There was fire all around. Aamira couldn't see anything but the flames and the burning buildings. Then came a voice in the distance. "How could you do this! I thought you were my friend!"

Aamira didn't know what was going on. She fell to her knees and put her hands on her head. "What's happening to me!"

Aamira woke up in the same position that she had fallen asleep in. She was shaking In her mind she could still hear the roar of the fire. But whose voice had that been? Quill's? No, it sounded a little older than Quill's. Lucario's? No, Lucario's voice was a lot deeper than the one she had heard.

Aamira tried to sit up and immediately grabbed her left arm, which was in a lot of pain. 'Real smart on my part to fall asleep on my left arm. But I always fall asleep facing the window. Maybe I'll just have to get used to it.'

Then Aamira suddenly wondered, was it the dream that had woken her up, or the shouting coming from behind her? Aamira turned around and sat up in her bed. Machop and Nuzleaf were fighting, of course, and Quill and Gengar were making a ruckus trying to get them to stop.

"You know, a lot of people like to sleep past five in the morning…" Aamira said flatly to them.

"Now you've done it, you woke Aamira up!" Nuzleaf shouted at Machop.

"Me!" Machop said. "You were being just as loud as I was!"

"Can't the two of you both just be a little more considerate!" Quill snapped at them.

"Yea, and you yelling at the top of your lungs will really help!" Gengar snapped at Quill.

Aamira watched them argue for a few more seconds before yawning and nonchalantly hitting them with Aura Sphere, causing the four of them to fly back into the other two bunk beds. Aamira jumped down from her own top bunk and started walking towards the door. "Do me a favor and join me down stairs when the four of you can grow up a little."

"Looks like you three really did it this time." Machop said after Aamira walked out. "Her temper never wakes up this early in the morning."

"You know it would be nice if for once in your life you could take just a little responsibility!" Quill snapped at him.

"It's obvious that something's really troubling Aamira isn't it?" Nuzleaf said. "She always gets really serious whenever something's on her mind."

"I don't think that's it at all." Quill said.

"If you're such a genius, why don't you tell us what's going on?" Gengar snapped at Quill.

"Okay, listen." He said. "I haven't even told Aamira this yet, but I haven't been able to feel her emotions since she disappeared two months ago. But since I used to be able to feel her emotions, I probably understand Aamira more than anyone else, especially you two, Machop and Nuzleaf. Right after Aamira reappears we all have to move here to continue being an Investigation Team. And right away we're all forced to share a room. Between you two fighting over her and everything else all the time, Gengar's jokes that often go too far, and me admittedly caring too much, Aamira's probably all stressed. So with that on top of everything else that's happened and even her being the only girl member of the team, of course she would lose her temper like that!"

"So when'd you become such a know it all anyway?" Machop said.

Quill groaned and walked towards the door. "You're hopeless. Do whatever you want, but I'm going to find Aamira."

"I thought you said that you caring too much was one of the things that was stressing her out." Nuzleaf sneered.

"So why don't you come too so it won't seem like I care too much!" Quill turned and left and the other three reluctantly followed, more quietly than seemed possible for them.

They found Aamira in the café when she was finishing up breakfast. "It's about time you got here." She said. "So what do you think our mission will be?"

"Uh… I don't know." Quill said. 'Wow, has she really gotten over everything just like that?'

"By the way, Typhlosion says he wants to talk with you when we get back from the mission."

Quill couldn't hide his excitement. Did Typhlosion even know that Quill knew he was his dad? He supposed Typhlosion must know or he wouldn't have asked to talk to Quill.

"Well shouldn't we get going?" Quill asked. "That note said we had to be ready to go by dawn."

All of them made their way, somewhat awkwardly, up to the main part of the building where all of the teams and the rest of the staff were running around in a hurry to start the day. Electivire was waiting for them over by the front desk.

"About time you all got here!" He said energetically. "Nuzleaf and Gengar, today the two of you will be working for our research division. To my knowledge there are some missing components to a new machine they're working on that they need you to find. Go meet up with Eevee and he'll fill you in."

"Heh, no problem!" Nuzleaf said.

"This should be good!" Gengar said excitedly. The two of them ran off towards Eevee's lab.

"And that leaves you three, Aamira, Quill, and Machop. I'd like you to meet a very important pokemon." Electivire gestured to a purple-grey catlike pokemon to his right. Her paws and legs were covered in scratches and bruises and she was surrounded by a few other pokemon who were each looking suspiciously at Team Sleuth. "This is Glameow. And the reason she's so important is because she's the princess of Silex, the rock country across the sea. Your mission today will be to escort her to Tempestas, the electric country."

"Escorting a princess?" Machop said with a strange gleam in his eyes. "Well that's not so bad!"

"Don't make me slap you…" Aamira said flatly to Machop.

Glameow looked over the three of them. "They don't look very strong. I've heard the stories about them, but I'm not really convinced that they're all that. I'm supposed to trust my life in their paws?"

"Hey, we're a lot stronger than we look." Quill's face turned red from embarrassment.

"I'll believe that when I see it, rodent!" Glameow hissed at him.

Quill froze up and couldn't think of a reply to this.

"Hey!" Aamira said to Glameow. "If you don't think we're strong enough, we won't escort you! Good luck getting to Tempestas all alone. Being some pampered princess I'm sure every pokemon you meet along the way wouldn't mind trying their luck in a battle with you. Or maybe you would want us to prove how strong we are?"

Electivire shot warning glances at Aamira, but Glameow had actually started to smile. "Now THAT'S more like it! But why not demonstrate your power on the way there? You'd be wasting your energy by taking out whatever problems you might have on me."

"Yea, so what's this mission about anyway?" Quill asked, obviously feeling a bit braver after Aamira defended him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Glameow asked. "Every country has a kingdom and to ensure peace between rival countries, sometimes members of the royal families will marry to unite the two countries. I just hope whoever this prince charming is isn't real full of himself or anything…"

"You're getting married?" Aamira asked. "And to someone you've never met?"

Glameow shrugged. "So what? I don't really care. Whether I'm in Silex or Tempestas I'll still have my servants to do whatever I want them to do for me."

'We're supposed to escort this spoiled little brat?' Aamira could barely keep from saying this out loud. "You can't be that pampered if you're all covered in scratches."

"Yea, well it wasn't exactly easy getting here. They couldn't carry me or anything since they were watching for danger, so I actually had to walk!"

"Now listen!" Electivire said more sternly than they had heard them talk so far. "My informants from the other countries tell me that Silex and Tempestas are on the verge of war! The only thing keeping them at peace at the moment is the future marriage of Glameow and the prince of Tempestas! Basically, don't screw this up or there will be an all out war!"

"You're joking right?" Machop said. "We're not even a part of this organization yet and the fate of two countries is already in our hands?"

"Yep. Pretty much." Electivire said.

"I didn't know you could actually talk like that." Aamira said to Machop. "You're not writing love poems, are you!"

Machop didn't answer for a while. "No, of course not…"

Glameow snickered at Aamira and Machop. "Anyway, shouldn't we get going?" Glameow walked out before any of them could even say anything.

The four of them walked in silence for a while, except for Glameow who kept complaining about her aching paws. Finally Quill spoke up.

"So why do you need an Investigation Team to guard you anyway?" He asked. "Don't all of the kingdoms have their own private Investigation Teams?"

"I need the best and unfortunately, the three of you are it." Glameow said to them. "Okay, listen. A lot of royalty with our more sophisticated lifestyle usually get fears of the outside world. I'm not one of those people and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble, apparently. Now there are a bunch of bounty hunters after me."

"Wait, bounty hunters?" Aamira asked.

"Bad guys." Quill said. "Remember? Charmeleon used to be one. He kidnapped Oddish to lure some Investigation Teams in and ask for a high bounty for their return. Good thing he's on our side now."

"Great, I'm traveling with friends of a bounty hunter… Things can't get much worse than this…" Glameow said, obviously to herself, but didn't bother keeping her voice down.

"So these bounty hunters pretty much go around kidnapping people and asking for a ransom?" Aamira asked.

"Not always." Quill said. "We didn't get a lot of this in Silva, but there are a bunch of underground organizations all around the world. They'll ask bounty hunters to get them someone they believe is worth a lot, then pay the bounty hunters when they catch the person they're after. But after that they usually turn around and offer an even higher ransom for the person they kidnapped."

"That's horrible." Aamira said. "It's like they think pokemon are just a bunch of trading cards or something."

"It's probably a good way to make money, which is why so many actually do it, but it's just wrong. Things get even worse when something called a Hunter War breaks out."

"I'm starting to have my doubts about this!" Glameow said angrily. "One of you thinks being a bounty hunter would be a good way to make money, one of you doesn't know what they are, and the other one keeps staring at me and hasn't said anything this whole time!"

Aamira ignored her. "So what's a Hunter War?"

Quill hesitated. Obviously the thought of a Hunter War was really horrible. "Well the people that run these underground organizations would obviously be really important if they're in charge of a bunch of bounty hunters plus they're usually rich beyond rich, so the leaders from other organizations would ask their bounty hunters to capture other leaders so they could get the ransom. Any leader that can catch another leader automatically gets their popularity increased so then other organizations start trying to catch them."

"So it really leads to an all out war?" Aamira asked.

"Yup. During those times it gets easier for the police to catch the more clever bounty hunters, but anyone who can automatically gets their bounty raised too if they didn't already have one before."

"And here I thought only criminals could have bounties." Aamira said. "I'm guessing ours would be pretty high considering we got Charmeleon to stop being a bounty hunter and we saved the world."

"And that's not even the worst part. Eventually one of them might end up with most of the other organization's leaders prisoner and if that happens then there's a kind of respect for the last pokemon standing. All the organizations start to join up and for a long time that causes a lot of chaos for everyone else with all the bounty hunters working together. But it's not long before they start to pick their friends and form their own groups within the organization. The groups start out as friendly rivals, at least as friendly as they can get being bounty hunters, but eventually turmoil starts to build and they start trying to capture members from other groups and eventually the organization breaks up into separate ones again. It's like a never ending cycle of chaos."

"That's not the worst part." Glameow said. "Each group wants to be stronger. So a lot of times they'll buy out other organizations. There isn't much trust between bounty hunters and the higher ups because of this though, so the organizations are always full of violence. And you know about the rumors that have been going around?"

"Oh yea…" Quill said. "It's just horrible. I hope it's not true."

"What is it?" Aamira couldn't imagine anything that could be worse.

"The fighting circuit." It was the first time Machop had spoken since they left. "They capture unsuspecting pokemon and make them fight against their rival's captured pokemon in tournaments. The only way to get out of it is to fight. Whoever comes out on top gets their freedom. Although sometimes they'll let their prisoners go if they do something better than win a tournament."

"Like defeating a nosy Investigation Team leader?" Aamira said with a sudden understanding. "You were one of them, weren't you? And Ditto was a bounty hunter."

"Yea." Machop said. "He would only let me go if I could defeat a strong Investigation Team member. He thought that a Riolu was bound to be strong but he didn't know that you had never really had any proper training. When I defeated you, and nearly killed you, he let me go so I went to join Team Sleuth to make up for it. Not that I've been really useful."

Aamira felt like she had just met a new person. "Is that why you like me so much? You think I saved you?"

Machop didn't say anything about it, though he seemed sort of surprised that Aamira hadn't said that in her usual harsh tone. "I want to be worthy of being in this team. And I definitely don't want to see another person captured by a bounty hunter. Last night Eevee said I was too weak to evolve. I want to get stronger so I can fight against bounty hunters."

Glameow stopped and bowed slightly to Machop. "I am so glad that at least one of you knows what we're really up against. Since you're the only one of us whose experienced this first hand, I trust you with my life."

Machop seemed ashamed of himself, probably because he had never told them about the bounty hunters. He nodded to Glameow and kept walking.

In the first day, they were able to cover most of the plains that covered Pacis. They passed by a small town, and eventually made it to a forest at the base of the mountains.

"Tempestas should be just over the next few mountains." Quill said.

"We're going OVER the mountains?" Glameow said, obviously scared of just the idea of having to go over all of these mountains.

"Maybe we should stop to rest." Aamira said. "One of us might actually have to carry Glameow if she gets too tired."

"Rest? Here?" Glameow said. "You're not serious, are you? Where are the beds?"

"This is the outdoors." Quill said. "There aren't any beds."

"Well can't we just backtrack and stop at that town we passed through?" Glameow asked.

"It's too far away. It would be midnight by the time we got there."

Glameow groaned. "I guess I'll just try to find a soft clump of dirt to sleep on."

Quill lit a fire and, in spite of Glameow's complaining, she fell asleep unbelievably fast. The three of them stayed up for a while talking about what the bounty hunters might really be like. Machop told them about the gruesomeness of the bounty hunters he had witnessed first hand. Quill started to look through his bag.

"Looks like we're running low on some items." Quill said.

"I could go back to that town we passed through to buy some." Machop said. "I should be back by morning."

"You don't mind?" Quill asked. "Alright then. But get back as soon as possible. There's safety in numbers you know."

Machop nodded and ran off. Quill turned to Aamira. "Why don't you try getting some sleep? I'll stay up and keep a lookout."

Aamira didn't argue. She was tired and Quill still seemed wide awake.

Aamira ran as fast as she could. All around there were flames, getting higher with each passing second. She ran towards the edge of the city.

"Quill! Where are you?" Finally she spotted him. She ran towards him, glad to finally have found one of her friends.

Quill suddenly turned to her, obviously furious. "How could you do this? I thought you were my friend!"

Aamira woke up suddenly. Quill? No, it definitely wasn't his voice. Not Lucario's either. Aamira tried to shake the thought from her mind. It definitely wasn't a voice she remembered.

"Hey, you alright?" It was Glameow. "You were practically screaming in your sleep."

"Was I?" Aamira asked. "What are you doing up."

"I woke up and noticed that sleeping beauty had fallen asleep on his watch, so I thought I'd better stay awake." She said.

"Oh." Aamira sat up and yawned.

"So what were you dreaming about?" Glameow asked.

"I keep having the same dream. There are burning buildings all around and I'm running to try to escape the fire. I finally find a friend of mine and he keeps saying, 'How could you do this? I thought you were my friend.'"

"Which friend was it?"

"Not sure. I keep thinking it's Quill, but it just seems like that's not right. It's just the feeling I get anyway. And his voice is a little different too."

Glameow's ears drooped slightly. "You know, if you can't get that out of your head you'll just keep having the same dream."

"How do I do that?" Aamira asked.

"I've actually been here once before. A little ways away from here is this amazing lake. Some people think a legendary pokemon lives in it. And I'm sure that the one time I came here I saw it. It was almost like a ghost floating above the water. I heard its voice, it sounded like a mournful song, then it disappeared back into the lake. You have no idea how calming it was."

"So you think maybe if I go there it will help to clear my head?"

"Sure. I can take you there."

"But aren't you worried about bounty hunters?"

"You can't be serious. A big tough Investigation Team member's afraid of some bounty hunters? I thought you've battled some before. Or maybe you're just scared now that you know what they're really like."

Aamira scowled at her. "Seems to me that you really want to see that lake again. Alright, fine. But we come back in half an hour at the most."

"Oh, fine." Glameow walked off and Aamira followed her.

The lake was really relaxing. It almost seemed like Lake Harmony, except without all of the flowers. Glameow was so excited that she actually jumped into the lake, and splashed Aamira while doing so. She came back out of the water laughing, but Aamira just looked annoyed.

"What's wrong?" Glameow said. "Think it's too weird for a cat pokemon to like water?"

"No, that's not that." Aamira sat on the edge of the lake. "It's just something that's been bothering me ever since… well, for a while now."

"What is it? That dream?"

"No, it's something else." Aamira sighed and looked down at the water. "Okay, so I'll admit that I act a little tomboyish sometimes…" Glameow raised an eyebrow at these words. "Okay, most of the time. But lately it's just seemed… stressful, I guess, to be the only girl member of the team."

"Boys can sometimes seem as though they come from different worlds." Glameow said as if that settled everything.

'It's more like I came from a different world.' Aamira thought.

"I've been going through the same thing though." Glameow sat down on the edge of the lake. "No one really understands you and they don't seem to really care until you give them a clue. And, since boys are usually so bigheaded, I'm guessing they think they always need to protect you."

Aamira turned to Glameow. "Yes! Exactly!"

"We're not so different, you know?" Glameow purred slightly. "I've had to grow up around mostly boys. In spite of who you think I am, I haven't had much kindness growing up either. Parents always busy, no friends, and a bunch of brothers thinking that they're better just because they're older than me. The two of us… I think we need to look out for each other."

"You really think that?" Aamira looked back out over the lake.

"What do you mean?"

"There are just a few things I don't get." Aamira said. "Like when we first met you said that you got scratched up because you had to walk to Pacis, but your escorts didn't have a scratch on them. And it's pretty strange how, after only a few hours, some of those scratched have already scarred over." Glameow didn't say anything. "And then a while after we left, you seemed a bit hesitant around us after we mentioned one of our friends used to be a bounty hunter, but after Quill was talking about what the worst part was you obviously didn't agree and didn't hesitate to jump in and tell us what the real worst part was. But how would you have even known?"

Glameow stood up quickly. "My dad's a king! I hear about everything that happens!"

Aamira stared at her, obviously surprised, for a second before looking back at the lake. "All this Investigation Team stuff must really be making me paranoid. I hope I didn't offend you."

Glameow sat back down. "No, not at all."

"That's good. What was I thinking? Everything has a logical explanation. Like how you knew Quill was the one who was supposed to be on guard. I'm guessing you're just a psychic."

"What do you mean?" There was something in Glameow's voice. Fear, maybe?

"There was no way you could have known. You fell asleep before Quill volunteered to take the first watch and woke up after we had both fallen asleep. The only way you could have known would be if you were awake sometime during the night." Aamira stood up and faced Glameow. "Everything has a logical explanation…"

"Wake up already!" Machop shouted at Quill.

Quill woke up groggily and stared up at Machop. "What time is it?"

"Forget about that!" Machop said while waving a piece of paper in his hand. "Where are Aamira and Glameow?"

Quill looked around. "I dunno… Maybe they just went for a walk?"

"Yea maybe." Machop handed Quill the paper he was holding. "Look at this. I found it in town!"

Quill read what was on the paper. "A wanted poster? '10,000 poke reward for the capture of known bounty hunter, Glameow. Often seen with scratches on her legs and paws and with regularly sharpened claws.' What? Glameow's a bounty hunter!"