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RESURRECTED MEMORIES: A MYSTERY DUNGEON STORY
By "Enigma149" (a.k.a. "SlopeHoke")
Chapter One — Tyler
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Sevault Port, Quest Island, Sevii
January 14th, 2022, 5:33 pm
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Tyler closed the door behind him as Seagallop Hi-Speed 7 rode out of port, the sound of its electronic lock clicking into place as he strode through the empty office. When he agreed to take this job, saving his father the effort of searching for another local tour guide, Tyler figured it would amount to easy money. He would give the few affluent tourists visiting Quest Island quick, private tours to the more "exotic" parts of the island, and in return, he would make enough money to fund his Coordinating. He even offered to do his dad's paperwork, so his dad could fit in an extra trip to Vermillion City at the end of the day.

That paperwork, he figured, would be the exhausting part. After all, that was the part his father complained about, right? The old tour guide, Jackson, never complained about his job. But then again, his father had been running the Seagallop ferries for seven years, while Jackson had quit after just two. He claimed it was so he could pursue being a Pokémon Ranger full-time in Almia, but Tyler was starting to have his doubts…

As it turned out, showing rich people impressive sights and telling them what to do on the island was hard, since there was nothing to do in town and none of the sights were particularly impressive, except for maybe Sevault Canyon (though you had to be inland to see that). But everyone coming wanted a tour, and wanted to know where the best local restaurants are, and what secret spots to visit, and where to find a hotel (the town only had one), and how to act like a visitor instead of a tourist. People, it would seem, did not do their research.

Tyler's memories from his childhood were very fuzzy, but he was fairly certain that the island was much quieter when he moved here eight years ago. Of course, eight years ago, the Sevii Archipelago had been little more than a small scattering of towns on a group of islands south of Kanto. They probably would have gone on being like that, had Celio Libman not opted to build his Network Center on Knot Island. Overnight, the Sevii Islands went from being the middle of nowhere to the middle of a massive communication network linking the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Orre regions. With that connection came business, and with that business came people. By now, Knot City (too big to be called anything else now) approached Vermillion City in size, and even Fortune Island had its very own Pokémon Gym.

For better or for worse, Quest Island escaped most of that modernization. Trainer Tower, built on an island just north of the mainland, went up even before the Knot Network Center. A similar facility existed somewhere in the Hoenn region, both built by the Towerhill Corporation. It was supposed to draw Trainers from around the globe to the Sevii Islands, but the facility's poor reception, combined with the simultaneous opening of the first Battle Frontiers, doomed it and its twin to obscurity. A few Trainers still visited the decaying facility, but only enough to keep its doors open.

South of the mainland, the rugged landscape of the Sevault Canyon made it inadequate for development. A pedestrian bridge went up years ago, but beyond that, there had been no construction. Eventually, some big-shot developer might come along, build a skyscraper or two, and turn the town into a small metropolis; for now, though, it seemed to be limited by sheer geography. Not that that stopped the tourists from trying to pay a visit.

Deep down, Tyler admitted, those tourists were good for him. True, he got paid the same whether dozens of people took his tour or he sat in port all day, but if he sat in port every day, what would be the point of keeping him around? Nepotism only went so far.

Regardless, with the 5 o'clock ferry gone, that job was done for the day, and he could retire to the port's main office; or, at least, its storage closet. The main office belonged to his father and Quest Island's other ferry driver, Duncan. Some of the bigger ports got their own dedicated staff to handle affairs like customs and port security; Quest Island was not so lucky. Here, those tasks fell to Tyler. Not that Tyler minded; a simple desk, a chair, and a lamp were all he really needed to make the closet his own. Well, those, a few pictures, and his radio. And while he may only be here for another week, that just meant there would be seven more long afternoons of filling out paperwork.

Today would be particularly long — there was an unusually large number of visitors without a Rainbow Pass, and each of them had to be recorded. Most, he imagined, were here for the Tanoby Ruins. The mysterious caves to the far south of Sevault Canyon had become a hotbed of tourism as of late (well, as much a hotbed as anything on Quest Island could be), with people coming from far and wide to see the Unown lithographs. Tyler had no idea why — by all accounts, the Ruins of Alph were more impressive, and their location in the middle of the Johto region made them much easier to get to. Maybe they were just looking for an excuse to go somewhere. Or maybe they were all part of a secret society bent on world domination, gathering on Quest Island to enact the final stage of their plans. The forms would be just as boring either way.

With the latest music from Radio Lavender blaring through his Pokégear and not a single visitor in sight, boring was fine. He was just about to get to a particularly long form concerning the legal admission of one Augustine Sycamore from Kalos when —

Tap tap tap.

No, no. He should just ignore them. They were probably some solicitor trying to get him to buy a miracle Pokémon lure or convert to Arceism. Well, he had no need for Pokémon before getting to Hoenn, and he had no interest in worshiping the Sinnoh region's favorite goat, thank you very much.

Tap tap tap.

Or maybe it was a customer. Well, too bad. The tours stopped running for the day. And he had his work to do. If it was really important, they could come back tomorrow; if not, they could come back never.

Tap tap tap.

Actually, that tapping was rather loud for coming through both doors. Had someone gotten into the office? No, that would be ridiculous. It was probably just someone banging so loudly on the outside door he could hear it in here.

Tap tap tap.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming, I'm coming," Tyler said, not too politely. With luck, this person, whoever they were, would be easy to attend to. If they were, he could point them on their way and get back to his work. If they were not, well, he could just point them in the direction of somewhere that was still open — the Pokémon Center, maybe — and get back to his work. Either way, he would definitely point out the "CLOSED" sign on the door…

The person ended up being an orange-haired girl around his age wearing a light blue dress. She looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen her face before, though he had no idea where. Maybe on TV? From the Poké Ball in her hand — red recall glow still lit — and the Pikachu running around her legs, she looked to be a Trainer. That was good, at least when it came to his time. Trainers usually just wanted to be pointed toward the Pokémon Center.

"Hi, sorry to bother you," she started, "but the information booth was closed, and I'm not sure who else to ask. Your light was on, so…you wouldn't by any chance know when the next boat to Trainer Tower leaves, would you?"

Tyler stared dumbly for a second before responding. "Ma'am, I hate to disappoint you, but we only run cruise lines around Canyon Island. As far as I know, nobody runs any ships to Trainer Tower. Even if we did, the tower closes at 5." Another pause followed; then, a questioning look. "How did you get in here, anyway? I could've sworn I locked the door."

"Oh, you must have left it ajar by mistake," the girl said, brushing his question aside with a wave of her hand. "And is there really no way I can get to Trainer Tower? I have a private training session there at 6; my sister set me up. Well, actually, it was supposed to be her training session, but she's busy working at her Gym…"

That would explain why the girl looked so familiar. She was the spitting image of Miu Lael, the Sevii Islands' first licensed Gym Leader. Even Tyler knew who she was, which meant everyone else in the Sevii Islands probably did, too. He vaguely remembered hearing that she had a twin sister somewhere; this must be her. Luckily, if she just wanted to get to Trainer Tower, his job would be easy.

"Well, it's only half-after, and the tower's not that far," he offered. "Just follow Canyon Bridge Road through town to the beach, and surf across the water. I'm sure you'll make it in time."

"That's…not exactly an option for me. You see — oh, this is embarrassing — I…don't have any Pokémon that know how to, well, cross the water."

That would be an issue. "There's a Pokémart in town," Tyler offered. "Maybe they sell HMs? Surely you've got something that can learn Surf. I mean, even Kangaskhan can learn Surf."

The girl shook her head. "No, I don't think so. The only Pokémon I have are a Porygon, a Vulpix, and Volt here," she said, gesturing to her Pikachu. "You're not allowed to use it without a Badge, anyway."

That would be an issue. Who ever heard of a surfing Pikachu? Unfortunately, unless this girl was willing to swim, she probably was out of luck. Unless someone else had a boat to lend her, but…no, that would be a bad idea. Yes, the dock had a spare speedboat, and yes, he could sail it, but he would probably be in trouble if his father found out. Besides, it was supposed to be used in emergencies only, and he had his work to get back to.

Then again, if word got out that he refused to help the sister of Sevii Islands' very own Gym Leader get to a private training session…

He glanced back into the office room. "I…might be able to help you, then. We have a small boat used for rescuing passengers that have fallen overboard near the port. But with no ships nearby, it probably won't be needed for the rest of the night, so…"

The girl's face lit up, "Really? Oh, thank you! I'm afraid I don't have much money with me right now, but I could come back sometime next week on my way over to Vermillion City, and if you ever want some one-on-one training, I'm sure my sister would be more than happy to help."

"Don't mention it," Tyler said. "I mean it. We're technically closed, and I don't want every tourist thinking they can get private trips to the Tanoby Ruins anytime they want." As an afterthought, he added, "Besides, I'm not a Trainer."

From the expression on her face, Tyler suspected the girl found that a bit odd. If she did, she kept quiet about it. "Okay, gotcha. My lips are sealed," she said. "I'm Mia, by the way. Mia Lael."

"Tyler Sind," he said as he closed and locked the door to the office. As long as he got back before his dad came home, he could just use the large crowds as an excuse for not finishing his job. If anybody else needed to see someone at the dock before then, well, they were supposed to be closed.

⁂

"So," Tyler began after he got the small speedboat on its way, "do you want the 'tour-guide' tour, or the 'sarcastic local' tour?"

Mia chuckled. "The 'sarcastic local' tour?"

"Excellent!" Tyler responded. "Then let us be off!" The boat pulled out of the harbor and started its quick journey around Quest Island. "Now, if you look to your left, you'll see the Sevault Canyon Bridge. This bridge was built eight years ago with money we received thanks to an earmark our island's legislator inserted into a bill creating nationwide education standards."

"Oooh. Aaah," Mia said in mock wonder.

"Now, that bridge links Quest Island with Sevault Island, home to the world-famous Sevault Canyon. If you've never heard of Sevault Island, that would make sense. It's considered a part of Quest Island. So is Trainer Tower Island, and the whole lot of the Tanoby Islands; they're all a part of this small archipelago we call 'Quest Island'."

"So then what's the island the town's on called?" Mia asked.

"Quest Island." All the Sevii Islands had weird naming conventions, grouping a bunch of small islands together for no apparent reason. Well, except Boon Island. And Floe Island. And…okay, there were a lot of islands that were by themselves. But not Quest or Fortune Islands.

"That's so stupid!"

"I know, right? And I haven't even gotten to the best part now." They were rounding the edge of Quest Island (the island, not the archipelago) now; soon, Trainer Tower would come into view. "Guess how many islands there are!"

"Hmm…" Mia started, a stupid expression on her face. "Seven?"

"Of course not — that would make sense! There're nine."

"Nine? Why, it's almost like whoever named our islands had no idea what they were doing!"

"I know!" Tyler chuckled. Mia chuckled. Soon, they were both laughing at the expense of their home islands. Oh well. Someone had to do it.

Once the laughter subsided, and an awkward silence filled it, Tyler decided to try another conversation. "So…a private training session, huh? That must be nice. You into battling, or…"

"Yeah, I'm going to challenge the Indigo League. Just got to wait on my Pokédex."

Her journey? Tyler gave her a puzzled look. "What made you wait this long?"

"My sister," she replied, anger rising in her voice. "We were supposed to travel the Kanto region together, but noooo. I stayed home to…to take care of some things, but she decided to start without me! As if that weren't bad enough, she becomes a Gym Leader, and now everyone mistakes me for her! But now it's my turn."

Okay. Struck a nerve there. Maybe he should talk about himself? "I'm actually starting my own journey soon," he started. "I'm not much for battling; Coordinating's more my jam."

"Coordinating?" Mia asked. "That's odd; we don't have any Contests around here. What made you want to try that? Older sister get you hooked? Or did you see it on TV?"

"My younger sister is the battler in our family; she actually placed fourth in the Indigo League Tournament a few years ago," he said, pride in his voice. "She's off in Sinnoh now, probably trying a run at the Sinnoh League. We visited her in Hearthome a few years back, and while we were there, I went to a Contest; been hooked ever since." He would leave out that battling upset him. He still sometimes struggled to say why that was, exactly — he had been fond of battling, way back when he was younger.

"Ah," she replied. "So…there aren't any Contests in the Kanto region. Where're you planning on going?"

"Hoenn," he said. "Next week, actually. I've been saving my money with this job for over a year." That was true-ish. He did occasionally spend it on more…frivolous things. "Speaking of money," he said, "for the boat ride over, that'll be ¥500, and once we add in the 'sarcastic local' surcharge…" he winked at her. "I guess we can say it's free, this time."

Mia shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"That would be Trainer Tower there," Tyler said, gesturing to the large green building adorning the island coming into view. "Here, I'll give you my Pokégear number, so you can call me when you get done."

Once numbers were exchanged and the boat was safely pulled ashore (Trainer Tower Island lacked a dock), Mia let out her Pikachu. "Come on, Volt," she started, "let's get in there, and show them we're just as good as Miu!"

"Pi pikachu!" the oversized rodent replied.

She looked back over her shoulder, waving to Tyler as she ran toward the tower. "Don't worry — this won't take that long!"

"Take your time!" Tyler waved back.

⁂

What was taking them so long, anyway? Tyler sighed, putting aside his twice-finished copy of Coordinator's Monthly. He never came to Trainer Tower (nobody did, really), but he hoped it would have at least something to do for the people not Training there. All he could find was a small TV in the corner. As luck would have it, an elderly gentleman staring intently at a baseball game between two Unovan teams he had never heard of already beat him to it. At least, if he had brought his paperwork, he would have something to do.

Tyler glanced at his Pokétch. The tiny computers never quite caught on outside of Sinnoh, and its monochrome screen was outdated compared to a Pokénav, or even a Pokégear, but for Tyler, nothing beat the portability. With it, he could use a calculator, keep a calendar, flip a coin, check for items people dropped along the beach, count things…if only it had some way of sending and receiving messages, he could forgo a Pokégear all together. A radio would be nice, too, but beggars cannot be choosers.

His Pokétch had one additional feature: telling the time. As 9 pm approached, his father was bound to be approaching Quest Island by now. Back at the port's office, a fresh pile of entry forms had to be waiting for him beneath the fax machine. Nothing truly terrible would happen if they were finished a day or two late — everyone was checked and approved before they got on the ferries, of course, and marking their arrival was simply a formality, designed to ensure nobody went missing on the way over — but Tyler had a perfect record with it so far, and dreaded telling his father why he was late.

Of course, he could just leave. That might not be the nice thing to do, but Mia could hardly blame him if he did. As it stood, if it took too much longer, they would both be stuck here. Tropical Storm Meari would be passing close to the Sevii Islands late that evening, and while Quest Island would be far from the center of the storm, Tyler was not going to bet against something like the weather, not in what he had. A Seagallop, maybe, if he was daring. But his little speedboat? They would be torn to pieces.

No. Abandoning Mia would be…wrong. And would probably go over even worse than not helping her in the first place. Sighing, he returned to the TV. One of the players in red knocked the ball over a green wall, to the cheers of the crowd. The old man sighed, muttered something, and went up to change the channel. Celebrating players were soon replaced by a brown-haired woman in a green dress and a black-haired man in a t-shirt.

"Thank you for watching Channel 4 HBC News at 9: Hoenn's number one name in news," the man began. "I'm Tyson Morey."

"And I'm Gabrielle Criswell," the woman continued. "Our lead story tonight: could your children secretly be training to become ninja? We'll ask one Fortree City mother about this new trend among teens. Later, we'll look at what the incoming congress means for Unova's President, and what Hoenn's falling grammar scores mean for the future of Hoenn Promise."

"But first," Tyson took over, "Let's hear from Joelle with Science Corner."

Why Quest Island received Hoenn's news instead of Kanto's (or the newer stations broadcast out of the Network Center) had escaped Tyler for years. Maybe there was some long-running contract in place that was too lucrative to let expire…or maybe the island was just so insignificant that nobody paid enough attention to realize they were broadcasting the wrong channels. Either way, Gabby and Ty had been the face of news on Quest Island for as long as he could remember. That used to be annoying; now that he was actually going to Hoenn, it seemed somewhat convenient.

The screen was replaced with a woman standing in front of an impressive-looking building. The tip of what looked like a rocket was barely visible behind it.

"Thank you, Gabby. I am standing in front of the Mossdeep Space Center in the Hoenn region, where HAXA has just released some surprising information on the KALOS satellite lost over a decade ago. I am here with the head of HAXA's interstellar probe team, Andrew Seiferas. Andrew, it's a pleasure to have you."

The screen split to show a graying man in a suit standing outside the same building, but from a different angle. "Thank you; it's a pleasure to be here," he replied.

"Now, what can you tell us about the satellite?"

"Well, as most of you probably know, KALOS was our revolutionary cartography satellite launched 16 years ago. With it, we mapped out the Hoenn and Orre regions to an unprecedented detail; it also assisted with disaster relief after the earthquake and tsunami hit Haruba Town in 2011. Once that was done, we relocated it to an observation orbit over Baram Island when it switched into its low-power mode. We sent a signal to turn it off — by now, a successor was in the works — and that was that."

Okay, so dead space probes. That…might be more interesting than baseball. Tyler only vaguely remembered KALOS. When he was a kid, he was borderline obsessed with Baram Island, Capim Island, and the rest of the so-called "lost continents". "Continent" might be a misnomer, but five large, uninhabited islands discovered with the rise of satellites far off the coast of Orre, untouched by humans? That was at least interesting. As a kid, he always talked about how he would explore it one day…at least, that was what his father told him.

"So, what caused it to go into low-power mode?" the reporter continued. "Was it a malfunction?"

"Up until last week, we thought its solar panels — which we needed to recharge the battery — were damaged by micrometeoroids. We've had some problems with this sort of thing in the past. Satellites move so quickly in space that even tiny pieces of space junk can cause catastrophic damage, like a small bullet hitting a glass window."

Tyler shook his head. Sometimes, he wished news reporters would just jump to the gist of it, instead of having these long, drawn out interviews. And what was all that garbage about ninjas? Still, if he was only watching it to take up time, should he really complain if the newscasters insisted on making things as long as possible? At least, if they were drawing out a boring space story, that meant nothing devastatingly bad happened today.

The reporter continued, "So, if that's what you thought last week, what do you think now?"

"Well, it's really the most remarkable thing, and we're lucky to know this at all. One of our interns was going through data in our Deep Space Network, which we usually use to communicate with our probes out orbiting Mars and Jupiter. He noticed some unusual files that, as it turned out, were backup files from the KALOS satellite. We made these backup files in case our main data reception system ever went down. Our current hypothesis is that the satellite did malfunction, but not because of a damaged solar panel; instead, something caused it to believe our main system was down. Once this happened, it started sending data to the Deep Space Network instead, and stopped accepting our commands. This means our shutdown command never got received, so the satellite kept on functioning."

"Does this mean we have nine years' worth of images to go over?"

"Well…" Andrew began. "Unfortunately, because our Deep Space Network has very limited storage capacity, we only store images from a few weeks there. But that's okay, because the images we do have told us something truly remarkable. When we first saw the files, we noticed that they were all from early 2015, not the past few weeks. This is one of the reasons we were initially skeptical, but once we received the first batch of images — this took time — they told us exactly why the images stopped then."

"And? Why is that?"

Tyler sighed. More prepared questions. He had seen enough of these interviews to know that the reporter was already briefed on exactly what this Andrew Seiferas would say. It would not surprise him to learn that both had a script; with the limited timeframes channels had between commercial breaks, nothing could be left to chance.

"Take a look for yourself," the scientist replied.

"I believe we have that image here." Of course they had the image there. "Can we get that image on screen?"

A low-resolution image quickly replaced both the interviewer and interviewee. Half of the image was black; the other half showed what might have been the Earth, though it was almost completely obscured by a white flash.

"Now," Andrew's voice continued, "What we have here is, clearly, quite a large explosion. But that tells us a lot. For one, we now know exactly why the satellite stopped sending images — an explosion of this magnitude would easily disable it, if not destroy it outright. It's actually quite a bit unfortunate that we didn't know about this sooner, since we might have been able to get better images of the event as it occurred; as it stands, though, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

"But what could cause an explosion like this in space?"

That, Tyler had to admit, was an interesting question. Something about the image…unsettled him. He struggled to say why, but he had a strange feeling that there was something very off about this entire thing.

"That's the other remarkable thing. KALOS was never designed for this sort of thing, and it naturally didn't capture the source. Luckily, there are very few things that can cause an explosion of this magnitude. A supervolcanic eruption could have caused it, but we would have known of such an eruption even in such a remote part of the world well before now. Theoretically, the uncontrolled fusion of hydrogen atoms would cause such an explosion, but we don't even know if such a thing is possible, and, if it is, we once again would have easily been able to detect that by now. Which, really, leaves us with only one possible source — a meteor."

"A meteor? Isn't that dangerous?" By now, the reporter seemed to be showing genuine concern. Maybe she only received the images, not the actual information behind them. Or maybe she was just good at acting.

"Likely not. This explosion occurred in the lower atmosphere. Had anyone been unlucky enough to be under it at the time, it might have caused widespread devastation, but fortunately for us, this occurred over a remote, uninhabited part of the world."

"But if you didn't know about the meteor until now, couldn't it have wiped us out, without us knowing?"

Andrew, visible once more, carefully considered the question. "That's…highly unlikely. We're always looking for new nearby objects, and are tracking the biggest, most Earth-threatening ones actively. The odds of one of them hitting us within the next 800 years are less than a hundredth of a percent, and civilization-ending meteors don't just appear out of nowhere! Really, most of us are just glad —"

"What a load of malarkey," the old man muttered as the image onscreen changed from the scientist to a game show. "A meteor — hah! What will they come up with next time, I wonder?"

"Hey — I was watching that!" Tyler shouted, quite a bit louder than he meant to. He felt a little bad about that. A little. "Could you…change it back?"

The man looked at him with an annoyed face. "Okay, okay. Hold your horses. No need to get upset."

The two faces returned to the screen, though the report seemed to be wrapping up. "…really excited to share these images with the public. Due to the orbits of our Deep Space Network satellites, we should get about one batch every week. We'll be uploading those batches on our website as we receive them."

"Thank you, Doctor Seiferas." Joelle said, once again taking up the entire screen. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for Science Corner today. Be sure to tune in next week, as we interview Professor Cozmo of the Hoenn Fossil Research Institute on his latest findings. Back to you, Gabby."

"Hey, Tyler, what's up?" Mia's voice rang out behind him. "You look like you've seen a ghost or something, and not one of the Pokémon ones…"

Tyler took a beat to answer. "Gah!" he finally said. "Don't…don't sneak up behind me like that."

"Sorry. Anyway, I'm all ready to go back now. Sorry that took so long; you would not believe all the different nuances that go into when you should use Conversion!" When Tyler kept quiet, she continued. "Hello? Mia to Tyler. You in there? What are you watching, anyway?" She glanced at the TV. "And why do you have the Hoenn news?"

Finally, Tyler seemed able to collect his thoughts. Truth-be-told, he had absolutely no idea why the news had engrossed him so. He should probably apologize to that old man…then again, he was a bit of a jerk. Looking back at the TV (Gabby was discussing international politics, something he had little and less interest in), he tried shaking away the last bit of dread. He had no idea why, but it seemed like he was supposed to care about that meteor.

"Right," he finally said, forgetting Mia's questions. "Yeah. Don't…don't worry about it." He looked around for a second before adding, "Okay. We should head back. Hopefully, we'll beat my dad back, and I won't have to explain to him why I skipped out on work. You have someplace to stay tonight, right?"

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Canyon View Apartments, Pyrite Town, Orre
January 14th, 2022, 6:40 pm
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"Dammit, Rharl, open this door right this instant!" Derrik Stefan shouted, pounding on the metal door. The proprietor of Canyon View Apartments (the best view of the Pyrite Chasm in town, located just five minutes from Pyrite Colosseum!) dealt with bad tenants in the past. He dealt with tenants that struggled to pay their rent. He even dealt with tenants that made fun of his ghostly-white skin (maybe they should try living half their life underground — see how they turn out then). But Genesee Rharl…something about him set Derrik off, and not just his perpetually late payments (exactly why he was always late, Derrik could never understand).

"What?" Rharl snapped as he opened the door. At six feet, Derrik was quite tall for an Underite; the Unovan still stood several inches taller than him. His face, sharp as a butcher's cleaver, exuded force as his piercing blue eyes stared down at Derrik. Still, Derrik was in the legal right to evict him. The police in Pyrite Town might be somewhat incompetent when it came to big-name criminals, but they were sure to help him in this case. Maybe. He hoped.

"You know the rules, Rharl — you don't pay rent, you don't get a room! You're two weeks late, so either you can get me my money right now or your ass can sleep on the street tonight."

Rharl rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, hold your horses," he said as he reached for his wallet, handing Derrik a few tattered bills. "There. That should cover it."

Derrik took the scattering of bills. ¥5,000, ¥10,000…¥15,000. "Where's the rest of it?" he snapped.

"What're you talking about?" Rharl replied. "Rent's ¥3,000 a week. December had five weeks in it, and unless I miscounted, that there's ¥15,000." The look he gave Derrik told him he thought he was stupid. Maybe he was, for pushing Rharl like this, but what was his other option, just let him live here? He had bills to pay, too.

"This is December's rent, sure, but you still owe me November's, remember? When you couldn't cover that, you promised you'd pay me back by the end of December. 'I've just got to make some cash,' you said."

"Oh, please. You and I both know you don't have any other tenants," Rharl responded. "You'll get that at the end of January."

"You said that last month," Derrik countered, "but here we are." Rharl was right, of course. Pyrite Town was the sort of place you either left when you were young, or were too poor to leave. The former, obviously, had no need of his apartments; the latter almost never moved from their homes. He usually had at least a few tenants, and property should be valuable, being so close to the Colosseum (not that Derrik ever went). But after seeing their numbers steadily dwindle over the last four years, he began to realize why the old proprietor was so eager to be rid of this place. If someone else moved in, he could kick Rharl to the curb, but until then…

Rharl rolled his eyes again. "Okay, okay. I get it. Hold on." He reached into his wallet and pulled out another pair of bills. "There. ¥12,000."

Derrik took the money and put it in his back pocket. "Alright. We're good then…for now. You better pay me next month!"

Rharl simply shrugged and slammed the door in Derrik's face. Derrik shook his head. "Sometimes, Derrik, you're just too nice," he muttered to himself as he walked back toward his own apartment. Rharl's payments, if he made them, would cover him for the next few months. After that...well, maybe tomorrow, another tenant would stop by. Probably not, but maybe.

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Author's Notes: Well, there it is. Chapter 1 done and finished. But…better this time, I think. For those of you who read Memories of Friends, please don't put any spoilers in your reviews (although quite a bit has changed from that version of the story, so it might actually be difficult to spoil something) Fun fact: even though the Pokémon dollar ("Pokédollar"? "Poké"?) is basically just yen, the "P" symbol the games use is actually the symbol for the Russian ruble. Unfortunately, this website doesn't support this symbol (…for some reason…), so "¥" it is.