Wow, this actually got Favorited by someone. I'm gonna need to step up my game. Time to respond to my first review. Let's see. Ooh, a small one from Sinister Pikachu. You like it? Seriously? Thanks!

Right then, I remember this bit, I think if you've ever played the game, this is where you really begin to antagonize Chatot and Team Skull. I'm gonna like this torture section.

Chapter 11: Team Skull

Welcome to Chris's Head

The next morning played out like any other. receive a personal wake up call from Messer Alarm Clock, put on my cap, take my bag, and stagger to the morning assembly with Vulpix. Chatot had an announcement.

"As you may have heard, there is a lake to the east, and the Guild will be mounting an expedition there soon."

"An expedition?"

"How exciting!"

"Yes, we will only be selecting a few apprentices to go, however, so you all need to do your best jobs so that you can be chosen."

Everyone cheered, and the assembly was adjourned.

"Wow, I sure hope we get picked, Chris!" Vulpix said as we went up to the job boards. She seemed really excited.

"Yeah, me too." I responded.

The day seemed like it was just gonna be added to the blur. But then we got a surprise at the job boards. My two least favorite pokemon were standing there. Vulpix gasped, and Zubat and his cronie, Koffing, turned to face us.

Zubat and I yelled at each other at the same time, "What are you doing here!"

"We're an exploration team!" growled my partner.

"Ain't that a shocker, the chicken actually did something!" Zubat insulted. "We're an exploration team, too! Team Skull."

"Original." I wisecracked.

"Shut up, Riolu! The only reason you beat us last time is we didn't have the boss with us!" Zubat spat.

Now, I usually take insults good, but I had a thing about getting my name wrong. It really sets me off.

"My name isn't Riolu!" I yelled at him.

"Ooh, I think I smell the boss." Koffing chortled. There was a terrible odor drifting down the hatch, and in came Skuntank, definitely the smelliest pokemon you could ever dream of meeting. I took off my hat and held it over my muzzle to act as a filter. It almost worked.

"Ugh, you stink, mate!" I muttered. Everyone backed off as he walked up to me. His expression was malicious. I stood my ground.

"If you think that's bad, then take this!" Skuntank then used Smog. I tried to hold on, but he kept on going, and I keeled over.

When I finally recovered, everyone was still coughing and wheezing, and Vulpix was leaning over me.

"Oh, come on, wake up!" she implored.

I wheezed, "I'm up, I'm up, give me a second." I pulled myself to my feet and put on my hat again. The room still smelled of smog. "Dammit, it smells like Mexico City in here!" I turned to Vulpix. "Let's get the hell out of here." I raged out of the room and didn't stop until I was twenty yards away from the Guild building.

"Uh, Chris, this probably isn't the time, but your aura is kind of showing." Vulpix softly said.

"What?" I looked at myself, an aqua blue light was emanating from my body. "Whoa, this is pretty freaky." I calmed myself down and the aura subsided.

Vulpix was off to my right, looking down, but apparently, my little tirade cheered her up a little. "I can't stand that Team Skull."

I went over to her and hugged her with one arm. "Those guys are just arseholes, don't mind them." I comforted.

"You're right, I shouldn't let them get to me." Vulpix sighed. "It's just they're so-"

"I know. Come on, let's go do some jobs, it'll take our minds off of them." I led her down to the main intersection into Town, but there was a commotion. Vulpix went up to Corphish, who was, as he usually does in the morning, loitering by the well at the intersection leading into town.

"Hey Corphish, what's going on over there?"

"Hey hey, the new cafe just opened, didn't you hear?"

I was already walking towards it when I said, "I'm gonna go check it out."

As I walked down the stairs, my partner caught up. When I entered the place, it was nice and open, and reminded me of an old style English pub. I was beginning to remember background information of my life by this point, but actual self stories were apparently off limits, except in dreams. At the front of the room stood a Spinda, Wynaut, and Wobufett, the apparent hosts of this event. Spinda then spoke up.

"Can I have everyone's attention please?"

The hum of conversation dulled and everyone faced the speaker.

"Thank you. I'm Spinda, and this is the Grand Opening of my Cafe!"

A small cheer spread through the crowd.

"Anyway, Wynaut, Wobufett, and I have created this Cafe for the benefit of all the explorers."

Spinda staggered, almost drunkenly to the counter all the way on the left. "This is my store, the bar..."

I muttered, "Hmm, any Vodka?" and quickly received a jab from Vulpix. Signifying "SHUT UP!"

"...where I can make drinks out of spare items you have. I can make apple juice and gummi smoothies, among other things."

"Hey, will these smoothies still have the effects of the items we give you?" asked a voice in the crowd.

"Yes, things like apples will result in normal drinks that won't have any special effects. But gummis will have amplified positive effect. But beware, the same is true for bad items."

Spinda then staggered over to another counter.

"This shop is the Recycle Counter, where you can trade in items for different items. You simply give us an item, and we'll give you another item. Apples for Oran berries, for example. Or, maybe you're feeling lucky. You can also trade an item for a prize ticket, which you can then chance. When you chance a ticket, you get a random prize, which can either be amazing, or bad. Everyone clear on that?"

"Yeah!" shouted everyone but me. I was too busy wondering if those tickets were rigged.

"Then let the party begin!"

Classic party crashing. Take all the good drinks, then bolt. I wanted to get a job done for the day, so I dragged Vulpix out.

"Aw, what about the party?" she whined.

"We need to get at least one job done!" I responded. I then went to Kangaskhan storage to get something.

"Oh, hello sweetie, what can I do for you?"

"I'd like to take out my gun please." I quivered slightly as I said that.

I took the gun and then went off to Mt. Bristle with Vulpix to do some jobs.

After we rescued a Starly on the fifth floor, Vulpix decided she'd ask me a question.

"Hey, Chris, why'd you take that out?"

"Um, I'd rather not say." I was honestly planning on pistol-whipping Skuntank of Team Skull next time I saw him. didn't want to tell Vulpix that, though.

We then finished the last job and headed back to the Guild.

Uneventful night, next morning. Another happy meeting with the resident alarm clock. Then came announcements.

"More news on the official exploration. We're going to have another team join us for this expedition."

"Wonder who it's-" my question was then cut off as a familiar smell wafted down the hatch.

"Ugh, that smell!" Vulpix said.

Enter my least favorite group in the world. "Oh, bugger it all." I muttered.

Zubat and I glared at each other. "You again."

"You two know these explorers?" Chatot asked, oblivious to our mutual aggression.

"We've met." I said with the utmost contempt. Vulpix then nudged me, and I realized my aura was getting on again. "Bollocks." I muttered, as I tried to calm myself.

"Oh, good. That means I'll need less of an introduction. This is Team Skull, and they'll be staying with us for the days leading up to the expedition, and will be coming along. Now let's all do our best while our guests are around!"

"Yay..." Came the unenthusiastic cheer.

"H-Hey, where's everyone's usual spunk?" Chatot said nervously.

"Oh, I don't know!" I yelled sarcastically while simultaneously nodding at Team Skull.

"Chatot, doesn't something smell about this?" Sunflora asked.

"Well, personally, I don't see-" Chatot nervously reasoned when we all suddenly looked at Wigglytuff.

His eyes were tearing up, and Chatot suddenly got a hell of a lot more frantic.

"Oh no! Everyone, try to act cheerful!"

"Uh, yay?" I ventured.

Balls of fire then popped up out of the floor, one singing my tail. I swore. Still wasn't used to the thing being there, let alone it being hurt.

"Try harder!" Chatot yelled.

"HOORAY!" everyone cheered. Wigglytuff then calmed down. Everyone sighed. Much to my amusement, Team Skull had completely freaked out. I was feeling better, but Vulpix definitely wasn't. She was kind of on fire. I took out my gun and lightly poked her with it. She snapped out of it. Everyone was leaving, so we followed the stream, but, we were once again stopped by Chatot.

"Goddammit, what is it this time?" I said.

"Look, I think that you two are being overly discriminate against that delightful Team Skull." He said. I scoffed. Chatot shook his head. "You know what? I don't even care anymore. What are you holding?"

I looked down at my gun. "Um, give me a moment." I popped out the magazine and examined it. "Yeah, that's definitely a Glock." I pushed it back in. "One Glock 'Safe Action' Pistol." I said.

Vulpix and Chatot just stared at me. "What's a- Never mind." Chatot said. "Anyway, we're out of perfect apples," he said very seriously, "and we need you two to get some more."

"Oh, no problem. We'll just head over to Keckleon Market and get some apples then." I offered.

"No! These are special kinds of apples that can only be found in Apple Woods." Chatot squawked.

"So... You want us to go get some?" I asked.

"Yes, it's vital that you get plenty. If the Guildmaster doesn't get his apples..."

"It's just some apples, what's the worst-" I started, then I remembered who we were dealing with. "Balls of fire?" I asked.

"Worse." Chatot confirmed.

"Damn, better get those apples then." I said. Vulpix and I walked out of the Guild.

"How come you do all the talking now?" she asked me.

"Why aren't you?" I asked.

Vulpix stayed quiet for a bit.

"And that's why I do all the speaking, mi niña." I said.

"What did you just call me?" she asked.

"Mi niña, I-I think that means my girl." I shakily responded.

"Your girl?" Vulpix asked incredulously. "You've got another thing coming."

"Aw, crap."

Before she could begin to tear my throat out, someone came up to us.

"Yo, what's up little dudes?" I turned to see Vigoroth. He reminded me of the kind of guy who acted like a surfer but didn't actually do shit in real life. "Listen up, there's this new dojo place, you two should totally check it out. Vigoroth out!"

Because I really wanted to get away from my increasingly hostile partner, I said, "Hey, maybe we could, uh, race you to the dojo!" I then took off running.

"Hey, come back here!" Vulpix chased me all the way to the Dojo. She caught up to me as I was turning to enter the Dojo, and she literally tackled me across the threshold. We rolled in to the place and came to a stop in an unceremonious heap in front of Marowak, the owner of the Dojo.

"Huh? Customers? Oh my, I'm gonna need to clean up!"

The Marowak got to work moving boxes around. The place was apparently really new, the moving boxes weren't even unpacked yet.

"Well, what can we do here?" I asked as Vulpix grabbed my tail, which was uncomfortable enough, with her teeth. "Son of a-"

"You can go through one of my special mystery dungeons for training." Marowak put some boxes on the top of a big pile. "In these dungeons, feel free to exert yourself to your limits, there's no penalty for failure here."

"Got a course that will only take a short while?" I asked as I punched Vulpix in the face.

"I'd recommend the Water course, that should take care of you two fairly quickly." Marowak then put some boxes in a distant corner.

"Alright then." I led Vulpix into the course. "You know, you really ought to be fighting the enemy, not me." I said strongly. I really still hadn't got used to the tail thing.

"How do I know you're not really the enemy?" Vulpix retaliated.

As we were arguing, a Wartortle sneaked up behind Vulpix and gave her a quick water gun to the back. One hit K-O. "What the-?" I exclaimed as I was teleported back to the Dojo entrance.

"Told you." Marowak said as she treated to Vulpix.

When she came to she was more pissed than ever. "Dammit, Chris, why didn't you do something?"

"Bugger, we're not gonna be able to get any apples if we don't leave for Apple Woods soon." I left the dojo, bidding farewell to Marowak, as Vulpix followed me.

In Apple Woods, spirits improved as Vulpix burned all the resident grass pokemon to a crisp. By the time we were almost at the end, Vulpix was back in a good mood again. "This is too easy!" She laughed. I couldn't help but join in.

When we got to the end of the woods, there was a great big tree with apples that could only be described in one way. "I'm gonna bet that those up there are the perfect apples." I said.

"Yeah, but how are we gonna get them down?"

I walked under the tree and looked up, trying to see if any of the apples were low enough for me to hit off. Instead I came face to dace with Zubat.

"What the fuck?"

I jumped back as Skuntank and Koffing dropped out of the tree. Vulpix gasped. "You again!" Zubat flew down.

"Okay bastards, what are you doing here!" I threatened.

"Rather feisty today, aren't we?" Zubat asked.

"And to think we were going to help you two." Skuntank said.

"Eh?"

"Yeah, you can't get any of the apples." Koffing chortled.

"So we thought we'd give you some!" Zubat rolled some perfect apples out towards us; the apples stopped halfway.

"There you are, take 'em back to your dumb Guild." Koffing insulted.

"Hmm..." I thought a bit. I then sarcastically joked, "Seems legit." I internally laughed.

"No." Vulpix softly said.

"What?" Zubat asked.

"I said NO!" Vulpix yelled.

"Argh! You two idiots didn't fall for it!" Skuntank complained.

"Wasn't it obvious though?" I said, while acting as if it were an honest question. It really pissed them off.

"Shut up, Riolu!" Zubat yelled.

"I told you before, my name isn't Riolu!" I yelled back. I have a feeling my aura was going off again by that point.

Vulpix then jumped in. "You guys aren't a team, you're more like a group of thieves!"

"The Skull Gang." I commented.

"Oh, you've pushed it too far." Zubat shook his head.

"Now you're gonna get it." Koffing chortled.

Skuntank merely nodded. Koffing and Skuntank then unleashed what was probably a patent blend of noxious gas that would be illegal if anyone ever caught wind of it. Hey, I made a pun!

Besides that, when I came to, Vulpix was off to the side. She was unconscious. I shook her up. "Hey, come on, get up!"

"Uh..." Vulpix moaned. She shook her head. "Five more minutes?"

"Get UP!" I yelled as I dropped her.

She suddenly remembered what the situation was. "Ah! What?" She then looked past me. "Chris! Look!"

I turned around and saw that all the low lying fruit were gone, and only the fruit on the upper branches were left. "Aw, shit."

"Oh, we failed!" Vulpix exclaimed.

"Hey it's not the end of the world, is it?" I tried to comfort.

"Oh, but Chatot will freak out! And Wigglytuff-" She was beginning to freak out herself.

"I'm sure they'll understand..."

"SQUAWK! YOU FAILED!" Chatot was in a frenzy.

"Aw, crap." He wasn't taking it well.

"This isn't good, the Guildmaster, he'll- SQUAWK!"

"Hey, it can't be that-"

"You two aren't getting any dinner today!" he yelled at us.

"WHAT!" We weren't exactly expecting that.

"But it was Team Skull's fault-" I tried to explain.

"No! I don't want to hear it! You are not going to place the blame on others! You're going to accompany me to the Guildmaster. I shouldn't have to face him alone." Chatot then walked off, with the occasional "SQUAWK!"

"Ah, man, that's bull." I said.

Vulpix was at a loss for words.

At dinner, there was a slight shadow over the place. The Guildmaster was absent; seeing as he had no apples, he was probably still in his chamber. Team Skull, smug bastards, kept on giving us looks that made me want to kill them. Everyone was casting Vulpix and me glances that read, "What did they do?" I was very uncomfortable and tried to distract myself by attempting to shuffle my deck of cards. Kind of hard without proper fingers. That changed everyone's look to: "What are you doing?" I eventually figured out how to do it, but by then, dinner had concluded. Time to face the client we failed.

We all walked in. Wigglytuff was, as usual, facing the other way, possibly doing something. "Uh, Guildmaster?"

Surprisingly, he turned around without much of a fanfare.

"Oh, Team Checkmate. Did you bring my perfect apples?" The niceness was killing me.

"They, failed, Guildmaster, sir." Chatot said cautiously.

"Oh, that's okay, Chatot, everybody fails sometimes, just tell 'em to give me the apples."

"About that, they failed, so the number of apples they got is, zero." Chatot cringed as he said this.

"So, no apples?" Wigglytuff asked.

"Yes." Chatot said with extreme caution.

Wigglytuff just stood there, then, what appeared to be a repeat of that morning occurred. His eyes began to tear up. Chatot yelled, "Cover your ears!"

"Huh?" Vulpix asked.

"Just do it!"

I covered my ears, which were already covered by my hat, and waited. Wigglytuff then unleashed a ridiculous sound, that was even worse than Loudred. It was screeching, like, um, maybe an airplane crash times twenty? I don't know but it was amazing. Suddenly, Team Skull came in.

"I couldn't help but hear, but perhaps you'd like something." Skuntank said causally.

"Hmm?" Wigglytuff asked as he stopped his uproar.

He rolled a perfect apple bowling ball style to Wigglytuff's feet.

"There you are."

"Oh! Thanks, friendly friend!" Wigglytuff waved as Skuntank exited.

I turned to face the door, if only to hide my expression. It took almost all my will to not explode at that point.

Vulpix wasn't faring much better.

"Maybe we ought to, uh, go?" I started towards the door with Vulpix silently in tow. Chatot overtook us and grabbed us both by the collars. "Yikes!"

He dragged us to the commons area, and scolded us privately.

"You're extremely lucky Team Skull intervened when they did." Chatot began.

I couldn't handle it any more. Neither could Vulpix apparently. We both said, at the same time,"That's bullshit!"

Chatot grunted. "I don't think either of you are going to be heading on the expedition with this performance."

That shut Vulpix up. She was already a little weak from hunger, and that was the final blow. I however, stood my ground. I stared him down as I leaned against the wall. Chatot lost the staring contest, and looked away as he walked off. As soon as he was out of earshot, I let out a big breath, had no idea I was holding it, too. Vulpix and I proceeded to our beds.

That expedition apparently meant a lot to Vulpix because at that point, she began to cry. "It isn't fair!"

"Life isn't bloody fair." I responded. "Just look at my situation." I lay back on my bed.

"Oh, Chris, why-" Vulpix sobbed. The exploration really meant a lot to her.

"Hey, don't worry. It'll all turn out okay." I sighed and tried to get to sleep. The soft sobs of my companion kept me up for at least an hour before I fainted from exhaustion, both physical and emotional.