~(C)~

"Hey, Charmander, time to wake up," Snivy said gently to Charmander as he lay asleep on his bed.

For about three seconds, Charmander didn't react. He continued to rest in his bed, mildly agitated by the distraction that Snivy induced on his sleep. Once he remembered the events of last night, though, his eyes shot open and he sat up with a gasp.

"Woah!" Snivy was standing at his bedside, and jolted back in response to Charmander's sudden movement. "That was easier than I—hey, where are you going?!"

While Snivy was speaking, Charmander had pulled the covers out from over him, hopped to the ground, and jogged out of the room, paying Snivy little attention.

You're okay. You're okay. You're okay. You're okay. She was probably okay; Patches sounded confident enough by the end of last night. But he needed to see for himself, and he wouldn't be able to settle his mind until he knew for sure.

After making it up the stairs, Charmander wove his way around the Pokémon who were in the main room preparing for their upcoming expeditions. He ran to the opening of the medical wing so quickly that he almost hit his head into the wall. Turning towards Kangaskhan's bed, Charmander was pleased to find her up and looking fairly well. She was resting comfortably in her bed, looking at him with a warm gaze and a gentle grin. "Kangaskhan!" he exclaimed joyously as he ran over to her.

"Hello, dear," Kangaskhan said once she was close enough for him to hear.

Charmander stopped himself short of hugging her, in fear that he might disrupt the careful work that Patches had done on her the night before. "I'm glad you're okay," he said.

Somehow, Kangaskhan's smile managed to grow warmer. She weakly reached out and took Charmander's hand and said, "Charmander, you truly are a gift sent by Zekrom. You saved my life yesterday."

"Kangaskhan?"

Charmander turned around. Snivy was running over to the bed, aghast by Kangaskhan's current state. "Dear Zekrom, what happened to you?" he asked. "And how did you know she was here?" he added to Charmander.

"Calm down, Snivy; I'm okay," Kangaskhan responded. "I'm afraid there was a break-in in my storage last night. I tried to stop the thief, but he managed to get away, and left me in this sorry state. Charmander, fortunately, came to my aid after this happened, and he managed to get me safely to Doctor Patches in time for him to patch me up. If he wasn't there, you might have found me dead on the road right now instead of here."

Snivy staggered back in shock. "There was a break-in?! Who attacked you? What did they steal?"

"It was a Dewott. A very fast and powerful Dewott," Kangaskhan said. "As for what they stole, I can't say I know for certain yet. I didn't have time to check the inventory for what went missing after he got away. However, I know that he didn't steal much: perhaps only one or two things. So don't worry: almost everything is still safe."

Charmander's eyes grew wide. Dewott. That was the Pokémon that Absol warned him about. Masquerain's bodyguard: the one that sought his blood. And if he's the one who attacked Kangaskhan, then he knows that I'm here. Suddenly, he was afraid to go outside.

"Does anybody else know that you're here?" Snivy asked.

"They will shortly," Kangaskhan replied. "One of the Kecleon brothers kindly volunteered to oversee the storage facility while I rested here. He was kind enough to reorganize the place and run it himself, so you don't need to worry about not being able to access any of your items today. Please be patient with him, though: he's new to the job, and he's probably just a little bit slower than me at working out the storage details. Speaking of which, I would love to keep talking with you—I honestly would—but there's something I need to discuss with Charmander privately and I'm afraid that I might be receiving some more visitors soon."

"Oh, um…okay. What do you need to discuss?" Snivy asked.

"Just details regarding the break-in," Kangaskhan said. "Since Charmander was the one who found me in the first place, and since he was the one who locked up the storage afterwards, I need to talk with him about some boring confidentiality details and the like."

"Alright," Snivy said with a nod. "Get better soon, then. Charmander, I'll grab your stuff and meet you at the dojo, alright?"

"Oh, is practice today?" Charmander asked.

"Yup. And it starts in less than half an hour, so try and speak quickly." And at that, he jogged off to the exit and left Charmander's sight.

When he turned back to face Kangaskhan, her face was suddenly filled with sorrow. "I'm sorry, Charmander," she said. "I tried."

Charmander spent a couple seconds staring sadly back at her, as if they were exchanging mutual expressions of guilt. Soon, though, he put his guilt into words, and he said, "I should have known that it was going to attract the wrong sort of attention in the first place. Don't worry about losing it. I should be apologizing to you for causing you so much trouble."

"Charmander, my responsibility is to keep your things safe. And I failed."

"But look at what happened to you! Kangaskhan, if I knew that asking you to hold on to that thing would have resulted in that Dewott attacking you, then I would have kept it as far away from you as I could. And it's not just you. I'm afraid that he might come back for me, or maybe for someone else."

"Now, dear, why would he do that?" Kangaskhan asked. "He got what he wanted, didn't he? He doesn't need to come back again."

"Well…." Charmander looked down in ponderance. He stopped himself short of elaborating on who Dewott was, on account of keeping Absol's identity a secret. Instead, he raised a secondary concern of his: "If Victini and I are right about our suspicions, then this is an indication that the Arashi knows that we're here now, and that they'll eventually attack us."

"Oh, I see," Kangaskhan said slowly. "Well, I suppose that day will eventually come, won't it? I hope that it doesn't happen any time soon, but even if it does, I think you'll all be ready to stand your ground. You've trained yourselves to fight back against the Arashi this whole time, have you not?"

Charmander shrugged. "Yeah, well…I've only been here for about a week. I can't say I'm a grade-A fighter just yet. But I'll be surrounded by experts, I guess. Speaking of which, I should probably get going to the dojo soon. You said you had some confidential details to go over with me regarding the break-in?"

"I don't," Kangaskhan said with a grin. "I just said that so we could talk privately about what happened. Now, you take care, honey."

"Yeah, you too." Charmander turned towards the exit, but then stopped and turned back. "Oh, and by the way, thanks for…not asking about the orb."

Kangaskhan chuckled lightly. "Charmander, my job is to keep personal items safe and stored. A lot of secrets pass through me because of it. Yours are no more a concern of mine than any of the others. I'm sure you have your reasons to keep this to yourself."

You have too much faith in me, Charmander thought. He stayed silent, though, and waved Kangaskhan goodbye before walking off to the dojo.

~(C)~

After the first half-hour of the training session, Charmander felt a similar soreness from sparring. His opponent was Glide the Bunnelby, and she wasn't quite as nice as Sentinel was last time. Her method for helping him get the ropes down seemed less oriented on providing him with vocal feedback and more oriented on kinesthetically reminding him on where his weaknesses were. When he exposed his solar plexus, she'd kick him in the solar plexus, and if he caved in from the blow and leaned forward, then he'd lean right into a punch struck by one of her ears. The only time she would speak to him during the sparring match was when she told him to stand back up after he would fall to the ground.

As they started their third round of sparring, Charmander internally knew that he wouldn't be able to do much damage. Previously, he managed to land a couple of light taps against Glide, but they were a nuisance at best. He decided this time that he would reserve his strikes for when he knew he had the opportunity to strike hard. The rest of his time would be spent focused on defense. At first, the fight went as expected: Charmander found himself blocking and dodging more strikes and kicks, but also found himself delivering fewer strikes and kicks himself. It almost felt leisurely at that point. Perhaps Glide was starting to go easy on him.

"Charmander!"

It was Victini who called him. Keeping his guard up and his eyes on the Bunnelby attacking him, he responded, "Yes, Victini?"

"Stop fighting."

Confused but cautious, Charmander lowered his hands and slowly turned towards Victini. He wasn't the only one who stopped fighting: everyone else on the platoon paused to hear what Victini had to say.

She was glaring at him. Her eyes were wide and demanding, and her posture was firm. It was the composure she produced whenever she had to correct somebody, and Charmander figured that he was not an exception. "What did I tell you last time you were in here?" she asked him.

"Um…." Charmander nervously glanced over at Sentinel, the Furret that he fought last time. He tried to remember the characteristics of the fight, and the advice that Victini gave. "…That I need to be more aggressive?" he finally guessed.

"More specifically…? What did I say would happen if I found your opponent in upright and working order after you fought them?"

About two seconds' worth of processing later, Charmander recalled. He sighed and said, "I would have to fight you."

"That's right. Glide, tell me: how has Charmander been? Is he being too nice?"

The Bunnelby shrugged in response. "He's doing alright, I guess."

Victini turned around and paced over to the center of the dojo, shaking her head. "The uncertainty verifies it. We do not reserve mercy for each other: we hit hard, and we get hit hard, and that's how we learn. Hold nothing back and you'll help everyone out." She turned around and faced Charmander once again. "Come here."

Promptly, Charmander walked up to Victini. He was on the verge of shaking in anticipation of his upcoming doom. Adrenaline washed over him, and with each passing step, it felt more and more rational a choice to simply turn around and walk out of the dojo instead. A fight with Victini would end in pain; there was no way around that. It would also end in humiliation: already, the pairs of eyes that the platoon presented was weighing him down, making him feel smaller. And yet he was presenting himself to her like this. At that moment, he forgot what Victini had said earlier. His attention was on potential sudden movements and how to react to them.

When he was almost face-to-face with Victini, she brought her arms to her side and said, "Hit me."

Charmander blinked. He immediately figured that she was going to deliver some complex counter-attack that would end with him on the floor and unhappy, and ran through the best attacks that he could do that would minimize damage to him.

Victini growled. "Stop thinking: hit me!"

Holding his breath, Charmander obeyed. He unsheathed his claws and swung his left hand clockwise, aiming for her face. He did this quickly, too—under the hopes that she would somehow be unable to react in time.

And, to his surprise, she didn't react in time. She…didn't react at all. After Charmander followed through, Victini stayed right where she stood, her only response to the attack being a modest wince. The scratch marks appeared below her right cheek, and a thin patch of blood began collecting itself on the surrounding fur. "There you go," she said, cracking a smile. "Was that so hard?"

Stunned, Charmander looked back and forth twice from his claws to her cheek. "…Are you oka—?"

Victini answered with a fast and powerful roundhouse kick to Charmander's lower ribcage. Before he could even tense up, she landed the hit. As he staggered back, clutching onto the area of impact to dampen the new source of pain, he heard Victini shout, "Wrong question!"

What? What do you mean 'wrong question?' Charmander arched his back, hoping to soften the damage by stretching. After he did so, he turned back to Victini and raised his guard. Her unpredictability was discomforting; all he wanted was an actual fight. At least then, he'd know the pace at which he'd get doomed.

Victini walked up to Charmander, still completely guardless and stoic once again. "Hit me again," she commanded. "Harder."

Charmander hesitated. If this was some obscure trust exercise, then he wasn't understanding it. If it was some ploy to get him to deliver harder strikes, then—

Oh, of course!

Victini suddenly jolted her body, as if she were about to punish Charmander's reluctance with another strike. But Victini did nothing more after that. She simply watched Charmander as he cringed in response to her sudden movement. "Now!" she commanded.

Alright, then. Since she was asking for a powerful hit, Charmander went for a kick. In the last class, he was taught the heel side kick, which could break ribcages given enough strength. He decided to try that out on her. As he wound up for the kick, Victini once again gave no reaction. She simply let it hit her in the chest at full force.

The blow pushed Victini onto the ground. The rest of platoon 4 gasped, reminding Charmander that they were all still there. Charmander couldn't focus on them now, though: he was too busy deciding on how he should feel about hitting his teacher so hard that she was groaning on the floor.

…And then she stood back up with ease, and the mirage was ruined. "That one actually hurt," she said with a grin. "Not bad. Let's see if that power holds up in an actual fight now. First to land three solid hits is the winner. You ready?"

Finally. Charmander lowered his stance. "Ready as I'll ever be."

Victini glided around him, arching her body forward and keeping her arms in a low guard. Charmander circled around her in turn, meeting her velocity. She was almost entirely unprotected; her head and chest were completely exposed. Perhaps she was inviting him to take the first legitimate hit. Still skeptical, Charmander slowly advanced closer to her…

…and got punched in the face immediately afterwards. Her guard was so low and unexposed that he didn't even see that simple strike coming. It wasn't very strong; it made his face bobble and caused his nose to sting, but he had been dealt worse literally a few minutes prior.

"My point," Victini said snidely.

"Charmander!" Sentinel called as Charmander briefly massaged his nose. "Only move closer to your opponent when you know that you're going to strike first."

Charmander nodded. "Will do."

The two continued to rotate around one another. In that moment, Charmander decided to shed all prospects of this fight being student-against-master. He mentally tried to imagine that she was an enemy—perhaps a wild creature in a mystery dungeon, only a bit more tactful. His strongest attacks wouldn't hurt her, so he had no reason to show any restraint.

He advanced forward again, but he advanced with some claw strikes this time. Victini calmly dodged each one, though, strafing away from his attacks. The fifth strike, however, wasn't dodged. It was blocked with both of Victini's arms, and countered with one of Victini's legs. Charmander backed up slightly after the kick landed on his abdomen.

"My point," she said again.

Betraying no hesitance, Victini led the attack for what Charmander figured would be the final moments of the fight. She led in with a simple hook punch: a clear indication that she was still going easy on him. In immediate response, Charmander cross-blocked the punch, grabbed onto her wrist, pulled her hand down, grabbed her jaw, and threw her to the ground. It was a sequence that he still intuitively had memorized from the last class, but he was surprised that it came to him so fluently.

Of course, the moment Victini hit the ground, she tried to stand back up. Oh no, you don't! While she was still on her back, Charmander mounted atop her and lifted his fist. Victini raised her hands and cringed, and for a second Charmander felt a bit guilty. But he promptly ignored that feeling and punched at her temple. "My point," he declared pridefully.

Instead of congratulating him, Victini buckled her hips upward against Charmander. The movement pushed him off of her, and the moment he scrambled back to his feet, he got side-kicked in the solar plexus, sending him into the audience, where Dragonite caught him.

"And that's the match," Victini said. "You've gotten better since last time; I'll give you that. Take a bit of a rest; I'll go get you an oran berry. As for the rest of you:" She gestured to the rest of platoon 4: "I hope you enjoyed the show. Now get back to work. Switch partners and keep fighting. The group of three will rotate with two-on-one sparring. Get to it."

Charmander slogged over to the benches on the other end of the dojo as his platoonmates partnered up. Along his walk, the others each took a few seconds to let Charmander know that they thought he was fighting surprisingly well. Smiling a weary smile and waving in a friendly manner, Charmander addressed and thanked everyone for their kind words, although they sounded to him like piteous compliments and not true assessments of his ability.

Victini zipped away, out of the dojo, and Charmander took a seat, eagerly awaiting her return. The soreness always seemed to be more pronounced after he was finished fighting. Although, he was starting to get used to it. He was almost starting to enjoy it. The pain was a soothing indication that he was getting tougher, and in that moment, he felt like a little bit more than just a tiny orange lizard.

He watched the rest of the platoon fight one another, which was an interesting spectacle to witness. Each of them was energized and intense, so much so that it seemed as if they were trying to seriously hurt one another. And yet, there were friendly gestures made throughout: handshakes, light contact, pats on the back. The juxtaposition of sportsmanship and borderline bloodlust was a bit uncanny, but also modestly entertaining.

A blurry ball of blue suddenly entered the front of his vision. "Here," Victini said from Charmander's side.

Charmander refocused his eyes and saw Victini's hand holding an oran berry. Charmander took the fruit from her and said, "Thanks." Immediately, he started digging into it.

"You punched me," Victini said.

"Well, you wanted me to hit hard, so I didn't hold anything back," Charmander responded through his mouthful.

"But why did you punch me?" she asked. "You're a Charmander. You've got claws, not knuckles."

Charmander looked at his claws in ponderance. "I don't know. I guess it felt more natural."

"Still got some human instincts in you, then, huh?" Victini asked.

"It sure seems that way."

"You may want to work on shaking that one off. You'll end up digging your claws into your own hand if you're not careful."

"I know," Charmander said. "For the most part, I've been using claw strikes more, but I guess I was just thinking too fast that time."

"Well, you still got me, so I shouldn't really complain."

Charmander took another bite of the oran and recalled that part of their fight. "Did you let me score on purpose?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nope. But you probably figured out I was going easy on you. That punch I threw—the one that you used to take me down—it was thrown lightly, but even so, I didn't expect you to pull me to the grounds like that. You're a pretty fast learner."

"Thanks."

Victini took a seat beside Charmander and watched the others fight. "For the record, there's a punchline to this."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Charmander asked.

"That fight that we had…I have it with everyone on their first or second day here."

"Oh, you do now? Well, then, how'd I do?"

Victini laughed lightly. "Actually, you did really well. The single-handed most important lesson that everybody needs to learn here is how it feels to hurt someone. We talk a lot about learning how to take a hit, but really learning how it feels to hurt someone is more important. Most of us aren't used to it, and so we restrain ourselves. I try and break that habit on day one by getting newcomers to beat me up. It takes most of them a long time to get the courage to actually deliver any damage. It took you two hits. That either means you're a psychopath or you quickly learned my lesson. And I don't think you're a psychopath."

"Ah, so you'd do the whole 'hit me' part with them as well?"

"Yup. It doesn't immediately make them more prone to fighting one another, and it probably won't for you either, but it pushes them in the right direction."

"I think the problem isn't that they don't like hurting other Pokémon. It's that they don't like hurting anyone who's on their side. Ask them to attack a threatening target like an enemy in a mystery dungeon and I don't think you'll see as much mercy."

"Sadly, you don't have that type of luxury when you're up against the Arashi, Charmander," Victini said. "When you fight them, you're fighting against Pokémon who, for the most part, are normal citizens like you and me. They were once friendly and active in their communities. They're smart and sympathetic and rational. It's just that now, they're corrupted. That's not something you can say about the wild creatures that lurk in the mystery dungeons."

Charmander considered the time he was up against the enemies in the village just a couple days prior. "Actually," he said, "I don't think that particularly bothered me about them. When I fought them earlier, I don't recall experiencing any particular sense of restraint or guilt just because they were intelligent."

"Really? You didn't?"

Charmander shook his head. "They were trying to hurt me, so I fought back with all I had."

"Well then, maybe you're a bit crazy after all," Victini responded with a playful grin. "Either way, good job today. I mean it."

"Thanks, Victini." Charmander continued to consume his oran berry as others continued battling one another. Victini, meanwhile, stood up and got back to coaching the others. Only a few more minutes passed until their session was over. By the time everyone was finished sparring, Charmander was finishing his last bite. The berry brought back every ounce of strength that was previously knocked out of him, and he felt no worse than he did before he entered the dojo.

Snivy put his cape back on and grabbed his satchel. Charmander promptly followed suit, and the two made their way to the exit. Along the way, Charmander checked his bag to make sure the exploration badge was still there, which in fact, it was. Paranoia compelled him to relocate the badge to the satchel's front pocket, where it could be more easily accessed in case Dewott showed up. The fact of the matter still remained that if both Kangaskhan and Absol were telling the truth, then a very powerful Pokémon who wanted to kill him now knows where he lives, and he was there only a few hours ago.

He didn't want to take any chances. Dewott was still out there, and Charmander was vulnerable. The least he could have was an escape plan.

~(M)~

"There's no escaping this, Dewott," Masquerain insisted to the rambunctious Pokémon beside him as he continued trying to loosen the bars of their prison. "Don't waste your energy. We're not getting out of here any time soon."

Dewott pounded the bars one last time with his fist and sat down in frustration. Their cage was small by Masquerain's perspective, so it must've been tiny for Dewott. The little otter was able to stand up inside; that was about it. Masquerain regretfully made this cage quite well. The bars were tight and closely interwoven, leaving stable squares scattered about that they could only look through: never break through. It was mid-day, but the interior of their prison was fairly dark because of the shadows cast by the bars. The tight, dark space that kept him from moving almost prompted more anxiety than did the fact that he was imprisoned in the first place.

"How did he do it?" Dewott grumbled.

"Do what?" Masquerain asked.

"Everybody in the encampment hates us. They once followed you, revered you, obeyed you. And now, they suddenly think that you're some sort of traitor. Even Abra's against you now. So I have to wonder…what did Weavile say to them? How did he convince everybody that you were no longer the hero that we needed?"

"There is…one possibility that I've come up with," Masquerain responded. "I told you about Absol, the outsider who both directed and deceived me in the past. There is the possibility that she's played a role in all this. If she took Weavile's side, she may have been able to convince the others that my destiny has been revoked."

Dewott shook his head. "I don't understand this Absol character. Does she want the world to fall apart?"

"She may just want me to be miserable," Masquerain suggested. "She's done quite a good job at that. Look at us: nobody's on our side anymore. All we have now are the gods."

Dewott shrugged. "Well, the gods are good allies to have, I'd think. And as long as we're alive, we can recover."

"I suppose so," Masquerain said wearily. "Staying alive might be easier said than done, though."

Masquerain looked outward at the view he had of the rest of the encampment. Pokémon were still busy packing and moving things around, though he couldn't see much of the commotion. Passerby would occasionally kick their cage or curse at them, but most of the time, he and Dewott would simply be left to themselves to observe the minutiae of the outside world. Masquerain feared he would grow mad with boredom, but he decided that to worry about that later, when maintaining his sanity would start to become a challenge.

"Why don't they just kill us?" Dewott asked cynically. "If they don't need us anymore, why would they imprison us like this? Wouldn't it be easier for them if they just got rid of us?"

Masquerain sighed and drew himself back from the bars. "I can't say that I've tried kicking that gift horse, Dewott. It's a good question, though….I think it might be because he's uncertain."

"About what?"

"About Charmander. Weavile wants to keep me alive because he's afraid that I might still be the destined Pokémon after all. That's what I think. As for you…I don't know. Maybe he could use you as collateral to get me to cooperate with him in the future. Zekrom knows you're all I have left now."

From out of the blue, a Sawk approached their cage and pushed two berries in between the bars. Dewott picked them up, and looked back at the Sawk disappointedly. "Quite lavish for prison food. You couldn't find anything more wretched for us to eat?"

"General Weavile told me to give you Persim berries, so that's what you're getting," Sawk responded coldly.

"Ah, so he's the general, now? Wonderful." Dewott leaned back against the cage. "Sawk, if you still have any sympathy for us, then help us figure this out. What convinced you that Masquerain was deceiving us?"

Once he finished talking, however, Sawk was gone. Dewott sighed and tossed one of the berries aside, taking a bite into the other one for himself. "Don't worry about my safety, Master," he said after swallowing. "I would gladly put myself in harm's way under any circumstances for your protection."

"That's precisely why I worry about you, Dewott. I don't want to lose you. And if it ends up being the case where I have to choose between letting you die and following Weavile's orders, then I'm going to follow Weavile's orders. I always considered you to be a great asset of mine, but Weavile may have turned you into a liability. I couldn't imagine what he may want to leverage me into doing, if anything at all, but you would be the weight that he could use against me."

Masquerain fluttered meagrely over to a corner of the cell and rested, staring through one of the small windows formed from the bars.

"You should eat, Master," Dewott said, rolling the other Persim berry his way.

"I'm not particularly hungry right now." Masquerain sighed and wrapped one of his wings around the berry. He continued gazing into the distance, waiting for something to happen. He figured that he would be doing a lot of that while he was imprisoned: waiting.

Well, that much hadn't changed. He had been doing nothing but waiting ever since he had entered the encampment. That burning desire to continue exploring the region in search for the Fountain still fluttered within him, but the past several days of stoppage and stagnancy had started to dampen the feeling. He didn't like admitting it even to himself, but at this point, he could bear to wait a little bit longer for progress to occur.

And so he would.

~(C)~

Peaceful.

During the day, Charmander and Snivy explored Silt Ravine, a dry and rocky mystery dungeon that had an infestation of wild arons, in search for a criminal Pikachu who had a small bounty on his head. They did find him: he was camped away at the dungeon's end, perhaps under some false expectation that nobody knew he was there. In the end, he put up a good fight, but Charmander and Snivy bested him. While unconscious, Snivy tagged him with a small tracking device that the police organization provided them with. It was hexed so that it would stay stuck to the Pikachu until he was brought into custody, meaning that Charmander and Snivy didn't have to babysit him until the police arrived; they could just leave. And so they did. Their mission was accomplished, and by mid-afternoon, they were on their way back to the Training Camp.

And all the while, it felt so peculiarly peaceful. With the obvious exception of the aggressive monsters in the dungeon and the Pikachu himself, the day was calm, serene, and low-key. Charmander kept a constant eye out for anything out of the ordinary, and always kept one hand on his satchel when he could, but nothing out of the ordinary ever reared its head. Charmander figured that he ought to be relieved given this, but he didn't like the uncertainty that it invoked. Either Dewott no longer was interested in attacking him, or he was waiting for a riper opportunity to strike. Of course, being nearly alone on an open road was a pretty ripe opportunity in and of itself, but this Dewott character was probably fairly intelligent. If he still has his eyes on me, then he probably knows I'm expecting him.

He managed to successfully hide his anxiety and paranoia from Snivy. He considered several times throughout the day of simply telling him about Dewott, but any explanation he tried to give always seemed to tie its way back to Absol. And for whatever reason, Charmander felt obliged to abide by her request to keep her presence a secret from the rest of the Training Camp. She hadn't quite earned his trust—not by a long shot—but she at least deserved to be given the benefit of the doubt for the time being. So, he kept his mouth shut and continued to act as if nothing was wrong.

Before he knew it, he found himself sitting down in the cafeteria awaiting supper with the rest of platoon 4. When he took his seat, all the other members stared at him as if he were the main course.

Before any of them even said anything, Charmander shook his head and said, "You guys, I probably know just as much as you do. Don't try and milk me for answers, because I probably don't have an—"

"How badly was she hurt?" Glide interrupted. "What condition was she in when you saw her?"

"I…didn't really stop to pay attention to the details," Charmander said. "She was unconscious on the ground laying in a small puddle of her own blood. So, to answer your question…not good?"

"How did you know that she needed help in the first place?" Cap asked.

"What do you mean? I didn't," Charmander said.

"What? Then…why did you head outside at such a late hour?"

"I was going to take a walk. It helps me wind down. Seeing Kangaskhan was very unexpected."

"Kangaskhan says that something was stolen," Sentinel said. "You don't happen to know what that was, do you?"

Charmander immediately shook his head. "The only Pokémon who would know that is Kangaskhan herself, and she never told me. Confidentiality and all. Like I said, I don't have many answers. I just happened to be there shortly after she got attacked. I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything, and I wasn't told anything."

"Alright, alright….One more question," Sentinel said. "How come all this crazy stuff ends up happening to you? This is like, the third time we've berated you with questions like this."

Charmander smiled and shook his head. "I don't know that, either. The gods have some cruel fate planned for me; I just know it. And it doesn't help that I'm a human. I'll definitely let you know the moment I figure that one out, because I'm starting to get sick of it myself."

The kitchen doors opened and the chefs all made their way to their respective tables. Dragonite came along too, bringing the meal along with her as usual. "Hey, you guys," she said as she began placing the trays onto the table. "So, get me caught up. What did I miss?"

"Kangaskhan was badly hurt, Charmander likes to wander outside when it's late out, and he's starting to believe that the gods like toying with him," Glide said. "That's all we got from him; he actually doesn't know much."

"Fair enough," Dragonite said. "Do we at least know what got stolen?"

"Nope. Charmander couldn't even figure that out."

"Darn. Well, let's hope we'll find out soon enough." After bringing the last platter to the table, she sat herself down. "Okay, then. Let's—"

"—Can I have everyone's attention for a brief moment?" Machoke called out to everyone.

Dragonite lowered her hand from the platter in front of her. "Too soon, Machoke," she grumbled.

"I'm sorry for making all of these informal announcements during the dinner, but another dilemma has arisen that we need to address to all of you. As I'm sure you're all aware of by now, last night, Kangaskhan was attacked by a thief. Her storage facility was robbed and she suffered some serious injuries. She's safe and secure now, but the items that were stolen never got recovered. And that's where we may come in. Kangaskhan has since taken inventory and found out that there are exactly two missing items in the roster. The first item, by the request of the owner, will remain undisclosed to us. The second item was a Cheer Rock, which is a very rare item owned by a member of our Camp. Presumably, these are the things that our thief stole."

"Wait, what?" Charmander said, just loud enough for the others at the table to hear. Why would he steal Minun's Cheer Rock as well? This news caused a bit of a stir from the other platoons as well. The cafeteria sizzled with hushed comments and inferences passed from one Pokémon to the other.

"Man, we still don't know exactly what the guy stole," Scoper said. "Why would the owner keep something like that a secret? Doesn't he want us to help him get it back?"

"We plan on initiating an investigation to pursue this thief," Machoke continued. "Our goal will be to retrieve the Cheer Rock and to bring the robber into custody. Anyone who is interested in joining me in this pursuit may talk with me at any time. Meanwhile, Victini has planned to reschedule the initiation of the local bell tower's construction to tomorrow. Victini, I'll let you go through the details."

Charmander didn't even notice Victini standing beside Machoke until she started talking. "Even at face value, this robbery is alarming to say the least," she said. "But beyond that, there are some major implications that we need to consider. An outsider has infiltrated this village and stole the belongings of official Training Camp members, which may mean that our location has been found out by the Arashi." Victini paused for a few brief seconds to let the audience murmur amongst themselves before continuing. "Now, this isn't a guarantee. It's possible that the thief had no association with the Arashi and despises them just as much as we do. But I think it's safest for us to assume the worst-case-scenario, and to plan accordingly. The construction of an alarm bell tower here in Cherish has been a low-priority project for some time. Construction on this tower was going to begin five days from now, so as to not arouse suspicion. Now, however, arousing suspicion has become less of a concern for us. We want to ensure the safety of our Camp members and townsfolk alike in the face of an imminent threat. The blueprints for the tower are completed and the resources to build it are available at our disposal right now. Construction on it will begin tomorrow, and we'll have it finished in ten days, provided we keep a stable schedule. What does this mean for us? Well, if you decide to go investigating with Machoke, then you'll spend most of your time working with him over the next several days. For everyone else, I will be suspending the training sessions that I do with each of the platoons. Instead, I'll be overseeing the construction of the tower, and you will help me build it. During the time that your platoon's training session is scheduled, you will report to the surface instead of to the dojo. From there, you will await further instruction. Are we all clear?"

The audience responded with an enthusiastic "Yes," which, when voiced out collectively, sounded like an unintelligible pulse of noise.

"Then in that case, I have kept you all waiting long enough. Let's eat."

Charmander stared at his empty plate and mulled over the announcement. This complicates things. Both Machoke and Victini conveniently left out the fact that whoever attacked Kangaskhan was a disciplined soldier who was probably capable of taking out Victini or Machoke by himself. Charmander figured that either Kangaskhan, Machoke, or Victini went to Minun and told him about what got stolen. Of course, Minun would want to get it back under any circumstance, and of course, the Camp would be more than willing to help him. If they actually found Dewott, it would likely spell disaster. Charmander hoped that they wouldn't make much progress.

For a few seconds, he wondered if he ought to join Machoke in his investigation, but quickly concluded that it would be a terrible idea. Dewott was looking for him in the first place; he ought not to be looking for Dewott himself. He could endanger others as well as himself in the process.

"Hey, Charmander, the food's not gonna hop onto your plate by itself."

Charmander looked up at Snivy. "Hmm?" he asked. "Oh. Right." He reached for the main entrée and brought some to his plate. It looked like some sort of poultry based dish. The pieces of meat were topped with button mushrooms and the saucer and cuts alike were coated in a creamy sauce. Slices of melted cheese covered the food, and they strung out and snapped when he brought some to his plate.

"Eat quickly," Sentinel said. "We've got a campfire to set up after this, don't we?"

Something sunk inside of Charmander when he heard that.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot about that," Glide said.

What was I thinking, suggesting such a thing? Singing songs in the middle of the woods while the Arashi is breathing down our neck?

"Should we go remind Flux and Cedar as well?" Cap asked.

If Dewott's simply looking for an opportune moment to strike at me while I'm vulnerable, then I'd be handing him one on a silver platter by following through with this. In the dark of the night, away from companions, in the middle of the woods, plenty of places to hide….

"Yeah, we should. I'll go do that," Dragonite responded.

Maybe I should tell them that we should wait a few more days before we start these campfire meetings. Argh, but how could I justify something like that to them? I was the one who pushed for it starting today in the first place.

Charmander sighed and ate his food. He stayed quiet for most of the dinner time.