Hello, guys! Thank you for reading this story! Thank you for your support! Now, let's begin chapter 2, but first, here's a useless disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing! Pokemon belongs to Nintendo

Chapter 2

Blaze stared at Sneasel for a moment. She was in a old building with many books and paintings. It was almost like a library, but it was old and almost abandoned. Who was this guy? Was he an outlaw, or not? Blaze started a conversation with him.

"Who are you and why are you here?" She asked. She kept her distance from him, just in case he was an outlaw.

"I'm just a young Sneasel who has nothing better to do. I come here every night, in case you didn't know," he said. This guy isn't an outlaw, or is he? Blaze thought.

"Why do you come here every night, anyway?" She asked him a second question. It better not be "So I can find cute girls like you" or anything, Blaze hoped.

"I come here to read books. My favorite one is this one," he picked up a very old book and blew the dust off it, "It's a diary written by a Pokemon who was infected by the virus. My favorite part is this," He flipped the pages until he was at the end of the book. Blaze read what was on there. It was a few paragraphs describing the owner's final moments. On the second to last page, there was a illustration by the owner himself. It was of a young girl with short brown hair in a white dress. She had a heart shaped face and freckles. Her hands were small and they were clenched together. She was wearing nothing on her tiny feet. Her eyes were only partly opened, showing only a little bit of her bright blue eyes. Blaze thought it looked familiar somehow, but soon dismissed it. "I always find myself looking at it. It's very beautiful isn't it?" He said.

"Yes it is... Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Blaze." She said.

"That's a very nice name. It really fits you," Sneasel said and smiled a little. Blaze was starting to like Sneasel already. After a few more minutes of small talk, Blaze said goodbye to Sneasel and went home.

The next morning, an exploration team starter kit came in Spark's mail. It included an exploration team badge which had Blaze's footprint on it, a treasure bag, a blue bow, and a Pecha Scarf. Blaze got the blue bow while Spark got the Pecha Scarf. When Blaze saw her reflection in a mirror, she smiled. The bow just looked so good on her. However, Spark thought he looked silly with the scarf around his neck.

"I forgot to ask you earlier, but why did we have to fill out a form to become an exploration team?" Blaze asked.

"In other towns, you have to go to a guild to sign up to be an exploration team. But in the town we live in, there is no guild at all. So, to become an exploration team here, you have to fill out a form," Spark explained.

"Wow, you seem to know a lot! Where did you learn all this, anyway?" She asked.

"Blissey taught me all she knew. She was an explorer back in the day. She used to be super famous! At least, that's what she says," He said. Blaze giggled a little bit. They talked until someone knocked on the door. When Spark let the visitor in, Blaze saw it was Blissey, who was holding an egg. She looked very nervous.

"What's wrong? You don't look happy," She asked Blissey. Blissey paused for a moment and then she finally spoke.

"This egg here... I need you to take care of it," she said.

"Why can't you take care of it yourself?" Blaze asked.

"I want to, but I'm too busy at the moment. There's a lot of eggs in the daycare lately, and I'm very busy taking care of them all. I just can't take care of this egg right now," she explained. She hugged the egg softly.

"It's okay, we won't let anything happen to it. Right, Blaze?" Spark reassured Blissey that the egg would be safe. He looked at Blaze, who nodded.

"Thank you so much! When the egg hatches, it'll be in your team, is that okay with you?" Blissey thanked them.

"That would be great! Don't worry, the egg's in good hands," Blaze said happily. Blissey left, relieved.

"So, what do we do now?" Spark asked once she was out the door. Blaze suggested that they just watched over the egg until it hatches. They did just that for several days. It bored both of them out of their minds because they couldn't do anything fun for all that time. All they did was watch the egg and keep it warm. One day they got tired of staying in the house all day and went out for a walk. When they went back, they found the egg was missing. In its place was a note. Blaze picked it up and read it. It was a note from an outlaw that had barged into their house and taken the egg while they were gone. It wanted their food in exchange for the egg. It was waiting at the mystery dungeon Mt. Rock.

"Blaze, what's wrong? Where's the egg?" asked Spark. He was very worried. One could only imagine what would happen if Blissey got angry! She had really trusted them and would be furious if she found out the egg was missing. He shuddered at the very thought of it. Blaze shoved the note in his face, not knowing that Spark couldn't read a thing.

"Can't you read? The egg's in trouble! We need to save it. I'm going now, you can come with me if you want." Blaze ran off. Spark got the note off of his face and ran after her. They ran until they came to a small grey, rocky mountain.

"This is Mt. Rock, am I right?" Said Spark. He looked at Blaze, who was looking up at the mystery dungeon.

"Yes, it is." She said without glancing at Spark. She turned her head and looked at Spark. "What are you waiting for? We need to save the egg! There's no time to waste. We need to go now," Blaze walked in while Spark followed behind her.

Mt. Rock 1F

When they were inside, they saw that the dungeon was pretty large. It would take a while to get to the top. They walked around, looked for the stairs, and defeated Pokemon that were attacking them, who were mostly rock-types like Geodude. They found the stairs in no time.

Skipping to the top...

"Huff... Blaze... We... made it! Huff..." said Spark, out of breath. Ahead of them was the outlaw, Golem, and the egg, which was about to hatch.

"We finally found you! Now give us our egg back!" Blaze shouted, but he didn't give the egg back.

"What? Why won't you give the egg back!" Spark said.

"You never gave me the food," He said. He got hit with an Ember from Blaze. "Fine then! Defeat me and you'll get your egg back! Let me see you try!" A boss battle started instantly. Blaze went first and hit him with an Ember attack. Spark went next and hit Golem with a Bite attack. Golem went last with a Rock Throw attack that hit Spark. This went on for five minutes until Blaze and Spark were worn out from battling and about to faint.

"Wow... This guy is tough!" Spark said.

"He is... but I'm never giving up!" hollered Blaze. She quickly hit him with a Ember attack. Spark also hit him with a Bite attack. Golem was about to use a Rock Throw attack on Blaze when a small high-pitched voice squeaked from behind him.

"Don't hurt my mama and papa!" It was a Hoppip, who had hatched from the egg just then. She hit Golem with a powerful Double-Edge attack and knocked him out. Spark just stared at her, surprised.

"... I thought Hoppips only knew Splash at birth... I guess Double-Edge is an egg move... and how did she know we were her mama and papa?" He finally spoke. Hoppip giggled a little.

"Papa's silly! Silly Papa!" She said happily.

"Come on, let's go home," Blaze suggested. They went home almost immediately. A few minutes after they were home, Blissey barged into the house.

"Hi! I came to check on the egg! Oh, it hatched! It's a cute Hoppip! I just wanna pinch her little cheeks!" She went up to Hoppip. She turned to Blaze after hugging the little Pokemon. "Thank you so much for taking care of this little cutie! She could be a very famous explorer one day!"

"Oh, that reminds me of something I wanted to ask you. Were you an explorer once?" Blaze asked.

"Oh yes, I was! I was one during the time exploration teams weren't all about beating up outlaws for profit. They actually explored! It really brings back memories, you know..." She began to ramble about her days as an explorer.

"Blissey..." Spark said, "you're rambling again..." Spark took a deep breath and shouted, "BLISSEY!" Blissey stopped talking and looked at Spark.

"Oh, sorry. I start to ramble when I'm reminded of my days as an explorer," She said. Spark only sighed and shook his head.

"That's okay," Blaze said.

"Thank you for letting me see your little cutie!" Blissey said as she left a few minutes later. She waved goodbye as she left the house. Blaze, Spark, and Hoppip did the same, waving goodbye as Blissey left.

"It's late, so we should all go to sleep," Blaze said. Hoppip and Spark nodded. Later that night, Blaze went to the old building. She got the old book and was about to read it when she heard Sneasel's voice behind her.

"Hello, Blaze. I see you're doing well. You're looking at that book, it's interesting isn't it?" He said. Blaze turned around and saw him behind her.

"I barely read it... wait, when did you get here?" Blaze jumped back. Sneasel laughed for no particular reason.

"Only a few seconds ago. Why do you ask such silly questions?" He asked.

"N-no reason," Blaze looked away.

"Oh, that's okay," Sneasel said and shrugged his shoulders. "Where were you these past few nights?" He asked out of the blue. Blaze thought for a little while and then she told him about the egg, but didn't tell him about the Golem stealing the egg. "So you were taking care of an egg for the Blissey who runs the daycare? And then it hatched into a Hoppip? That's interesting," He said.

"Yeah, she's on our exploration team now," She said.

"E-exploration team? Um... what's its name?" Sneasel asked. He was honestly surprised.

"It's Team Berry," Blaze responded.

"And are there anyone besides you and Hoppip in it?" He asked another question.

"Yes, the other member is a Shinx named Spark," She answered.

"Oh, that's very... interesting..." He said and smiled a little. Blaze had no idea why. After some more small talk, Blaze went home.

The next morning, Spark woke up Blaze and Hoppip up early. His reason was to see the job bulletin board and the outlaw notice board next to the Kecleon Shop. When they got there, Spark told them about it.

"This is where you look for jobs," Spark began by stating the obvious, "The job bulletin board is the yellow one while the outlaw notice board is the red one. The most common jobs on the job bulletin board are rescues while the least common is rescuing Pokemon from burning buildings. This is due to these kind of missions being really, really difficult! First off, you have to rescue many Pokemon on many different floors. Second, there is a time limit. If you run out of time, the building will collapse and all the Pokemon inside will die. Well, except for Pokemon on exploration teams. Their badges save them at the last second. Besides losing some of your items and half of your money, you have to live with the guilt from not being able to save those poor Pokemon," Spark said. Hoppip raised her stub of an arm and jumped crazily.

"Ooh! Ooh! I have a question, Papa! Why are the buildings burning in the first place?" She asked.

"It's very simple, actually. Outlaws set them on fire," Spark said. Hoppip raised her stubby arm yet again.

"I have another question, Papa! Wouldn't the building have already burned down by the time we got the job?" She asked.

"Good question. I honestly don't know. Maybe it takes a while for buildings to burn here," Spark said, "Do you have any more questions, Hoppip?" She didn't say anything. "Good. Now let's select a rescue to do today..." Spark looked at the board.

"What about this one?" Blaze took an envelope off the board and read it. It was from a Geodude who had somehow gotten lost in Green Forest, a mystery dungeon.

"Green Forest? That's where I collect our food," Spark said after she told him about the job.

"Great. We're taking the job, but first I have to ask Blissey something," Blaze said.

"Okay, we'll wait here while you ask your question," Spark said. Blaze went over to the Blissey Day Care.

"Oh, hi, Blaze! What brings you here?" Blissey greeted her.

"Well, I wanted to ask you one thing," Blaze said.

"And what is that?" Blissey asked.

"How did you obtain Hoppip's egg?" Blaze asked her.

"Well, it's a very long story. It was a stormy night, a few nights before you came along. You know, Spark is very afraid of storms..." Blissey went off-topic with what Spark was afraid of.

"Blissey, we weren't talking about that..." Blaze then took a huge breath and shouted, "BLISSEY!"

"Oh, I got off-topic again... silly me! So anyway, I was about to close up for the night when a Jumpluff burst into the building with Hoppip's egg. She was very out of breath and had a lot of scratches on her, I don't know why. She shoved the egg into my arms and told me to take care of it for her. Then she ran off. The next thing I heard was a shrill scream. I went outside to see blood on the floor, but no body in sight," Blissey finished her story.

"Do you think the Jumpluff was killed?" Blaze asked.

"Um, I don't know if she was killed or not. I mean, anything could have happened," Blissey said. After a few more minutes of small talk, Blaze went back to Spark and Hoppip.

"So, what did you ask Blissey?" Spark asked when he saw her coming.

"I-it's nothing. Let's go to Green Forest and save that Geodude, okay?" Blaze said.

"Let's go!" Hoppip said. With that, they exited the town and went to the nearby Green Forest.

Green Forest 1F

When they were inside the mystery dungeon, the first thing Blaze noticed was that there were many apples and berries on the floor. They walked a little until they ran into an Oddish.

"Let me handle this, Mama!" Hoppip ran in front of Blaze and performed a Double-Edge attack and knocked out the Pokemon that would have attacked them. "Ow..." she said as a result of the recoil from the attack.

"Good job, Hoppip," Spark praised her. Hoppip made a huge smile.

"Yay! Papa thinks I did good! Yay!" She said happily. They walked a little more until a Tropius attacked them. It used Gust, which they all dodged. Blaze used Ember, which greatly weakened it. Spark used Spark, which knocked it out. They walked a little more until they found the stairs.

Somewhere on Green Forest 11F

Nothing of much importance happened on this floor, except that they found Geodude. He was covered in scratches

"Thank you very much! I'll see you in town square later!" the grateful client said. Blaze just stood there, doing nothing. She didn't know what to do at all.

"What are you doing? Shine the exploration team badge on Geodude to teleport him outside this place!" Spark said.

"Oh! I-I was about to do that!" Blaze got out the badge and shone it on Geodude, which teleported him outside Green Forest instantly.

"Ok, now that our job is completed, do you want to go home?" Spark asked. Blaze nodded while Hoppip just yawned. Blaze shone the badge on Spark and Hoppip and then herself and teleported them all outside the mystery dungeon.

Town Square

"Thank you for rescuing me!" the Geodude said. "As your reward, please take this item!" He handed Blaze a Special Band. She then gave it to Hoppip.

"Thank you, Mama!" Hoppip said and smiled.

That night, everyone was sleeping peacefully when someone knocked on the door.

"What is it?" Blaze said while opening the door. She was very tired. She soon saw it was the Duskull from the bank.

"Ah, it's you! I need your help!" he said frantically.

"What is it? Is there an outlaw you need to be taken care of?" Spark asked.

"More like outlaws!" he said in a panic.

"No... you don't mean..." Spark was in shock.

"Yes, it's true. Team Dusk is back!" he said, afraid.

"Who's Team Dusk?" Blaze asked Spark.

"They are a team of outlaws. They're known for working together, unlike most outlaws here. The team is made up of six Murkrow, a Honchkrow, and a Mismagius. They're led by another Pokemon who is supposedly much stronger than all of them combined. No one knows who this leader is," Spark explained.

"How do you know all this, Papa?" Hoppip asked.

"It's common knowledge around here. Now, we need to hurry!" Spark ran out the door, followed by everyone else in the house. Little did they know, they had a tough fight ahead of them.

So, what did you think? Please review! I worked really hard on this chapter! Goodbye!