Damien recovered in no time flat. He was up and ready by the next day, and he was in no pain whatsoever. Pachi was amazed when he said he wasn't in pain.

"Wow. You recover really quickly. I've never seen any of my patients heal from something that fast."

He found the money he was paid for rescuing Snorunt and followed Pachi. On his way there, he felt a little uneasy. Was he not fully recovered like he thought? No, that wasn't pain he felt.

"Are you alright?"

Damien looked at Pachi, who was a few feet ahead of him. "Yeah… I'm fine," he replied.

"Okay…well, we're almost there."

They continued on for a few more minutes. Finally, there was a large clearing surrounded by trees before them. There were dirt paths leading to different structures, each with different Pokemon in them. Dozens of different species were gathered in different groups. None of them looked hostile, like the ones he faced in the Cave of Shadows and Boughbranch Woods.

"I've got about three thousand Poke. That bag you've got isn't a whole lot—you've got maybe around one thousand Poke. That might get us a bag, but that's about it. Lets see if we can find one at the Kecleon Shop. If not, then there might be one that someone swapped. I know this is probably a lot to understand for you, being new here and all, but you'll get it eventually. I'll look at the Shop, you look at the swap station—that's the one Croagunk owns over there," Pachi explained, looking off to the left. "Ask for a treasure bag. There's no rescue teams on this island, so there may not be a whole lot, if any."

Pachi headed over to a booth tended to by a pair of different-colored Kecleon. Damien decided to move on to the booth Pachi told him to go to. Once he got there, the Croagunk welcomed him.

"Is there anything I can swap for you? Maybe you can get something valuable for that…er, what kind of scarf is that?" he asked in a very low, slow voice.

"Actually, I'm here to see about a treasure bag. Me and someone else thought maybe we could get one that was swapped," Damien asked politely.

"Well, I do have one that was originally swapped for a Lapras Song, but the customer didn't want it. It's a good size for whatever you need it for. What do you need it for anyway?"

"You see, me and—" Damien was cut off.

"It'll set you back around five thousand Poke, but it's a good quality bag."

"Oh," Damien said, a little disappointed. "Okay. Well, thanks any—" he was interrupted again, but this time by a cry for help.

"Don't make me squash you like the Bug-type you are! I said give me all your cash!"

A large dark-gray Machoke was trying to mug a Sewaddle. He was accompanied by a dark-colored Mudkip. The Sewaddle was scared to the point of crying.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have any—"

"Sir? My names Bruti, and you will call me by that name only!"

The scene was attracting attention. Damien could hear someone whisper, "What a douche! Someone really needs to stand up to him."

In fact, someone did stand up to Bruti. A Swadloon stepped in front of the Sewaddle and defended him.

"Leave my brother alone."

"Hmm…You really want to stand up to a Dark Pokemon? How cute—brave, but cute."

The Pokemon surrounding the area started whispering to each other as soon as he mentioned "Dark Pokemon". The Swadloon just looked at him. "You can eat crap for all I care; it doesn't matter if you're a Dark Pokemon. You still shouldn't be mugging little kids."

Bruti leaned down to her level. "I'll give you a chance to take that back and leave me to my business."

The Swadloon spat in his face. "Go die in a hole."

Bruti straightened right back up. "Stand back Blaze," he said to the Mudkip. "This might get messy…"

He lifted his humongous foot over the Swadloon, who motioned for her brother to run. Bruti smiled when he realized that she wasn't going to run—that would make his job harder if she did. He almost brought it down on top of her head, but Damien ran up and kicked him in the side of the face, making him fall over.

As Damien rebounded and landed, Pachi ran up to him. "What are you doing? Surely, you're not that well recovered!"

"Well, I couldn't just let him kill her!"

The Swadloon hurried off out of the Commons. Bruti lifted himself up. "Well…you must be really strong or something, because that actually hurt. You're still not going to get away alive!"

Damien put himself in battle stance. He yelled out to everyone, "Get out of here! I don't want any of you hurt!"

The surrounding population listened and scattered every which way. Even the Mudkip tried to run, but with a glare from Bruti he stayed where he was.

"You know what, Blaze? You've been lazy all day. Why don't you battle for once?"

The Mudkip sighed. "Might as well. Sorry, kid, but I kinda don't have a choice," he warned Damien, who was ready to block any water attack that was at his disposal. What Blaze did next left Damien frightened.

Fire spewed out of Blaze's mouth. Damien tried to jump back, but it was a direct hit. Damien became engulfed in flames, making him scream in pain. He fell to his knees, the attack continuing to burn his life away.

"Too hot for you? Blaze's fire is hotter than most Fire-type attacks! You don't stand a chance!"

Damien struggled back to his feet and tried to put a shield of aura around him. He was knocked back by a sudden wave of heat. Blaze kept breathing fire on him. Pachi backed up as far away as she could, the fire singing her fur a little bit. She saw Damien try to get back up, but fall right back down. She looked on as tears formed in her eyes. She feared the worst.

"Alright Blaze, keep it going! He's not got much longer!"

Suddenly, a cold, white ball of ice hit Blaze in the side, exploding on impact. The attack stopped, and the fire that had swallowed Damien was gone, leaving his fur charred black and his body burned from head to toe. He was on the ground, panting heavily from the heat. Pachi hurried over to him.

"Damien! Oh my god, are you okay?"

Damien pushed himself to his knees, which burned like a fiery inferno.

"I'll try my best to get you—" Pachi was interrupted when when Damien painfully stood on his feet and charged up an Aura Sphere.

"Pachi, go. This battle's not over yet. I can handle myself. I'll come to you later for help, but I can still fight. I'll beat these guys or die trying," Damien told her, refusing her help. He shot it at Blaze as Bruti looked on, frowning.

"Hmph. This kid's stronger than I thought." he watched Damien intently as he dodged an Ember attack and winced when his feet touched the ground. "But of course, he isn't a Dark Pokemon. I guess Shade won't have anything to worry about, unless something bad happens."

Suddenly, a familiar Pikachu and Zorua came from the bushes.

"Damien! We're here to help!" Jess shouted as Mike fired off another two Ice Balls at Blaze.

Bruti growled. "Now I've got to deal with these two? Meh… they're so puny I could flick them into non-existence. I guess this won't be too hard!"

Damien looked at Mike and Jess. "You two take care of the big one. I've got the freak under control!"

"Freak?!" Blaze said, a little annoyed. "You're one to say something like that; Riolu shouldn't be able to use Aura Sphere!"

"You think I don't know that?" Damien spat back, throwing a couple of punches.

Meanwhile, Jess and Mike were attacking Bruti. Jess repeatedly used Scratch at Bruti's legs, and every time he felt a scratch, he would kick, but miss. Mike finished off his last two Ice Balls while Bruti was distracted, then fired off an Aurora Beam that knocked him down. At this point, he was fed up with everything and decided to give up.

"Blaze! We're done! Let's get back to Shade. The Riolu's so badly burned, he probably won't last a day anyways."

Bruti got to his feet and ran off, while a beaten Blaze followed him. He turned to the rest of them. "Don't think he's just going to let this slide! Now you've made him upset!"

Damien replied, "Tell Bruti I'll be ready next time we meet!"

Blaze looked at him. "I wasn't talking about Bruti… you'll all face Shade's wrath eventually… and I'll be there to see it, unfortunately." He looked a little discouraged as he said that last part. He turned and followed Bruti until the rest of them couldn't see them anymore.

Damien looked confused. "Shade? Who's Shade?"

Pachi ran up to him and started to heal him with her Heal Pulse. "I don't know… but I don't like the sound of it."

Mike looked at Jess. "I told you we shouldn't have gotten involved!"

Jess looked at him angrily. "You were the one who fired off that first Ice Ball! At least we got rid of them…"

"Not for long," Damien said, Pachi still putting healing energy into him. "I have a feeling that they won't forget this. I'm sure they'll come back."

"If they do, we'll just have to fight them off again," Pachi said.

"Well, if they come back, we will just fight them off again. No big deal; the Machoke was weak anyways." Mike paused for a moment. "I hate Dark Pokemon… absolutely hate them."

Damien felt his pain go away as Pachi healed him. Then, for some strange reason, the Croagunk that owned the Swap Store came up to him, holding the bag that Damien was looking at.

"I watched the whole thing," he said. "I was astonished. No one could be that strong. You know what, you can have the bag. It's yours."

"Thanks…?" Damien said, a little puzzled by this.

Mike looked at the bag, then at Damien. "So Jess wasn't joking about the rescue team?"

Pachi smiled at him. "It was my idea. He did so well at rescuing me that I wanted to start a team with him."

Mike shrugged. "I guess I'll join, if Jess doesn't mind me keeping an eye on her."

Jess looked ecstatic. "Of course I don't! Finally, a rescue team! But… I have one question…"

"What?" Damien replied, a little wary.

"…What'll be our team name?"