Disclaimer: Have you tried catching a Rayquaza at full health with a single pokeball. My chances of owning the pokémon franchise are that unlikely minus 100,000.

Chapter 10: Expedition Pt 1

Lily and Charmander awoke the morning of the long awaited and highly anticipated expedition with bright and cheery dispositions. This was because they had discovered that they had in fact been selected to participate on said expedition after a messy mix up involving the guildmaster's pitiful handwriting. It had been decided that Chatot would be the scribe after that incident as to prevent another disastrous accident like that from ever happening again.

Regardless, Mizu had been by their rooms to see them off. She had congratulated both of them quite enthusiastically but more so for Charmander than for Lily. Both had humbling thanked the water type for her helping while Lily had been recovering and for looking after the guild.

"Anyway, we need to get to the briefing Charmander," Lily insisted, tugging on his arm.

"Yeah, I'm right behind you," he called before turning back to Mizu. "Thanks Mizu. It really means a lot that you're doing all of this."

"Don't worry about it," she smiled shyly up at him. "We're friends aren't we? Friends always help each other out when they need it. You told me that one."

Charmander scratched his cheek embarrassedly while Lily watched on curiously before narrowing her eyes suspiciously at Mizu. She would definitely need to keep a close eye on her. She didn't feel comfortable with the way the water type had managed to get a great deal of alone time with her partner while she was out of commission thanks to her injuries.

Not for the first had Lily cursed Skuntank's existence as she and Charmander waited in foyer. They had been the first to arrive that morning so they had been told to simply wait. The two had simply talked about what they hoped to find during the expedition. Lily's main interest had been discovering something important as that had been the driving force behind her joining the guild in the first place. Charmander, on the other hand, had never been on an expedition before and was just happy to be going on a large scale exploration. He found comfort in the explorations and just being able to do something exciting. He honestly couldn't wait to get started and had half a mind to leave to the guild right then and there were it not for the fact that he had no idea how to get to wherever it was there were going.

Fortunately for the fire type, they did not have to wait much longer as the other guild members filed into the room soon after. As more members entered the room, the noise level had increased drastically.

Charmander and Lily were discussing the expedition with Chimecho, Sunflora, and Bidoof. The former two had been on expeditions before so the newest members had been quick to ask questions as their fellow apprentices recounted their previous expeditions while also giving out little bits of advice to make the journey a little bit easier. The females had also given a brief synopsis about how the expeditions had worked in the past: all the apprentices would split into small teams and traverse the terrain separately before converging at a single point that would be known as the base camp.

Sunflora was explaining the mechanics about a trick she'd discovered while exploring to conserve her energy when she was using moves when Chatot squawked to bring everyone to attention. It worked when all conversation ceased in surprising tandem as every eye rested on the flying type.

"Ahem," Chatot cleared his throat while the collecting his thoughts. Everyone leaned in so they could hear their plan of attack. "Remember that the purpose of this expedition is to discover and explore Fogbound Lake. There have been many rumors stating that there is a glorious treasure that awaits discovery." Everyone's eyes widened at the prospect of treasure. Muttered conversations broke out while everyone speculated what kind of treasure it could be. Guesses including jewels, diamonds, pearls, rare items, and other rarities had been proposed.

Chatot squawked to capture everyone's attention so he could continue. "Since so many of us will be going on the expedition, the guildmaster and I have agreed that we will all divide into groups." It was just as Sunflora had told them. "Because if we all went in at once, mobility would be severely restricted and would slow us all down from getting to our goal," Chatot explained. Everyone nodded at the reasoning plus it would be harder to fight off any aggressive pokémon that they might encounter along the way without accidentally hurting one of their own. From there, Chatot read out the groups that would be traveling together to the base camp that they had determine to be the halfway mark between the guild and where Fogbound Lake is supposedly located.

"The first group will consist of Loudred, Sunflora, and Diglett," Chatot said.

"You better not slow me down," Loudred said harshly to his new teammates.

"You're one to talk," Sunflora said coldly while Diglett merely sweatdropped at the two's argument.

"The next group will Dugtrio, Corphish, and Croagunk," Chatot continued. The three shot each other curt nods before Chatot continued.

"The guildmaster and I will be traveling as a pair. That is acceptable, yes?" Chatot continued, glancing at the guildmaster nervously. The guild members glanced from Chatot to the guildmaster curiously. Was there something going on here?

"Aww…I have to go with Chatot?" The guildmaster frowned in displeasure. "That's so booooring!" He protested. Whatever it was seemed to be one-sided as the guildmaster, like the rest of the apprentices, didn't seem to want to spend too much time with the head of information at the guild. No one blamed him for the reaction.

"Please guildmaster," Chatot pleaded quietly. "This a key element in our secret strategy." Chatot's excuse fooled no one as the flying type glanced nervously at the guildmaster who reluctantly conceded.

"Team Skull will travel independently of us as their own separate group," Chatot stated, glancing over at the exploration team that had opted to stand at a far corner of the room.

"Understood," Skuntank nodded.

"The final group will be Chimecho, Bidoof, Lily, and Charmander," Chatot read as he glanced at the four. He shot Chimecho a look who nodded at the unspoken message. Please make sure that they don't do anything reckless.

"It's great that we're all in the same group," Charmander grinned at Bidoof and Chimecho who nodded enthusiastically.

"By golly, I can't wait to see what kind of adventure is in store for us!" Bidoof added enthusiastically. Everyone seemed to share similar sentiments as they all took off down the guild's stairs.

The four had kept a quick but steady pace as they talked about their guild experiences so far.

Bidoof had explained that this was his first expedition and that he was nervous but excited and what they might find. As far as he was concerned, he believed that the expedition would be a success in his eyes if they learned something from the journey although making a discovery was also an important of the expedition. Charmander, Lily, and Chimecho had applauded Bidoof's enthusiasm and has also agreed with the normal types sentiments. Only Chimecho had ever been on an expedition before so she had regaled them with tales of her previous expedition where they had discovered some abandoned ruins.

"Are you serious?" Lily exclaimed as Chimecho finished her tale.

"Absolutely," the psychic type nodded as she founded her bombarded with questions from the enthusiastic grass type while Charmander and Bidoof watched as Chimecho struggled to answer all of Lily's questions.

Charmander had interrupted the conversation when they found themselves at the coast ahead of schedule. They'd noticed the steep cliffs and had been careful to hug the walls tightly lest they end up falling to their doom at the mercy of the harsh waves down below.

"What's that?" Charmander asked, catching sight of what looked like a statue in the shape of a kangaskhan.

"This must be one of those Kangaskhan statues I've been hearing about," Chimecho explained, taking a closer look before nodding in confirmation. "I've heard that you can swap out items with these things as they've been imbued with powers linked to the kangaskhan who works the storage facility back in Treasure Town."

"I've also heard that you can deposit money in these things," Bidoof chimed in. "And it acts as a checkpoint in case something happens to us, we won't get warped back to the guild." Team Drive stared at the miraculous statue. It sounded too good to be true but couldn't resist trying it.

Chimecho had explained that all they had to do was stick their forepaw into the kangaskhan's pouch while thinking of the item you wanted to withdraw. If you wanted to deposit something, all you had to do was place it in the pouch and it would be transferred back to Treasure Town safe and sound.

"This is so cool!" Lily exclaimed as she and Charmander removed the extraneous items that they'd been acquiring through their journey up to this point. They had done the same with their money as they had no desire to lose any of it. Bidoof and Chimecho had followed suit while Lily had found the cave that they were supposed to traverse to continue on.

Lily has come to be quite the leader Charmander couldn't help but think as she examined both paths carefully. I can't believe I never noticed it before. She still gets nervous and can sometimes second guess herself but I can see now that she's working as hard as she can to overcome her weakness just like she'd told Team Skull when she met them again. She really has come a long way and so have I.

"Charmander! Chimcho!" Lily and Bidoof called over. "There's a fork in the road! Which way do we go?"

The psychic type and fire type glanced at the sign, to the left was the side path while the right led to craggy coast. The two pulled out their wonder maps and consulted them and each other thoroughly before deciding. "We should go through Craggy Coast."

Lily and Bidoof nodded and with Chimecho and Charmander in the lead, the quartet made their way through the cave dungeon.

"You have terrible luck with these dungeons don't you," Chimecho remarked as she used another heal pulse on him. The fire type grimaced as he watched Lily take out another krabby with razor leaf.

Bidoof did not have much trouble against the water types either, much to Charmander's chagrin as he watched the normal type take the damage before counter attacking with a bide attack.

Chimecho had opted to play the role of medic but had not hesitated if she found some of the dungeon's pokémon tried to ambush her or her friends.

"Whoa!" Lily, Charmander, and Bidoof gasped during one such instance when Chimecho had caught a team of dratini trying to ambush Lily, Charmander, and Bidoof who were busy fending off other enemies. "That was amazing, Chimecho!" The psychic type had blushed at the praise. She wasn't used to being the center of attention but she had to admit it felt nice to have apprentices that looked up to her for more than just her skills in the kitchen.

Maybe I should try battling more often Chimecho mused as they traveled deeper through Craggy Coast. If it gets me results like this, it might be good do keep exploring she thought as she remembered the amazed looks on her teammates' faces as they continued onward.

Charmander soon became thankful for all the training sessions that he and Lily had gone through at Marowak's dojo in preparation for the expedition. He'd been able to come up with clever counters to at least reduce the damage he took from super effective attacks. It also helped that his teammates had provided swift retaliation after he and Bidoof had been attacked.

It was also nice that they had been able to find a few small treasure chests as they traversed the dungeon. They'd been fortunate enough to find several gummis along with several berries in the chests. They'd gotten especially lucky when they found a larger chest that contain a set of decoy orbs to pit enemies against each other which had been a useful asset.

Between the four of them, no pokémon in the cave dungeon stood a chance and had soon found reprieve near another kangaskhan rock.

"We made it to the base of the mountain," Bidoof panted. He blushed as he heard his stomach growl ferociously at them, causing his teammates to burst out in an uncontrollable fit of giggles. Bidoof's blush only reddened with each succeeding laugh.

Fortunately for Bidoof, everyone else's stomachs seemed to growl at that moment as though to admonish them for teasing their teammate.

"I guess we're all a little bit hungry," Charmander remarked mareepishly. "Why don't we eat some apples before we head up Mt. Horn?"

"But Charmander, it's almost sundown!" Lily pointed out. "We'll have no visibility and could easily end up lost!"

"Charmander has a point though," Chimecho chimed in. "If we keep going after we eat, we'll be able to avoid any confrontations with the local pokémon if we stay quiet. Besdies," she glanced at the fire type. "We'll have Charmander's flames to give us light so as long as we stick close together, there'll be nothing to worry about."

"By golly, I'm not sure if it'll be an easy road but I don't know if I want to take the chance to sleep out here where we could be attacked by some of the nocturnals who might be out hunting," Bidoof added his two cents.

"So are we decided?" Charmander asked. All eyes were on Lily as she began to sweat nervously. In truth, she didn't especially mind if they kept going into the night. It would quite nice to be close to Charmander with nothing but the moon light and his tail flame to guide them. Ideally she would have liked it the most if it was just the two of them but she would take what she could get.

"Yeah, once we finish eating then we'll scale the mountain," Lily decided as they bit into their apples.

Once everyone was full, all three of Charmander's teammates crowded around while he held his tail flame out to act as a flashlight of sorts. The others found his light quite reassuring as it had helped them avoid potential traps in the form of sleeping mountain pokémon. No words were spoken as they quickly yet quietly snuck past their potential adversaries as they soon reached the mountain summit.

Even if none of them spoke a word, they were all still happy just to be together as a team. It also helped that Charmander being a fire type was a very good substitute for a blanket.

Charmander himself was enjoying the attention of his teammates. It felt really good to feel all of their bodies so close to his own that it made him smile broadly at how much they were counting on him. While that kind of responsibility brought along its pressure, the satisfaction of knowing that they trusted him was more than enough to compensate for any pressure. Lily in particular, he'd noticed, had taken snuggling into his side as close as she could get without slowing down their relatively quick pace. While he enjoyed how close she seemed to want to be to him, it also felt a little embarrassing as he knew full well that Chimecho and Bidoof would surely notice and he'd never live out down for as long as he lived. Still, he couldn't be bothered trying to push her away. It might give her the impression that he didn't want her close to him and that was the last thing he wanted.

Thankfully, scaling down the mountain had require far fewer run-ins with sleeping foes so they had managed to pick up the pace and had managed to get by with whispered conversation when they caught sight of a sleeping aerodactyl.

"Holy s-," Lily quickly covered Charmander's mouth with her leaf while the others breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't want to imagine the consequences of what might have happened if Charmander had finished that sentence.

Chimecho's eyes flashed blue as she lifted the four of them off the ground to prevent aerodactyl from hearing their footsteps as she levitating them over the flying type who had been blocking their path.

When they were sure they were out of the sleeping aerodactyl's earshot, Chimecho carefully landed them on the ground where they all heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"Thanks Chimecho," they told her quietly as they entered the clearing that was supposed to be the base camp.

"I'm glad to help," she smiled at her. "I have to admit I had a lot of fun exploring with you three. We should definitely do it again some time." She smiled happily at the general chorus of agreement as they nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion. Could anyone blame them? Chimecho was an awesome explorer after all!

With the promise of exploring together again in the future decided, quartet glanced around, wondering where the other exploration teams were. This was the rendezvous point wasn't it? A quick check of the wonder map confirmed that the clearing they were in was in fact the clearing that would serve as the base camp.

As they traveled further into the clearing, Charmander suddenly felt a rush of familiarity with the area. What's with this familiarity? Why do I feel like I know this place? Could it be that I've been here before when I had my memories? Charmander needed to know.

"Do you think it's possible that we're the first ones here?" Bidoof chimed in. "I mean we are a group of four so we did have an easier time getting through the mystery dungeons than the others did, I would imagine."

"It's possible but I'm surprised that we even managed to beat the guildmaster and Chatot to the clearing," Chimecho replied. "They're almost always the first ones at the rendezvous sites, directing the tent setups and preparing the base camp.

"Whatever the case, we do have our tents right here so we may as well just set ours up and wait for the others to show up," Charmander suggested. The others nodded in agreement as they quickly assembled their large tents before diving inside to admire the spacious interior. It was also nice in that it was quite warm inside so they didn't have to worry about the cold.

Charmander had also been generous enough to set up a small fire at the base of the camp while Lily and Bidoof helped Chimecho prepare meals for the rest of the guild members, at Chatot's request. They fortunate to not be alone for much longer as the guildmaster and Chatot were the next to appear in the clearing. Both had been impressed with the quartet's teamwork as they traversed the distance between the guild and the base camp.

The guildmaster had in fact grabbed all of them and hugged them tightly, telling them how happy he was that they had made it safely. He then when on spiel about how broken he would have felt if any of the apprentices had failed to make it to the base camp safely. His eyes watered slightly at the thought before the four of them quickly assured the quirky guildmaster that they were confident that everyone would make it to the base camp without any troubles. Of this, they were certain.

They were all too stubborn to give up after being selected for such an important mission.

The others had appeared soon after with Team Skull bringing up the rear with traces of light peeking over the horizon as Chimecho used her psychic powers to hand them their food which they accepted with a curt nod. The rest of the quartet had decided to strike conversations with the newcomers.

"So how was the journey?" Charmander asked Corphish. He wondered if the water type had taken the same route as he did.

"Arceus, that was the most intense journey I've ever gone on," Corphish collapsed before catching his breath. Charmander could see the exhaustion that lined the water type's features. It had been clear that he'd probably had a bad run of the routes. "What about you?" Corphish asked Charmander.

"We were really lucky to have Chimecho and Bidoof with us," Charmander replied. "We ended up traveling through the night to cut through Mt. Horn so we could make it here as soon as possible. We ended up being the first ones to arrive so we had to set up our tent and get everything ready for the rest of you guys."

"Hey hey that's good to hear," Corphish smiled with Charmander smiling back. "I can't believe I didn't think to do that! I thought that the side path and the rock path would be quicker but they always looped back we found ourselves back where we started before we took the other path." Charmander had laughed at Corphish's mistake. It was all in good fun though as they continued to talk about their adventures.

Everyone feasted that night as it came to an end and everyone retreated into their tents for some well-deserved rest.

"What do you think we'll find?" Lily asked as she snuggled into her makeshift bed.

"I dunno but I hope that whatever we find will be something that's awe-inspiring," Charmander grinned. That would make the expedition even better than it already was! Traveling with his friends to the base camp had been an eye opening experience for him as he learned how the other apprentices battled. He'd paid especially close attention to Chimecho's psychic attacks. While he couldn't use them himself, Charmander figured that he could indirectly use some of the tricks that she had used to get the upper hand in a battle.

Neither exchanged anything else as they both felt sleep take them over into the darkness.

Everyone had been allowed a days' rest. It had been a long trip after all and they were all exhausted from fighting all the territorial pokémon that they'd faced on their way to the base camp.

The following morning found all participating members of the guild's exploration to be listening carefully to Chatot's briefing about Fogbound Lake. As it turned out, they had two objectives: one was obviously to discover the secrets that lie within the area and the second was somewhat of a sub-category of the first but was still very important: finding a way to get rid of the fog that blanketed the area in said fog. Chimecho had made a reference to a being called Uxie who was said to remove memories of anyone that discovered the secrets of Fogbound Lake and thus muzzling them from revealing its whereabouts.

Charmander blinked in surprise. Uxie could erase memories! Could this be the explanation for the sense of familiarity that he'd felt upon reaching the base camp? The suspense was killing him!

"Of course this was to be expected of a place shrouded in this much mystery," Chatot told her, looking unfazed by the new piece of information. "It certainly makes sense how no one is able to discover the secrets. It's kind of hard to find something if you don't have any idea where to look."

Chatot closed the briefing by reminding them that if they found any information on discovering the secret to Fogbound Lake or on how to lift the fog, they should inform either Chatot or the guildmaster. Both of them would be staying behind to guard the base camp and also to gather more information to help the apprentices reach their goal of finding the treasure that they saw in their imaginations.

Chatot dismissed them all after the usual morning cheer. Everyone had decided that now was the time to get moving so they made their way down the path to proceed further towards their goals. Whatever those might be. However, before they could get very far, Lily spotted something interesting: a small magma red object sat on the ground in front of them.

"What is this thing?" Lily asked, picking it up. She didn't think too much about it, only that it felt surprisingly warm to the touch, as she stuffed it in their treasure bag before Charmander could protest the idea.

Charmander had sighed in relief at the lack of water in Foggy Forest. At least he wouldn't have to deal with type disadvantages for the time being. Charmander led the way up and defeated any enemies on the way as well as open the treasure chests that were lying around. Fate seemed to smile down on them with red and grass gummis Charmander felt his IQ intensely while he continued chewing on his red gummi.

It was not long before they made it out of the Foggy Forest where they caught sight of what seemed to be a giant pokémon. They assumed that it had been scaled down for the sake of materials.

Lily had found some ruins on the side of the base of the statue that told them that statue that they were bearing witness to was that of a Groudon. It was not long before they encountered Corphish who had also cleared the Foggy Forest without any problems but was just as bemused about the statue as they were.

"Hey, Charmander I got an idea," Lily said suddenly.

"What is it?" Charmander asked, intrigued.

"What about your visions," Lily suggested. "Maybe they could give us a hint on how to proceed." Corphish was baffled but neither of them noticed the water type's bewildered expression.

I was thinking that too. All the answers to who I was truly before my memories were removed could be lying right here. It's worth a shot isn't it? he thought to himself. With that as the basis of his resolve, Charmander touched the statue and starting to rub it. Then he had a vision, a voice saying: I see right here.

What? Charmander thought, looking bewildered but another vision came to him in the same form and in the same voice and it said: I see. Place the drought stone in Groudon's heart and that lifts the fog. Nice job partner.

"Did you see something, Charmander?" Lilysaid, looking confused.

"Yeah, you know that stone you found at base camp?" Charmander asked and she nodded in response.

"Put that stone into the indention in Groudon's heart," he said simply.

"Okay," Lily replied as she searched and easily located the spot that Charmander had indicated before putting the stone in the statue's heart. Suddenly, Groudon's eyes flashed and was enveloped in a bright light. The trio made a run for it and when the light soon faded, they saw that the fog had been lifted.

"Wow," Charmander breathed, looking at the lake up ahead.

"Hey-hey-hey, looks like the fog has been lifted! I'm gonna go back and tell the other guild members. You guys go on ahead," Corphish said, running back to the base camp.

"Got it!" Lily called back as they watched Corphish's figure get smaller before vanishing upon the horizon. They both made to leave the area and move ahead but they heard words that were uncomfortably familiar.

"Good job weaklings. Chaw-haw-haw, that's as far as you'll go," Skuntank smirked, stopping the duo from going further. They eyed the poison type contemptuously as they internally growled. This was just more evidence that Team Skull was nothing more than a bunch of creepy stalkers!

"You again?!" Charmander roared. "Look, I was having a good time reveling in our discovery and then you had to go and ruin it like you always do, you idiots," he said angrily. Team Skull was shocked at angry the fire type had gotten. They had noticed the tail flame had shot up at least ten feat in a dangerous fire stream from his rage.

"Like I care," Zubat said coldly after regaining his composure. Team Drive was not amused by Team Skull's attempt at trying to one up them.

"I said get out of my way!" Lily said angrily.

"You can do whatever you want, but it won't change a thing," Koffing said without missing a beat.

They all got into stances ready for battle and Koffing and Skuntank prepared the noxious special combo. They fired and this one was much more potent…

So I kind of turned Chimecho into a genius heroine in this part of the story. I alwasy felt that she and Croagunk had gotten the short end of the stick in games. I wanted to do something for Croagunk but honestly, Chimecho is just easier to work with as she has a closer relationship with the members of Team Drive given that she works at the assembly as opposed to Team Drive visiting Croagunk's swap shop which hasn't officially been opened yet as Croagunk is having more trouble fixing the swap cauldron than he did in the games although truth be told, the swap system will not be an essential part of the story. It may be mentioned in passing but that's really about it for that.