Chapter 3

The Scream

The next morning, Team Poképals was once again rudely awakened by Loudred.

"UP AND AT 'EM, IT'S MORNING!"

Piplup and Chimchar, at least, only heard one sentence from him today, unlike yesterday, when he constantly yelled at them to get up.

"Ugh! Good morning, Piplup..." said Chimchar, obviously shaken up by the loud bellowing voice.

"Ha ha, good morning to you too, Chimchar!" replied Piplup, able to laugh off the rude awakening.

The two grabbed their signature items, including their explorer badge, put them on, and later grabbed their Treasure Bag with all their money and other items they've obtained from yesterday's job. They had the drinks from Spoink yesterday to strengthen themselves for future explorations, so they decided to take them out and drink them in order to get energized for the day. They went to central room of the floor to begin their now usual morning cheers.

"...And three! Smiles go for miles!" said the entire guild.

"OK, everyone!" said Chatot. "Time to get to work!"

"Yes sir!" everyone cheered.

Everyone, save for Piplup and Chimchar, dispersed for their duties today. Team Poképals now wondered what to do next.

"Now I wonder what we should do today?" questioned Chimchar to Piplup.

"Well wonder no more!" answered Chatot. The two turned to him. "Please follow me!"

They decided to follow him up the ladder for today's assignment.

Once they arrived on the upper floor, they were facing towards the other bulletin board that was red. Chimchar was a little surprised by this.

"Huh? Last time we did a job, it was from the board on the other side."

"Correct!" exclaimed Chatot. "Today, we'll have you do a job listed on this side."

"How is this different from the board on the other side?" questioned Piplup.

"Just take a closer look!" the parrot answered.

Team Poképals took a glance of the pictures and notes on the red board.

"Look, Piplup!" said Chimchar after a brief while. "There are posters up here that show a variety of Pokémon! They all look pretty cool!" He turned to Chatot. "Who are these Pokémon, Chatot? Are they famous explorers, or something?"

"I'm afraid not. These Pokémon here… are outlaws. They're all shady characters, who are wanted for committing crimes."

"Oh no!" Chimchar said in horror. "They're outlaws?!"

"Correct," answered Chatot. "There are bounties on their heads, in other words, there is a cash reward if you capture one. There are so many aggressive Pokémon like these around these days that everyone's finding it hard to keep up with the problem."

"Wait! You're telling us to go catch these outlaws?" Chimchar felt like fainting at the prospect of doing this job. "You can't be serious! It's not possible!"

"Hee-hee! Just joking!" laughed Chatot. "The bad Pokémon out there come in all shades of badness! Some of those Pokémon are completely wicked, through and through, but there are also bad Pokémon who are merely petty thieves. Because of that, you've got evil to naughty, and everything in between! So I'm sure we can avoid giving you a job catching a superbad Pokémon, at least! Look over these posters, then pick one that looks weak enough for you to bring to justice!"

Chimchar still looked unsure about his and Piplup's challenging job today. "You say some are weak, but they're still bad Pokémon, aren't they? I'm scared of 'em!"

"It's all a part of your training," Chatot answered. "I'm sure you'll work through it, but at the same time, I suppose you do need to be prepared to confront a tough opponent. I'll have someone give you a tour of the facilities." He turned to the ladder leading down to the bottom floor, and yelled, "Hey, Bidoof! Bidoof?!"

"Yup, yup!" said the Pokémon in question.

Bidoof came up the ladder and into the sight of the three Pokémon. He was a plump mouse Pokémon that looked more like a beaver than a mouse, due to his fur being a brownish color, and having teeth like a Rattata, a purple rat Pokémon. He breathed a little heavy, a sign that he was still relatively new to the guild.

"You called?"

"Yes, Bidoof!" answered Chatot. "I want you to meet the new recruits here that just joined us. They are Piplup and Chimchar, and their team is called Team Poképals!" He turned to the team. "You two, this is Bidoof, and he's one of our fellow apprentices!"

"Nice to meet you, Bidoof!" said the two newer recruits in unison to Bidoof.

"Nice to meet ya too!"

"OK, Bidoof," Chatot said. "Take them and show them around the town to the right of our guild."

"Yes sirree! By golly, I'll do just that, yup yup!"

"I want you, Team Poképals, to pay attention to what Bidoof has to say and follow his orders." Chatot said to Piplup and Chimchar. "Now, off you go!" He went down the right ladder and left the three alone.

"Aw, shucks! I'm overjoyed!" said Bidoof as he turned to the Poképals. with apparent tears of joys in his eyes.

"Why's that?" questioned Chimchar.

"I'm glad to have members new to me! I'm almost overcome right now, I might just blubber with happiness! Before y'all signed on, I was the most recent rookie." Bidoof had a joyful sniffle, and shook off the tears to continue. "I'd best show ya around now. Come with me, please."

Bidoof went down the right ladder to the bottom and Team Poképals followed as he explained the surroundings of the guild's quarters. They went to a cauldron with a blue frog-like Pokémon occupying it.

"Here, we have Croagunk, but to tell the truth, I don't have any slight idea what he's up to. He always seems to be fiddling around with that big cauldron back there. It's all a mystery to me, yup yup!"

He pointed to the mess hall beyond Croagunk and the cauldron. "Obviously, that's the way to the mess hall, where you had your meal last night, and to the left of us," Bidoof and the Poképals turned, "you'll find the crew rooms, including yours of course."

They turned a little more to the left to see the guildmaster's chamber. "Ya know what this room is right? That leads to the guildmaster's chamber, where teams will register, and, at some times, have private meetings for various reasons. Now, let's get outside the guild and into Treasure Town, located to the right of the entrance!"

The three Pokémon went up the two ladders, and out of the guild to the path on the right towards Treasure Town, filled with various shops, other buildings, and resident and visiting Pokémon.

"Welcome to Treasure Town! This here is the main square for all the local Pokémon."

"By the way, Piplup," said Chimchar to the former human, "I can tell you about Treasure Town, too."

"Sure, go ahead!"

They turned over to a building shaped like a skull-shaped ghost Pokémon, and Chimchar explained the description of the place.

"That over there is Duskull Bank. We can keep our money there, so we don't have to worry about losing most of it when we fall in an exploration."

The fire monkey pointed to the next shop, that was shaped like a yellow, electric-type Pokémon.

"That's the Electivire Link Shop. It's where you can do things like link moves together, but it looks as if Electivire isn't here today."

Chimchar pointed further down the town to the other shops that occupied it.

"The shop with a green chameleon-like Pokémon design is called the Kecleon Market. You can buy and sell items there. It's occupied by two Kecleon, who are brothers. The normal, green Kecleon offers general items, while his brother, the shiny purple Kecleon, offers orbs and moves that we can learn."

He pointed to the building farthest from their side, that had its design shaped like a brown kangaroo-like Pokémon.

"Last but not least, we have Kangaskhan Storage over there. Any items stored there will never be lost. If you have precious items that you can't afford to lose, store them there before you go on an adventure."

Chimchar turned his focus back to Piplup. "Those are the basic places that many exploration teams visit."

"You sure know a lot, yes sirree!" Bidoof praised to Chimchar and his knowledge of Treasure Town. "That's good to know!" The plump mouse Pokémon then turned to the both of them. "All right, Team Poképals. I'll leave you be for the time being. Come find me when you're all ready to go. I'll give you a helping hand with selecting the right outlaw for you."

"Thanks, Bidoof," said Piplup with a big smile. "You've been really nice with us so far. Keep it up!"

"G-golly, you're embarrassin' me!" Bidoof replied with a slight blush. "Aw, shucks..." He shook it off and concluded, "I'll be waiting at the guild's upper underground floor then." He walked off to the guild, leaving Team Poképals alone in the central square of the town.

"All right, Piplup," said Chimchar, turning to his partner. "Let's go explore the town! I'd like to see what kinds of items are available at the Kecleon Market!"

"OK, buddy," replied Piplup, "but we should take some of the items out of our bag first and put it in the Kangaskhan Storage first. We'll make sure we head to the market before we head back!" His partner nodded in agreement.

Piplup and Chimchar walked over to Kangaskhan Storage, where its occupant was a kangaroo-like Pokémon named Kangaskhan. She managed the service for the teams, and was proud to have the sight of a new team like Poképals seeing her.

"Why, hello there! Welcome to the Kangaskhan Storage! Nice to see you both, especially you, Chimchar!"

"Hi, Aunt Kangaskhan!" said Chimchar.

"Hey, Chimchar," Piplup said to his partner, a little surprised by the revelation, "is Kangaskhan here your aunt? I never knew that!"

"Well, yes, unofficially. She kinda adopted me when I was quite young. Some of the Pokémon around here also call her 'Aunt Kangaskhan', too, due to her very kind personality."

Kangaskhan got back to her business at hand with the following: "So, do you need to store anything in your storage today, Poképals?"

The two nodded in agreement, and took some of their items out of their Treasure Bag for Kangaskhan to store for later adventures.

"Well, that's all we need to put in our storage for today!" said Piplup, a few moments later.

"Thanks for your service!" exclaimed Kangaskhan proudly. "I'll be sure to guard those items with great pride!"

"We're off to the Kecleon Market, then!" said Chimchar. "See ya later, aunt!"

"Have a good day, Chimchar!" Kangaskhan replied. She decided to stop Piplup for a moment, while Chimchar headed to the market. "Hey, Piplup!"

"What is it, Kangaskhan?"

"I want you to look after Chimchar for me! He's been quite lonely recently and needs someone like you to trust. As he said, I did adopt him when he was a wee little baby, and I unfortunately don't know where his parents might be, so it'll help him a lot if you can stick by his side for a good long while."

Piplup had understood Kangaskhan's little speech and vowed to keep Chimchar near him to keep their team going strong.

"OK, then! I'll make sure he can do his best while he's with me!"

The former human left the storage service and made his way to the Kecleon Market, where Chimchar was waiting for him.

"You're just in time, Piplup! The Kecleon brothers said that they have a great selection of items for us to buy today!"

"That's right!" the Kecleon brothers said in unison. "We have wonderful items we want you to have for your exploration today!"

"You can buy general items that can help you in your day's adventure..." said the green Kecleon.

"…and you can buy wonder orbs for tighter situations, and, if you can afford them, moves for you or other Pokémon to learn quickly!" said the purple Kecleon.

Team Poképals understood the meaning of these separate shops and bought as many items as they could. They could not afford the moves, however, so they just bought those items instead. Before they left, they heard the an adorable voice of a little Pokémon.

"Misters Kecleon!"

They all turned to the right (or left in the case of the two Kecleon) to see two little blue Pokémon approaching them. The market brothers appeared to know them, as they had a big smile for them.

"Ah! If it isn't little Marill and Azurill!" said the green Kecleon. "Welcome, my young friends!"

Azurill is a blue polka dot Pokémon, which had a ball-like tail attached at the end of his black spring base. His brother, Marill, is an aqua mouse Pokémon that had a similar tail attached. They were here to apparently buy something.

"Hello, can I buy an apple?" said Azurill.

"Oh, most certainly!" said the green Kecleon.

Marill and Azurill handed out a few Pokémon to the two Kecleon brothers and they gave them an apple.

"Thanks, misters Kecleon!" said Marill with a big smile.

"No, thank you, my young friends!" said the green Kecleon proudly. "You are to be admired!"

Azurill and Marill left the shop by then.

"You see," the purple Kecleon said to Team Poképals, "those delightful children are brothers. Lately, their poor mother, Azumarill, has fallen sick, so they come here and do the shopping for her. It's quite remarkable that they've stepped up and taken charge, despite them being very young,"

"Misters Kecleon!" said Marill, as he and Azurill suddenly hurried back to the shop. It appeared that they'd forgotten something!

"What's the hurry?" said the green Kecleon, "What makes you return so quickly?

"There was an extra apple!" insisted Azurill.

"We didn't pay for this many," Marill also insisted.

"Oh, yes," said the green Kecleon. "That, my young friends, is a gift from me and my brother. Please share it among yourselves and enjoy."

"Really?!" exclaimed Marill.

"Yay!" cried Azurill. "Thank you, Mr. Kecleon and Mr. Kecleon!"

"Not to worry, my friends," said the purple Kecleon. "Do take care on your way home, now."

Azurill and Marill once again left the shop, but Azurill tripped while he was on his away, and dropped an apple!

"Yowch!" he cried in pain.

Piplup noticed this and picked up the apple while Azurill got back up. The penguin held out the apple to Azurill and waited for him to retrieve it.

"I believe you dropped this apple here. Hopefully you're not hurt, little pal."

"I'm f-fine, Piplup! Sorry to bother you there. Thanks so much for retrieving it."

Just as Piplup was about to give the apple back to Azurill, he suddenly felt pain in his head!

Urgh! What… was that? he thought.

Another feeling of pain blurred his vision.

Am I dizzy, or…?

He closed his eyes, and had a flash of white in his vision! He then suddenly heard a voice like that of Azurill's calling for help! Piplup opened his eyes, noticing that the pain was gone, and tried to process what just happened in his head!

What was that?! I'm sure I heard a shout for help just now… He turned to Azurill, who thought he was the one who shouted just now.

"Uhhh… what's the matter, Piplup?" questioned Azurill.

"Did you just shout for help?"

"No! Nothing's wrong with me! I'm fine!"

"Hey, Azurill!" Marill called out from afar. "What's going on? Hurry home!"

"OK!" exclaimed Azurill. "I'm coming, wait up!"

The two blue brothers met up from the right of the shop, with Marill showing some concern.

"Are you all right, Azurill?"

"Yup! I'm just fine!"

"Since we're done with our shopping, we gotta look for an item that we've lost! Let's go!"

Azurill nodded and followed his brother to find their lost item.

"Those little guys are so cute!" exclaimed Chimchar with a big smile.

Piplup still appeared to be lost in the moment ever since that strange occurrence in his head took place. Chimchar noticed this and turned to his partner.

"What's wrong, Piplup? Why did you ask Azurill if he shouted for help?"

"I-I don't know. I might've just heard it in my head, or something like that."

"Well, I didn't hear anything like that, that's for sure. Maybe we better ask the Kecleon brothers if they heard anything."

The two asked if the market brothers heard anybody shouting for help, but neither of them heard anything.

"It sounds like they didn't hear anything odd either," said Chimchar. "Like you said, Piplup, you must've just imagined it."

Yeah, he could be right, thought Piplup, with one of his flippers on the chin of his beak. I must have heard Azurill screaming only in my head.

"You must be daydreaming, Piplup," assured Chimchar with a big smile. "C'mon, let's get to the Duskull Bank and deposit the rest of our money we have left!"

Piplup nodded in agreement and Team Poképals made their way towards the bank, until they saw the sight of Azurill and Marill talking to a yellow Pokémon ahead. They decided to watch and listen to their conversation.

"Thanks so much!" said Marill to the Pokémon in front of him.

"Please! It's nothing at all."

Piplup and Chimchar got close to them and joined the chat.

"Hey, guys!" said Chimchar. "What's going on here?"

"Oh, hi, Poképals!" Azurill exclaimed to them. Marill also turned to the team.

"Some time ago, we lost an item that was very important to us. We've been looking all over for it, but still no luck!" He turned to the yellow Pokémon. "But then Mr. Drowzee came along here. He says he may have seen our lost item somewhere! He even offered to help us look for it, and for that, we're so happy!"

"Good for you, guys!" said Piplup proudly.

"Thank you, Mr. Drowzee!" Azurill said to Drowzee.

"Oh, please, I'd have to have a cold heart to ignore kids in need! I can't turn a blind eye! Let us be on our way to begin our search!"

Azurill and Marill nodded at him and made their way to find the lost item. Drowzee followed them and accidentally bumped into Piplup.

"Whoops!" exclaimed Drowzee. "Sorry for bumping into you!"

As he left, Piplup began having another strange headache!

Urk… n-not again…

"That Drowzee sure is a nice Pokémon, isn't he?" said Chimchar. "I'm impressed by that. With more and more bad Pokémon around, it's hard to do good deeds these days."

The mysterious headache continued for Piplup, however…

It's happening once more… Another dizzy spell…

He closed his eyes, and had another strange vision! This time, it was full of visuals within, and he could see Azurill and Drowzee in a mountainous area. It looked as if Drowzee was appearing to threaten Azurill!

"If you keep being difficult, it will mean big trouble for you!" Drowzee threatened.

"H-h-h-HELP!" Azurill yelled tearfully.

And just then, the vision came to an end…

Piplup couldn't believe what he saw in his vision!

What was that?!

"It would be nice if those little guys found their item soon," said Chimchar. He noticed that something was wrong with Piplup, and got concerned. "What's the matter, Piplup? You're looking awfully grim!"

"I-I have to tell you something, quick!"

Piplup decided to talk about the strange but terrible vision he had to Chimchar.


A few moments later, Chimchar was shocked by this discovery!

"What?! You had a dizzy spell about Azurill being threatened by Drowzee?!"

Piplup nodded in agreement.

"So you want to go rescue Azurill right away?"

"Yes! It's an emergency!"

"Well, what you describe does sound like it, but it's not like I don't trust you, Piplup. I just can't begin to understand it! After all, Drowzee seemed to be a sincerely nice Pokémon, didn't he? I watched him and those little guys go off earlier, and they seemed to have a good time." Chimchar later wore a big smile. "You're probably just tired, Piplup! That's why you just had that bad daydream, whatever it was."

He's right, Piplup thought. It was just a bad daydream. Drowzee had to be friendly the first time we met him, so it's hard to believe that he would turn bad all of a sudden like that!

Chimchar snapped his partner out of his thoughts. "Anyway, we're only apprentices. We can't just go do whatever we want. Sure, it's worrying, but we have to concentrate on our guild work for now. Let's go to the Duskull Bank to deposit our money, then we can go meet Bidoof in the guild for our job. He's supposed to be waiting for us on the upper underground floor, so let's get going, Piplup!"

The former human nodded in agreement, and he and Chimchar made their way to the Duskull Bank to deposit the rest of their money. The owner of the bank, a Duskull, had a little bit of a creepy personality, but since he was a ghost-type Pokémon, that was to be expected. Despite this, he proudly put Team Poképals Poké in their storage and the team made its way back to the guild so that they could get their job from Bidoof.


Moments later, within the guild's upper floor, Bidoof decided to pick them to an easy target outlaw Pokémon to apprehend.

"Don't choose anyone too scary!" Chimchar insisted.

"Yes sirree," Bidoof replied, "I hear ya! Let's see, eennie, meenie-"

"Stand back! The listings are being updated!" a voice suddenly boomed!

Some tremors were being felt in the guild, surprising Team Poképals.

"What's going on?" exclaimed Chimchar.

"Our listings are being updated here!" insisted Bidoof. "Stand back like that voice said!"

Both Piplup and Chimchar stepped back quickly, just as the outlaw bulletin board turned over, startling Chimchar!

"Yikes! Did ya see that?! The panel flipped over! What's going on here?!"

"The outlaw notice and job bulletin boards are set up on revolving panels," assured Bidoof to Chimchar. "While one of the panels is flipped over, a Pokémon named Dugtrio swaps out the old jobs with new ones."

"Who is he?" questioned Piplup.

"He's a mole Pokémon, and has three heads. It's his duty to update the listings, so he tunnels his way to our guild, and flips both panels to update each listing. It doesn't get noticed much, but it's very important, yup yup! That's why he takes such great pride in the duty he does!"

"Oh," replied Chimchar, "is that so?"

"The update is complete!" boomed Dugtrio. "Stand back from the panel, please!"

"It sounds like he's done," insisted Piplup.

The three looked back at the panel to see it flip back to where they could see the new papers being placed on it!

"Yes sirree!" said Bidoof. "The listings are updated, so the list of outlaws has been refreshed. Let's go ahead and pick one."

Just as they were about to pick one outlaw, Chimchar appeared to be shaking uneasily at the sight of one particular outlaw!

"Huh?" Bidoof said to Chimchar. "What's ailing you? Why are you shivering all of a sudden?"

"L-l-look at the picture on the top left, Piplup!"

Piplup looked at the photo in shock and disbelief, as an image of Drowzee was shown on the paper!

"It's Drowzee!" he said. "He's a wanted criminal!"

Chimchar finally stopped shaking and had a determined look on his face. He turned to Piplup, and said, "We have to get moving! Azurill will be in danger!" Team Poképals quickly went out of the guild, surprising Bidoof.


The pals arrived at the sight of another Pokémon near the exit of Treasure Town and Wigglytuff's Guild altogether. It was Azumarill, Azurill's and Marill's mother, as she seemed to finally recover from her illness. She is a rabbit-like Pokémon.

"That must be Azumarill over there!" exclaimed Chimchar.

Team Poképals approached her immediately as she turned around. She had a worried look on her face!

"Azumarill, what happened to Azurill and Marill?" said Piplup.

"They went off with Drowzee to Mt. Bristle to look for our lost item, but they haven't come back yet! I kept calling to them from there, but they never did! I'm scared for their safety!"

"Can you show us where Mt. Bristle is?" questioned Chimchar.

"Yes! Follow me quickly!" answered Azumarill. The Poképals followed her and went to where Mt. Bristle was.


Soon after, Team Poképals and Azumarill were at the entrance of Mt. Bristle. To some relief, Marill was there.

"Oh, Marill! You're OK!" exclaimed Azumarill. "But where's Azurill?!"

"He's still with Mr. Drowzee!" answered Marill worryingly.

"So we're here at Mt. Bristle, then," Chimchar said.

"Yes," Azumarill answered. "Hopefully poor little Azurill's still around this dungeon somewhere! Be careful in there!"

Chimchar turned to Piplup to remind him about his vision.

"Piplup, that dream where you say Drowzee and Azurill were took place in a mountainous area, right?"

"That's right!"

Chimchar turned back toward Azumarill.

"I have a bad feeling that they may be near the top, Azumarill, but don't worry! We'll get them back ASAP!"

"Thanks so much! We're counting on you! Mt. Bristle has ten floors, including the peak, so they should be on the tenth floor!"

Chimchar turned back once again to Piplup.

"Let's hurry and get to the summit, Piplup!"

Team Poképals went into Mt. Bristle's mystery dungeon to save Azurill from the outlaw Drowzee.


For the first nine floors, Piplup and Chimchar, as usual, had to battle various Pokémon before they could reach the peak. They had many useful items at their disposal, so they could dispatch their enemies with ease, and make quick progress so that they could get to the top in a hurry.

Just as the team was on the 9th floor, Azurill and Drowzee were already at the top of Mt. Bristle as they looked for the lost item. Azurill headed to where a small opening was at, but felt like there was no way to go on.

"Uh oh, it's a dead end." He turned to Drowzee. "Excuse me, Mr. Drowzee, where's my lost item? Could you show me where it is now?"

"Sorry, kiddo. As far as I know, it's not here."

"What? My… big brother… is following us, right? Is he coming along soon?"

"Nope. I'm afraid he's not. I will let in you on a little secret though. This was all a trick. In other words, I deceived you."

Azurill was in tears at this unthinkable deed done by Drowzee, who, in his mind at least, was supposed to be nice.

"But let's not dwell on that," Drowzee continued. "There's a little favor I need to ask. See that hole behind you?"

Azurill turned around to the small opening on the rocky wall and listened as Drowzee continued, "There's a rumor that there's a trove of thief treasure inside there! As you can see, though, I'm too big to squirm my way through that hole, so that's where you come in!"

"B-but…!"

"Don't worry, just do as I say! If you get it done, I'll help you get back out of here. Go on, get going into that hole, and don't forget to bring back the treasure!"

Azurill had enough of Drowzee's nasty demands and wanted to escape!

"I want my big brother!"

Drowzee, however, stopped his small victim.

"Stop this instant! Sheesh! I said that I'll take you home when you're done! If you keep being difficult, it will mean big trouble for you!"

"H-h-h-HELP!"

"Stop right there!" Chimchar shouted.

Team Poképals had arrived at the top just in the nick of time!

"We won't let you do that, you bully!" Piplup bellowed toward Drowzee.

"How did you find this place?!" demanded Drowzee.

"We're an exploration team called Team Poképals!" answered Chimchar. "No criminal will escape us, not even you!"

"You're an exploration team?! You must be here then to apprehend-"

Chimchar was suddenly shaking with fear!

"...Huh?" said Drowzee, surprised. "Are you trembling?"

Piplup turned to Chimchar, worried about him. Chimchar, no! Keep yourself together!

"A-ha!" yelled Drowzee. "I've figured it out! You say you're an exploration team, but you're nothing but total rookies! That's right, even though I'm a wanted Pokémon with a bounty on my head, can you two do the job? Can you confront me and bring me to justice? Hah! Not with that sort of fear!"

"Urk!" said Chimchar, who was still shaking with fear, but quickly gathered himself and had a determined look. "Y-yes, we can! I know we can apprehend you! We'll never lose to a bad guy like you!"

Drowzee laughed at the thought of a new team like Poképals attempting to arrest him. "I've been chased by all sorts of exploration teams in my day, but never a sorrier-looking bunch than you two! This should be a laugh. Let's see what you've two got!"

"C'mon, Chimchar!" said Piplup. "You're with me, remember?! Let's work together and take him down!"

"R-right, Piplup! Let's go for it!"

Azurill stepped out of the way of the three Pokémon, and could only watch as their battle began!

Team Poképals would have to be extra careful with Drowzee, since his forearms were very strong to protect him from some moves. Because he lacked speed, he used those arms to nullify the damage dealt to him at times. Despite this challenge, Piplup and Chimchar persevered through the battle to bring down Drowzee the outlaw! He let out a roar of pain from Piplup's last move and collapsed on his stomach with a thud.

"Whew, we won!" said Chimchar, panting a little.

"It was all thanks to pure teamwork!" exclaimed Piplup. "We defeated him together!"

The Poképals jumped up in the air and had a high-five!

"YEAH!" they cheered!

They stood up back on the ground and went toward Azurill, who was in awe of the team's awesome effort of taking down Drowzee.

"Are you all right, Azurill?" questioned Chimchar.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Awesome!" said Piplup with a big smile. "That's a relief! Your big brother and mother are waiting for you. Let's head back!"

Azurill nodded and stood with Team Poképals and the unconscious Drowzee as they all teleported to the entrance of Mt. Bristle.


A few seconds later at the entrance, they, alongside Drowzee, who was now conscious, met with a few floating Pokémon with magnets for their hands, who were presumed to be the police.

"I am Magnezone, the primary officer of this region!" the commanding Pokémon proclaimed. "These Pokémon beside are Magnemite, fellow officers of our force! Thanks to you, we have been able to arrest a wanted outlaw! We owe you great thanks for your cooperation!"

The police Pokémon decided to sound a few sirens in celebration of Team Poképals achievement of arresting Drowzee. Magnezone continued on his thanks toward the team.

"We will send the reward to your guild very soon! Thanks once more!" He turned to Drowzee. "Now please come with us! You've got some explaining to do!"

The outlaw let out a groan in defeat as he followed the police to their headquarters.

"Azurill!" Marill said. Everyone turned to the sight of him and Azumarill.

"M-Marill!" Azurill tearfully said as he ran towards his brother, gave him a hug, and cried his eyes out! "Waaaaah! It was so scary, big bro!"

"The thing that matters is that you're safe and sound, little bro." Marill patted his crying little brother in an attempt to comfort him.

"He must have been so scared up there, but you're right," said Chimchar. "The little guy didn't get harmed in any way."

The two blue brothers, who continued to embrace each other then cried tears of joy of having been reunited with each other.

"I'm so glad you two are happy to be back with each other!" exclaimed Piplup with a big smile.

The two brothers broke away from their embrace and turned to the Poképals to thank them once more. Azumarill, the two brothers' mother, stepped forward.

"Once more, I am grateful that you saved Azurill from the grasp of Drowzee! We must be going now, but I know we'll see each other again!"

The three Pokémon made their way home, but before they were out of sight, Azurill and Marill turned back to say their goodbyes to the Poképals.

"Thanks once more, Team Poképals! Bye!"

"See you later, everyone!" said Piplup and Chimchar in unison. Piplup turned to his partner and had a little chat with him.

"Well, all's well that ends well, right?"

"Yep! I'm so glad that nothing worse happened to Azurill."

"Those two brothers must be really good friends, right?"

"Yeah. Watching them together kinda makes everything look a little better, doesn't it? It's nice to have family and friends like that."

With Chimchar's previous statement in mind, Piplup decided to think it over.

Family and friends, huh? Now that I think about it, I wonder where Chimchar's family is... Kangaskhan said earlier that his family was nowhere to be found, and that she adopted him when he was very young. I can't stop worrying about where Chimchar's family might be at this time…

He looked at his partner, who still appeared to be smiling, but couldn't help but ponder about Chimchar, who was feeling somewhat sad.

Huh? Was that a small tear that fell from one of his eyes?

Chimchar shook off that feeling and looked at Piplup with a forced smile.

"C'mon, Piplup. We should get back to the guild and get our reward. I don't really care if we only get a little bit of money thanks to the guild. All that matters is that we helped those brothers, and I'm proud of it."

Piplup nodded in agreement and the two went back to the guild to wrap up their day, but he couldn't stop feeling sad for his seemingly lonely partner.


Team Poképals arrived back at the guild, receiving only 300 Poké from the amount of 3,000 that was placed on the bounty of Drowzee. They understood that this would work out this way from now on, and later had supper in the mess hall. When nighttime came, the weather was clear and the moon shone, but despite that, the air was unusually cold. Because of this, Piplup and Chimchar had a tough time sleeping.

"Hey, Piplup..." said Chimchar after a while, clearly still awake, despite laying on his bed. "Are you still awake?"

"Yeah, Chimchar. What's wrong?"

"I just can't seem to sleep in this humidity..."

Despite being a fire-type, Chimchar was still feeling cold as he shook a little bit from the cold air, but continued on...

"Piplup, you know, when I was watching Azumarill and her sons today, it made me think whether you have friends and family too, but I later realized that you lost your memories, so I decided not to bother with it. I, myself, however… have no one like that… no parents, brothers, or sisters..."

Piplup gasped at this sad realization that Chimchar had no real family. He let his partner continue his talk.

"I've been alone from the moment I hatched from my egg. I never had any friends either. I wanted them, but I couldn't make any. The relationships between Pokémon just aren't very good in this continent. If we could just get along a little better… but everyone is so quick to pick fights. Even Pokémon who seem like friends on the surface really aren't… Nobody is saying what they really mean. It's all just plain lies, and I just can't live like that. That's why I've never had any friends up until you first came to the Grass Continent, Piplup."

"Awww, that's very kind of you to say that, Chimchar," he said as he sat up and looked at his partner. "That's why I couldn't help but wonder why you felt sad when we were at Mt. Bristle. I'm so happy that you think of me as your friend, especially after what you've went through in your early life."

Chimchar also sat up and looked towards Piplup with a big heartfelt smile. "Thanks so much, Piplup. I really appreciate it." He continued their conversation. "I knew that I never had to lose my resolve to look for real friends to make, and so I sought to look for someone like a true friend like you that I could trust with the real me. I thought how great it would be to actually do something real with you, like getting into Wigglytuff's Guild, and that's why working every day here is really so much fun for me. Thank you, Piplup, for being here with me. You've been acting like a big brother that I wished I could've had."

Piplup felt extremely heartfelt by the comment, as although he had tears in eyes, he had a big, wide smile on his face. "That's so kind of you, Chimchar. You're the kind of friend and little brother that I would want to have too, and I can't thank you enough for having me on your, no, our team."

Piplup and Chimchar got off their beds with tears in their eyes, approached each other, and had a heartwarming hug, while exchanging quiet sobs.

"I hope," Chimchar said, "that these days… will continue."

"Me too, little bro..."

Chimchar smiled even larger than his partner who just called him a little brother. Even though Piplup was once a former human, and had no memories of his own family, he felt that if no matter if it was a human or a Pokémon, he could relate to someone like Chimchar as being a true, loving brother that he ever wanted to have. After what seemed like a long time, the two Poképals separated from their embrace, and got back onto their respective straw beds.

"Ahhhh," Chimchar sighed, as tears were no longer on his face, and still smiled. "I think I can finally get to sleep now." He looked at his partner, who was now getting sleepy. "I guess you're tired too, huh?"

"Yep… Let's give it our all again tomorrow, Chimchar."

"Good night, Piplup."

"Good night."

The two pals finally lay back down on their own beds, and fell asleep, They now felt completely assured with each other, and dreamed that it would continue like this for a very long time.