She dreamed of darkness that night. Of shadows...and fear.
The shadows seemed to form shapes...but they were too distorted to know for sure...
What were they?
Why were they here?
The next morning, after the Medical Team (consisting of a Chansey, a Jigglypuff, and an Audino) had sufficiently healed the new arrivals, they were taken on a tour of the Base, courtesy of Dusty and Speedy.
"Alright kiddies, you're about to learn all there is to learn about the Society. But you have to swear total secrecy for what you learn here!" Dusty warned them.
"We swear." Lucky promised.
"Safe and sound." Russell said.
"Then let's move onward!" Speedy exclaimed.
They walked back out to the main room and the Starly took over the tour.
"Well this is the Base. Nothing special, just a centuries-old tunnel system that we've fixed up to call home." he said. "Now then, what do you lot know about exploration teams?"
"Oh, that's easy!" Russell said, "They work as parts of Guilds or solo! They take missions to rescue Pokemon or hunt for treasure, and they get big rewards for doing it!"
Speedy nodded briefly before squawking, "Yeah, yeah, uh-huh...well forget all that!"
Russell was taken aback.
"What?" he asked.
"That's not how we do it here. This ain't a Guild, this is a Society." Dusty supplied.
Speedy nodded, "Exactly. We work as separate parts of the same whole. What one team does affects everyone. What everyone does affects everyone else. That's why we have to keep things running smooth as possible, as efficiently as possible."
"How do you do that?" Lucky asked him.
"We do that by splitting up into separate teams, each with a specific job that works for the good of the Society. For example, our team Air Squad is one of the Recon teams in the Society. We map out territories and pick up rumors and leads that we give to the others, so that they can work around them. Our co-team, Ground Squad, does something similar. They pick up intel from the ground by digging, sneaking, and tunneling for clues." Dusty told them.
"Why all the sneaking?" Russell wanted to know.
"Security." Speedy said simply as they continued off, "The more missions we complete, the more enemies we make. Keeping everything low-key increases our chances of not being found and ambushed."
"Oh, that makes sense." Lucky said. He looked around the base and stopped, watching something on the far end of the room. "What's going on over there?"
Speedy turned around to see where he was looking and scoffed, ruffling his feathers.
"That's Tech crew over there. Two Electric-types who run the technological part of the Society. Computers and lights and stuff like that." he said.
Watt and Techno were currently playing tug-of-war with a snaky blue coil of wire and were causing havoc with it. They kept smashing into other members and bumping into their machinery and their shouting could reach even across the base.
"I said, give it to me!" Watt shouted.
"I told you, I can handle it!" Techno shouted back.
"How do Pokemon know how to work a computer?" Russell asked.
"Eheh...funny story, actually." Dusty snickered, "See, we've got two outside Pokemon who bring us the electronic stuff we need. Riff and Parker. They both belong to Trainers, and those Trainers happen to own electrical appliance stores. They can nick some of the stuff off the shelves and they sell it to us for a...good price." she said.
"Riff and Parker...wait, I've heard those names before! Riff the Meowth and Parker the Purrloin! Aren't they criminals?" Lucky asked worriedly.
"They work for us. They're safe." Speedy assured him.
"Now...moving on. Wait a minute, Speedy where's Wally?" Dusty asked, turning to the Starly.
"He ought to be here by now." Speedy told her.
"Gah...sorry kids, you'll have to find someone else to take ya on a tour! We're missing a Wingull!" Dusty squawked as she and Speedy flapped off towards the entrance.
The newcomers looked around for a second before they saw Marcus on the other side of the room, chatting with his teammates.
"C'mon, Russ." Lucky said as he picked up Shaney and started walking towards him.
"Nah man! They'll never show us how to explore like this, just show us around the base." Russell scoffed. "Let's go find where they keep their mission assignments! We'll do one, and show 'em we can do more than tag along around the base!"
Russell stared at him and shook his head, sighing.
"What is it with you and crazy schemes? No. I say we finish our tour and get some actual training before we do anything stupid." he said.
"You can play by the rules if ya like, Luck." Russell scoffed as he dashed off towards the crew rooms, "But I'm going on an exploration!"
"Russ! Russ, wait!" Lucky hissed as he dashed after him.
Marcus watched them go and he looked at Miles, his Piplup friend beside him and asked, "Now where do you suppose they're going?"
In the noticeably quieter corridor that led down to the crew rooms, Russell made his cautious way towards where he guessed Daniel's room would be. He figured that Daniel handled the missions while Syro handled everything else, so his best bet would lie in the Riolu's room.
"Glad you could come along." he said over his shoulder at Lucky and Shaney, who had come up behind him.
"This isn't a good idea, Russell." Lucky told him as he shifted Shaney in his arms. The tiny Scraggy was watching Russell with questioning eyes as he sniffed out Daniel's quarters.
"We'll never get anywhere by just learning how they do things, Luck. We want to be the best exploration team in the world, and we have to get started as soon as we can." the Electrike snapped as he found Daniel's scent on a rosewood door.
"Found it!"
"Russell, you're breaking into Daniel's room?" Lucky asked, shocked.
"Yeah. I got a hunch that the mission assignments are in here." his companion said as he pushed his nose inside and looked around. No sign of Daniel.
"Russell, don't! They have a system here! All of the missions are linked to each other and the teams that do them! We'll imbalance their workings if we do one without permission!" Lucky said desperately as Russell dashed into the room.
"Doing one mission won't wreck everything, Luck! You worry too much!" Russell scoffed as he made his way over to Daniel's desk. He was pleased to find a stack of mission assignments sitting there and he jumped up to the stool, sniffing the pile of papers.
"Get down! We'll get caught!" Lucky growled as Russell probed through the papers.
"Hm...treasure hunting, exploration, aha!" the Electrike exclaimed as he tugged an assignment from the bottom of the pile. He toppled backwards off the stool and was buried in a stack of papers as he imbalanced the pile and sent it tumbling to the ground. Lucky sprang backwards from the fluttering pages as Russell dug himself out and wandered towards him, holding out a file.
"What did you grab?" Lucky asked suspiciously as Russell set it down.
"Catching a criminal." the Electrike smirked.
"WHAT?"
"Yeah! If we catch this guy they'll know we're not messing around!" Russell said.
"But Russ...this is an unknown territory! I don't think the exploration team's even been there yet!" Lucky said as he flipped through the pages, "Emberstrike Cave? Doesn't sound like something we can handle."
"Sure it is! Ember, meaning fire! You're a water type, so that's a plus! And Cave? Rock types! You STILL have the edge!" Russell exclaimed.
"So I'm going to be doing all the work?" Lucky asked incredulously.
"Er...no, no I'll help out! Wait...so you're in? You're in!" Russell said, smiling.
"What - no - I - oh fine." Lucky sighed. "But we ought to leave Shaney here. It's too dangerous."
"Don't be silly! We'll protect him. The sooner he explores something the sooner he can start training!" Russell said.
Lucky rolled up the paper and slipped it into his explorer's pouch, staring at his companion.
"And what about supplies? We are notchallenging an unexplored dungeon without the proper food and supplies." he said authoritatively.
"We can borrow some from the Society! I'm sure they won't mind." Russell replied.
"You have an answer for everything, don't you?"
"Pretty much."
Thirty minutes later and the junior explorers were ready to leave. Lucky had found the Society's supply room and had retrieved enough to last the three of them a week. They didn't know how far away this dungeon would be, so they had to be ready.
They left when it was night-time, and everyone was asleep. They crept through the quiet headquarters, tiptoed underneath the roosting Air Squad, and slipped past the Ground Squad with ease. Looking back as they left, Lucky felt a weight of dread settling in the pit of his stomach.
But, as the trio stole silently up the ladder and set off down the path, he knew it was too late to turn back.