Ch.10: The Switch! Patrol Gone Wrong?

Author's Note:

Hey guys! Here's the full chapter, like I promised. I must warn you though, this one is rather long. Lol. Anyone who gets to the end gets a cookie. XD

Eve: Ooh! I want a cookie!

Me: I meant that figuratively Eve. Besides, you are all of them.

Eve: Oh yeah...

Me: Anyway, please forgive me for the incredibly long wait and please enjoy the chapter!

"It is always said that one who takes a walk in their partner's shoes has a greater effect on their heart..."

Eve's POV:

"Whaaaaat?!" We all exclaimed, seemingly catching Chatot off guard as he lost his footing and hit the floor comically.

"We can't bring any items? And only four members can go?" I asked her, basically reiterating what she had previously said.

She looked at me, seemingly a bit unsure about us as she turned back to face Wigglytuff. "Wigglytuff, are you really sure that this is the team you want to promote? They don't seem very serious about it."

"What?! Not serious about it?! What do ya mean?!" I asked her, getting a tense. She faced me again, but in a more curious manor than before.

"What do I mean?" She repeated. "Well Eve, this test...it's not just some simple task to promote you. No. We want to see if you're ready to deal with the conditions professional teams deal with every day out on their adventures. When you set out on a long journey, often times you'll start running low on supplies. There won't always be a place for you to stock up on items. You'll have to learn to make due if you ever hope to make it as a real team. Remember, this is an establishment designed to train beginners like test is simply to help you learn, and you guys are already whining about the restrictions."

I grit my teeth at her explanation. She was right, those were stupid things to be whining about... "Ugh, well you may have a point..." I hung my head low for but a second before I stamped my foot on the ground so suddenly that Chatot flinched. "But there's no way that I'm not serious about exploring! You can forget that! I'm going to be the best, and that's all there is to it!"

Her curious look only seemed to intensify. "The best huh?" She approached me and rubbed the top of my head with her paw. "Then you'd better hurry up and graduate from this guild." She stepped back. 'Ugh, why did she have to mess up my fur?' "There are a lot of teams out there that are looking for what you're looking for."

"Anyway, speaking of exploring, the patrol test is not all that Wigglytuff has called you in here for. I'll leave it to you Wigglytuff." 'Something else? How could there be something else? This news was already pretty big.' I felt the all too familiar flame of excitement start to ignite within my gut as my tail involuntarily swished back and forth.

"Yoom-tah!" Exclaimed Wigglyguff, as per usual. "Alright Eviolite friends, normally this isn't even considered for our new friends, but you guys show great talent. The guild's annual expedition is coming up soon, and I'm considering letting you come along this year!"

I jumped at the news. "Expedition?! You mean some kind of long exploration or something?! To make a big discovery?! That kind of expedition?!"

This time, Chatot stepped in and explained. "Well generally yes, though it's not guaranteed we will find anything. It is still a great honor to be able to go, let alone be considered. I will have no slacking off from any of you. From now on, all of you will be constantly reviewed by the guildmaster and myself based on your performance here at the guild or on missions. It'd be wise to give it your all."

"So it's some sort of selection process. You select members of the guild who you deem best fit to go on the expedition, while leaving the rest to the guild to run and protect it. It's almost like a competition." Alex summed up. Chatot nodded.

"Exactly. We can't leave the guild unprotected for prolonged periods of time. It's simply a matter of security." Chatot confirmed. "Furthermore, a massive group such as the entire lot of the guild would only slow progress. Now, if there are no further questions, you are dismissed."

At that, Evelyn and her team members said farewell to Wigglytuff and exited the room. However, before Evelyn left, she stopped by me and smiled.

"You'll have to tell me how you're mother's doing when we meet again. The test will be three days from tomorrow. That's just before the guild plans to leave on the expedition, so don't forget." She said before leaving the room, not even giving me enough time to respond.

"My mother?"

6:00pm, Grace Family House:

After Esuna received her badge, we left Wigglytuff's chamber and spent a couple of hours around town. We decided to head home once the first signs of nightfall presented themselves over the town. It wasn't quite time to sleep yet, so we were all gathered in the living room either conversing, practicing magic or reading...well except for Alex. He had taken our badges and was working on upgrading them all.

"So Ally? How exactly do ya think Evelyn knows Mom?" I asked Ally, who at the moment seemed to have lost the attention of her boyfriend to a spell book. He was really in to those lately.

"Mmm...I'm not really sure. Mom's never mentioned anyone by that name. I guess they could be friends." She guessed.

"Maybe..." I drifted. "Austin's sure been into spell books lately. What's up with him?"

"Not sure. My only guess is that he really likes magic. I mean he seems to really love using it. He's probably just studying." Ally observed as she poked the said pikachu, receiving no response. She laughed at his strange behavior. "I've never really seen him this focused on anything. What could be driving him to study this hard?"

I focused on him for a second and was soon reminded of what had almost happened when Shade had infiltrated the house. Oh...

"What is it Eve?" Ally asked me. Seems that I had zoned out for a second. I shook my head to clear out my thoughts.

"Eh, it's nothing." I assured her. Truth is, I didn't want to concern her. I looked back over at Austin and sighed. I knew he felt responsible.

Just then, Alex entered the room and sat down next to us on the couch. "Hey Eve, Ally." He greeted as he sat down. "Wait a minute, Austin's stuck in a book?! That's surprising." He commented before it hit him in the face.

"Actually, I just finished it. Not too fond of the comment man." Austin said in an annoyed tone, crossing his arms.

My eyes lit up with a bit of mischief. "Magic nerd..." I whispered, not really caring if he had herd me. Turns out he had, much to his own annoyance as he rolled his eyes.

Alex picked up the book while rubbing the side of his face. "This is pretty heavy. You must be pretty into magic..." He examined the cover with interest. According to the cover, the title of the book was 'Advanced Elemental Combat Magic'. "And from this title, I'm assuming this isn't the first book you've read?"

Austin shook his head. "Nope. That's the third volume. There are five. Ella told me I have an unusual magic typing. Especially for a transent wizard, so I chose these books first."

Ally looked at him in confusion. "Unusual magic typing? Like what?"

"Well your mom told me that all wizards have a specific magical typing that they specialize in, kind of like pokemon have types and a specialty in certain attacks. There are a lot of these typings, like divine and dark, and mine is called elemental magic." He explained.

Ally nodded. "Ok, but why is it unusual?"

"Well your mom also said that wizards born in this world rarely have some of the more powerful typings, likely because they remain partially disconnected from the wizard world, and that mine is one of the rarest among typings. Also, transent wizards usually retain the magical typing of the wizard they've formed a bond with, but in my case I didn't. According to your mom, your typing is celestial. You specialize in object creation spells and spells that don't involve physical contact like barriers or force manipulation while I specialize in spells involving the elements, especially electricity since I'm an electric type. She said it was almost unheard of for such a different match in typing to occur between a transent pair."

Ally looked enlightened. "Oh. That makes sense I guess... So you've been practicing?" She asked him.

"Yep. Magic's cooler than I thought it would be. Speaking of which, have you done any training yet?" Austin asked back.

She sighed. "Oh... I guess not. I should probably get around to that." Ally said, slightly embarrassed. "Maybe I could find a book here on my typing."

"Surely. I've searched the entire house out of interest. I'm not a wizard, but magic interests me as well. Your parents have quite an extensive library of books. It's pretty impressive." Alex informed, seemingly impressed.

Austin got up seconds later. "Well Ally, I'm gonna head to our room. You coming sweetheart?" He asked Ally with a smile shortly after stretching. Ally smiled as well, nodding as she got up, bid us good night and followed him down the right hall. I always wondered why he kept to the 'sweetheart' thing.

I looked over at Luke after they had left. When Esuna said that they were dating, I was a bit surprised. He actually got comfortable around her. Even so, he still had those red cheeks going for him...

"Well he sure seems happy." Alex said, getting up from his sitting position. "Come on. I think we should leave them to themselves to talk for a while. Besides, Drew, Flare and the others have all went to bed and it's pretty late. We should too."

I nodded, getting up myself and following him down the hall to our room.

9:00am, Grace Family House:

I woke up early the next morning in anticipation of the coming expedition. Even though it wasn't happening for another three days, we were still being judged for it. I wanted to go, so high performance was a must.

I rolled off of my bed and snuck over to Alex's, jumping up onto it as I did so. He was sleeping in a rather unusual fashion, though I guess it suited him. He was laying on his back with his arms crossed behind his head as support, and I'm pretty sure he'd have his legs crossed if they were long enough. "Hmm..." A thought crossed through my head as I lifted my paw and prodded his face gently. "Poke."

He batted my paw away and turned away from me as I stifled a laugh. I placed my paw on him once more and started shaking him. He still wouldn't wake up, so my mind thought up yet another solution.

"Ok ok Eve, I'm up. Stop shaking me." Alex pleaded after I nearly pushed him off of his bed. Ok, I guess I was being a bit dramatic, but we couldn't mess this up. "Ok, please don't tell me you're gonna get hyper again and run off."

I laughed at his plea. "Heh, yeah. Sorry about that. I'll try but I can't promise anything."

"Yeah, I can see why that might be a problem for you." He laughed. "Exploring really excites you."

"Speaking of running off, we should really get going before we get summoned again by the magic nerd. I'm really getting tired of my ears popping. Eevee ears weren't meant to be subjected to such torture."

"The magic nerd?" Alex laughed. "What'd Austin do to deserve that?"

"Well let's see... He read three whole spell books without a problem, and I'm sure he memorized then all." I explained, as if it weren't obvious. "Plus there's the ear popping thing."

"Yeah, I would guess that those big ears are pretty sensitive." He assumed. "Then again, long, big ears and extremely bushy tails are the pride of eevees. They make you look cute."

I felt that all too familiar warmth flood into my cheeks again. 'He thinks I look cute?' "I-I um... Heh, ya know~. W-we should probably go now." With that nervous statement, I grabbed his hand and shot out the door and down the hall, pulling him along with me.

Like yesterday, Austin was waiting in the middle of the living room, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently. I could only assume that we were the ones he was waiting on since the others were already in the room. It was pretty bad that we were the only ones to make the team late... It was also pretty bad that we were about to crash into him.

He turned just in time for us to collide with him...or so I thought. Just when we were about to collide with him, we hit some sort of barrier and bounced back onto one of the couches in the room. 'What?! Did we just bounce off of air?'

After recovering from the impact, I shook my head and jumped off of the couch. "What just happened?"

"Hmm?" Austin looked at me a bit confused. "Oh, finally you show up. I thought I was gonna have to use that summoning spell again. Good thing I'm quick with that barrier though."

"Barrier?" I repeated as I walked up to him and tried to jap him, only to hit a seemingly invisible wall that shone a bit upon impact. "Alright then." I pulled my paw back swiftly before bringing it forward again, slamming it hard into the barrier and shattering it completely. A shockwave emitted outwards slightly from the impact. "Eh, not very strong..."

"Well if ya hit it like that!" Austin shouted, sounding quite vexed. "Where'd ya learn to do that anyway?"

"Hmm...I don't know. Just kinda did." I replied. Austin just sighed.

"Well regardless, we have to get to the guild. I wouldn't think that being late would be so impressive to Chatot or Wigglytuff." Austin looked at me with an obviously intensional smirk on his face. I merely sneered in response. I wish I could hit him for real this time, without the protection of that barrier, but Ally was watching so it wouldn't exactly do my conscience any favors. "Especially with the expedition coming up so quickly."

I tapped my foot on the ground impatiently. "Are ya gonna keep standing there saying things we already know, or are we gonna go now?"

Too bad for him. He stood there a bit too long. "Well-"

"Sorry Ally!" I yelled quickly as I struck him hard in the face with my paw. He was sent out the door (luckily it was open) where he tumbled and slid to a stop on the sandy pathway of the housing district. Townsfolk who happened to be passing by at the time all stopped and looked at him in bewilderment.

I smiled widely in satisfaction. "Hehe. Sorry Ally, but he was taxing my patience. Let's go guys!" I walked out the door, ignoring his possibly unconscious form as I turned down the path to the guild.

Wigglytuff's Guild:

It appeared that the assembly had just ended when I slid down the ladder to the guild's second floor. Austin and the others hadn't shown up yet, so I decided to go ahead and visit the guildmaster. If anything, Chatot could tell us what we had to do today.

I began making my way over to the chamber when suddenly two dimly familiar figures blocked my path followed by someone I was sure I had never seen before.

"Woah there! Lookie here. It looks like we've crossed paths with the chicken again." Said one of them, a coffing to his comrades, a zubat and a skuntank.

I looked up at them with an unamused expression. "Umm...and you three are?" I asked them, not even bothering to remember.

They looked dumbstruck. "What?!" The zubat exclaimed as he looked at the skuntank. "She doesn't remember us boss. How rude is that?"

The "boss" as he called him shook his head, calling them "knuckleheads" before glaring at me. "So you're the little wimp who foolishly took down my companions a while back. Become an explorer too I see?"

I looked the other two up and down. No doubt that they were the ones who had stolen my relic fragment. They had come from the direction of the crew rooms so they must've become explorers. "How the heck did you two become explorers? It's not like you're actually in to helping people or catching outlaws. Considering you are outlaws...petty ones, but you are."

"What?! Why you little!" Skuntank responded angrily as he attempted to cut me with a slash attack. Of course, having dealt with this kind of thing many times before, I had no problem with backflipping out of the attack's range. I smirked when I landed.

"Gotta be quicker than that to catch me. I'm not a wimp as you're companions tell you I am." Just then, Austin and the others dropped down the ladder.

"Ugh. Seriously Eve. You didn't have to flatten me like that. Ya know it's not nice to start off the day with a splitting headache." He complained, walking up to me with his paw to his head. "Who're these guys anyway?"

Alex and the others approached rather quickly when they saw what stance I was in. "They're the ones who stole from Eve shortly after she met me. The coffing and the zubat at least, not sure about the skuntank."

Austin didn't look too happy to hear that as he clenched his fists and glared at the three thieves. His cheeks flickered with electricity like they always did when he got angry. "You guys are the ones who messed with my teammate?!"

Skuntank looked amused, quite in contrast to his two teammates who were now hiding behind him. "So you've got quite a number of friends I see." He turned to Zubat and Coffing. "Well boys, it's about time we head out. We've got some things to talk about." The two looked pretty nervous when he finished that last sentence.

The three made their way to leave, but I stopped Skuntank at the ladder.

"Just what are you guys doing here anyway?" I asked him, a bit confused as to why Wigglytuff would allow them to stay here.

Without turning around, Skuntank laughed. "Didn't you hear? Wigglytuff hired us as honored guests for the upcoming expedition. I suppose we'll see you around. Oh and uh, you can call us Team Skull." He then left up the ladder as well.

"Ugh. How could Wigglytuff hire them?" I complained. To us they were petty thieves, but we didn't really know all that much about them. Their "boss", or whoever he was, looked a lot stronger than Coffing and Zubat, so who knows what crimes he's committed. They had to be plotting something.

Just then, Chatot exited from Wigglytuff's chamber and spotted us. "Ah, Team Eviolite. Come here. I have something very crucial to discuss with you."

"Crucial? Sounds like boring work. I'm outta here." I tried to run off but to no avail. Alex caught me and carried me all the way over to Chatot. The act was slightly annoying, then again I probably would've gotten in trouble for running off. Stupid Chatot...

"Excuse me? Are you telling me that you refuse to handle business that's crucial to the needs of the guildmaster himself? If so, your chances in going on the expedition don't look so high." Ugh. Chatot could be so annoying. He did have a point though.

"Uh, no! Not at all! Eheheh. I was just kidding!" I pleaded nervously. This expedition was my first real chance to discover something exciting and newsworthy. I couldn't afford to be considered unfit to go.

Chatot gave me a short, unamused expression before addressing the rest of the group. I stuck my tongue out at him when he wasn't looking however. Know it all...

"Anyway, so some of you may have noticed that Wigglytuff takes a particular liking to a specific food. This food, and I don't know why, but for some reason it means the world to him, and to put it simply, we're out of Perfect Apples. And I don't mean to freak you out or anything, but this has never happened before and the guildmaster gets, well, I don't even want to talk about it. The point is, without Perfect Apples, something very bad will happen."

There was such thing as a perfect apple? "So you're saying that you ran out of these perfect apples? Where could they have gone? I mean, certainly if you know that something bad happens when Wigglytuff doesn't have them, you must have reserves of them." Alex reasoned.

Chatot sighed. "Well normally, yes. But it seems that our reserves have been raided. You see, the guildmaster has a habit of sneaking out at night to pilfer the guild's food supply, and no amount of lock and key will stop him." Ugh. Figures. We give up ninety percent of our earnings towards this kind of stuff only for our guildmaster to pilfer the food supply...

Chatot flapped his wings to recapture our attention. "Anyway, your mission is to go out and scavenge for Perfect Apples in the woods East of Waterfall Cave. Please keep in mind that this is a high priority mission and must be completed as quickly and carefully as possible."

Austin nodded and Chatot dismissed us before practically freaking out and rushing back into Wigglytuff's chamber. "Well he's a nervous wreck today..." Flare noted, making her way over to Croagunk's station. She seemed to speak to him about something before he turned around, picked something up out of his cauldron and placed it in her paw.

"Hey Drew!" She called. "Got something for ya!" She held up some sort of amulet in her paw. I figured she must've traded some stuff for it in Croagunk's shop.

"Uhh, what is it?" He asked, walking over in question of the newly mentioned item. Flare smiled.

"It's a gift silly. I traded some stuff for it. It's an amulet that raises the defense and special defense of quilava." She carefully placed the thin necklace part around his neck.

"Oh uh, thanks. Eheheh." He smiled awkwardly, only to blush when she gave him a small peck on the cheek.

"Yeah well let's get going before you have to use the amulet to defend against Chatot when he gets onto us about not leaving right away." She laughed, leading him up the ladder, the rest of us following shortly.

10:00am, Crossroads, Alex's POV:

Once out of the guild, we followed Austin (strangely Eve made no attempt to run ahead) down the staircase, stopping at the center of the crossroads.

"So Austin, obviously we can't all go on this mission. There'd be not point in sending nine of us to pick up some apples, but there's another issue." Noting the size of our team, we'd likely have to split up daily tasks such as this often, and since the number of members we have is odd, if we split up into two four member teams, one member would be left out. "If we split up so that one group goes on missions, it would be more beneficial to send out three instead of four. Just in the case that we get any on-spot requests from townsfolk or otherwise while we're out. We don't want to leave just one of us here to handle something like that, and we certainly don't want to turn it down."

Austin looked at me oddly. "When did you become our team's strategist?" He laughed. "I guess that makes sense. I was just gonna let the others have a break while we were gone. Ehehe..." Well one thing's for sure. They're sure lucky they had Ally on the team...

"Ok then. If we're doing it how Alex says we should, then Connor, Drew and Flare should take missions while we search for Perfect Apples. Luke and Esuna, you guys can stay here. Now let's hurry up before Chatot spots us and freaks out about how "crucial" this mission is."

After some more discussion and a few moments of preparation, we separated. Connor, Drew and Flare headed back into the guild in search of missions, Luke and Esuna headed for town (I assumed they took this opportunity as a window for a date), and we set out for the appropriately named Apple Woods.

Dungeon Entrance - Apple Woods:

As it turns out, Apple Woods lies just beyond another wooded area called Oran Forest. Instead of apples, oran berries littered the trees and that was pretty much all you could find. We had to pass through the forest and its dungeon first in order to even get to our destination, since taking a route around it proved not only to be longer but more dangerous as we knew little to nothing about the area or the dungeons surrounding it. On the bright side, at least we now had a three week supply of oran berries stocked up.

Anyway, compared to Oran Forest, Apple Woods was seemingly no different in appearance. The only notable differences were the apples (obviously) and the ground, which was composed of mostly soil as apposed to Oran Forest's grassy terrain. There wasn't much of an entrance really. In fact, the two forests were seemingly connected. The decently sized path we had taken just after exiting the previous dungeon had a point at which the trees grew apples instead of oran berries. The scenery seemed to gradually transition at that point as well. It was rather odd.

We were currently resting in a clearing between the two forests before what we believed to be the entrance to the dungeon of Apple Woods. We had gotten a little carried away with the oran berry collecting, so Austin was in the middle of emptying his bag while the rest of us rested. After all, we needed some room for the Perfect Apples.

"Hey Austin. Almost done over there? Getting kind of bored here." Eve complained. She had been doing so for the past ten minutes. I was starting to wonder if, compared to her, Austin or Ally actually had ADHD. It was hard to tell. I decided to test just how hyperactive she was. Mainly her reflexes.

I took an oran berry out of my bag and held it up. "Hey Eve." She looked over at me and tilted her head. "Think fast!" I quickly threw the berry at her as hard as I could. Her eyes widened for a second before she hit it with her paw. The motion itself was incredibly fast. Too bad it was the wrong one...

Once deflected, the berry flew straight up and before she could react, it dropped straight down and smashed on her head. "Oh Arceus no..." But it was too late. Oran berry juice, to my knowledge, had the most potential to stain out of all other berries, and now that juice was all over Eve's fur. How could one berry do so much damage?

She just sat there and blinked for a second before reaching into her own bag. Not a second passed before I received a face full of oran berry. She had thrown about three at me, which I quickly wiped away. "Yeah, I kinda deserved that." Apparently that wasn't the last of it though as one more hit me from above, in a similar fashion to the one that hit Eve. "That too." I laughed. I looked up at Eve's ear to find that (by pure luck) her bow had remained perfectly clean. The juice would probably have ruined it since it was partially made of synthetic material.

Apparently, Austin and Ally had been watching and got their share of amusement from the episode. "Guys! Stop wasting our resources! Those are for missions ya know!" Austin complained.

I got up and walked over to her. "Here, let me take that off for you." I offered, noting that her paws also had a bit of juice on them and she'd probably get it dirty if she tried to remove the bow herself. I still had one clean hand however.

"Wait! My bow's not dirty? You are lucky." Eve pointed out as I removed the bow and placed it in her bag.

I rubbed my arm nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that. Not my smartest decision huh? Ehehe."

Eve just smiled at me. "Eh, don't sweat it. I already hit you with a couple of them so we're even. Besides, I'm sure my mom knows a cleaning spell that can get rid of this stuff. I'll just deal with it for now." I had a feeling that she only reserved that response for me...

"Oh umm, ok then..." To be honest though, she kinda looked cute with that berry juice in her fur.

"Ok guys, bag's all empty and that's taken care of, so why don't we get back to the mission at hand? We still have a dungeon to pass through." Austin suggested. Eve and I nodded and I helped her up. After regrouping and strategizing a bit, we entered the dungeon.

Inside Dungeon - Apple Woods:

So far it had been pretty straight forward. The number of resident pokemon who had approached us had been relatively low so far and the dungeon wasn't too hard to navigate. Plus, it probably helped that the berry juice that was still all over me and Eve made our group look like less of a threat.

Eve took a second to rub a portion of her fur, only to produce a disgusted expression in response. "Ugh, eww. This stuff is really getting sticky now. We need to hurry up and get those stupid apples." She complained. Apparently, oran berry juice did a lot more than just stain. It appeared to get sticky after drying.

"Don't worry Eve. This dungeon doesn't look like it'll take much time to get through. Then we'll just grab some Perfect Apples and get out of here. You can take a shower then. Besides, you two seem to be keeping a majority of the dungeon's residents away from us." Austin laughed, resulting in a menacing glare from Eve.

Eve raised a paw up at him. "Oh yeah! Well what's that supposed ta mean huh?!" Austin may have been the leader, but that didn't mean he wasn't scared of Eve.

"W-what?! Oh, nothing! I just meant that your fur looks so bad right now that-" Uh-oh...

Eve's expression was scary. "Rrgh! Austin!" She knocked him straight over the head with the flat of her paw, not even giving him time to protest. I found it quite amusing actually.

Austin sat crouched on the floor with his paws to his head. "Ugh... Sometimes I regret letting her join the team..."

"What was that?!" Eve demanded.

Austin bolted straight up with his arms in front of himself in protest. "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Eh, I agree with Eve. The stuff's all over me, including my tail leaf, which I'm pretty sure interferes with its ability to photosynthesize. I don't think that's healthy..." I was a bit unsure about how the whole photosynthesis tail thing worked in with the diet and bodily processes of a snivy. I knew that a snivy's tail would droop when they were sick, but other than that, I was pretty clueless. I was starting to get the feeling that Austin and I should probably learn about the species we've been turned into. I mean, it'd be pretty bad if we were unaware of something crucial to our health...

Suddenly my eyes flicked to the right and caught sight of something. I barely had time to bring out my sword before quickly jumping in front of my group and slashing clean through the middle of a falling tree, splitting it in half just before it could land on top of us. The now halved tree landed around us, one half in front, one in back as I just stared at my sword in astonishment.

The same could be said for my teammates, except they were staring at me instead of the sword. "Alex, how the heck did you do that?!" Eve shouted.

"I have no clue. This sword shouldn't normally be able to cut through such a thick tree." I replied, confusedly staring down at the halved piece of forestry. "More importantly, why would a tree fall in the middle of a dungeon? I thought you said these type of things didn't happen unless you stepped on a trap, and I don't see one." I asked Eve, looking suspiciously over in the direction the tree had previously been.

"We're being followed." Ally concluded. Confused glances were cast on Ally, calling on her to deliberate. "It's the only way that can happen. Resident pokemon don't damage the dungeon walls or anything along them unless there's a battle."

I surveyed the path we were on. There didn't seem to be any damage to the walls or anything else that could've caused a tree to fall for the matter. "Wait a minute, I thought it was impossible for ordinary pokemon to even touch things on top of dungeon walls."

Ally sighed. "That's what's worrying me. All of these dungeons we've been through lately are a bit...different than the ones I used to enter back near Pokemon Square. It's as if they've changed in nature..."

"Oh come on. Dungeons change all the time. There's no way someone could follow us." Eve argued a bit impatiently.

"Still true. Unless this dungeon is fading." I had a feeling that Ally had already lost Eve in all of this. She just sat there and blinked at her sister's statement. "My point is, the other dungeons might've been different, but to a small degree. I've seen destroyed walls in those dungeons. I think you might actually be able to climb over the wall here."

"Over the wall huh?" I said out loud. I released one of my vines from my shoulders and attempted to wrap it around one of the trees limbs. Surprised that it had worked, I quickly pulled myself up to the branch and released my grip. I found it strange how these vines acted as a part of my body, but shrugged it off and waved down at my teammates. "Hey! It's true. The wooded part is traversable as well!"

"So that's it huh?" Ally replied. "This dungeon must really be fading. If it does, the forest'll be left in tact but the shift in land structure will be dramatic, likely causing massive earthquakes. Hopefully that won't be too soon."

I jumped down, giving her a questioning look as I did so. "How do ya know this stuff anyway?"

"Lucario told me a long time ago. He's an old friend of my parents. He used to tell me all kinds of things about rescue work, dungeons and such. I guess I was just curious all the time." She explained.

Austin stood up. Eve's hit had left him sitting in the same pained position this whole time. It's lucky she hadn't knocked him out. "Well then, what are we doing just standing around here for? We still have a mission to complete. If someone is following us, we can deal with them when we get out of here. Just watch out for anything else like this, especially now that we can't trust the path's walls."

We all agreed and continued walking down the path. Nothing much else happened. We arrived on the next floor without much difficulty and kept moving. From then on, the rest of the dungeon was rather simple. A few resident pokemon showed up occasionally, only to get wiped out as Eve impatiently iron tailed them out of the way. Geez, she was not a pokemon you would want to mess with when angered or kept waiting...

Dungeon End, Ally's POV:

"So I suppose those are the apples that Chatot sent us for?" I asked out loud while staring straight up at the most enormous tree I had ever seen. Right at the top of said tree were the apples. They must be quite big if they could be viewed from here.

"Wow! That is one big tree! How do ya suppose we're gonna get those apples down from there huh?!" Eve asked me excitedly. I shook my head. How she could go from annoyed to impatient and then to excited I'll never know.

"I have no idea. Magic?" I suggested just as intense laughter was heard coming from behind the tree.

"Magic huh? Hah! That would be nice. But I think we have a more feasible plan." Said Skuntank in a boastful voice as he came out from behind the tree along with his two teammates.

"Aha! So you were following us!" Eve shouted at them, causing them to laugh yet again.

"Follow you? Heh, I think you better get your head checked kid. In case you haven't noticed, we got here before you did." Skuntank remarked.

"I'd hardly say that's sound evidence." Alex commented, making Skuntank sneer.

"Regardless, you four wanted to get those apples huh? Well I've got a foolproof plan to get them down from there. After I've carried it out, you guys can just grab then and be on your way." He laughed oddly before ramming his head into the side of the tree. I cringed slightly at the sound of the impact. Probably not the most healthy method, but quite a few apples fell down as a result.

"And there you go. Now hurry up and grab them. You certainly don't have all day." Skuntank suggested, but none of us moved.

"Yeah? And why should we trust you of all people? You're probably just gonna pull a fast one on the first person who walks up to pick them up and take them all for yourselves." Eve replied, not trusting them one bit.

"Hmm. Well it seems that yet again my teammates underestimated you." He said as he glared at both of them. "But that hardly matters now. We'll still be making off with those apples. Coffing!"

"Right Boss! The combo." Coffing said as he moved in front of Zubat. The...combo?

There wasn't much time to think though as we were immediately blasted with a huge cloud of noxious gas. I tried for the life of me not to inhale any as I jumped to the side and out of the gas's range, but from the sound of my coughing, I was pretty sure I had still done so. The gas cleared to reveal that I was the only one who had managed to avoid being knocked out by the attack. Meanwhile, Team Skull was busily collecting the Perfect Apples and stuffing them into their bags.

I tried to control my breathing, but the coughing wouldn't stop. Oh come on! Not now!

Team Skull had apparently heard me and turned around to meet my gaze, only for Skuntank to laugh. "Heh, so you managed to escape getting knocked out by the combo huh? It seems that you're having a bit of a problem with the effects of the gas however."

I looked over at his bag of perfect apples and tried to control my breathing once again. I had to get some of those. I focused my attention on zubat. He seemed to have some as well. I doubted he could've collected too many of them, but he was an easier target than Skuntank, especially in my state.

I forced my coughing down as much as I could and sprang straight towards Skuntank with a quick attack. When I was within range, I jumped just high enough to avoid Skuntank's slash attack before I kicked off of his head, sending me flying skyward towards Zubat. I began flipping in midair as I approached him, and when I was in range I slammed him in the head with a powerful iron tail. The attack sent him crashing to the ground in an instant as I flipped back and crashed on my stomach in front of him. The apple that had been in his bag fell out and landed right beside me. My coughing fit continued and the last thing I saw before I passed out was Skuntank and Coffing zipping off with their steal.

Eve's POV:

I woke with a start with the familiar feeling that something was wrong. "Ally!" I bolted straight up from my laying position and searched around frantically for Ally. Thankfully, I spotted her almost instantly. She was lying just inches from the tree near what looked to be Zubat and a rather large apple. I couldn't tell she was unconscious, but she was coughing uncontrollably. "Oh my Arceus! The gas!"

I searched around for Austin and found his bag. Ignoring his unconscious form, I rummaged through his bag until I found two items. An odd black box and Ally's inhaler. I frowned at the box and quickly stuffed it back inside before grabbing the inhaler and dashing to Ally's side. Opening her mouth, I quickly pushed the button that released the berry concoction and let her naturally inhale it.

Once she finally stopped coughing and her breathing returned to normal, I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto my haunches. "Thank Arceus!" I let out in an exasperated tone.

Looking to my right, I saw the apple from before. "Did she actually fight for that apple in the middle of an asthma attack?" I glared at Zubat's unconscious form. 'What's with those jerks anyway?' I quickly stored the Perfect Apple in my treasure bag before focusing my attention bag on Ally.

"Why would she do that?" I marveled. I looked back at Austin. "Some help you were..." This was a great chance to pull a prank on him, but I decided it wasn't appropriate considering Ally's condition. No, I needed to make sure she was ok.

I got up and placed a paw on her forehead. "Good, no fever. She didn't inhale enough of the poison." Just to be safe, I pulled a pecha berry out of my bag and laid it next to me for when she woke up. The others had some with them, so they should be fine.

"Hmm, let's see...oh yeah! I have a reviver seed!" I exclaimed, pulling the said seed out of my bag. "Now let's see, how do you use these?" I pondered for a second before it hit me. I took the berry between my paws and smashed it over Ally, letting the crushed seed particles sprinkle over her. The particles began to glow for a second before dying out. After a few seconds, Ally let out a gasp and sat up in a hurried manor.

"Heh, someone's eager to wake up." I laughed. Ally looked around in a confused manor.

"Eve?" She asked me, grabbing her head in slight pain. "What happened?"

"Sheesh, don't ask me. You're the one who took out Zubat over there and got us an apple." I explained. "Speaking of that." I raised my paw and bonked her over the head with it, but not nearly as hard as I did Austin. "That's for endangering your life for some stupid apples. Don't you EVER do that again. You hear me?"

"Oww! I got it Eve. I'm sorry. I-" She tried to finish, but I interrupted her with a hug.

"All the same, thank you..." I smiled. We separated and Ally looked up at the tree.

"Still, I don't think Chatot'll be happy with just one apple. Guess we'll just have to go with it." She looked over at Austin and Alex. "So, do ya have any more reviver seeds?" She asked me whilst taking a bite of the pecha berry I had laid out.

"Nope." I sighed. "Looks like we're carrying 'em back. Come on Ally." We got up, retrieved our fallen comrades, and teleported back home.

11:30am, Treasure Town, Esuna's POV:

It had been about an hour and a half since we had separated, and Luke still couldn't decide what to do for our date. I had decided earlier to let him choose instead of immediately going with the café because I found his nervous attempts quite cute. Plus, there were many different places that I hadn't really thought about. Treasure town was a very popular traveling destination for many reasons, not just for its guild. The market district was teaming full of shops of many kinds. Of course there was the keckleon shop, but there was also a select stand for bows (where I was sure Eve had gotten her bow), a flower shop run by a roselia, a few jewelry shops, and a couple snack stands. There were several more dotted around the market, but they were too far off to see. To my left, I saw a restaurant that I hadn't noticed before. I wasn't all too surprised though. I had just arrived only a short time ago.

Luke took a nervous glance at the restaurant before quickly turning away again. I giggled a bit at the action. He didn't have to try so hard... "Hey listen, Luke. You don't have to-"

"Watch out!" Someone shouted. We stopped and looked around, but came up with nothing.

"Luke, did you hear something?" I asked him just as something blue came crashing down on top of him. I just stood there and gaped. 'Did someone just fall from the sky?'

"Ugh...wow. That wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be." The person said as he stood up. He was indeed blue, the perfect image of a riolu, and I knew just who he was.

"Riley?!" I exclaimed. "What the heck are you doing falling out of the sky?! You just crushed my boyfriend!" I complained, as if falling out of the sky was an every day occurrence.

He looked at me a little dazed. "Huh? Oh, hey Esuna! What're you doing in Treasure Town? Speaking of which, never forget to tip a driffblim. They don't take too kindly to it." He rubbed his head in pain, looking skyward. Well at least that explained the fall.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. We can catch up later. Just get off of him!" I shouted at him, making quick waving motions with my paws.

He looked down and gasped. "What the?! Oh Arceus! Sorry!" His surprise caused him to flip backwards onto his back. "Ugh... Not again..."

I stared at him expectantly. "Well. Help him up already."

Riley jumped straight up and helped Luke to his feet. "Sorry about that." He apologized.

Luke smiled. "No, it's fine." He acknowledged. "So Esuna. You know this guy?"

"Yeah. He was a student of my father for a while. We were great friends." I replied. "I don't know what he's doing here though. He said he was joining a rescue team."

Riley held up his paw. "Actually I did, but shortly after the leader decided to leave for Treasure Town to form an exploration team. Half of the team was left to the rescue base to run it while they were gone. We have a lot of members on our side now, so I decided to come here. I hope Austin doesn't mind..."

"Austin? Wait a minute. Are you saying that you joined Team Eviolite?" I asked him in surprise.

"Heh, yep! You wouldn't believe how I met them. See there was this girl named Eve, and-"

I slapped him on the shoulder. "Hey teammate!" I smiled. He just stood there looking dumb.

"Teammate? What're you talking about? I'm not forming a team with you."

"Actually Riley, that's not entirely true. You see, that girl you talked about, Eve. She's my sister, and Austin is our team leader. We're part of Team Eviolite." Luke explained for him.

"Hmm?" Riley blinked for a second, as if trying to process this new information. "Oh cool! That means I'll be on the same team as you Esuna. So do you know where Austin is or what?"

I laughed at his utter lack of surprise. He could be so dense at times. "Well he and the others went on missions. We're not sure when they'll be back, but you can find the guild by heading off in that direction and turning left when you come to some crossroads. You can wait for them there."

"Uhh, why can't I just hang out with you guys?"

Knowing that he wouldn't leave me alone if I didn't, I sighed and let him have it. "We're on a date Riley. Ya kinda crashed right into it."

Riley gazed between us with a look of jovial amusement. "Hah! You got a boyfriend?!" He laughed. "So you do have a girly side!"

I wasn't nearly as amused as he was. "Hmm, yeah. How's it going with that 'Soul' girl you were telling me about in your letters?" I smirked.

His face lit up red like a cheri berry. "T-that's not the same thing!" He sighed and looked away from us.

I tilted my head. 'Is he upset?' "Umm, hey Riley. I'm sorry if I-"

"No, it's fine." He sighed. I looked at him oddly before turning to Luke and whispering in his ear.

"(I think we should go with him to the guild. We can have this date some other time. I promise.)" I whispered as I kissed him on the cheek. He nodded and I turned back to Riley.

"Alright Riley. Let's go to the guild." I smiled.

"Huh? You're coming? I thought you guys had a date."

I shrugged. "The guild probably won't let you stay if you don't have a reason to be there. We can just reschedule the date. It's no problem."

Riley's mood changed for the better at the idea. "Ok then. Guess that makes sense. Let's go!" He exclaimed, running off in the wrong direction.

I sighed. "Riley, wait!" I laughed. "Guild's this way!"

Wigglytuff's Guild, Austin's POV:

Perhaps the most awkward place to wake up is riding on the back of your girlfriend. I came to as Ally and Eve were making their way up the steps to the guild. The oddity of the location sent a jolt of surprise through my body, nearly sending me tumbling off of Ally's back and down the stairs.

"Ally?" I muttered. She turned to me and smiled.

"Heh, morning sleepy head. You were out for a while." She laughed. I gave her a baffled expression in return, only to receive more of her joyful giggles. "We got skunked, remember?"

My eyes widened. "Wait a minute! Did you have a-?!" She shook her head to make me stop.

"Eve woke up and gave me my inhaler. I'm fine. You can tell that, right?" I sighed. At least Eve knew how to work the thing, though she did say they used to have one before they got separated from their parents.

"That's good at least. Oh! Did you manage to get any apples?"

"Well...kinda. See, I only managed to knock down Zubat in my coughing fit, soooo we have one." She laughed. I seriously doubted that Chatot would be laughing-wait a minute...

"In your coughing fit? You tried to fight them when you were having an asthma attack?!"

"Well...yeah. Pretty much. Yeah." She replied casually, which didn't really help much. "I didn't want to let Eve down ya know?"

I sighed. "Guess so..." I guess I really wouldn't understand a sibling bond like they do. All I had was Thomas and, well, I couldn't even remember being his brother in the first place, much less getting along with him.

"Ok, I think I can walk by myself now." I announced as I slid off of Ally's back. I frowned when I saw that Alex had already done so. He probably woke up before me...

I shrugged it off as we entered the guild headed for Wigglytuff's chamber.

Wigglytuff's Guild, Second Ground Floor:

"What?! You only managed to get one?!" Chatot was literally flying around the room in a flustered panic. "How can I possibly tell the guildmaster that we only have one Perfect Apple?! This isn't good!" He turned to us with a frustrated look on his face. "You four will accompany me when we present this failure to the guildmaster this evening. I'm not just gonna take the heat for this on my own!"

I shivered at the thought of Wigglytuff getting angry. Everyone seemed to be deathly scared of angering or upsetting him. It didn't exactly sound like a pleasant experience.

"But Chatot, we would've gotten more if Team Skull hadn't-"

"Oh no. Don't try to pass blame on another team for your failure! At this point, you should just give up on being chosen for the expedition! With the gravity of this mission, more care should've been put into making sure it was successful, and I'm certain that Wigglytuff won't take too kindly to having a shortage of his favorite food!"

I heard Eve gasp at Chatot's last statement and turned to see her eyes filled with tears. Immediately I felt feelings of anger and frustration well up inside my chest as I closed my eyes and clenched my fist. Chatot probably kept talking about our 'failure', but at that point I stopped listening.

"Shut up..." I muttered angrily as he kept talking. I clenched my fist tighter. "Shut up..." I said a bit louder, though he still continued. "Shut up!" I shouted, opening my eyes and glaring at Chatot as the two words echoed around the room, uninterrupted by the silence that accompanied them.

Chatot stared at me in utter disbelief. "Excuse me?!"

I let out a frustrated sigh. "So we failed. Who cares? It's the first time we've ever done so, and I'm not just gonna stand around while you make one of my teammates cry!" My fist was still clinched tightly at my side. "Now you can punish us however you want, but you cannot tell Eve to give up on this expedition! We may just be recruits here, but this is MY team, and that's not ok with me!"

If Chatot was flustered before, he was a lot worse now. "Uhh ahem, well then. You've certainly made your case haven't you?" He shook nervously. "Very well then, we'll just leave the deciding up to the guildmaster. After all, that is his job."

Chatot rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Ya know, maybe it wouldn't be such a great idea to have so many people in the room when Wigglytuff throws a fit... Fine, you are dismissed." He gave in. "And you two...go take a shower. Seriously, what were you doing out there?" He shook his head and flew off.

Eve had hence then stopped crying. "You ok Eve?"

She looked at me appreciatively. "Yeah. Thanks for that..."

"Eh, no problem. It's my job to help you guys... Now let's hurry up and head for home before I have to help again."

They all looked at me dully. "Gee, thanks..."

"Kidding, kidding... Seriously though, we should be going. Chatot's right about the shower part." I laughed, noting Alex and Eve as I made my way towards the ladder when suddenly Luke and Esuna came sliding down it along with a vaguely familiar riolu.

"Hmm...?" I scanned the riolu for a second. "Wait a minute, aren't you that riolu that nearly kicked a hole in our rescue base?"

The riolu looked towards me and smiled widely. "Hah! So ya do remember me!"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well...kinda. Eheheh... Riley was it? So, you're here to join the team right?" I assumed.

He seemed rather eager, so I assumed he had something he was excited about. Plus, nobody from our base back in Pokemon Square comes here for any reason other than that... "Well of course! I didn't risk my life with a moody driffblim and crush Luke for no reason. I wanted to see what the rest of the team was up to."

"Mmm...fine. But don't go around kicking our new home. The owners could prove more moody than those driffblim."

Ally gave me a questionable look. "Are you saying my mother is moody?"

I shrugged. "No. I'm saying your father is moody." I said bluntly.

Ally sighed. "Oh come on. Give him a break. He's just looking out for me."

I shrugged. "I guess so..."

"Oh yeah! Ally! Your last name is Grace right?!" Riley asked out of the blue.

Ally nodded. "Uh yeah. Why?"

"Well here's something cool! Esuna's parents are-" Esuna nervously slapped her paw over his mouth, which apparently irritated him as he immediately slapped it away. "Hey! What gives Esuna?! I was about to tell Ally that your parents are Lucario and Ninetales! Thanks for the slap! Geez..."

Esuna slapped her own face with her paw as all of the attention was drawn to her. "Rrgh! Riley! I told you that was a secret!"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Eheheh... Sorry!"

I stared at Esuna, suddenly remembering our time as fugitives where we fought Articuno and Moltres. How we had somehow made it to Ninetale's place without getting caught by Team ACT. She had set me free from the accusations of the Ninetales legend...and she was the mother of one of my teammates? And what's this about Lucario?!

Ally held up her paw as if to silence a voice that wasn't there. "Wait a minute. Hold on! Your parents are who?! Lucario was always around us. He used to visit us when we were little. We never saw you or Ninetales."

Esuna shook her head quietly. "You're wrong. My dad brought me along with him when he visited your parents so I could play with you and Eve. We were friends, even back then..." Esuna lifted up her scarf slightly. "This scarf is something that I always brought with me. It's my mother's. I left it with your mother by accident the last time I was there. She just recently returned it to me at the tournament."

"Oh. So that explains why you were looking at my mom like she was some goddess or something. I thought you had just zoned out or something."

Eve, well, like usual she took to less conventional reactions. She pounced onto her, nearly pinning her to the ground in her fit of excitement. "I remember you now! You always tried to take the flower out of my hair when we were little!"

Esuna laughed a bit. "Yeah. I suppose I did. I wouldn't think that would excite you though. In fact, it made you pretty mad."

I turned toward a very distracted Riley and snapped to get his attention. "Ok Riley, we can get you registered with the guild later. I think we've ticked off Chatot enough today. It's time to head home."

"Alright I guess. I'm not exactly in a hurry."

'Coming from the guy who fell out of a drifblim service taxi...' I turned back to the others. "Oh, that's right. Esuna, you haven't seen Ella or Shard since joining our team. I don't even think they know you joined."

"No. I made sure to keep a low profile until I got used to seeing them. I was trying to keep the secret, which obviously failed."

"Right. Well I think we've had enough of the guild for today. Let's head home and take a break for the rest of the day."

Ally tapped my shoulder. "Umm Austin, but what about Flare and the others?"

I waved it off, making my way towards the ladder. "They can just meet us there. They'll be fine."

2:00pm, Grace Family House:

"Or they could report to Chatot and get majorly scolded... That works too..."

"Yeah, thanks a lot for the warning Austin. What did you guys do anyway? It's not like we were the culprits." Flare complained as she and the rest of our team arrived at the house.

"We failed a mission. Not really much to get upset about, but he freaked out." I shrugged. "Anyway, how'd your missions go?"

Flare shook her head. "Never mind that. Wigglytuff had a major fit in his chamber just moments before we got there. Apparently it was really bad. Chatot told us that it was because he only had one Perfect Apple, then he scolded us for no reason and sent us off. The others described hearing explosions coming from his chamber though. Apparently there was also and indoor earthquake."

"So Wigglytuff threw that big a fit huh? Man, those must be some pretty good apples." I walked over to the side of the room and laid back against one of the walls. "Just how strong is that guy anyway?"

"Oh you have no idea." Esuna warned, looking up from a spell book just as Ella walked in the door. Her attitude changed almost immediately, nearly akin to that of Eve when she got too excited. "Ella!" She exclaimed, running up to her and hugging her tightly.

"Hmm?" Ella sounded, seemingly not yet grasping who had so suddenly clung onto her. "Esuna? What are you doing here? You shouldn't be..." Looking up, Ella noticed Riley and cracked a small smile. "Riley told everyone, didn't he?"

"Yeah. That knucklehead never really could keep a secret." Esuna replied whilst maintaining a joyous gaze up at Ella, as if she were a second mom to her. At least it seemed that way. They certainly had some sort of special bond.

"But there's something I can't figure out." Everyone turned their attention to me, probably wondering what I was talking about. "Esuna. Why is the fact that your parents are Lucario and Ninetails such a big secret? I mean, I know it's pretty surprising, knowing that they're such important people and all, but I don't really see much point in hiding it."

Esuna released Ella, looking to her as if asking her to elaborate for her. Ella sighed and sat down. "Austin, I'm sure you're very familiar with the legend revolving around Ninetales, correct?"

"Yeah, of course. I was accused of being a heartless coward because of it. How could I not?" I replied, remembering the not so pleasant experience of being hated by basically everyone.

"Well in this case it's similar to what you experienced. Barely anyone knows that Ninetales has a daughter. If people were to find out about it, it wouldn't be well received. You see, there are already very negative opinions wrapped up in that legend. In fact, most people are afraid of or at least have some fear of Ninetales herself. She turned someone into a pokemon and sent them here, which at this point is unheard of at a worldly standpoint. People fear what they don't understand, and if they knew who Esuna was, they might fear her too. It's just like the reason magic is hidden from the normal world."

I nodded. It did make sense, but it didn't mean that I agreed with it. "But what about Lucario?"

This time Esuna stepped up. "That's easy. If people knew I was related to someone so important, they'd never leave me alone."

"Ok. So when do you get to spend time with your parents? They must at least get to do that."

Esuna hung her head low. "I haven't seen my mom in years. You see, when the legendary council appointed her as the guardian of nature, the natural disasters had just begun to appear, so she was sent far off into the mountains in seclusion so she could help guide the coming hero. That's just how it worked out. I've been told recently that she's been allowed to leave, but I guess she just hasn't been able to get to me yet. I don't really see my dad too often anymore either. After Shade made his move, Ella and Shard had to leave, so I went back and forth between my father and Marowak. I ended up in Treasure Town when Marowak decided to build a training dojo here and my dad recommended that I go along."

Looks like Ally and Eve weren't the only ones with parent trouble. This kind of stuff couldn't have been easy to talk about.

Luke looked at her emphatically while patting her on the back. "At this point, I just want them together again, ya know? With me..." She sounded as if she could cry at any minute.

"Alright, I think you've talked enough about this for one day sweetie. You should go relax and calm down for the rest of the day." Ella stopped her, worrying that letting her continue would only bring on an outburst of sorrow.

Esuna nodded as she and Luke started towards their room.

"Oh and Eve, sweetie?" Ella called out to Eve as she was about to leave. "You and Alex might want to take a shower first." She laughed.

I looked in Esuna's direction as she left with Luke. "Well then, if it's relaxation time. Ella, do you have any spell books over-"

She smiled. "Of course. Right this way."

Three days later, 8:00am, Grace Family House, Eve's POV:

"Expedition day! Hahaha! Alex! Common, wake up!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I pounced on top of my best friend. The only problem with that was that I accidentally pushed him off as I did so. We both tumbled off of the bed and landed on the floor. I looked up to see that he had ended up on top of me. The tip of his nose was touching mine, which didn't help the situation at all. "Oh...eheheh. Oops..."

Alex laughed. "You just have to make every morning awkward don't ya?" I blushed like mad as he picked himself up, helping me up in the process. "I'm starting to think you actually make an effort to do this stuff." He teased, which only made it worse.

"I uh, well... Just got excited..." 'Ugh, now he's teasing me...' I sighed and lowered my head slightly. "Hey Alex...listen. There's umm...something I want to tell you."

Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

"W-well I, uhh. It's just that I umm..." I looked up at him and my face burned with heat. "Alex, I-"

"Hey Alex! Eve! Hurry it up in there! We need to leave for the guild soon!" Austin shouted from outside the room. I mentally cursed, my previous courage having all but left me.

"We'll be out in a minute!" Alex shouted back at him. "Now. What was it you were about to say?"

I blushed again and dropped my head slightly. "O-oh, umm... I-I was going to say that I was really excited for the expedition today! Yeah, that's it! Eheheheh..."

Alex looked at me oddly. "Oh. Ok, if you're sure." 'What? If I'm sure? What exactly did that mean?' "Let's head out then."

Alex walked past me to pick up our treasure bag and open the door. "Alex, wait!"

He turned around, looking at me inquisitively. "Yeah?"

"I..." I let out a sigh. "Alex? Am I...annoying to you?"

Alex looked surprised by my question as he stepped back from the door. "What? Annoying? Eve, what would make you think that?"

I fidgeted with my paws a bit. "Well, you know. I tend to run ahead of the group when I'm excited, or I jump on top of people, and I do kind of embarrass you sometimes..."

Alex's expression softened as he walked up and wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. "Don't worry about that. You're fine." He assured me as he gently pat me on the back. "After all, you wouldn't be funny if you weren't like that." He released me, still holding one of my paws. "Now come on. I'm pretty sure we're pushing the limits on Austin's patients as we speak." He laughed. I smiled at him. 'Perhaps it is possible...'

We walked into the living room to find no one but Austin waiting impatiently by the door. 'Why that little!'

I slugged him on the head as hard as I could. "Seriously Austin?! This is what you rushed us for?! No one's even in here yet! Ugh, man if you only knew!"

"Agh! Hey! Would ya stop doing that?! I need my head ya know." He complained, painfully rubbing his head in the process. "Besides, I would've thought that you would want to hurry anyway, being that today is when they choose the members for the expedition and all."

He was correct as usual. I was excited. Not much had happened in the last few days besides Riley being registered with the guild. It was refreshing knowing that something exciting was about to happen.

"Well yeah, but...ya know what, never mind. So what's taking the others so long? We have to meet Evelyn at the guild for the test don't we?"

"Evelyn?" Apparently Mom was also in the living room. I must've missed her while I was busy dealing with Austin. "Who's this Evelyn you have to meet?"

"Oh, morning Mom! I was just talking about the explorer we have to meet to help us prepare for our patrol test." Suddenly I remembered something Evelyn had said to me three days ago. "Oh yeah, she kinda mentioned you the last time we saw her. She didn't say your name though. Do you know her from somewhere?"

Mom didn't seem to have heard me though. Something seemed to be distracting her. "Mom? You ok?"

"Hmm? Oh uhh, yes sweetie. I'm fine." She assured. "So, you're being tested for patrol today? That's a bit early from what I've heard. Wigglytuff must've take a liking to you."

I shrugged. "Well I guess so... I'm definitely not on Chatot's side. I just hope I get to go on this expedition. It'd be so awesome to solve a mystery."

Mom smiled. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Wigglytuff's not an orthodox thinker."

Apparently Austin had gotten tired of waiting, so he used the gathering spell (Glaner) to teleport the others into the living room.

Austin shook his head. "You guys really have to stop taking so long. Even Eve made it here before you."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?! I'm not always late!" I retorted.

"Well no...you're just the example. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be at the guild early today for the patrol test. It wouldn't look real impressive if we were late."

I was about to give him another blow, but Alex stopped me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. "He's right. They're testing us based on our ability to handle the tasks of professional explorers. Fooling around when there's something important to do isn't quite professional, don't you agree? Who's to say they wouldn't fail us from the start if we were late? And even if they didn't, we can't do this every day. It won't get us anywhere as a team."

I looked down slightly, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. 'Guess he is just looking out for the team... But why does he have to have such bad timing?'

"Exactly." Austin agreed. "Whelp, it won't do us any good just standing here. Let's go meet up with Evelyn. She should be somewhere around the guild."

"Ugh. You're too slow Austin! Hurry up!" I yelled as I proceeded to push the electric mouse out the door as fast as I could.

"What? Hey! I didn't mean we had to-oh never mind-aagh! Not my head again..."

"Sorry! Eheheh."

Wigglytuff's Guild, 2nd Ground Floor:

'Ok, so perhaps I might have slid down the ladders a bit too quickly...' Those were my thoughts as I lie bruised on the floor alongside Mari, whom I had just crashed into on the way down.

"Ugh... Eve, word of advice. As a quadruped, when going down ladders, NEVER SLIDE!" Mari complained.

"Hey! Sliding down ladders is the only way I can go down them! You try seeing the rungs past this bush of a tail!"

Mari sighed. "You can win a battle tournament yet you can't climb down a ladder. You Eviolite people are an interesting bunch."

"Why if it isn't Eve?" Said a familiar voice off to our right. I looked to see Evelyn walking up to us from Wigglytuff's chamber. "Where's the rest of your team?"

I looked behind me and then up the ladder, only to come up with nothing. I shrugged. "I don't know. I could've sworn they were right behind me."

Evelyn laughed. "You ran ahead of them didn't you? I've been told you were the excitable one."

I looked at her inquiringly. "You've been told?" I reiterated. "Who told you about me?"

Then, it was as if a balloon had popped in her ear. Her eyes widened quickly with surprise as she began looking around anxiously. "U-uhh, well...Wigglytuff told me! Yeah! He talks about you a lot! Eheheh..."

I produced a baffled look. "He does?" I asked. "That's so awesome! Haha! I knew I was on his good side!"

Evelyn have a faint smile at my reaction. "Anyway, that's obviously not why we're here, so why don't we give your teammates some time to get here and then we'll talk?" She suggested. "By the way, I've selected the help of Mari here to go with you as you take part in this test. Just so we don't have any trouble."

"Wait a minute. So Mari's gonna go on patrol with us? Why her?"

"Because I have a feeling you could learn something from her. This test is for learning remember?" Evelyn reminded me.

I sighed. "Fine." There wasn't much talking after that. We took a few minutes to wait for the others, and when they came, Evelyn jumped straight to the explanation.

"Alright, the four of you who will be partaking in the test, please listen up. As I said yesterday, you will be heading on a route through three towns; Trello Town, Auburn Town, and Castello Town. While on this route, you will complete any and all requests given to you by those who approach you along the way. The only exception to this is a request that would take you too far out of your route. Normally this would be ok, but for a test, we don't want this lasting longer than it has to. If one of these cases does arise while you are away, tell the client to write down their request and hand it to you. Then bring it back to the guild and post it on the request bulletin. Another team will take care of it after that." Evelyn explained. We nodded in agreement. "Oh and one more thing. Whether you pass or fail will be determined based on your ability to handle successive requests on a more expansive playing field, and whether you can do so without the aid of prepared supplies and a full team."

"Alright then. You pointed out the locations of the towns on our map yesterday. I think I have our route clearly mapped out." Alex affirmed. "I'd say we're ready."

Austin nodded in approval and turned to the others. "Alright Flare. You're in charge of the others while we're gone. Go confirm with Chatot to see what you should be doing and we'll catch up as soon as we get back."

Flare nodded in agreement and walked towards Wigglytuff's chamber with the others. "Alright guys. Let's get going show we?"

Grace Family House, Ella's POV:

After everyone had left for the guild, I decided to head for the library to read for a bit. Occasionally I would pop in and out of that stuffy collection room, usually when Shard was out of the house or I just got bored and wanted to study. Even though I had collected quite a few books over the years, I hadn't quite found the time to read all of them. I guess all this time I've just been too worried about Ally and Eve to really get into anything. I sighed. 'Guess I don't really need to worry too much anymore.'

On my way to the back of the library, I accidentally bumped into one of the shelves. Luckily, the impact hadn't been enough to topple anything over or knock all of the books off of the shelf, but when I looked down, I saw something that I hadn't seen in ages. It was a slightly worn scrapbook with a small wedge missing off of one of its corners. I picked it up with my ribbons and dusted it off a bit before carrying it over to a desk and sitting down.

Opening the book, I flipped to the first page, revealing what appeared to be a photo of two eevee playing together in a field of golden colored flowers. Both eevee looked exactly the same. They seemed so joyful...

I gently placed my paw on the photograph between the two eevee. Then, with the closing of my eyes, I let a lone tear slide down my face and drop onto the page. "Evelyn..."

Route to Trello Town, Austin's POV:

"Trello Town is in the sky?! That's sooo cool!" Eve exclaimed as we made our way towards the driffblim air-port.

Mari shook her head. "Of course it is ya weirdo. Trello Town is the central post office for the entire continent, so they have to be somewhere where there's little land interference, and most mail is delivered by flying type pokemon anyway. It's supposedly one of the most beautiful towns in the area."

"Hey! Who're you callin' a weirdo?!" Eve snapped in response.

"The one who claims she's gonna be the best explorer but knows very little about the world around her."

"What?! Hey! I know plenty thank you very much! I'm an expert on dungeons. Besides, I don't need to know those kinds of details to be the best. I decided long ago that I was going to be the best explorer, and I won't quit until I am."

"Heh, whatever you say."

"Well one thing's for sure. At least we didn't bring Riley along. We don't want to go skydiving or anything." I laughed.

"What're you talking about?! That'd be so awesome! It'd be such a rush!" Eve exclaimed, jumping up and down like a spoink. "Why can't we do that stuff?!"

"Because we don't want to die." Ally answered bluntly. "Eve, do you even know how to work a parachute?"

"Ugh. Why do you have to bring safety into this? It's so boring..." Eve complained.

"You don't want to die do you?" Her sister pointed out.

"No..." She gave up. "But I still want to do that some day-ooh look, the building!" She exclaimed, running off towards the drifblim air-port, which was now in clear view.

Alex laughed. "Man. It's always something with that girl." He quickly ran after her, this time matching her speed. "Hey Eve! Wait up!"

I shook my head. "He might just be able to handle her if he keeps that up."

Mari laughed. "Wait a minute. Are you seriously implying that that level headed snivy is interested in that total weirdo of an eevee?"

"Well, she does need someone to balance out all of that energy." I laughed. "They've both told us, so it's pretty much official, but they're so awkward about it. We're waiting for the right moment to...'assist'."

Ally pulled ahead and turned around. "I think we should go ahead and catch up to them. I'm not exactly sure how capable Alex is right now."

"Yeah, good point...let's hurry then."

Drifblim air port:

"Wow! It's kind of...boring here..." Eve announced as we were waiting on a drifblim to show up to take us to Trello Town.

"Well what'd you expect Eve? It's an airport." Ally pointed out. Eve just sighed and laid her head down on the armrest next to her, only to realize that Alex was in the seat next to her and she had accidentally leaned against his shoulder.

Eve immediately jerked up, her face as red as a cheri berry. "Oh! U-umm...s-sorry Alex! Eheheh..."

Alex looked confused. "Hmm, sorry? Sorry about what?"

"Oh...well I kinda leaned against you and uhh-" She started to explain, but was silenced yet again when Alex put his arm around her and pulled her back to the position she was previously in.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I don't mind this." He said casually, ignoring the huge blush that had spread over his best friend's face.

I laughed internally at the scene. 'Heh, looks like he's getting back at her for all of the flirting.'

"Y-you don't? O-o-okay. Eheheh..." Eve said dreamily. Then she smiled, closing her eyes and seemingly falling asleep.

"Hah! Wow. You are good..." Mari complemented.

Alex just waved it off. "I'm just trying to calm her down. Plus..." A small blush crept onto his face. "...her fur's kinda soft..."

"Right...well it looks like you're gonna have to carry her if you want to keep her calmed down. The drifblim just arrived." I pointed out, noting the purple balloon-shaped pokemon that had just landed at the port labeled "To Trello Town".

Alex rubbed the back of his neck out of embarrassment. "Heh, yeah... Guess I didn't really think this out. Alright then." He lifted the sleeping eevee out of her seat, careful not to wake her up. "Let's go before the drifblim leaves."

11:00am, Trello Town:

After about a two hour flight across fields, mountains and a couple of lakes, a huge mass of clouds came into view on the horizon. It looked kind of like the kind of clouds that made up the land that Ally and I had traveled on before to get to Raquaza.

"Wait. Is that-?"

"Yep. That's Trello Town. It was built on a foundation of massive, densely packed clouds high up in the atmosphere. Since these clouds are so densely packed, they can be used as a very stable surface to walk on and even build on." Mari explained.

"I'm starting to get why Evelyn chose you to supervise our test. You know a lot about these towns."

Mari produced a nervous smile. "Eheheh, well. I've travelled around before, ya know?" I frowned at her, but decided to drop my suspicions. Whatever she was nervous about was her business.

"Well I guess that's a good way to learn about places..." I turned to Alex and Eve. Surprisingly, Eve had managed to sleep comfortably in Alex's arms the entire trip. Maybe they didn't need as much help as I thought...

"She's gonna be the best huh?" Mari asked rhetorically. "She certainly has the energy for it, I'll give her that."

I laid back against the edge of the basket. "Well, as long as she's this determined I don't see why she can't be. It's her dream after all, and Eve's about as hard headed as a craniados using rock smash."

"Wow, a town in the clouds! That's so awesome! Hahah! Let's go!" Eve shouted excitedly, suddenly wide awake and right beside me. "Ugh. This is taking forever... Maybe I could jump to that cloud-"

'Wait, what?!' I looked up quickly, only to find that she wasn't in the basket. "Oh come on!"

"Yahoo! Hahaha!" Eve shouted from behind me. I turned just in time to see her dive straight down. I hurriedly looked over the edge of the basket to see what was below us and saw a collection of small clouds. They were close enough to land on and were close to the town, but if she missed...

"Austin, out of the way!" Alex shouted as he ran past me with his bow and jumped out of the basket as well.

Alex's POV:

'Ugh, what am I going to do with that girl?' Those were my thoughts as I dove straight down after Eve, who was about to miss her intended landing point and plummet to her death. Luckily, she had chosen to jump out skydiving-style, so I could catch up to her with a nose-dive. Once I was within reach, I wrapped my arms around her firmly and quickly flipped over. Once in position, I hurriedly released one of my vines and tied it as best I could to an arrow before setting it in the bow, aiming at the bottom of the basket, and launching it. We continued to fall for a bit as my vine was pulled straight up by the arrow's momentum. Suddenly our falling came to an abrupt stop as the arrow struck the basket and embedded itself in the thick material.

I panted a bit from anxiety and relief before looking at the clearly terrified eevee in my arms. It was apparent that she realized she had missed her mark. It was for that reason that I decided not to confront her for it. "Eve, it's ok. I've got you. The basket'll carry us to that cloud and we'll drop down to it." I sighed. "I've got you..."

She looked up at me gratefully. "Thank you..." She thanked me. "Heh, guess I've got to work on my aim huh?" She smiled.

I laughed. "Yeah, just not without a parachute ok? I need my best friend alive ya know. I don't really want to explain to your parents that I lost you to reckless driffblim-diving."

The drifblim carried us safely over the cloud a few seconds later. First I checked to see if the cloud could support us before tugging on my vine. The arrow pulled loose from the basket and we fell down safely onto the soft, fluffy cloud. When my vine retracted, I quickly grabbed it and untied it, throwing the arrow to the side. It would've been pretty bad if I hadn't done that, I would guess.

I let out a quick gasp when Eve hugged me tightly around the neck and proceeded to happily nuzzle my face. "Alex that was so awesome! Thank you! You're the most amazing friend ever!" She exclaimed, as if I had given her a gift or something. I smiled at how soft her fur felt against my face, but then blushed at the thought of it. She quickly pulled back, as if finally realizing what she was doing. Her face was as red as ever.

"Oh, uhh. Sorry..." She muttered, not even daring to look at me. I however decided to act my way out of it.

I laughed. "Haha, well you're certainly more excited for this patrol stuff than I thought. I never expected you to actually jump out of a drifblim." I stood up, dusting myself off and offering her and hand in the process. She accepted it and I helped her up. "Now, how about we make our way up to the town. Quickly before we loose our head start. Hmm?" I offered.

Eve was about to reply, but was cut off when a staraptor dropped out of the sky nearest the town and landed just short of us. He looked pretty irritated. "Hey, hey! What's up with the crazy stunt you guys pulled huh?! We guardians can't see everything that falls out of the sky ya know."

Eve seemed rather unamused by the newcomer's scolding, as she gave him blank stares. "Yeah? So who are you anyway? It's kinda impolite to drop in like that and criticize us."

"Wha-rude?! Excuse me, but you're being awfully showy yourself." He complained.

I looked him up and down. "This town has guardians? Mari didn't tell us about that."

The staraptor sighed. "Well of course it does. How do you think we keep people from falling out of the sky near this town? That of course includes those crazy enough to actually jump for 'thrills'." He said pointedly at us. "Surprisingly we've only had one other case besides the two of you."

I looked to Eve to find her quietly snickering. "Haha! You call it crazy. Those who've never tried anything risky in their lives often think so." She laughed. "And it's not thrill seeking. Not with me. I simply got bored of waiting for the drifblim to land so I figured I'd just jump for this cloud. I'm not too fond of waiting to explore places, and you can't be the best if you're afraid to take risks."

The staraptor looked taken aback for a moment, as if lost in thought. "Anyway, if that's all you had to say to us, we've got a town to explore." Eve made an attempt to pass him, but he blocked her path.

"Hold up. You two belong to an exploration team don't you? And I suppose those guys up there are your teammates?" He pointed skywards towards the still moving drifblim.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "Yeah, why?"

"Well it's not really a requirement, but our town elder really respects the work exploration teams do. In fact, he tells us to inform him if any explorers do come into town so he can personally meet them. He's quite the odd one you could say, but he does this so much that it's become quite a custom. Might I ask if you would come with me to do so? I'll give you and your friends a ride of course."

Eve looked hyped. "Wait, so does that mean we can start exploring right away?! Come on then! Let's meet this old guy!"

I sighed at Eve's quick and questionably rude response. "Why not? I don't think our leader would mind. We are on patrol anyway, so I suppose this would make for our first request."

The staraptor chuckled. "Alright then, go ahead and climb onto my back. The name's Aero by the way."

We both did as instructed. "Heh, nice to meet ya Aero. I'm Eve and this is Alex. We're part of Team Eviolite." Eve introduced.

Aero nodded back at us. "I should probably send that drifblim back as well, considering I'm gonna be picking up his passengers a bit early." He commented before taking off towards the balloon pokemon.

Austin's POV:

"Austin, do you see them?!" Ally asked me worriedly as she anxiously surveyed the airspace below us, hoping to find a trace of Alex and Eve. Several times I had to grab her from behind so she didn't accidentally fall over the edge of the basket. The last thing I needed was for her to fall.

Suddenly a staraptor shot up in front of us, making me fall backwards into my back in surprise. "Hey! Austin, Ally, Mari! Get on! This guy says he's gonna take us to see the town's elder!" Shouted Eve from somewhere close.

I picked myself up and looked straight ahead to find Alex and Eve riding on the back of the staraptor. All three of us let out sighs of relief. "Uhh, ok. When did you meet that guy?"

"Eve! Don't you ever do that again! What were you thinking?!" Ally shouted at her, running up to the edge of the basket in frustration.

"Eheheh. Sorry..." She apologized. "Hurry up though. Let's go. I'm bored." She complained, prompting a quick laugh out of her sister.

"Mmm, fine. I never could stay mad at you anyway. You're too impatient and weird." Ally commented as she transferred from the drifblim to the staraptor. Mari and I hastily followed suit.

"Alright buddy. Here's a tip for your troubles. I'll be taking these guys the rest of the way." The staraptor said as he waved the drifblim off. He then took off on a course towards the town. "So I'm guessing you're the leader huh?" He asked, pointedly at me. "I'm Aero."

"Oh, uhh. Hey Aero. Great to meet you. But uhh, how did you know I was the leader?"

"Oh, you're energetic eevee friend told me that her leader was the pointy eared yellow guy, so I just assumed.

"What?! Pointy eared yellow guy?! That's the best you could come up with?!"

Eve shrugged. "What can I say? You're not all that interesting."

"Hey! I stood up for you ya know! The least you could do is respect me as your leader." I complained. "At least come up with a better nick name or something. Seriously, aren't we friends?"

Eve stuck out her tongue at me. "Someone's grouchy today." She teased. "Of course we're friends. It's not my fault you're boring."

"Will you guys knock it off?!" Ally intervened, but we continued arguing the entire ride over to the elder's residence.

12:00pm, Elder's Residence:

By the time we had reached our destination, we had gotten tired of fighting and declared a truce.

"Alright, I'm sorry ok? That was kinda mean." Eve apologized. "Ooh look, we're there!" She exclaimed as she bounded of of Aero.

I sighed. "And she's at it again." I hoped off of Aero as well. The others followed almost immediately after.

"The elder is just in that building." Aero informed us. "He's a pretty interesting pokemon. Ya can't miss him. Trust me."

I turned around and thanked him. "Thanks Aero! Hope we meet again!"

I turned back around as we proceeded to enter a huge dome-like structure made of clouds. Upon closer inspection, the dome seemed to have several openings all over it. 'This must be where the mail gets processed and sent out.'

As soon as we entered, it became apparent that today was an off day. The place was literally deserted. "Umm, hellooo! Old guy?!" Eve shouted. Her voice echoed up and down the empty halls, which was surprising since they were all made of clouds. I certainly hoped this elder didn't have a temper.

"Hey! Who are you calling old!? Teehee!" A voice suddenly rang out from seemingly nowhere. We all looked around for any sign of the owner, but came up with nothing. "I'm not a guy either, though I guess people do get the wrong idea when they hear me being called the elder." The voice chimed in again. "Oh yeah. I kinda forgot you couldn't see me. Sorry!" The voice apologized before a pink ball of light appeared in front of us. The ball of light eventually formed into a pokemon which I immediately recognized as Mew.

"What?! Mew?! You're Trello Town's elder?!" I asked in disbelief. Mew turned and looked at me awkwardly, as if confused by my sudden surprise.

"Hmm?" She smiled. "Oh, well look who we have here. Teehee! It's our little meteor hero."

"Ugh. Am I gonna always be known as 'the meteor hero'? Frankly I've grown tired of the phrase." I complained.

Mew giggled. "I thought you would say that. Jirachi always said you were a big complainer. In fact, I think that's why she brought you back early."

I frowned. "Wait, I was supposed to come back? I thought that was a gift."

"Oops. That was a secret. Oh well." Mew giggled yet again. "It would've still been a gift, but you were supposed to get it later. Jirachi just thought you'd complain too much if you didn't get to stay."

'Aero was right. She really was a weirdo...'

"Wait. So you're the weird elder person that Aero was talking about?" Eve asked Mew.

Mew flew around in a small circle before nodding. "Yep! And you're Ella Grace's daughter hmm? Eve was it? Then there was Allyson and Luke..."

Eve frowned at her. "How do you know my family?"

Mew laughed. "I know a lot of people. I'm Mew remember? It's my job ya silly little eevee."

"Ohh...ok then..."

Alex stepped up to her. "Hey Mew. Aero said that you liked to meet explorers, so he brought us here. Is there any reason in particular that you like to meet with explorers?" Alex questioned her.

Mew just stared at him for a few seconds. "Hmm. You are an interesting one. Another human huh?" She drifted off. "Oh, right! Explorers help to ensure piece in the world. Plus, they go on all of these awesome adventures, so I like to meet them and hear about their travels. It seems that I've already heard some about you though. You did well with that meteor Austin." She put her hand under her chin. "Hmm... I'm not sure what you're supposed to do Alex..."

Alex looked confused. "Wait, if you don't know what I'm here for, then how do you know my name?"

Mew giggled. "Oh, names are easy. Fate and destiny stuff is hard to figure out." Mew looked between Alex and Eve and giggled some more. "I can tell what's in your hearts as well." She smiled.

Both Alex and Eve blushed. "So anyway. Mew, do ya think you could show us around town a little? We're on patrol and we kinda need to get some requests in."

Mew thought for a second. "Hmm... Well if you're looking for people to accept requests from, you won't find many here. Teehee! Most of them have left for Castello town so they could witness the Fairy Moon at the Fairy Festival this time of year. It's a very popular event."

"The Fairy Moon?" Eve asked her. She nodded.

"The Fairy Moon is an event that takes place around this time a year, and to those who don't know about magic it happens for unknown reasons. When a Fairy Moon occurs, the moon turns bright pink in the sky, and it's usually around midnight. It's a very rare sighting."

Eve looked impressed. "Wow! That sounds awesome!"

"Teehee. It really is." Mew agreed. "Now then, if you guys are looking for requests, you won't find them here." Mew's eyes suddenly lit up. "But...if I sent you there, you'd have plenty of people to help. Plus you'd get to see the festival."

"Huh? Oh, wait a minute! We can't go to Castello Town right now! We still have to-" I tried to interject, but it was clear that she wasn't listening.

"Alright guys. Hope you're used to teleportation by now!" Mew exclaimed before waving her hand towards us. With that, we disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Back with Ella:

After sitting in the library for a while, silently staring at that aged memento of my past, I got back up and made my way into the living room. Shard still wasn't back so it seemed. I looked back and forth around the room. "This place really could use some cleaning..." I thought out loud before walking over to the couch and laying down. "I'll get to it later..."

Suddenly my ears perked up as the sound of someone knocking on the door entered the room. I looked up lazily from my position on the couch, not really wanting to see anyone at the moment. I gave in when I heard a second knock and hopped off of the couch, headed for the door.

I let out a sigh and opened the door to reveal an espeon standing patiently on the porch. I squinted for a second before giving a small gasp. The espeon in front of me had emerald green eyes, just like Ally... Tears immediately started flowing from my eyes. "Evelyn?!"

Evelyn smiled. "Hello Ella. It's been a while hasn't it?"

I sniffled as I looked her up and down. I couldn't believe she'd actually come here. "Evelyn...I'm..."

"I know..." She interrupted me. "It's ok."

I smiled as I wrapped my arms around her in a tight embrace. "What are you doing here?"

I heard Evelyn sigh. "Wigglytuff contacted me to examen your daughters' team. Plus, I need to talk to you. Besides, does there have to be a reason for me to want to visit my twin sister?"

I pulled away from her. "Oh, uhh. No. Of course not. Come in! You can help me clean while we talk." I said excitedly as I ushered her into the house.

Austin's Group, Castello Town, Austin's POV:

As it turns out, Mew's teleportation ability is much faster than our badges. One second we were in the central post office, and the next we were in the center of a field of flowers. Next to us was a path that led straight down to a town in the distance, and next to the path was an incredibly long fence with another field just beyond it.

"I'm guessing that's Catello Town." Alex assumed, pointing towards the town in the distance. "Guess we can always go back for Auburn Town later."

I shrugged. "Better that than wasting more time backtracking. Let's go."

We nodded in agreement and started on our way down the path towards the town. Peering inside the fence, it seemed that the field was actually a rather large courtyard. 'What's up with this fence?' I wondered as we continued walking along the path.

After about ten minutes of walking, we finally reached the town. Just walking into it proved troublesome. There were hundreds of pokemon gathered around the just the square itself. "Wow, Mew wasn't kidding. This event really is popular."

We made our way towards the center of the plaza, which currently seemed to be its least populated area. "So uhh, where do we start?" I asked the others, scanning the town to find some place to start our patrol of the town, which was easier said than done. I stopped when my eyes landed on something interesting.

"Yeah, that's a good question. I didn't expect it to be 'this' crowded." Ally replied. "Austin?" She asked, noticing that I wasn't paying attention.

"Seriously? You guys have royalty too? Just how many similarities are there between pokemon and humans?" I asked the others while staring at the massive castle in front of me.

"Royalty?" Ally reiterated as the others turned to look at the castle as well. "Wait a minute, there's a castle in this town? I didn't know there was anything like this in the area."

Mari looked at her with a surprised expression. "Really? You haven't heard of the royal family here?" She asked as if she couldn't believe it.

Ally shook her head. "Nope, can't say we have. I mean we just moved here from Novora."

"Novora? Is that what our continent was called? That has a nice ring to it." Eve commented.

Mari shook her head. "Eh, well I guess that makes sense. The royal family has been keeping low recently. No one knows why, not that there's reason to worry or anything. They've still been doing their job. They always rule justly."

I nodded. "Well we still need to find somewhere to start off our patrol." I thought for a second before coming up with an idea. "Maybe there's a spell that can help. Hold on."

"Wait, Austin! You can't use magic in front of all of these people!" Ally warned me. I waved it off.

"Don't worry Ally. I won't use a spell if it seems noticeable. Now let's see..." I took out the spell book and grabbed the wand from the void and started reading through it. I hadn't even gotten through the third spell before a couple of pokemon walked up to us.

One of the pokemon, a small cat-like pokemon with mostly white fur covering its body, approached me. Upon closer inspection, the rest of its fur, including that covering its arms, legs and the top of its head, was a dark blue color. It had two fluffy, swirled tails that had both blue and white colors of fur. I believe it was called a meowstic.

"Excuse me sir. Could you explain to me why you have that wand in your possession?" The meowstic questioned me, a certain level of seriousness ringing out in her tone. By her voice, I could tell she was female.

I quickly sent the wand back into the void. "Wand? Sorry. I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is there some sort of problem?" I attempted to cover up, thinking they were just common people. Apparently that wasn't the case.

The meowstic looked at me with an unamused expression. "Sir, I saw you just use the void to hide the wand. I assure you we know what we're talking about, now answer the question or we'll be forced to detain you."

I looked at her with a vexed expression. "Detain me? What for?" Ally and the others also seemed confused.

She sighed. "Sir, that wand is stolen property. I'm going to have to ask you to come with us."

'What?! Stolen property?!' "Hey! Wait a minute. There's no way my wand is stolen property. The owner of this wand entrusted it to me to protect someone dear to me. I can't just part with it."

The meowstic didn't seem too convinced. "Sir, I'm not going to say this again. We're going to have to ask you to come with us. Explanations will have to wait." The two pokemon that were with her, two herdier, began to approach me as well and I raised my arms above my head.

"Alright, fine. I'll go." I gave in. The last thing I needed was to get myself in trouble with law enforcement.

She glanced at Ally and the others. "Your friends here will have to come in for questioning as well. Now, follow me." She directed as she began walking towards the castle. The two herdier dropped back a bit so that they were behind us before Urging us to follow.

"Austin, what's going on? That's my parents' wand. Why are we being questioned?" Ally whispered to me. I shrugged.

"I don't know. Guess we'll just have to find out." I looked towards Alex, but it seemed like he had something on his mind, so I just faced the path again and kept silent.

2:00pm, Castello Castle:

"Ugh, I'm sooo bored... Austin, why'd you have to get us thrown in jail?" Eve whined, kicking one of the bars of the cell. "Man, there's nothing to do..."

"Hey! I didn't do anything, and this isn't jail. This is a holding cell. It's actually kinda nice in here. Jail cells don't have couches in them." I defended as I sunk back into the couch at the back of the cell. "I don't really know what's going on, but this place sure is huge."

"Yeah. I didn't know there was such luxury around this area. It's a rather beautiful place if you ask me."

Mari groaned. "I can't believe you people got me stuck in here. I'm already in trouble with the law. I mean, hello. Parolee here. I could end up getting locked up." Mari sounded extremely nervous.

"Mari, calm down. You're not gonna get locked up. If anything, I'm protecting you from that." I attempted to calm her down. My ears twitched as I heard a voice from somewhere beyond the bars.

"Excuse me Meowstic, I'd like to see the ones you're holding in that cell. I'd like to question them personally if that's ok with you." Said someone, male by the voice, but he wasn't within our field of view. "Yes I'm aware that we usually get an actual investigator to question them, but your description of the crime interests me. Thank you. I'll make it quick." He said again.

Suddenly footsteps could be heard conning down the corridor, and soon the figure of a leafeon came into view. He approached us with a pensive look on his face.

"Hey. Come on, when are we going to be questioned? I'm bored." Eve asked the leafeon. He looked over at her and seemed to study her for a second before doing the same thing to the rest of us.

"Well well well..." He muttered, a smile forming on his face. "Meowstic! Hurry up and get these guys out of here! My granddaughters are among them!"

"Granddaughters? Old man, what are you talking about?" Eve asked him.

The leafeon laughed heartily. "Oh, my dear Eve. I was there when you were born. You were born on the night of the Fairy Moon eighteen years ago when it occurred on New Years Eve. Your mother is Ella, is she not?"

Ally and Eve gasped. "You know our mom?!" They both exclaimed in surprise.

The leafeon laughed yet again. "But of course I do. I'm your grandfather, Synth. Of course, you don't remember me because your parents fled with you to Novora when you were both two, but it's all the more true. Shade's made things complicated for our family."

At the mentioning of Shade, my eyes lit up and I ran up to the bars of the cell. "Shade?! Please tell me you know more about him than we do! The last time we came across him, he nearly killed both Ally and me!"

Synth looked at me with intense curiosity. "You're the pikachu with the wand correct? Ella must really trust you if she entrusted it to you." He inquired. "If you're wondering about Shade, we'll tell you what we know later. Come to think of it, you remind me of two pikachu Ella and Shard used to spend time around. Their names were umm...Sam and Emma."

"Wait! Those are my parents! You knew them too?" I asked him a bit excitedly. His curiosity grew.

"Sam and Emma had a son?" He asked out loud. "Oh, that's why you remind me of them." He laughed.

"This...this makes sense." Alex muttered from the couch at the back of the cell. "You're the king right?" He asked Synth, to which he nodded.

Ally and Eve looked shocked. "Wait a minute, if you're the king, does that make us royalty as well?!"

Synth nodded. "Quite true. I'm assuming the parents never mentioned any of this to you."

Alex nodded. "That means that Eve's entire family is royalty. That makes sense now that I think about it. There were tons of books in Ella's library that talked about Castello's castle. Some had crests that I had never seen before, some had information on policies and such, and a few even had schematics and renovation plans for the castle. I noticed that there were no books on the royal family itself however, which I found a bit suspicious. Not to mention that barely anyone if anyone at all in Treasure Town knows their full names."

Synth gave him an impressed look. "Your deduction is quite impressive. Yes, Ella has quite the habit of collecting books to fill up her library, even if those books contain vital castle documents."

Just then, Meowtic came into the room with a set of keys and opened the cell. "Sorry for the misunderstanding everyone." She apologized before quickly retreating back down the corridor.

Synth looked after her. "Sorry if Meowtic was too rough with you. She means well, but she tends to take her job a bit too seriously at times." He laughed. "Shall we head to the throne room to talk?" He offered. "I have a few things to show to you in there. Plus, I'm sure your grandmother will want to meet you as well."

He beckoned us to follow with his leaf-like tail. We did as he suggested and followed him down the hall Meowstic had previously left through before turning and climbing up an arching staircase and entering into a rather large room with brilliantly colored stained glass windows on both walls accompanied by pink curtains hung up in a decorative fashion around them. There were several decorative couches and chairs positioned comfortably around the room, and several book shelves lined the walls. Along one of the walls, there was a burning fireplace, with a small rug in front of it, and in the center of the room there was a large circular shape with an interestingly shaped crest inside it. The room itself was slightly dim, only lit by the various lamps that were positioned around the room and the light filtering in from the stained glass windows, which seemed to give it a certain cozy feel.

Synth turned back to us. "I know. Our style might differ quite a bit from your expectations of what a throne room looks like, but we prefer to let people relax when they come to us with concerns or when we invite them here. We feel that the traditional formal layout with two thrones at the end of the room is kind of intimidating."

Sleeping on a couch at the far right of the room near the fireplace was a flareon with a heart shaped necklace around her neck. The flareon appeared to have been reading before it fell asleep, as it was now using a book as a pillow. Synth smiled. "Ally, Eve. That's your grandmother, Anna. As you can see, she's pretty lax." He almost laughed at that. "Oh who am I kidding? She has enough energy to stay awake for three nights straight and still run a marathon the next morning. Though strangely, reading tires her out in a snap."

"Hmm, sounds a lot like Eve... Eve?" I looked back and forth between our group and Synth, but couldn't find Eve anywhere. Suddenly my eyes were drawn over to where Anna was sleeping. I tilted my head in slight confusion as Eve grabbed an oran berry from one of the nearby baskets and walked over to the couch, but soon found myself struggling to hold back a laugh as she quickly replaced the book her grandmother had been using as a pillow with the blue colored berry.

"Eve, what are you-?!" Ally started to head over to stop her, but I blocked her with my arm.

"How about we let their meeting be an interesting one, hmm?" I smirked. Ally seemed to get the picture and backed up with the same expression.

I looked over to see Eve walk behind the couch and jump on top of it. Then, without warning, she shouted straight into her grandmother's unsuspecting ear. "Hey grandma! Wake up!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

The shout seemed to have the same effect as Loudred's voice as Anna immediately woke up, jerking as she did so, but instead of hitting a book, her head hit the oran berry and crushed it, splattering it's blue juice all over her and a small portion of the couch.

"What the?!" Anna exclaimed as she looked down at the crushed berry beneath her head. "Alright, who switched my pillow with an oran berry and shouted to wake me up?!" She asked irritably.

Synth laughed heartily. "Honey. I think you might want to ask the snickering eevee on top of the couch with the book in her paws." He informed his wife comically.

She turned around with a confused expression before catching sight of Eve, who immediately upon being spotted hid her face behind the book ironically titled "how to stay hidden".

"Hmm, well look who we have here. A troublemaker huh?" She said slyly. "It seems that I've grown a bit lax. I let my own granddaughter get the best of me." She smiled as she stood up on the couch and wrapped her arms around Eve in a gentle embrace. "Ooh, I haven't seen you since you were only two years old! You've grown so big! Where's your sister?!"

The rest of us walked up to them as she was affectionately hugging Eve. "I'm right here. Sorry about Eve's wake up call." Ally apologized, but Anna didn't seem to care.

"Ally!" She exclaimed as she let go of Eve and jumped off of the couch. She proceeded to hug Ally in the same fashion she did Eve. "You've both grown so well since then! Seriously, I don't know why my daughter insisted on keeping us a secret from you."

"Honey, don't you remember? It's because of Shade." Synth reminded her.

"Ugh, that young man again. What trouble has he gotten himself into now? It's sad really. He used to be such a nice boy." She complained.

I stepped up to her. "Shade's approached us twice already. His only interest seems to be killing both Ally and Eve, though he's only managed to get to Ally so far. He attacked us while we were sleeping one night."

Anna sighed. "So he's started pursuing you now hmm?" She asked rhetorically. "Wait a minute, who are you?"

I put my paw to my chest. "Oh I'm Austin, your granddaughter's boyfriend. You uhh, might know me better as Sam and Emma's son, though we've never really met before."

She gave a faint smile. "Somehow I knew those two kids were compatible." She commented, probably in reference to my parents. "So, I take it you got sent here as well huh? And what about you?" She asked Alex.

"I used to be human as well. Eve found me on the beach not too long ago and, well, I have amnesia just like Austin. I can't really tell you anything about who I was before, but I'm Eve's best friend." He introduced himself.

"Oh, well regardless it's nice to meet you. Any friend of our granddaughters' is a friend of ours." She eyed Eve curiously for a second before turning to look at Mari. "And it seems that I've seen you before as well, Miss Mari Amber from Auburn Town. Staying out of trouble I see?"

Mari shrunk back a little. "Yes, of course. In fact, I have my own exploration team. A friend I met named Flint helped me start it." She seemed a bit defensive with her statement.

Anna sighed. "Now now. No need to be nervous. I'm not interrogating you. You're a fine young lady. We all know that fire had nothing to do with you." She comforted her. "Now, Synth. I'm assuming that you've already told them who they really are?"

Synth nodded. "Yes, however." He turned to face Eve. "Eve, you and Ally may be twins, but since you were born a couple minutes early, that makes you first in line after your parents retire from their positions."

Ally gasped and Eve tilted her head. "First in line? What does that mean?"

"What?! Synth, err, grandad, that's not exactly a good idea. Eve's a little, umm...hyperactive." Ally explained hastily.

Synth laughed. "Eve, that means that you will be the queen after your mother retires from it, that is also after Shade is apprehended of course. And I'm sure there's nothing to worry about Ally. She'll have people to watch after her."

"What?! No way! I don't wanna be stuck here! I'm an explorer, and I'm not gonna stop until I'm the best!" Eve complained, which surprised Synth a bit.

"You mean you don't want to do it?" Anna asked her, chiming in. Eve shook her head stubbornly. "Oh, well that's fine then. Ally?"

Ally sighed. "Oh, me?! Umm, I don't really know. I guess it could be cool, but I'm still traveling right now."

Anna nodded understandingly. "Alright then, well besides that we have something to show you. Please follow us to the crest in the center of the room."

Once we had all gathered around the intricately designed crest, Anna moved to tap several times in different places on top of it. I found it a bit strange, or at least I did until the crest began to glow with an iridescent light which shot outwards and eventually formed into a portal of some kind.

"This is the Grace Family Wizard World Portal, or just simply the family's portal. Now, if you haven't already been told, we call the wizard world Centura, and its main main language is Centuran. Austin, you might recognize it as the human equivalent of what they call French. Anyway, Xerneas created Centura in order to ensure that magic be kept a secret. Of course, there are still wizards here, but if all wizards and normal pokemon shared the same world, the secret would inevitably slip out." Anna explained.

I nodded. "I get it, but why keep such a big portal around? Aren't there spells you could use to transport yourself to Centura?"

"Well of course, but for those wizards without magic, getting there would be almost impossible without a stationary portal like this one. Take Eve for example. If she wanted to get to Centura, she wouldn't be able to use a spell because she has no magic, so she'd have to use a portal like this one."

"Hmph! You guys get to have all the fun!" Eve complained.

Alex patted her on the shoulder to calm her down. "So, is this al you had to show us?" He asked them.

Anna shook her head. "No, not just yet." She placed her paw on the small heart shaped charm necklace that hung around her neck. Eve, this is a necklace that belonged to your great grandmother." She explained as she took it off and walked over to Eve. "I want you to have it now."

"Huh? Why me? Isn't Ally gonna take over the throne or something?" Eve questioned.

Anna laughed. "No, it's just... You remind me of her a lot. I really think that she would've wanted you to have it." She proceeded to clip it around Eve's neck. "There we go. Looks great on you too."

Anna was about to say something else, but was suddenly interrupted when a siren erupted outwards from somewhere far off in the town. I looked out towards a balcony I hadn't seen before, attempting to find the source of the siren. "Whelp, looks like that's our queue." I commented.

Eve looked really pumped for some reason. "Alright! Finally, some action!" She exclaimed before running towards the balcony and jumping straight off of it."

'Ugh, seriously. What is up with her today?' Synth sighed. "Well it's a good thing we're only about a floor up. She doesn't like to stick around and wait does she?" Synth laughed. Anna gave him a quick jab to the side.

"Don't laugh, she could be hurt." Anna criticized before running over to the balcony and looking down. "Well she's not hurt, but she's definitely not here anymore." She turned back around. "You guys should hurry. I don't like the idea of one of my granddaughters being out and about in this town alone during this time of year."

I nodded. "Will do. We'll be back soon." With that, the rest of us gathered our bearings and followed Eve's lead, running towards the balcony and jumping straight off.

Random Shop in Castello Town, ? POV:

Can you imagine how terrifying it can be to get threatened and mugged by a group of tough looking individuals in a book store? Well, I can't. I was too distracted with a book I had recently picked up from one of the shelves and the music filling my ears from the headphones I wore beneath the hood of my cloak. There wasn't much to care about when I was distracted from the outside world, but apparently a bunch of thugs had broken in and held up the freaking place looking for a couple of pikachu. Yep, they literally broke in. Through the windows, setting off the alarms and quite surprisingly a siren. You'd think if they really wanted to rob the store, they'd just walk in, but then again I couldn't care less.

Pretty soon, one of the guys walked in and started shouting at me. He gave up pretty quickly and grabbed me by the shoulder, forcing me to turn around. I sighed and took off my hood and my headphones, giving him a fake innocent look. "What is it?"

"Heh, real funny kid. Now, out your paws behind your head and hand over all your poké."

I kept smiling at him. "So, are you robbing me or something?" I asked him, still keeping up my innocent act.

He looked at me oddly. "Yes! Now give me everything you have! Now!"

"Oh..." I smirked at him for a split second before raising my foot up and kicking him hard in the gut, sending him flying back through the window where he had come from. I quickly turned my headphones off and put them away before running up to the window myself and jumping out of it.

Once outside, I peered back into the shop."Well, get going. Get that girl!" He shouted. It seemed that the leader of the group had seen one of his henchmen go flying out the window and decided he needed to send all of them after me at once. I responded by reaching into my bag and pulling out a small, cylindrical object. Pressing the button in its center, the cylinder suddenly expanded into a long staff.

Before the first guy could reach me, I twirled the staff once before bringing it up and thrusting it hard towards his face, catching him off guard and sending him flying back. I followed up by vaulting off the ground using the staff and coming down hard on top of the second guy with a downward kick. Not wasting any time, I clicked the center button again to reveal the blade of the staff, transforming it into a scythe. I let the blade part dig into the ground a bit before I kicked off the ground and swung around, kicking the third guy in the face as I came back around, using the momentum to pull the scythe out of the ground and flip myself upwards out of the way of an oncoming attack from the last attacker. I pulled the scythe behind my back before pouring aura into its tip and firing it off, the momentum the blast created sending me spinning like a top until I finally brought the staff side of the blade down on my attacker's head, effectively knocking him out.

I looked around me and then smirked at the leader who was still inside the store. "Nice job riolu. Looks like you have some fight in you, unlike most of the pathetic people in this town." He gave me a nasty look. "But mark my words, you're a lucky little girl. I'm a busy man, so you'll get to run free this time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got places to go and people to find." He laughed before disappearing into thin air.

I relaxed from my fighting stance and reverted the scythe back to its small cylindrical form before placing it back in my bag. 'Well that was fun.' I smiled and put my hood back on as I walked back into the store to get some information myself. 'But still, I can't help but wonder...'

Castello Town Central Square, Eve's POV:

The siren finally died down as I burst into the square, looking back and forth in all directions for any signs of action. After a few moments of searching, I gave up and sat down in disappointment. "Aww man, someone must've gotten to it before me."

I spent a few seconds moping about it before my ears perked up at a certain 'whoosh' sound I was all too familiar with. "A teleportation spell?" I looked up and glanced around me. To my surprise, a good ten or twelve pokemon had surrounded me and were facing the citizens of the square, seemingly making conversation.

"Hmm? Hold on..." I sat there and leaned in with my ear raised as high as it could go, listened carefully to what was going on.

"Everybody listen up! Just cooperate with us and no one gets hurt!" One of the pokemon shouted forcefully. "Now, we're looking for two individuals! Start talking! We know they've been here recently!"

'Nobody gets hurt? Are these guys threatening to hurt the citizens?' I took a second glance around at the group and scowled. 'There's no way that's happening!' "Hey you! Loud mouth over there!" I shouted at the one who had previously been speaking. In the time it took him to turn around, I was already up near his face with my paw drawn back. "Rrrgh, eat this!" I yelled as I struck him with the flat of my paw. He gasped out from the sudden attack as he was thrown back into a couple of booths, a shockwave emanating from the impact.

I flipped back and slid to a stop just in time for every eye in the crowd to fall on me. "Everyone, get out of the square, now!" I yelled at them as I glanced around at the remaining outlaws. Immediately, everyone began to hastily evacuate.

Once they were all out of the square, something near the booth caught my eye and I turned to see that the leader of the outlaws had gotten back up. "Ugh, why you little bratt! First it's that scythe wielding riolu and now a hot headed little eevee. I'm really starting to lose my patience here." He complained as he glared at me. "You'll pay for that! Get her!"

At those words, every one of the outlaws charged at me. I smirked and lowered myself into a fighting position before pouncing straight up. One of the enemy, a pawniard, attempted to hit me while I was in the air, but I simply twisted around his attack. Upon my fall, I pulled my paw back and struck the ground with all the poet I could muster. There was a rumble, and suddenly huge cracks started to spread wildly from where I had struck the ground. The cracks eventually caused the ground to become unsteady and shift upwards slightly in all different directions, throwing my enemies off balance.

I looked down at my paw and shook it slightly. "Wow. Guess I don't know my own strength."

My ears suddenly twitched as I looked up to find a huge green orb heading my way. I dived to the right to avoid it as it exploded against the ground, covering it in a thin layer of green...glass? 'They're wizards!' I concluded as I avoided another similar attack. 'Alright then, time to have some fun.' I snickered as I dig underground.

I had memorized where most of my enemies had been standing, so it wasn't too hard to resurface behind one of them and jump onto their head. "What?! Hey kid! Get off of me!" The angry monferno yelled at me as I hung down in front of his face and stuck my tongue out at him. He tried to strike at me, but I jumped off of his head before he could and landed on top of a raichu. This time I let my tail hang down in front of his face.

"Rrgh! Hey kid, I'm warning you! Stop playing around with us! We don't take to kindly to it!" The raichu yelled. I laughed at him.

"Alright, then why don't you come and get me?!" I teased him as I jumped off of his head and sped off towards the monferno.

"Why you little!" He shouted before attempting to hit me with a thunderbolt, only to end up striking the monferno with it by accident.

"Wow. You are a terrible aim, you know that?" I laughed at the raichu before flipping back to dodge an oncoming spell. 'Seriously, is this all these guys have to show?'

Apparently it wasn't. I had neglected to pay attention to the leader, a charmeleon, who before I could react was directly above me readying what looked to be a rainbow colored sphere. 'What?! But he's not using a wand!' I braced myself for the impact, but it never came.

"Jet-Amp!" Shouted a familiar voice from somewhere near me. I looked up quickly to see Austin punch the charmeleon hard in the gut, sending him flying straight into several of the other pokemon, who were then driven straight into the ground. They didn't get up after that. 'Where did he come from?!'

Austin landed right next to me and helped me up. When I had finally gathered my footing, I looked at him to thank him but took a step back when I saw his appearance. Electricity was circulating through his entire body like crazy. "Austin, what is this? What are you doing?"

Austin smirked. "Well I haven't been reading those books for nothing. This is a variation of an elemental combat magic technique. I created it. I call it Jet-Amp since it greatly increases my speed and attacking power."

I tilted my head. "It's a what?"

He laughed. "It's an awesome battle technique." He simplified.

I nodded in understanding and turned back to face our enemies. "Where are Ally and the others?"

"We're right here." Ally answered for him as she ran up to us. "What's going on?"

"These creeps suddenly showed up and threatened the townsfolk. I had to intervene." I explained to her.

"So you brought back-up did you?" Said one of the pokemon in the group. "Well regardless, it won't help you at all. Since we know that you're wizards, we can stop holding back."

At that point, we all stepped back into our fighting positions, ready to face whatever they threw at us.

There were only four of them left now, so taking them down shouldn't be too hard. Suddenly one of them, a dewott shot straight towards us with one of his scalchops readied. The scalchop soon grew into a long blade as he pulled it back. Alex raced forward, readying his own sword as he did so, and stopped him midway, his sword half sheathed. "Not so fast. If you get hasty, that might just be your downfall." Alex stated as he re-sheathed his sword, catching the dewott's blade in the process before he placed his foot on the dewott's chest, kicked off the ground, flipped them both backwards once, and slammed him into the ground. He was unconscious by the time Alex sheathed his sword again.

Alex walked back to our group. "Your turn Austin."

Austin nodded as the electricity that was flowing through him amplified a bit. I blinked a bit when he seemingly disappeared, only to reappear near one of the enemy pokemon and slam down on his head with a readied iron tail. I saw him take out his wand to perform a spell, but he was knocked out of the way by an attack before he could do so...at least, that's what I thought. Just as he hit the ground, a green light left his wand and shot out towards us. The light collided with Ally and sent her flying back a couple of feet. Neither of them got up.

"Uhh, what just happened?" I asked the others, but apparently they didn't have any answers either. I just shrugged it off. "Mari, can you go get Ally and see if she's ok? We'll take care of these two." Mari nodded and ran back towards Ally.

"Alright Alex, let's take these guys down!" I exclaimed before taking off towards one of the two, a servine. He attempted to lash out his vines at me, but I avoided each of them and dived over him, readying an iron tail. Once I was directly over him, I slammed my tail down hard on his head and rebounded just in time to avoid a seemingly explosive spell that whizzed by me and exploded against the ground. By the time I looked over at the other enemy, Alex already had him on the ground unconscious.

I laughed. "Haha! That was awesome! We messed up the square a bit, but it was worth the action!" I glanced over at Austin. "Alex, can you go check on Austin?"

"Yeah, I got him. Don't worry." He sighed as he jumped off of the rypherior he had just taken down and made his way over to Austin. I was about to join him when I heard something move over to my side. I turned just in time to see several large, glowing spikes headed towards me, and fast. The attack seemed pretty easy to dodge, but I was honestly too surprised to do so.

I was about to turn away when suddenly a blur passed my vision and a red-cloaked figure with a hood over its head landed in front of me. The figure was wielding what looked like a scythe. Right as the spikes were supposed to hit me, the figure twirled the scythe like a staff and destroyed them all, then in one quick motion, dashed towards the leader, who had somehow gotten up without me noticing, and prepared to attack him with the back of the blade. However, when the attack made contact, the leader shattered like glass.

"Wait, what?! How did he-?!" The figure asked out loud, removing her hood and revealing herself to be a riolu. "That's just great." From her voice, I could tell she was female. She took her scythe and pressed a button in the center of it, which seemed to make it shrink to the size of a poké coin, before she put it in a small bag she kept strapped to her side.

"Hey! Hey riolu! Thanks for saving me, I appreciate it!" I thanked her, walking up to her with a smile.

She turned around with an expressionless face. "It's not a problem. You should go help your friend over there, and...give him this." She took a small slip of paper out of her bag and handed it to me.

I accepted it and looked down to read it. "Wait a minute, what does this mean?!" I attempted to ask her, but when I looked up, she was gone. I glanced around the entire square, but couldn't find her. "Well fine, don't tell me what it means."

I placed the slip of paper carefully in the lacing of my bow before running up to the rest of my group. They had pulled Austin and Ally up next to each other and were trying to revive them.

Once I reached them, both of them had begun to stir. They opened their eyes and sat up. I jumped at Ally and hugged her. "Haha! Ally, you're ok! Don't scare me like that!"

"Ugh, Eve? Why are you hugging me? I'm not Ally." I frowned and let go, looking at her strangely.

"What do you mean you're not Ally? I'm looking right at you." I looked at herself and gasped. "What the heck?! How'd I get in Ally's-?!" She turned towards Austin with a shocked expression. "Did we just-?"

Austin nodded. "I think we did..."

Suddenly, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I hit the floor, rolling around and laughing like crazy. "Hahahaha! You've got to be kidding me!"

Author's note:

Whelp, there you go. A nice long chapter and a fun little surprise for Austin and Ally.

Ally: How is switching bodies a fun surprise?

Me: Because you get to learn more about each other and-

Austin: You just want to see is struggle to adjust don't you? You're terrible.

Me: ...maybe...

Austin and Ally: I knew it!

Eve: *rolling on the floor laughing* Hahahahahahahaha! Nice one SnivyPro! Oof! *gets hit in the gut by Ally, err Austin, err whatever*

Ally: You wouldn't be laughing if it had happened to you.

Eve: Oww... *blushes*

Ally: Thought so.

Me: Anyway, with everything going on in this chapter and its overall length, I'm considering this as a season finale of sorts. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have any thoughts about the chapter, please share them in a review. Again, I'm so sorry this took so long and I hope it won't take so long next time.

-SnivyPro18