C h a p t e r 7

Libby's eyes seemed to positively glow as Singe and Sapphire returned, lugging their load of coins.

"Well hello," she purred, stretching the word out into 'helllllo,' "how are you two today?"

"A little woozy, but good," Singe grinned. "We'd like to deposit these in our account, Libby, all one thousand of them."

Libby's tail seemed to tighten its coils; Sapphire assumed it was a sign of excitement. "But of course, Singe, darling," she purred, springing up to grab the bag in her teeth and pull it away.

"Oh! And we've got some items to put away, too," Singe said, placing several Chesto berries, Pecha berries, and two apples on the shop counter. The Glameow nodded, grabbing them with her paws and dragging everything into the back.

Luke leaned on his counter, watching them. "You two look pretty banged up," he observed. "That wound on your stomach will scar, you know."

Singe looked down, touching the still-healing scab gently. "Yeah, I know…but I don't mind. It'll make me look tougher. And guess what gave it to us?"

Luke smiled. "What?"

"The boss of Sunlit Meadow!" Singe crowed.

"A Pidgeotto," Sapphire added quickly. Luke's eyebrows rose.

"That must have been a serious mission then, huh, despite the rating?" he asked. "Good job, you two. You didn't kill it, did you?"

Singe glanced at Sapphire, who clenched her jaw. "No," Singe answered, "we figured we'd let it heal."

Luke nodded slowly. "Good. Sometimes, it seems that mercy is all that separates us from the ferals…our aura is the same, you know. Give me two Charmanders that I don't know, one feral and one civilized, and I'd never be able to tell them apart. At the core, we're all the same." His crimson eyes seemed to mist over, before he blinked and glanced down at their badge. "Still Normal rank, though. A pity."

Sapphire blinked at him. "Why?"

"You can't recruit Pokemon yet," Luke explained. "You can only start recruiting them when you become Bronze Rank."

Sapphire rolled her eyes; like it mattered, anyway. She didn't want any of these crazies on her team, and she didn't know if she and Singe would ever travel to another town.

"Bronze rank is…fifty points, right?" Singe asked Luke, who nodded. "Well, I'm sure this one got us lots of points, since we fought the boss…so we can't be too far away."

"And, you've already defeated the boss, so when you are Bronze rank you can recruit," Luke pointed out. "Feral Pokemon will already be impressed with your strength."

Sapphire blinked. "Wait, hang on, we can recruit feral Pokemon?"

Singe nodded. "Sometimes if you're in a dungeon and have already beaten the boss, the feral Pokemon will recognize your strength and want to join your team," he replied. "It's very hard to do, and even then they aren't ready to be on your team for missions…you have to civilize them, or else you might find your teammates eating the Pokemon you're trying to rescue!"

"So when we're Bronze rank, we can recruit Pokemon from Sunlit Meadow? Pidgeys and Rattatas? Can we recruit the boss?"

Singe shrugged. "It's really rare, but it's possible to recruit the boss, if you know what you're doing."

Sapphire smiled to herself. The sheer power of the Pidgeotto, at her beck and call…that would be useful.

Libby reappeared, sitting on her counter and giving Singe a silky purr. "Everything's taken care of, darling. Bring me back more treasure, now, won't you?"

Singe smiled at her, and nodded to Luke. "I guess we'll be seeing you two," he said cheerily, before walking away. Sapphire waddled after him, blinking as he led them to Skylar's shop.

"We aren't doing another mission so soon, are we?" she whispered to him, but he shook his head.

"Nah, we'll need to rest a bit. I just want to get our points recorded," Singe whispered back.

Skylar appeared to have a set of matches in his hand when they approached the shop. He was striking them against the counter, swearing to himself when they fizzled out.

"Magmar-brand matches are the worst," he grumbled, "but I don't have enough money…oh, hey!" He swept the matches behind his back as he saw the two of them, smiling guiltily. Singe and Sapphire exchanged glances, before Singe placed their badge on the counter.

"We completed our mission," Singe said. Skylar nodded, then blinked.

"Oh no, I dropped something," he said in a voice of dull surprise, and quickly bent over. When he came back up, his matches had disappeared. He took the badge, and walked to the back of the shop, there was a strange machine in the back corner. He placed the badge facedown, and there was a bright flash of light.
"Mission completed," a tinny voice said. "Mission rank: E. Items gained: twelve. Items lost: four. Feral Pokemon defeated: eleven. Bosses defeated: one. Quarries found: one. Total points earned: five."

Singe's face, which had been glowing from the coolness of the machine, plummeted. "Five points? What?"

Skylar quirked an eyebrow at them. "Yeah, five points. It was an E-rank mission, that's all they give."

"But, but…we fought a boss! And won!" Singe sputtered. "Shouldn't it be worth more?"

"D-rank missions are worth ten," Skylar said.

"Then ours was a D-rank; it was much harder than we thought it would be," Sapphire growled. Skylar smirked.

"Well, Normal-ranked teams aren't allowed on D-rank missions…so I guess if it was D-rank, you don't get anything for it, including the reward."

Singe paled. "D-rank mission?" he asked, turning to Sapphire. "I don't think it was quite that, do you?"

"Er, no," Sapphire said quickly. "It was easy. Easy as cake. Easy as squishing a Pecha berry. Definitely an E-rank mission."

Skylar smiled. "Good. Glad we got that sorted out." He took the badge out of the machine, handing it to them. There was now a small symbol shining on the thin band between the white and pink halves; looking closer, Sapphire realized that it was a number.

"Five," she said. Skylar nodded.

"Every time the machine reads your badge, it gives you your total point balance on the badge, so you don't have to keep checking," he said. "You don't have to verify your completed missions every time, if you don't want to. You can store them up in the badge and verify them all at once instead. But, be warned; if you've stored a lot of missions in the badge and then lose it, all of your missions are lost and you don't get any of the points."

"Thanks, Skylar," Singe said, putting the badge on their bag; he still looked a little glum. "Let's look at the mission board again, Sapphire."

She waddled with him over to the board, noting the flood of new missions on both sides. "Things must be getting intense here," she said, and he nodded.

"Things are getting worse and worse, but that's just how it is when a Transformed appears," he said. "The Legendary are getting antsy about something; the Legend League will probably call the legend teams to meet with them again sooner than expected."

Sapphire grunted. "Stinks that we only get five points for each mission…we've got nine to go before we're Bronze rank, then."

Singe nodded. "You have to be Gold rank just to apply to become a Legend team."

"How many points is that, then?"

"Fifteen hundred."

Sapphire's eyes widened. "Fifteen hundred? That's like…like…." She quickly counted on her fingers. "That's three hundred missions!"

"Two hundred and ninety-nine, now," Singe said mildly. "But yeah, it's a lot…it has to be, or anyone could be a legend team. Still, it'll be easier when we get to do the higher-ranked missions, since they're worth more." He smiled. "We can do it, Sapphire. I'm certain of it. Now, let's look at these…." He peered at the several pink-papered missions on the board. "Oh, this one should be easy. This one just wants a Chesto berry; she's too scared to go into the dungeon, so she's waiting just outside it. We can just give her one of ours for an easy five points…and this one wants us to find a lost item of hers, a "special" apple. She lost it on the third floor, when a Pidgey took it from her…we can do those, right?"

Sapphire frowned. Somehow, the fact that delivering an item without having to step foot in a dungeon, and defeating a boss were worth the same amount of points just didn't make sense.

"Yeah, we can do those. Tomorrow, though, okay?" She yawned and stretched. "My arms are about to fall off."

Singe nodded quickly. "By tomorrow, Zee will have reset, so we might even be able to buy some cool stuff from him," he said, and started walking down the street, with Sapphire following.

. . .

By the time they returned to her new home, Sapphire was about ready to collapse. She didn't even try to swim a lap around the pool, preferring to simply spring onto the rock. Singe gave a little wave that Sapphire didn't return, as she closed the old, broken door and flopped down onto her lumpy bed.

Today was…interesting, she thought wearily. I met the lunatics of Dewdum…went into my first dungeon…beat my first boss…completed my first mission….But things are so strange here, and there's so many things I don't understand about Pokemon culture at all. Why did I go back and help Singe? I mean…I guess it was in my best interests in the long run, to do so…he's the only ally I have here, the only one who can help me figure out why I'm a Pokemon at all. But at the same time…it was more than that. I could have been killed, very easily…but I still came back to help him.

I already feel close to him, connected. Maybe it's a Pokemon thing? Their lives are so harsh, they need to form close bonds quickly just to survive….Maybe that's it, then? I'm certain that if I was a human, I would never have done such a thing.

She sighed. It's troubling, when you don't understand your own body…your own impulses…and yet, it is almost invigorating, too. When I was in that dungeon…I think it was the first time since I came here that I really felt at home. The dungeon was where I belonged, I could feel it. Is that why I was chosen to be one of the Transformed?

She ground her teeth together with frustration at the questions she couldn't answer. Then, she yawned, stretching out on the bed and curling into almost a ball. I need to rest up for tomorrow, she thought drowsily, before sleep stole her away.

. . .

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking; where was she? For a moment, all she could see was darkness; then, slowly, her eyes picked out the small white dots of light scattered all around her.

What are they? She wondered. Am I in a cave? Underground? In space? What is this?

Then, suddenly, there was a dazzling flash of light, brighter even than Singe's Ember. She shielded her eyes from the flash, her mouth opening into a scream that did not reach her ears. When she opened her eyes, it was as if a bright white streak had been painted in front of her, a throbbing trail of light. She felt her heart leap, pounding in her chest as if she was in a dungeon, and her mouth moved to form a word, almost a question-

Another force suddenly pulled at her, pulling her into a different, nonsensical dream that she would not remember when she awoke.

. . .

Sapphire's eyes snapped open, and she stared at the ceiling, realizing that she was panting. She struggled to sit up, rubbing the back of her head, still dazed by the strange dream.

What was that? She wondered. Where was I? What was that streak of light? It was…dazzling, amazing, I felt as though….She shook her head, bewildered. She climbed out of the bed, letting out a sigh as her feet touched the solid ground of her home.

Just forget about it, she thought. Your brain is just scrambled, trying to make sense of you being a Pokemon, and all. At least my body seems to recognize that my legs aren't so long, anymore…maybe I'll be able to walk normally today.

She stepped outside, blinking, but Singe wasn't there. She sprang into the pool, doing a quick lap around it and rejoicing in the coolness of the water against her scales. When she completed her lap, she looked up to find Singe sitting on a boulder, staring down at her. Using her tail, she propelled herself upwards, landing beside him in a spray of droplets.

Singe yelped, grabbing his tail and shielding it from her water.

"Sorry," Sapphire said, stepping a few feet away to shake the rest of the water from her shining scales.

"It's fine, Sapphire," Singe said brightly. "I figured we'd get started on those missions today, what do you think? I took the liberty of withdrawing a bit more money, so we can buy some stuff from Zee's shop."

Sapphire rolled her eyes. "So long as he doesn't flip out on us, that sounds good."

Singe grinned, and the two of them headed into the forest. Sapphire grew apprehensive as they started down the slope, but it appeared that today she had control over her body, mostly. She reached the bottom without having even stumbled, much to her pleasure.

Getting stronger every day, she observed wryly. Who knows, maybe in a few years I'll be able to actually run down that slope!

"Hello Sapphire, Singe," a smooth voice said, making Sapphire turn. She blinked, seeing the Umbreon Lune smirking at the two of them. She felt her face heat up, and Singe let out a quiet growl.

"Hey, Lune," Singe said, a warning tone underlying his voice. Lune appeared undisturbed.

"My my, Sapphire, it looks like you had quite a battle yesterday," Lune said slowly, bending down to scrutinize her side; his nose almost touched her scales, and they prickled uncomfortably. "Weren't you in Sunlit Meadow? Rumor has it that you managed to fight a boss."

Sapphire nodded. "Yeah. We beat him, and saved an Igglybuff named Cookie," she said, trying to sound bored, as though they both hadn't almost died. Lune's dark eyebrows rose slightly.

"Impressive," he said. "My team defeated the boss of Sunlit Meadow as well, as I recall."

"And then the boss mysteriously 'disappeared', right after you left the dungeon," Singe hissed. "And mysteriously a new boss, the one we fought, came to replace it!"

Is Singe saying that Lune's team killed the old boss? Sapphire thought with surprise. I thought the civilized Pokemon were against that…?

"Are you accusing us of something?" Lune asked calmly. "The rest of my team is waiting for me, if you are…." There was no denying the threat underneath his words. Singe swallowed, looking unnerved.

"Why is your team here?" Sapphire asked, remembering seeing Lune coming the same way yesterday as well.

"We're completing another mission at Sundown Cave," Lune said. "Since we're nearly Silver rank now, that's where we do most of our work."

"Sundown Cave?" Sapphire echoed, and Lune nodded.

"A very beautiful place, were it not for the feral scum living there," he answered. "Perhaps I could show you around sometime? As its name suggests, it is most beautiful at sunset."

Sapphire flushed under her scales, only to feel Singe tug on her hand. "Come on, we need to get to Zee's before everything good today is gone," Singe said. Sapphire allowed herself to be led away, but when she glanced over her shoulder she saw that Lune was still watching her with his ruby-red eyes.

"You really don't like him," Sapphire observed, as they entered Dewdum.

"He's a total creep!" Singe exclaimed, his high-pitched voice almost squeaking. "You heard the way he talked about ferals. The way he thinks, it's our 'duty' to 'take care of' all the ferals, so the mystery dungeons are all ours."

Sapphire shivered at the memory of Pidgeotto. "Maybe he's not so wrong."

Singe frowned at her. "Sapphire, a little compassion would be nice. The ferals didn't ask to be dragged over here, remember? They were a mistake, stolen from their families."

"That was eons ago!" Sapphire protested. "It hardly matters."

"Think of how you feel, away from your family and home," Singe said quietly. "You can't even remember them…but the ferals could. They remembered everything that they'd lost; family, friends, their childhood haunts…everything. And then they were cooped into tiny habitats called mystery dungeons, where all they could do was fight each other over every scrap of food, feeding the terrible hunger that being in dungeons produces. You should feel some empathy for them, Sapphire."

Sapphire was silent as the full force of Singe's words hit her. I'm angry because someone took everything from me…but I can't even remember what he or she took, she realized. What would it be like, to actually know and remember everything someone else took from you?

"Zee," Singe said quietly, and the Porygon-Z appeared in his shop. He peered at the Charmander, emitting the same whirring as before. Sapphire waited anxiously, hoping that Zee really did reset himself.

"CUSTOMER IS…SINGE!" Zee boomed. "SINGE! MOST VALUED OF ALL MY VALUED CUSTOMERS! I VALUE YOU THE MOST!"

Singe smiled at Sapphire, who nodded quickly. "Good morning, Zee. Sapphire and I were wanting to buy—"

Sapphire stiffened as Zee turned towards her, the whirring starting up again. "ANALYZING CUSTOMER….UNKNOWN CUSTOMER DETECTED. SPECIES IS…TOTODILE. TWO TOTODILE RECORDED IN DATABASE. RUNNING THROUGH DATABASE…." He let out a shrill beep. "CUSTOMER NOT DETECTED IN DATABASE! CUSTOMER IS UNKNOWN!"

Sapphire moved towards Singe, almost frightened, but he put a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Zee, this is Sapphire. Sa-fi-er," he said, enunciating clearly.

"SAPPHIRE," Zee beeped. "HEIGHT: TWO FEET ONE INCH. WEIGHT: APPROXIMATELY TWENTY SEVEN POUNDS. NOTE: CUSTOMER IS HEAVIER THAN AVERAGE TOTODILE. SALES OF FOODSTUFFS IS PROBABLE."

"Hey!" Sapphire growled indignantly. "I'm not heavy!"

Zee ignored her. "CUSTOMER 'SAPPHIRE' RECORDED IN DATABASE. PROCEED WITH SALES."

"Zee, we just want to look at your wares really quick," Singe plowed ahead before Zee could make a selection for them. "Okay?"

"MY WARES," Zee beeped. "CURRENT WARES ARE ORAN BERRES (TWO), CHERI BERRY (ONE), BLUE GUMMI (ONE), TM FLAMETHROWER (ONE), REVIVER SEED (ONE), STUN SEED (ONE), BIG APPLE (ONE). WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SELECT TODAY, MOST VALUED CUSTOMERS?"

Sapphire glanced at Singe. "What's a Gummi? And a Reviver seed?" she whispered.

"Gummis help tame ferals," Singe whispered back, "so we won't need one of those for awhile. Reviver seeds revive you to full health if you faint; they're very useful, but we won't need one until we're Bronze rank, now that you can use Water Gun and I can use Ember."

"So do we need anything?"

"Not really…but a Cheri berry would be good, and I don't want him mad at us," Singe murmured back. "Okay, Zee, we'd like the Cheri berry, if you please!"

Zee flashed a blue light from his stomach; Sapphire could have sworn he looked pleased. "FIFTEEN COINS, AND THE CHERI BERRY IS YOURS!" he boomed. Singe dug around in the item bag, emerging with the pouch of coins in his hands. He carefully counted out fifteen, placing them on the counter. Zee retrieved the berry, and scooped up the coins with one of his stubby arms. "SOLD!" he shouted, pink and blue lights flashing. Sapphire looked away, afraid that she might have a seizure from the wildly pulsating lights.

"Thanks, Zee," Singe said brightly.

"YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE—" Zee started to say, but Singe had already grabbed Sapphire's hand and tugged her away from the shop.

"Now, after we've completed our missions real quickly, we'll take another walk around Dewdum," Singe decided. "There' s still some people I need you to meet."

Sapphire groaned. "So, team leader really is an empty title, huh?"

Singe grinned in reply, then blinked and glanced around. "That's weird, there's no one here," he said slowly. Sapphire blinked, realizing that he was right; there were no other Pokemon wandering around as there had been before, or peeking out of windows. Everyone was gone.

Her scales crawled uncomfortably, and she blinked at Singe nervously. Singe looked puzzled, then smiled.

"I bet I know what's up. Come on, to the Plaza," he said, and broke into a jog. Sapphire followed him into a wide, open space that she realized was in the center of town. In the center, the stones were arranged in a strange pattern, although she guessed she couldn't see what it was unless she was in the sky.

There was a raised platform that appeared to be made out of boxes in the center of the Plaza. Atop it was what looked to be a small blue-black penguin.

Prinplup? She wondered, but the coloration was wrong. Atop the little penguin's head were magnificent gleaming horns, and there was a slight shimmer to his wings.

Empoleon, she realized. But…I remember them being tall, like five or six feet. This one…he's barely taller than I am, maybe six inches.

"That's an Empoleon, right?" she whispered to Singe. "I'm not crazy?"

Singe nodded, stopping behind the gathering crowd. "Yeah. His name is Napoleon."

"He's so sh—" Singe clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Don't say the s-word!" Singe whispered. "He's very very very sensitive about his size!"

"Get your hand off of me," Sapphire growled, her voice muffled. Single flushed, removing it quickly.

"Just act like you're listening," he murmured.

"Isn't he in charge? He looks like he's in charge."

"We just let him think that. Government is another human thing. I mean, some groups have pack leaders and stuff like that…but he thinks he's an emperor."

"Emperor of Dewdum," Sapphire giggled. "I think I'd rather be a pack leader."

"My subjects!" Napoleon shouted loudly, raising his stubby flippers in what she assumed he thought was a noble pose; she had to hold back a giggle. Singe glanced at her sternly. "Today, we meet to discuss taxes. Unfortunately, Libby here has told me that we are not collecting enough of them to pay our dear friend Lacey, who keeps the dewdrops frozen." He gestured towards the Glaceon that Sapphire had been before; she gave him a frosty smile. "So, taxes are going up fix percent to make up for it!" Napoleon announced, waving his arms wildly in what he probably thought was an inspirational way. "So that Dewdum can keep its proud name! And dewdrops!"

"Groan," Singe whispered, and Sapphire blinked with confusion as the crowd sighed, groaned, and complained about the taxes. Napoleon waved their complaints away.

"Stand strong, Dewdum! Together, we can overcome any threat! And taxes!" he said, putting his fins on his hips and staring dramatically into the distance. He posed for a moment, then bowed. "That is all, my loyal subjects. Emperor out! Peace!"

He sprang down from the boxes, and wandered away. Singe quickly let out a loud cheer, and the town followed him, a smattering of clapping making its way through the crowd. Napoleon paused, bowed, then disappeared down the street.

"Well, he should be happy for awhile," Singe said. Sapphire frowned at him.

"I thought you said you didn't have a government," she said.

Singe nodded. "We don't; like I said, we just pretend. Libby really does control our finances, and sometimes she tells him if we're doing well or badly. But we don't have taxes."

"So how do you keep everything so…spiffy?"

Singe shrugged. "Sometimes a little bit of money is taken from missions, but only the really high-ranked ones, because if you've got a high rank then you don't really need the money, right? The rest comes from donations; everyone gives what we can. And, really, there isn't a lot that needs to be kept up here. Lacey doesn't need to be paid to freeze the dew, she does it because she wants to. We're a small down, so we don't have fancy roads, or anything. Everything we need, we can just get from the shops, and shopkeepers are responsible for keeping up their own shops. We don't really need taxes here, there's nothing to pay for."

"But what about the big cities? Don't you have those? Don't you have to keep them up?"

Singe nodded. "Sure, we have bigger cities. And they do have expenses, and maybe there they have taxes, I dunno. But we don't need 'em here, they just make Napoleon feel like he actually does something. And we play along."

"…Right," Sapphire said, deciding not to argue. "Are we going to do those missions now?"

"First, we need to see the Elder," Singe said. "That's what I wanted to see, before we got side-tracked. He's a little out of the way, though, so we should hurry if we want to do the missions today."

He began running off, and Sapphire shook her head wearily; it seemed like all she ever did was trail after him.

Once I get this all straightened out, I'll be calling the shots, she thought firmly. I'll be the one leading us places.

AN: I don't care what no one says, Umbreons gots eyebrows! D:

And…Pokemanz are communists. .