...Thank you, Wil."

"No, thank you, Braixen." Wil said appreciatively. "...Uh, but maybe you could save mine for later, if I go back in and eat now, the kids will think I'm some kind of lying, nutjob, taker-backer, and they already seem to hate me enough as it is, so..."

"Ah, right..." Braixen muttered, before shaking her head and smiling reassuringly at Wil. "I suppose that'd be okay. But really, they'll get used to you soon enough, you just gotta give them time, they hardly ever see anyone besides me, so they're just naturally wary of everyone else. They're probably already done by now anyways, so I'll come get you once they've all gone to sleep, okay?"

"Alright." Wil said with a nod, as he watched Braixen head back inside. Feeling at little more at ease, he waited patiently outside the door for Braixen to return, doing his best to ignore his stomach for just a little while longer. As he once more thought quietly to himself, he was both happy and relieved that he could now at the very least take solace in the fact that of all the Pokemon to have randomly stumbled upon him, he was lucky enough for it to have been Braixen. And if she truly did consider him a friend... Then he would take what she had said to heart.

A few minutes later, Braixen, as promised, came outside and informed Wil that the children had finished eating and were (supposedly) in bed. Heading back inside and 'locking' the door behind them, she grabbed her dishes from the table, which were the only things left on it, and led Wil down one of the curtained hallways to a small wooden door at the end of it.

"The kids' rooms are the only things down the other hallway." Braixen explained, seeing the curious look on Wil's face as she opened the door. Stepping inside behind her, Wil surveyed the small room; as with the main room, there wasn't much to it, other than a single window, a small chair, an equally small desk, a wall mounted lamp above the desk, and a large patch of straw or hay of some sort sprawled out in the middle of the floor. "Well, it's not much to look at, but this is my room." Braixen continued once the two of them were in the room proper. "And I guess yours as well, since the rest of the bedrooms are probably in horrible disrepair now since no one's gone in any of them in years and years, let alone lived in them. I know it's not much, but make yourself at home."

"Oh, uh, I, uh..." Wil stuttered, flustered at the lack of a particular piece of furniture in the room. "...Er, that is... That's fine by me, but, uh, where do I sleep?"

"Oh, right there, of course." she responded, pointing casually at the pile of straw in the middle of the floor. "Don't worry, it's a lot more comfortable than it looks."

Blinking, Wil nervously scratched his head in confusion. "But uh, then where do you sleep?"

"The same place, silly, where else?" Braixen replied, even more confused by Wil's embarrassed reaction until a moment of realization dawned on her. "...Oh, right, you're a human, you guys have that weird aversion to sleeping in the same bed as anyone other than your mate, don't you?"

"Yeah, that... That's a thing..." Wil replied, looking away from Braixen uncomfortably. "That's definitely a thing."

"Oh, well, don't worry, as you can see, the whole thing is plenty big enough for the both of us, with lots of space in between so that, heaven forbid, we don't accidentally touch." Braixen exclaimed, again all too casually, before adding with a sly grin, "And I won't try anything funny if you don't."

"Okay, let's not be having this conversation anymore." Wil said in absolute embarrassment, with Braixen merely laughing in amusement at his reactions.

"Alright, shall we eat, then?" Braixen asked, holding out the plate with the remaining berries on it. Wil's stomach answered for him, and within minutes, the two had finished off the berries, both of them hoping they'd tide them over until whenever their next meal was.

"Alright, now that neither of us are going to die of hunger, do you want to tell me what the deal was with that whole weirdness earlier?" Wil asked, stretching out on his side of the straw. He wanted desperately to go to sleep, but his curiosity overruled his tiredness in wanting more to know what was wrong with Braixen earlier. "You said you'd talk about it once the kids went to bed, right?"

"Oh, that..." Braixen said, frowning. Looking downwards, she sighed. "That's... Well, it's kind of... Complicated..."

"Ah..." Wil murmured, sensing that this was probably something Braixen really didn't want to talk about if she didn't have to. "Well, uh, why don't we talk about something else instead, then?" Wil suggested, deciding that it might be better to ease Braixen into talking about whatever it was that was wrong.

"Um, okay." she replied, looking back and tilting her head at Wil. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, uh, how about yourself?" Wil asked, drawing a slightly taken aback response from Braixen. "I mean, you know all about me, probably more than I know about me at this point, but I don't really know much about you, Braixen. Unless, you'd rather keep it that way, which is totally fine by me."

"N-No, I don't mind..." Braixen mumbled, looking slightly flustered herself now. "It's just... There's not really much to say about me... I'm sure you've already figured it out, but I'm an orphan. I never knew my parents, I was alone from the day I was born. I wouldn't have made it if Mama Kangaskhan hadn't found me when I was young. She was... The sweetest, most loving person I've ever known... She was the one who used to run this place, back when it was a proper orphanage. Back then, the world wasn't so bad, and people actually wanted to adopt kids... Now nobody can manage to even feed themselves, let alone anyone else... But um, anyways... Mama Kangaskhan was such a kind, generous lady. She had lost her own child when she was relatively young, but somehow, she managed to persevere through the heartache, and somewhere along the line, she decided to build this place, maybe to cope with her own loss, or maybe just because she wanted to help lost and abandoned young Pokemon such as myself, who had no chance of surviving on their own. I don't know how, but she always somehow managed to keep us all happy and healthy, we were never hungry and we were always safe from harm. And back then, there were a lot of us..."

Braixen paused momentarily as she got up and walked over to the desk, opening its only drawer and pulling a small, faded photograph out from within it. She gazed wistfully at it for a moment before continuing. "We never felt like we were orphans, because we always had each other, and we always had Mama Kangaskhan. We were our own family, we were our own friends, we never needed anybody else besides each other. Of course, being an orphanage, it was only common sense that some of us would get adopted. The plan, obviously, was that we would all be adopted, but sometimes, things just don't work out the way they're 'supposed' to. Every week, it seemed as if we were losing more of our friends, more of our family. Not that we were anything but happy for them, of course, but it does get a little disheartening after a while when everyone else is getting adopted but you... At the same time, the world was getting more dangerous, and little by little things just started becoming more uncomfortable as days went by. We had less food, we couldn't play outside for as long, and Mama... Mama was getting sick. She couldn't do as much for us as before, and she couldn't keep the house looking very nice, but she still somehow managed to keep us all safe and fed throughout it all. Until one day, she just... Couldn't no more. There weren't that many of us left when it happened, but... It was a bad day. We weren't a family anymore. We weren't... We weren't even friends anymore... Nobody wanted to stick around, even though none of us were ready for the world. I tried to convince them that we could only survive if we stuck together, but nobody would listen... Not even..."

Braixen suddenly and bitterly shoved the photo back in the drawer and slammed it shut, startling Wil.

"We all splintered, just like the support beams of our house around us, we broke apart, friendships that had been in place since infancy... Shattered in an instant. I... I was the only one who stayed behind. I was too scared to head out on my own... No, that's a lie, I was too scared to head out with them. I didn't want to leave this house, I didn't want to abandon Mama's... I don't know, her memory. That's all I had left, were my memories, and they were all stuck in this house, and so... I couldn't leave. I was only a kid... I mean, I'm still a kid, I guess, but I was only a Fennekin then. It was horrible at first... I could hardly fend for myself, and I went to bed without eating more times than I can count. But then eventually, I evolved, and I was able to learn how to make it on my own. I learned how to fight fast, since more and more Pokemon were starting to lose their minds and attack innocents without warning, but I can't say I'm particularly skilled at it, just decent enough to scrape by without getting horribly mauled or anything. More importantly, however, I learned how to forage for food, and that was a very good thing, because soon enough, I had somehow managed to stumble across an abandoned, baby Bagon during a trip to find food, and not long after, he was joined by five other similarly orphaned Pokemon. This was the other reason I couldn't bring myself to leave with the others; I knew there was no other place for orphans to go, and I also knew there was no one else around after Mama Kangaskhan who would care enough to want to help any of them. So that's pretty much been my life, raised as an orphan, and now raising other orphans. The only reason I have for living anymore is them, I'm so used to not getting any help or sympathy from anyone, that when someone does come along, someone like you, Wil, that it just... It means that much more to me than to most Pokemon. That... That's why I got so worked up over what you did with the berries earlier, because I haven't cared about myself in years, all that matters to me are my 'family' and... Friends. I mean, nobody else besides the children gives a crap about me, so why should I? I don't even know how to react properly anymore when someone does something nice for me, as you could plainly tell..."

"Aw, geez..." Wil exclaimed, looking at Braixen with incredible pity and guilt. "That... That's terrible, Braixen... I'm sorry for prying..."

"No, no, it's okay..."Braixen said, smiling slightly back at Wil. "It's nice to be able to talk to someone about it, at least. I'm just sorry that you were the one who had to have all that crap dumped on you."

"Yeesh, don't apologize for that, you're worse than I am." Wil said with a chuckle. "So uh, what are all the kids like, anyhow? Besides being incredibly bigoted and hateful towards lizards, that is."

Braixen rolled her eyes at Wil's japery. "Oh, you know, just like any other kids their ages. Uh, I think, assuming human kids act the same way Pokemon kids do. But anyway, they're all really nice once you get to know them, or rather, once they get to know you. Squirtle is the self appointed leader of them and the second oldest after Bagon. He's definitely the most rambunctious amongst them, but he means well. Torchic is, by all means, his exact opposite, since he's generally quiet and thoughtful as opposed to Squirtle's brash and loud personality. That's not to say he doesn't get into trouble with everyone else, but for the most part he's usually the most well-behaved. He and Squirtle are like fire and, well, water, I guess, even though they used to be best friends. I think it's because they both like Chikorita, who was the third member of their terrible trio when they were still a trio. She's sassy, but really sweet natured most of the time. She hates it when the other argue though, especially over her, so she tends to come off as a bit bossy at times when she's trying to get the others to get along. Then there's Sandshrew, she's really inquisitive about pretty much everything, and she's actually probably smarter than I am about certain subjects. She tends to be the brains behind most of Squirtle's hair-brained schemes, and I think she has a crush on him or something, so there's this whole awful love dodecahedron going on amongst them, and they're not even teenagers yet. It almost reminds me of... Uh... N-Nevermind... A-Anyways, then there's Pichu, he's a lot younger then the rest of them, so they tend to take advantage of him and his innocence more often than not. He also seems to have the stomach of a Snorlax, and can and will eat just about anything he can fit in his mouth. And finally, there's Bagon. He... Doesn't really talk, not even to me. He's been like that ever since I found him, so I don't know what happened to cause it... He seems to stay out of the others' affairs more often than not, however, and he is definitely a lot more mature than the rest of them, but in the end, he's still a kid, so he's not always so doomy and gloomy. And that's pretty much it, there hasn't been anyone else here since Mama Kangaskhan was still around, and that was about, oh, I don't know, five or so years ago."

"Geez, you've been doing this by yourself for that long?" Wil asked in astonishment.

Braixen nodded. "Pretty much, yeah. I've been trying to raise them the same way Mama Kangaskhan raised me, but... I'm nowhere near as strong as she was in any way, so all I've really managed to do is keep them from completely starving. It's pathetic to think that she was able to raise over twenty of us at any given time without any trouble whatsoever, but I struggle just to raise six and myself."

"I'm sure there are some factors there that you're ignoring, Braixen." Wil said, casting a sympathetic gaze. "You were saying, it's been getting worse and worse to live around here since then, and that even she was having trouble later on because of it. And plus, I doubt she was as young as you were or are or whatever when she was doing this, she probably had experience doing these sorts of things for years and years beforehand."

"...Still, I want to be able to provide as good a life for them as Mama Kangaskhan gave to me." she replied sadly, letting her cheeks slump down into her hands.

"Well, you have me here now, and two heads are surely better than one, right?" Wil stated with a grin, trying to cheer Braixen back up. "It'd probably be tough for most anyone to care for so many people on their own, but you don't have to anymore, because I'm here to help you with that! Like you said, friends help each other, right? So that's what I'll do, I'll help you with whatever it is you need helping with, no matter what that may be. Because heck, it's not like I'm going to be doing much of anything else anytime soon."

Braixen smiled sweetly back at Wil, before holding up her hand and shaking her head sadly. "Oh, thank you Wil, but... Well, I suppose I can't really avoid talking about it any longer, you have a right to know about it as much as anyone else if you're going to be stuck here. This area, this land, whatever you want to call it, it used to be a safe, peaceful place, where most Pokemon lived with one another in harmony. There was never a real want or need for much of anything, and Pokemon happily got along with one another and helped each other out just because. This is what Mama Kangaskhan told me, at least, this was way before my time. Then, something happened one day that changed everything. Mama never knew what it was, just that one day she woke up, and everything was just... Different. Most Pokemon started acting strangely; it was hardly noticeable at first, but soon enough, she said that there were Pokemon that just started attacking others out of the blue, with no provocation or warning whatsoever. It was mostly the Pokemon that were living out in the wild who were affected, as opposed to those that were living in towns and settlements, but even some of those Pokemon started acting differently, acting snider and ruder, some even turning to a life of crime. There was something else that had changed that day, however, which Mama was always sure had something to do with the insanity of the wild Pokemon... That was the day the Mystery Dungeons first appeared."

"...Mystery Dungeons?" Wil repeated, scratching his head. "You mean like, dungeons that are in castles? Big stone underground prisons just started appearing out of nowhere one day?!"

"N-No, no, that's not..." Braixen had to stifle a giggle at the image that Wil had conjured, along with his wild reaction to it. "No, nothing like that. I don't know who first coined the term, but they aren't really dungeons in a literal sense. They're more like, well, forests, caves, things that had existed for years, things that Pokemon had been visiting and even living in, suddenly weren't the same anymore. Even wide open plains weren't safe from... Well, I don't really know how to explain it. It doesn't make any sense no matter which way you look at it. Just, these places, they don't stay the same anymore. They're always... Changing. As in, literally shifting around their architecture in the blink of an eye."

"W-What...?" Wil stuttered, not at all following what Braixen was saying.

"Well, you know that forest from earlier?" Braixen asked, to which Wil nodded intently. "Simply put, if we were to go there again, the layout would be completely, absolutely different."

"Wait, what?!" Wil exclaimed in shock. "W-What are you talking about, like, if we walked the same way, we'd arrive somewhere different...?"

"No, because we wouldn't be able to even walk the same way in the first place." Braixen explained. "That route we took, that winding, mazelike path? That's not there anymore, it's some other random path now, likely just as winding and mazelike, but completely different nonetheless."

Wil's jaw had hit the floor. "Th-That... That's not..."

"No, I know, it's not 'right', it's not natural." Braixen said with a sigh. "No one has any idea what causes it, or why or how it started in the first place. There seems to be a small window in which multiple Pokemon can go into one of them and arrive at the same exact area, like when we chased those thieves into the forest, but it's not very long. But at the same time, the Pokemon that go in don't just disappear when another Pokemon enters in after them and everything has changed. There's just... Something reality warping going on within them, because Pokemon can still find other Pokemon who entered during a different iteration of the 'floor', even though their 'floors' should by all accounts be completely different. And that's not even starting on the stairs. We didn't run into any, thank Arceus, but every single Mystery Dungeon have stairs that either go up or down, even though there's no way there should be more than one level, or floor, to them. You can go down and still see the sky sometimes... It's all so horribly, horribly wrong... And they say the longer you stay in one, the more you lose your mind. That's why all the wild Pokemon went nuts, they say, because they were living in these places, and still are, for the most part, when the changes occurred."

Wil had been rendered completely speechless. His mind felt like it was crashing as he tried to wrap it around what Braixen had just told him. He simply couldn't even begin to comprehend any of it.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to them, everyone does eventually." Braixen stated, again all too casually. "As long as you don't try to think about how they work, you should be fine. But anyways, everything changed the day they started showing up. And they didn't just affect already existing places, some really did just sprout up overnight without anyone noticing. Eventually, criminal types started to realize that these places were great hideouts, since they were always changing and were filled with mad Pokemon to boot, and so more and more criminals started using these places as areas to hide away in, or to conduct their illicit activities in themselves. Soon enough, this whole land was a lawless, terrifying place to live in, where no Pokemon was safe, as more and more Pokemon were turning to lives of crime or simply losing their minds altogether. Eventually, however, some Pokemon had decided that they had had enough, and one by one across the land, there popped up guilds, areas where like minded Pokemon who still valued peace and justice could gather and figure out ways to help each other, along with every other innocent Pokemon out there. To stop criminals in their tracks, to bring thieves to justice, and to rescue those who weren't able to defend themselves. Pokemon started forming Rescue Teams, or Exploration Teams, or whatever you want to call them. The names differ depending on where you are, but they all have the same goals in the end; bringing criminals to justice, rescuing innocents, and finding treasure."

"Treasure?" Wil repeated. "How could there be treasure in places that are always changing?"

Braixen shrugged. "Dunno, same as everything else that has to do with them, no real reason other than 'it just does'. Mostly it's just Poke, our currency, but really pitiful amounts of it. Sometimes, though, you can find TMs and Gummies and other goodies inside."

"Wait, you guys have currency?" Wil asked. "And TMs? But those are man made objects, I thought you said there weren't any humans around here?"

"There aren't." Braixen answered. "Or at least, they're very, very, very rare. I think humans used to live here, because there are a lot of old human buildings all over the place, but something must have happened here that made them all leave because they've all been abandoned since before even Mama Kangaskhan was born. But it's not like they're all dead or anything, we see them all the time on the TVs and hear them on the radios they left behind, and, well, there's you of course, assuming you really are a human."

"Huh, that's... Odd." Wil muttered, putting his hand to his face. "Not that I'll be able to remember it even if I've heard of it before, but does this land have a name? I would've figured there weren't any places devoid of humans like this left in the world, other than like nature preserves and stuff. But the way you talk about it, this place is way too big to be one of those."

"Um, no, not that I know of." Braixen said, shaking her head. "Like I said before, Pokemon don't really 'do' names very much. We just call things by what they are, like that forest we went in earlier, we just call it Blackout Forest since it's always so dark in there. Likewise, a cave on a beach would just be called Beach Cave, and a rolling, sun bathed meadow would be called Sunshine Meadow, and so on and so on. We've never understood why you humans have to give such complicated and ill-fitting names to everything."

"I guess we just don't like things sounding so... Boring, I suppose." Wil stated with a small shrug. "Anyways, uh, I think I've gotten you sidetracked a bit, sorry."

"Oh, it's fine." Braixen said, waving her hand. "But yeah, the treasure in most Mystery Dungeons is nothing to write home about, so guilds also have a reward system for solving problems. The way it usually works is, someone who needs help will post what their problem is on the guild's problem board, along with some sort of reward or incentive to get Pokemon to help them with it. Depending on how difficult the mission is, the guild will sometimes sweeten the deal in order to get people to want to risk taking it on. That was actually how Mama Kangaskhan provided for us, she was one of the most skilled Detective Team members in the entire guild system. Er, that is, Detective Teams are what they're called around here, because our guild is... Different from most. But regardless, Mama Kangaskhan was one of the most feared detectives around, she was always taking on the higher end missions in order to get enough Poke to afford to feed us all every day. She also brought home the berries and apples that she found in the dungeons, but most of our food came from the shops in town. And that's the main reason why I haven't been able to provide for the kids very well. I'm nowhere near strong enough to join the detective's guild by myself like Mama Kangaskhan did, and I don't have anyone to form a team with, so I've been getting by scrounging up berries and apples from the local forests all this time. Only..." Braixen let out a heavy sigh as she turned to stare at the now empty plate that sat between her and Wil. "Only now, those berries and apples never grow back."

"Huh?" Wil asked, just as clueless as he was about everything else. "Why not? Does that have something to do with the Mystery Dungeons too?"

Braixen shook her head. "No. At least, I don't think so. I think this is more to do with another incident that happened a year or so ago. I don't know if this even registered anywhere humans lived, but there was this really bad mess that happened where time itself was stopping due to the Time Gears, which are pretty much exactly what they sound like, being stolen. I don't know much about what happened, since it occurred really far away from here on the other side of the land, but supposedly everything was prevented by a single Exploration Team, and everything supposedly went back to normal... But ever since then, nothing grows anymore. It still turns from day to night, the wind still blows, but the plants no longer seem affected by time, they never change with the seasons, and fruits never grow back. It's... Distressing. It seems to just be this area, too, because the shops still seem to get in just as many berries as before from across the land, so I don't know what's wrong. Maybe whoever put the Time Gears back messed something up, but whatever the reason, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we're running out of food, and I don't know if we'll even last another week..."

"...Damn..."

"I'm sorry, Wil, I'm sure you were expecting better than this when I said I'd let you stay with me." Braixen said shamefully, looking away from the Charmeleon. "I'm such an idiot... All I do is make empty promises that I have no hope of ever fulfilling..."

"No, don't think like that, Braixen." Wil said, shaking his head vehemently as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"But it's true, Wil, all I do is lie to the kids, and now I'm even lying to you." Braixen sniffled. "I don't know what I'm going to tell them when I can't find anymore food..."

"...What if you won't have to?"

Braixen looked up at Wil and, noticing the thoughtful expression on his face, cocked her head. "What... What do you mean...?"

"You said something about how you couldn't join the detective's guild or whatever it was called because you didn't have anyone to form a team with, right?" Wil questioned.

"Y-Yes, but..." Braixen began, before she let out a wide-eyed gasp once she realized what Wil was suggesting. "N-No. No way, Wil! That kind of work is dangerous, neither of us are cut out for that kind of thing!"

"What are you talking about, Braixen?" Wil said with a grin. "Don't you remember how easily we, er, by that I mean you, handled those idiots earlier?"

"You said it yourself, Wil, they were idiots!" Braixen exclaimed, trying to talk some sense into her friend. "It's nowhere near that easy normally! You don't even know how to fight, for goodness sakes!"

"Well, I'll have plenty of time to learn, then." Wil said simply. "Just like you did, right?"

"No, you'll have plenty of time to die, Wil!" cried Braixen, shaking her head frantically. "You haven't even been a Pokemon for a day yet, you probably don't even know how to go to the bathroom, how do you expect to know how to fight?! Because that's all being part of a Detective Team is, long, long walks through horrible climates and fighting, never ending fighting! You don't want to do that, Wil!"

"Well, no, but I'd rather do that then let you and those kids starve to death." Wil replied firmly. "And uh, I'd rather not starve to death myself either, I don't think that'd be very fun... Also, I'll have you know that me not knowing how to pee has nothing to do with me not knowing how to fight, those are two completely different things, thank you very much."

Braixen folded her arms and shook her head stubbornly at Wil. "Wil, stop. I'm not going to let you do this!"

"Too late." Wil responded just as stubbornly. "I've already got the idea in my head, you can't stop me now."

"But Wil!"

"But nothing, Braixen!" Wil shouted, instantly quieting down and hoping he hadn't woken the children up. "No, you said it yourself, friends help each other, so that's exactly what I'm going to do! And besides, what other ideas do you have? Yeah, it sounds horrible and I'll probably instantly regret it, but hey, sometimes you just have to make personal sacrifices for the greater good. As long as we stick together and have each others back, we should be just fine!"

"You don't have to do this, Wil..."

"No, but I will anyways."

"Wil..." Braixen looked back with tears welling in her eyes, nearly at a loss for words. "I... I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to say anything, then." Wil said, smirking and shrugging. "That way we can finally get to sleep."

Braixen just stared silently back at Wil, before pulling him into a bone-crunching hug, her tears flowing freely as she sobbed happily into his back.

"G-G-Guh, w-why me..." Wil winced in pain, as Braixen's bear hug caused every single muscle in his beat-up body to scream in agony.

"Oh, Wil..." Braixen said, sniffling and wiping her eyes once she had finally released him. "I'll never be able to thank you enough..."

Wil waved his hand in embarrassment once he got the feeling back in it. "Aw geez, you already have, just by letting me stay here. Not having to fend for myself in the wild is more than enough thanks for me."

"...Alright..." Braixen said, nodding slowly. "I promise, in return I'll do everything I can to help you figure out why you've been turned into a Pokemon!"

"Oh crap, I almost forgot about that." Wil said sheepishly, hiding his face. "I um, appreciate that... But that's probably low priority right now, at least until things can be stabilized here."

"Okay... I guess first thing in the morning, I'll show you around town, and then we can take the guild's entry exam... Which I've heard can be pretty brutal..." Braixen stated, frowning before quickly flipping it to a smile. "But like you said, as long as we have each others backs, we'll be okay. I just know it."

"Ehe, th-that's right..." Wil muttered, though he was not at all enamored by the word 'brutal' being used in any context, let alone to describe something he would soon have to do.

"I really, really hate having to leave the kids by themselves for so long, but they're used to it by now..." Braixen said with a small sigh.

"I'm sure they'll understand." Wil said reassuringly. "They seem to love you to bits, they know you wouldn't do it if you didn't have to."

"I guess..." Braixen said with another sigh.

For a while, neither of them said anything else, just listening to the sound of the breeze blowing outside through the window, the toll the day had taken on the both of them making itself known as they began drifting out of consciousness.

"Um, I guess we should try to sleep." Braixen stated finally, as she got up and blew the flame out of the room's only lamp. "Tomorrow's probably going to really suck, so we should probably get as much rest as we can."

Wil nodded groggily in agreement. "Sounds great..."

"Thanks again, Wil, for everything." Braixen said once more as she laid her head down on her side of the straw and settled in.

"Yeah... Sure thing, Brai..." Wil muttered drowsily, already half asleep.

Unfortunately, there was still the half that wasn't asleep.

"...What have I gotten myself into?" Wil thought wearily to himself. "I really am a moron... What was I thinking, suggesting something as insane as becoming a detective? I can't even find my way out of a wet paper sack! And I can't fight my way out of one, either! Oh... All I'm going to end up doing is letting Braixen and her kids down... Ugh... But what else was I supposed to do? I couldn't just... Not say anything... God, why is this happening to me? What the hell am I supposed to do...? I just want to wake up already... This is the worst day ever... At least in the real world I know how to... O-Oh crap..."

"B-Braixen...?" Wil squeaked, hoping his friend was still awake as he shot to his feet.

"What's wrong, Wil...?" Braixen said groggily as she turned over to look at him.

"Y-You know that thing you said about how I probably don't even know how to go to the bathroom?" he whimpered, hopping up and down frantically as he squeezed his legs together. "Th-The 'probably' w-wasn't necessary..."

"I... Oh... Oh dear..."

Truly, the worst day ever.

---

Okay so, I've been somewhat apprehensive about posting this, mainly because I'm not sure anyone is going to even want to read it. I don't actually get around to reading much fanfiction anymore, so for all I know this idea has been done to death already. So uh, should I actually continue this? Or is it too genericy and boring? Are the main characters actually likeable at all, or did I make them too obnoxious? As for the chapter itself, in case anyone cares (they don't), I know I should've split this into two chapters, but I couldn't find a stopping point for the first part that I liked. If I do continue this, obviously there won't be anymore monstrously large chapters like this one.

Anyways, yeah, as always, any review is greatly, greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism is likewise appreciated, as I'm always looking for advice on how to improve my crappy ellipses and adverb abusing writing skills. And if you just want to tell me to go eat a bucket of whale anuses, then that is fine too.

Hopefully someone will enjoy this, if not, then oh well, this was a complete waste of time, ahue.

Oh right, and also apologies for not putting the little e's with the lines over them in every utterance of 'Pokemon' in this story. I... Don't actually know how to type one of those, embarrassingly enough... But oh well, hopefully it's not too annoying/distracting.