The next day dawned with thick gray rainclouds overhead. It still looked like nighttime when Loudred woke us up, his voice even more jarring than usual in the quiet, gloomy atmosphere. The morning meeting started out subdued, but after our traditional cheers, Chatot decided to wake us up by formally announcing the guild's plans for an expedition. Naturally, we were all very excited.

"An expedition, you say? Yes, please!" enthused Bidoof. "Yes, sirree!"

"It's been a long time since we went on an expedition!" Sunflora squealed. "I'm so excited!"

"Definitely."

"Absolutely, positively!"

Chatot fluttered his wings to get our attention. "As I was explaining, there is a lake far to the east," he explained once most of us were quiet. "There are many aspects of that lake that remain mysterious. Almost nothing is known about it. Not only that, but it appears to be extremely difficult to find. As the purpose for our expedition, we hope to rediscover this lake and unravel its mysteries."

The new bit of information set of another set of excited exclamations. Over the renewed noise, Loudred shouted, "I'm waiting for the 'BUT' here. You're going to be picking members for the expedition from ALL of us again, right?" Many of the others frowned or glared, evidently annoyed at him for reminding Chatot of that.

Chatot nodded. "Precisely!" A chorus of sighs followed this statement. "Now, now, don't look so disappointed. Even if you do not wind up as a part of this expedition, I'm sure all of you will get your turns." He paused, waiting for the complaints to die away. When it did, he began to speak again. "We will depart in around ten days. Starting now, the guildmaster and I will begin to observe your activities and choose the most worthy apprentices. Those chosen members will form the expedition party."

A ringing sound preceded Chimecho's hesitant question. "Um, Chatot? How many of us do you and the guildmaster anticipate bringing?"

"As many of you as we feel can handle it. An expedition is no easy feat, as most of you here know, but if the guildmaster and I feel you're capable of the work, then you'll certainly be considered."

"What'll we do if we're not picked?" I asked.

"You'll handle jobs listed on our bulletin boards, as usual. Officer Magnezone will keep them updated. Those of you who remain here will have plenty of work to do."

"But what if we all qualify?" called out Diglett. "Then what will happen?"

"Then I would presume that all of you would be invited to participate. Is that all?" Chatot asked impatiently. When no further questions came, he continued, "Very good. Well, then, everyone, work hard so that you may be chosen for the expedition!"

The noise instantly skyrocketed. Chatot and Wigglytuff very wisely made their escape immediately after the cheer. "Oh my gosh! This is so exciting!" I heard Sunflora exclaim to Bidoof and Chimecho.

"Yup yup! I've yet to go on an expedition," Bidoof admitted wistfully. "I would surely love to go this time!"

"Me, too; me, too!" Chimecho giggled, waving her long streamer and letting off the occasional ringing noise. "I didn't get to go on the last expedition. There were too many Dark- and Ghost-types around the ruins we visited. I really hope that I can go this time around!"

"Hey, hey! Skitty and Chikorita!" Corphish called from across the room. Rita and I turned to look at him, as did almost everyone else in the room. "Did Chatot say anything to you guys? Usually when he announces an expedition coming up he makes sure to say something like 'only experienced members will be able to go,' but this time he didn't."

"He did say something to us, actually," I said with a grin. "Apparently we've been doing well enough that he and the guildmaster are making a special exception for us. We might get to go, too!"

This news was met by much cheering and pats on the back.

"All right!"

"Well done, you two!"

"You guys really have been working hard!"

"Thanks, guys!" I said succinctly. Rita, on the other hand, looked extremely touched. That confused me a bit. In retrospect, I know that Rita and I were really very lucky to be part of a community that congratulated us rather than being a bit miffed that there would be extra competition, but at the time I thought that this was rather normal. I mean, after all, we were always happy for each other, and I didn't have the experience to realize that not everyone in competitive groups like ours was like that.

"All RIGHT, then," Loudred shouted over the compliments, "let's all work at it and get picked as members!"

All of us cheered again just as loudly. By now, Rita and I had been conditioned to know what remarks would spark a group cheer, so now we could do it in synchronization with the rest of them. I often wondered how we looked to outsiders, especially with this fairly recent incident Chatot had yelled at us for, involving a few residents of Treasure Town suffering from food poisoning and being stalked by various accomplices for thirty-six hours straight. Rita got a weird look on her face when she heard who was targeted by this, so I guess she knew them, but I personally don't really know what all that was about. In any case, I decided that most of the Pokémon of Treasure Town already thought I was odd so my being in the guild wouldn't have much effect on my reputation.

"Off for another day of missions!" I announced as Rita and I joined a long queue going up the ladder. We'd brought our bag to the morning meeting, so all we needed to do was decide on our course of action. "Any kind of mission you particularly want to do today?"

"W-...well...w-we c-can...d-do mmmore...than...one j-j-job a-at a...t-t-time," Rita began to explain eagerly. At this point, she was already up the ladder and plowing her way through the crowd of eager apprentices to get to the bulletin boards. Seeing her so excited was strange, but in a good way. "Ssssso...llllet's t-take as...mmmany...j-jobs as...we...c-c-c-can!"

I grunted, heaving myself onto the upper floor and scurrying around the others to catch up with Rita. "That's so we'd seem more responsible and capable and stuff like that, right? As long as we don't take so many that we get killed, that would definitely get the guildmaster's attention. Well, actually...getting killed would to that, too, but that's not the kind of attention we—umph!" I let out a whoosh of breath when she suddenly stopped dead and I slammed into her from behind. We both fell and wound up sprawled in a pile on the floor. "What the—" I broke off when I picked up my head and saw just what it was that had given Rita such a shock.

Normally, this early in the morning, only we apprentices were inside because Loudred and Diglett hadn't started sentry duty yet, but there they were—Koffing and Zubat, our tormentors from the day Rita and I had met. The two had been examining the Job Bulletin Board until our ruckus had alerted them to our approach. "Hey!" Zubat exclaimed just as Koffing asked, "You two?" The both of them retreated from the board as quickly as if it had spontaneously combusted.

"Yeah, us," I spat at them, picking myself up off the floor. Rita followed my cue, still looking pretty stunned. "We joined the guild as a team. So what are you two doing here in our guild?" Lowly, so as not to make this suggestion a reality quite yet, I added, "We say the word, and I'm willing to bet everyone in this room will just walk all over you." Quite true, but getting anyone to hear or see us in this crowd would be the tricky part...

Zubat and Koffing looked at the number of Pokémon in the room and then exchanged a glance. "Your petty little threats won't work on us," Koffing scoffed less than confidently. "And what was that about 'your' guild, huh? I'll have you know that we're an exploration team, too."

"Yeah," Zubat agreed with a grin, "and what's so funny about an exploration team checking out the Job Bulletin Board?"

Rita gasped, and I stared at them, wide-eyed. "No way. You creeps are an exploration team?"

"That's right, though the way we operate isn't always...say...by the book." Feeling much more self-assured now that he and Zubat had the upper hand, Koffing added, "But what a surprise! Why would you two be here?"

The two of them started to advance on us, but clearly thought better of it after a glance at the apprentices still gathered around the bulletin boards. I took a step back for firmer footing, just in case, and hissed, "I told you, we're an exploration team training at this guild."

Zubat and Koffing laughed at the same moment. It was a testament to how noisy and/or distractible our guild could be that no one around us heard. "What?" Zubat choked out. "You want to become real-deal exploration team members?" Still chuckling, he and Koffing looked at each other and then moved as one to surround Rita on both sides. She let out a squeak of fear and flinched away, but they followed her movement.

"Hey! You leave her alone," I growled, flattening my ears to my head.

"Geez, you're annoying. Just shut up already, would ya? Even a dumb loser like this one can speak up for itself," snapped Zubat.

I was shocked into silence for a moment. As soon as I recovered, though, I'm willing to bet you could see actual steam coming out of my ears. "You did not just say that. You didn't just insult Rita and call her an it. You did not."

Ignoring me, Koffing said to Rita, "You, come with us for a second." He and Zubat herded her a small distance away, where I could see them start to badger her. Rita tried to get away, but they kept bumping her back into place whenever she so much as shifted.

"I am going to kill you! Hey! Hey! Don't ignore me; I'm talking to you!" I shouted at their backs. I had begun to storm over there when something—or, rather, someone—halted me by holding on to my tail. "Ow! Who's pulling my tail off, and do you really want to continue doing so and be beaten to death?"

"No, not really, but what's going on?" Without my noticing, a group of three had caught on to the situation—Corphish, Croagunk, and Pikachu, who was the one that had spoken. "Who are those guys, what did they do, and do they deserve beatings, death, or a full-blown, gory massacre?" he added, letting go of my tail once he was sure I wasn't going to leave them hanging.

"Just from the looks of it, I'd say a gory massacre sounds good," Corphish commented, taking in Zubat and Koffing's pushiness, Rita's desperate attempts to get away, and my very evident anger.

"They're an exploration team that likes to pick on Rita. They wanted to talk to her 'alone,' so they dragged her off and won't let her go! I don't know what kind of things they're saying to her, but they're probably insulting or demeaning. And they called her an it!" I emphasized.

Croagunk chuckled and very deliberately cracked his knuckles. "So it's a massacre, then."

"No doubt about it," Corphish agreed. "Sounds fun."

"Massacres are always fun. Good practice, too," Pikachu added, his cheek pouches sparking.

I was startled enough to forget about being angry upon the realization that they were serious about beating up Rita's tormentors. "Whoa, hold on a second!" I exclaimed. "I thought you were joking about beating them up! Won't that get you in trouble if you're caught? You might not get to go on the expedition!"

Pikachu waved one paw dismissively. "You're talking like Chatot and the guildmaster are heartless. We might have to go without dinner or something to keep up appearances, but they won't hold it against us if we tell them why they have bodies to dispose of. Heck, if they see us at it, they'd probably cheer us on."

He, Croagunk, and Corphish began to head over to where Zubat and Koffing were still picking on Rita. "You just wait here, 'kay, Skitty?" Corphish called back.

"No way! I'm helping," I told them—I mean, hey, if it's not going to get me kicked out, why let them have all the fun?—but it seemed that all this was unnecessary, because Rita finally managed to break away from Zubat and Koffing.

"Nnnno! I—I'll w-...work...sssssso hard that I...I'll e-even...be...p-p-picked for the...exp-p-pedition!" she exclaimed as she backed away and darted behind our group for safety.

"Well, effort only gets you so far," Zubat pointed out in a falsely sweet voice. "You won't get picked for this expedition if you don't have talent, right? It all comes down to talent—pure talent!"

"Hey, hey! That's a lot of big talk, but what kinds of skills do you have?" Corphish demanded.

Pikachu added, "Good question. From what I've heard, those two beat you not too long ago!"

"We'd love to see if we could do the same," Croagunk said with a cackle.

Realizing that it was now five against two, and that this new, larger commotion was attracting a lot of glances, Zubat and Koffing were on the defensive, looking for a way to get out of the situation. "Well, we didn't have the Chief with us then," Zubat said nervously, his eyes darting from one side to the other in desperation. "Our Chief is incredibly talented."

"To put it bluntly, he's brutally tough."

"If the Chief were around, we'd snap you like a twig."

"Wait, wait," I interrupted. "Who's this 'Chief' you're talking about?"

Zubat rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Well, he's the Chief! The leader of our exploration team!"

"You mean there's another one of you?" Pikachu groaned.

Both of them seemed to have misunderstood the tone of voice Pikachu had used, for they seemed to take it as a lament about how many members we had to stand up to. "That's right. Team Skull—our exploration team—has three members," Zubat proudly declared. "And the Chief is the biggest, strongest, and bravest out of all of us. You wouldn't stand a chance against him!"

Koffing seemed to notice something, because he turned towards the ladder. "And speaking of the Chief, I can smell him coming now!"

Following his gaze, we spotted a Skuntank headed down. As he stepped off the ladder and loomed over our group, we realized how much bigger he was. I don't think Skuntank were normally so big, but he certainly was taller and wider than any of us. "Move it! Out of the way!" he snapped, and from the tip of his tail sprayed a terrible-smelling fluid. The group of us stumbled backwards to try and avoid it, tripping over one another in our haste but successful in the end. The terrible smell (and our startled shouting) was attracting the attention of everyone in the room, but Skuntank ignored that and breezed past us over to Zubat and Koffing.

"Chief! You showed them, Chief! You're the best!" the two bullies cheered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So did you two sniff out any jobs that'll bring in the cash?"

Koffing began, "Well, the Job Bulletin Board only posted cheap tasks today, but—"

"There's something else, Chief!" Zubat interrupted. Koffing shot him a nasty look for stealing the spotlight. "It's got the potential to go big!"

He muttered into the Chief's ear. A slow, wide grin bloomed on Skuntank's face. "Oh, that does sound tasty." Shooting a pointed look towards the others so they wouldn't say anything and give me away, I crept closer to the group to try and eavesdrop. "Let's...out...We..." Koffing caught on and signaled to the other two to keep their voices down. After that I couldn't hear anything else, and angrily stalked back to my group. Almost at the same time, Skuntank announced, "Come on. We're going." He led the way up the ladder, pointedly ignoring all of us.

Koffing and Zubat began to follow, but paused before flying up and out of the room once they realized that every occupant was watching them. "What are you all staring at? This isn't a public performance!" The onlookers quickly glanced away. Satisfied, Koffing left in pursuit of Skuntank.

Zubat chuckled. I didn't like the look on his face, like he knew something we didn't. "See you around, wimps," he said to Rita and me. Then he, too, left.

Instantly, I whipped around to look at Rita. "Are you okay, Rita?" Similar questions were asked by Pikachu and Corphish, while Croagunk just crossed his arms and tried to look cool and collected.

"I-I...y-y-yeah," she stammered. "Thhhey...d-d-didn't...d-do a-anything...b-b-besides...p-p-push mmme."

"What did they want to talk to you about?"

Rita deliberately avoided eye contact with any of us. The others I could understand—Rita still wasn't quite comfortable with them—but not looking at me meant that they had said something hurtful.

"Rita?"

"Chikorita?"

"What did they say?"

"I'm still up for massacring them if needed."

Rita looked a little worried by Croagunk's mention of a massacre, but she reluctantly admitted, "They...t-t-told me to...g-give up...b-being...an exp-plorer. Thhhhey sssaid...I'm...t-t-too...e-easily sssssscared, ssssso...I c-can't c-cut it..."

"Okay, we're going after them now," Corphish announced. The two other boys nodded in agreement.

"Oh—guys—wait!" I called after them, but within moments they were headed up and out of the guild. With a sigh, I muttered, "They're going to get themselves knocked out." That smelly fluid Skuntank sprayed in here was so potent that even now it was enough to make someone gag.

"I...I rrrreally am...j-just a...wimp," Rita mumbled.

This issue took precedence over the boys' imminent doom, so I pushed my concern for them away and irritably snapped, "No, you're not, so knock it off." Rita looked away guiltily. "...Sorry, they really got on my nerves. I can't stand bullies...But seriously, Rita, you're not a wimp. You saw the three of them having their private conversation just now, didn't you?" She nodded. "They're up to something, and whatever it is Zubat's thought up, we're in the way of it. I'm thinking that's why he and Koffing tried to discourage you—so you'd give up and leave, and our team wouldn't exist anymore. It must have something to do with the guild if that's really the case..." I paused, trying and failing to make a connection. "But what could they want from the guild that we stand in the way of?"

"I d-d-don't knnnow...," Rita said thoughtfully. She still seemed a bit down, but the mystery was a sufficient distraction.

"Let's think about it while we take on our missions," I suggested. "You wanted to do a bunch, right? Let's see if there's a lot of them for one area. That way we won't have to head all over the place." The two of us headed over to the Job Bulletin Board. "Look, here's one for, um...I think that says...Mount Bristle!" I pointed out, trying to encourage her. "It's a rescue mission, and...never mind, I can't really make out the rest. You need to help me out here."

In the end, we decided to take on a couple of standard missions that were taking place in Mount Bristle, along with promising to keep an eye out for an outlaw while we were there. We completed all of the missions, though we didn't get to go home until well after dinner. We'd even found that outlaw! He wasn't all that challenging, to be honest. He'd surrendered as soon as we identified ourselves, the coward. Anyway...when we'd turned him in, Officer Magnezone had said that there was a reward, but he would have to deliver it to us later. After we'd collected our rewards from our other clients, we met with one of Officer Magnezone's deputies.

"Officer Magnezone sends his apologies for not being able to present this to you himself," the Magnemite stated, "but something came up at the station. He asks that I explain your reward to you." He set a small basket on the ground. Inside the basket, surrounded by blankets, was something small and ovular.

Rita and I peered closer. "Is...is that an egg?" I asked incredulously. "You're giving us an egg?"

The Magnemite deliberately blinked, its form of a nod. "Yes."

I was horrified. "Why would you do that? What about its parents? Who would ask someone to give up their egg?"

Rita looked equally appalled. "Thhhat...that's...sssssso sssad..."

"Oh, my gosh, the police department is kidnapping children! You're kidnapping children! The police department is really an organized association of criminals!"

"You misunderstand," Magnemite was quick to correct us, as multiple horrified glances shot our way at the sound of my accusations. "A few days ago I asked your guildmaster whom he felt would be appropriate to ask to take responsibility for an egg, and when he recommended your team, I assumed he had discussed with you the agreement between our department and your guild." He began to explain, with bursts of static throughout the following speech, "Yes, we often give eggs to exploration teams as a 'reward' of sorts. But the eggs we re-home are either orphans or found in mystery dungeons."

This admission startled both Rita and me enough that we forgot to be so angry. "Oh...that's even sadder...never mind, everyone, false alarm!" I called out to the onlookers, who went back to their own business. "But why give one to us? We're getting there, but we're not actually adults yet. What would we do with an egg?"

"The reasoning sounds strange, but really makes quite a lot of sense. There is no formal process for adoption in this area, so finding homes for children is incredibly complicated, and there are too few Pokémon willing to go through it. These situations make it difficult for us to place eggs before they hatch, so in order to not have to send them to a group home, we attempt to find willing exploration teams to foster them," Magnemite explained. "Exploration teams who operate through this guild have resources that most Pokémon would not have, such as a twenty-four hour daycare only for members of teams, located within Treasure Town. As long as you stop by and take an interest in the Pokémon that hatches, since the guild funds this daycare, it looks after eggs and the Pokémon that hatch from them free of charge. The Pokémon running it is aware of the situation; she really enjoys having the hatchlings around all the time."

I exchanged an uneasy glance with Rita. "What do you think?" I asked her quietly. "It sounds like Wigglytuff thinks it would be fine, and if this daycare-running Pokémon is really willing to take care of it, then we don't have to worry so much about what to do. Maybe it would be fun." Rita was thinking hard about it, so I tried to do the same and imagined what it might be like if we took in this egg. My eyes lit up as I enthused, "Oh, oh, when it hatches, the Pokémon inside could be our little sister! We could name her, and teach her a whole bunch of stuff, and wouldn't it be so cool to watch her grow up? Naturally, she'd idolize us, so we could tell her all about our exploration team, and then, maybe one day she'll want to join! Wouldn't that be so cool, Rita? It would be so much fun to share a sister!"

Rita seemed a little less optimistic than me. "I don't know...," she whispered. "I think it would be a lot of work, even if we do have the daycare person take care of it..." Even so, she couldn't help but admit with a small smile, "But it might be fun to—"

"It's settled then!" I announced, not waiting for Rita to finish her sentence beyond the part where she expressed some willingness to take in the egg. "We'll take responsibility for the egg and talk to this daycare Pokémon."

Magnemite seemed to be pleased, though one couldn't be too sure since he didn't have facial features to express it with and his voice was rather monotone. "Excellent. Allow me to escort you to Chansey's daycare," he offered, "as neither of you have hands to carry this basket with." At our nods, he carefully slipped the handle of the basket into the loop of the magnet on his right side, and rose up into the air, tilted to the left so the basket was safely cradled in the magnet's curve. "Please follow me."

The daycare turned out to be just inside Treasure Town. It was a cute but rather large egg-shaped house, pink in color, with a huge yard that had in it more toys than I'd know what to do with. A tiny Weedle, Poliwag, and Poochyena were playing in the yard, and we could hear their happy squeals before we even saw the house.

Chansey was standing close to the house, supervising with a very content expression on her face. She spotted us coming and called to the three kids, "Wade, Polly, Yen, play nice while I talk to our guests, all right?" By the time she had finished her sentence, we had reached her, and she turned to us, smiling. "Hello there," she said kindly, looking between me to Rita and then to Magnemite. "And Deputy Magnemite! How nice to see you again!" she trilled, and then to us she said, "I haven't met the two of you before! You must work at the guild if you've come to see little old me, right?" Her head snapped around to Magnemite. "You've given these girls an egg for their team to look out for, haven't you? Oh, how wonderful for you!" she finished, looking at us again. Watching her rapid shifts in attention was actually a little overwhelming, and in addition to that she wasn't giving us any leeway to respond. "My, my, you two are so young, but you must be pretty capable if you've been given such an honor. I'd be happy to look after this one, too, of course. Deputy, you must let me see the little dear!" She beckoned, extending her stubby arms towards the basket.

"Of course." Carefully floating closer to Chansey, he allowed her to take the egg from the basket.

"Oh, look at you. You're a gorgeous one, aren't you?" Chansey cooed. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure the children were still occupied before carefully turning the egg in her hands to inspect it from all angles. For the first time, Rita and I were able to get a good look at it. The small egg was pale green with two red spots, each on opposite sides. "Such a lovely colored eggshell! Oh, and you're not so far from hatching, now are you? Yes, you seem to be in fine condition." She looked at Rita and me and explained, "I haven't seen an egg like this one before. I'm not sure what will hatch from it. We have a little mystery on our hands!"

"Now I'm even more excited for it to hatch!" I exclaimed, but in the meantime, Chansey had plowed on with her monologue.

"Now let's get this little one settled before the other children catch on and get too excited." She slipped the egg into the pouch on her stomach, which I now noticed had been empty. The egg was little enough that it was practically swallowed up inside. "I haven't had an egg since dear Wade hatched," she enthused, fondly glancing towards the Weedle. "You'd know Corphish, right? He fostered the egg that Wade here hatched from. He and the other two just adore him. Corphish is so awfully fond of the little ones, you know; he stops by so often I sometimes forget he's not one of them!" She smiled. "But you're more concerned about your little friend, aren't you? No need to worry, the egg will be safe with me. Feel free to stop by whenever you want to check up on it. I'll of course send word as soon as it begins to hatch, but it looks as if that won't be for at least a few days. Oh, and the guild pays for all of the expenses, so you don't need to worry about that either, dears. Just try your best to stop by every few days to say hello. I know how busy you must be, and it all must be a bit overwhelming right now, but we want this little one to know who's responsible for him!"

Mostly it was her who was overwhelming, but miraculously, I'd managed to absorb most of the information that she'd thrown at us. "We'll come as often as we can," I eagerly agreed, exchanging a glance with Rita to make sure she agreed. Since my enthusiasm was catching, that situation wouldn't be a problem. "I can't wait until the egg hatches!"

"I'll be taking my leave now," Magnemite announced. To us, he added, "Thank you for both your hard work and your selflessness in accepting this responsibility!" and then he floated up to a height where he wouldn't have to watch for heads and drifted off.

"We should head back, too," I said to Rita, and she nodded in agreement. "Bye, Chansey! Thanks for taking care of the egg."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Chansey happily replied. "I just love having so many little ones around. I hope to be seeing the two of you soon!" she called, waving as the two of us turned and headed back towards the guild.

Almost as soon as we were out of Chansey's earshot I started gushing, "Can you believe it, Rita? We get to help take care of an egg!"

"Y-yeah! I—"

"What kind of Pokémon do you think will hatch? It'll probably be green, right?" I plowed on. "But there were those spots, too! Is there a spotted Pokémon that's mostly green?"

"I d-do—"

"This is so cool! I can't wait to tell everyone about Gloria!"

"K-Kai, I d—" Once my statement had sunk in, Rita looked incredibly confused. "W-wait...what?"

"Gloria, Rita, Gloria!" I impatiently repeated. "Let's name the Pokémon Gloria!"

"B-but...w-...what if it'ssss...a b-b-boy?"

I snorted dismissively. "Boy, shmoy. We're girls, so the Pokémon in that egg has to be a girl, too, right? Otherwise they wouldn't give that one to us."

"I...I d-d-don't thhhink...that'ssss...h-how it...works..."

"Sure it does!" I honestly believed that there was no way a boy Pokémon could hatch from that egg. "You just don't get it, Rita. You know how a mom and a dad are a boy and a girl? Since the egg is around a boy Pokémon and a girl Pokémon, that means the egg they get can hatch into a Pokémon that can be a boy or a girl! But we're both girls, so the girl-ness overpowers the boy-ness and makes the Pokémon in the egg a girl! Plus there's Chansey, which makes it more a girl!"

Rita was looking more and more lost with each passing second. "I...you...what? I...I d-don't u-understand! Th-that's nnnnot...h-how it...works!"

"Well, fine, then how does it work? What makes a Pokémon a girl or a boy?"

Rita blushed deeply and remained silent, since the answer, I would later find out, touched on some very awkward topics.

"Rita? Why did you go all quiet? Why aren't you answering me? Come on! Why won't you tell me?"

Rita never answered me, so I mentioned my thoughts to the rest of the apprentices. This caused a very awkward silence at the dinner table, though I didn't understand why until later, when Chatot and Wigglytuff took me aside in order to explain exactly where eggs came from and what about that makes Pokémon boys and girls. And that's where I leave you, because not even murderers should have to suffer through the horrors of Chatot trying to explain the facts of life.

AN:/

Hi, everyone! How's it going? Hopefully everything's going well. So, Team Aster's got their first potential teammate! A mystery egg, apparently named Gloria! Any ideas what mystery egg might be? I won't tell you if you're right, but it might be fun to guess anyway. Hope you enjoyed Kai's misguided theories. She's like a little kid, thinking she's got the world figured out and then being proved oh so wrong. Oh, and for those of you who owndered what exactly Charmander and Pikachu did in the special episode to take revenge on Rita's bullies, there you have it. Food poisoning, courtesy of one of Croagunk's weird concoctions, and mental scarring, courtesy of the apprentices who stalked them.

So, I'm considering writing an original story based on PMD. I need to take the occasional break from Kai and her energy and Rita's...Rita-ness, and as strange as it sounds, I think writing a story based on an already existing plot exhausts my creativity faster than writing an original fanfiction would...That, and I want to try a mystery dungeon fic with my own plot, rather than one from the games'. Not to worry, though—our dear Team Aster will still be my main focus, and since things are mostly less hectic for me chapters will probably still be finished about the same pace (not that said pace is at all impressive in the first place...). So if you notice me post a new fanfiction, know that I went through with my plans. I will have a lot of with the story I'm cooking up~ Say hello to government upheavals, secret resistance organizations, and humans-turned-Pokémon that are looked at as gods!

Oh lovely reviewers, it is time to acknowledge your awesomeness by responding to the reviews with which you have gifted me!

Cardcaptornicole: Aww, that's so sad. I'm sorry about your goldfish and your sister's rabbit! But thank you for the sympathy!

Team Dasher: No, no, the tips are fine! They keep the statistical things fresh in my mind! I do appreciate the mission request, but unfortunately I think if I wrote a chapter on my characters doing a mission for your team, then I would have to do missions that the other reviewers asked for, and that would be an awful lot. I did have Kai and Rita go on a rescue mission to Mt. Bristle, though. We'll say it's your team that they rescued. ;)

HikariNoTenshi-San: Kai has had that scolding coming, you gotta admit. Super Kai is just the tip of the iceberg. She can be a bit abrupt and just does as she pleases, usually without concern for anyone but Rita, and sometimes not even that. I can only imagine how annoying she must be to the minor characters. XD And not only did Rita speak a full two sentences in the last chapter, in the one after this, she speaks a full paragraph! Call in the reporters and newscasters!

Sweet but Psycho: I don't mind shorter reviews, as long as you continue pointing out my silly grammatical errors and any other brain-controlling aliens Kai may encounter in the future. =] Thanks for doing that!

Mystery-Bright: Haha, I should just get you all to ask random questions if this is the response I get for putting their answers in random facts! Actually, that would help a lot with coming up with these facts...And glad you liked the Grimer children. That part was quite fun to write.

So if you didn't read my response to Mystery-Bright's review, I need ideas for random facts, so ask me random/strange questions about the story! Ask them about Kai or Rita! Ask them about the Pokémon of the guild! Ask them about Kai's imaginary pet wall, Bob! Don't ask them about the egg, but almost everything else is fine as long as it can be turned into a good random fact. "Bow down and profess your love unto me, your lord...or I shall destroy you!" (Supernatural, anyone? No? Is this just me making a fool of myself again with obscure quotes?)

Until next time! Oh, and Happy Halloween! Random Fact #25: Kai enjoys boats. She likes to sit under ones that are overturned and sing "I'm under a boat!" making it as drawn out and obnoxious as possible. (This was inspired by my youngest sister and I, while in the pool, flipping over a inflatable chair, standing under it, and singing the aforementioned song as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. We do this frequently enough throughout the summers that the neighbors don't even look out their back doors anymore.)