I'm conscious... Where am I? Do I really want to open my eyes and find out? The last thing I saw was furret had knocking me out. He could have put me anywhere. I could be dangling over a volcano right now. I open my eyes and see that I'm back at the guild. Or I could be completely fine at the guild, in the team room. How did I get here?
I look around, Cyria's still unconscious, but Avia's awake, staring at me.
"What happened while I was out? How did you defeat him?" She asks me with a look of wonder in her eyes. I shrug.
"I didn't. I got close, but he ended up knocking me out. But I didn't bring us here, that's for sure," I tell her.
"But if you didn't, then who did?" Avia asks.
"I don't know. It couldn't have been Cyria, she was unconscious too... I guess that means the most likely conclusion would be that the furret left us here," I say.
"Why would he do that?"
"Well, he thought I was a criminal, maybe he wanted me arrested, and just thought that you two weren't worth killing?"
"No, that's not true at all. He would have loved to kill us, I'm sure," Cyria says. She seems awake now, but she doesn't sit up, she just lies on her bed.
"But then how did we get here?" Avia asks.
"Have you ever sleep-walked?"
"Um... No, not really. I've sleep-talked a once or twice," Avia says.
"Well, if you train enough, you can fight while unconscious. It's gotten to the point where I can even vaguely remember what happened while I was fighting. After he... did whatever he did to Jiro, I can't remember what, I knocked him out. He's in custody now. That's all I remember, though."
"Cyria, that's amazing!" Avia says.
"Yeah, but it's not without its drawbacks. I'm not too good at it, so I won't be able to do much today. Maybe I can take walk later, but there's no way I can do a mission today," Cyria says.
"Aw... Well, Jiro, we're going to have to work really hard if we want to go on the expedition! We can't fail again!" Avia says.
"Yeah, but don't overdo it. I won't be there to save you two this time," Cyria says.
"Right, we'll be careful," I say.
"Oh gosh, what time is it? The morning cheers! Have they already started?" Avia asks.
"Has Loe come in here yelling yet? No, so you've probably got a few minutes," Cyria says.
"Good point. Still, we should probably get going, anyways. Just in case," Avia says.
So we head to the guild lobby, where we recite the morning cheers. I try to be enthusiastic, but I find myself not being able to be as enthused as Avia is. She always seems to be that way.
"Oh, one more thing!" Wigglytuff says. "I'll be announcing the members of the expedition in a few days! So everyone should try their best to be selected!"
The rest of the guild fans out into their own groups after Wigglytuff is done speaking. Probably talking about the expedition. As Avia and I are about to go to select a mission, Chatot stops us.
"So you two didn't catch the thief, did you?" Chatot says. He sighs. "She stole many valuable items, including the guildmaster's precious perfect apples. It looks like I'll have to spend my whole day trying to find them." He sighs again. " It pains me to say this, but you two should give up on being selected for the expedition. Combining your failure to catch the mawile, and your lackluster performance in the tournament, it doesn't seem likely. Take Loe for example. He may have lost the tournament in the first round, but at least he was been consistently completing hard missions on his own. You three haven't been performing well enough to really warrant going on the expedition."
"What? B-but what about the furret we caught? He had created this device that can knock a pokemon out almost instantly, and we defeated him!" Avia says.
"Yes, but he was mentally unstable, thus very easy to trick. Plus, the guildmaster values consistent good performances to occasional great ones. Well, I'm very busy. Good luck with your missions today!" Chatot says.
"Well that's demoralizing. Hey Jiro, let's prove him wrong! We can do this! We're team Beyond! Let's go beyond his expectations, and get onto the expedition!" Avia says.
"Well then, I see someone else appreciates a good pun. Glad someone does," Cadel says.
"I don't believe we've formally met. My name's Cadel," Cadel says. He extents a paw (or whatever squirtles have) to Avia. Who touches it with the tip of her paw and shakes it.
"It's nice to meet you. Cadel. I'm Avia, and this is my partner Jiro," Avia says with a smile. Gosh, she really is eternally enthusiastic. How does she do that?
"And my name's Bryce. Sorry if we got off on the wrong paw, Jiro," Bryce says.
"You've met before?" Avia asks.
"Yeah, it's a long story. It involves the fifteen greatest nights of our bachelor lives," Cadel says. Avia gives me an odd look.
"He's joking," Bryce tells her.
"Oh, okay. I was confused there, for a second," Avia says.
"What, is Jiro not the party type?" Bryce asks. Avia looks at me as if to say, "it's your life, do it's your choice. Do you want to tell them?"
"I don't know. I don't remember any parties. You see, I woke up on the beach with amnesia a little while ago. I didn't remember anything but my name. I didn't even remember my species. Avia met me that day, and we haven't been apart for such a long span of time since. That's why she was so confused," I explain.
"Oh hey. I have amnesia too. You see-" Cadel starts.
"I already told Jiro about it," Bryce says.
"Oh... Well then, now I feel awkward. Anyways, we've got to go grab a mission. Have fun saving pokemon and what not!" Cadel says. Bryce and Cadel walk away, toward the main floor of the guild. We follow them to the mission boards.
"You know, we've fought tons of criminals, but we haven't done any rescues yet. Do you think we should do one of those?" Avia asks.
"Sure," I say. I scan the rescue mission board until I find one that catches my eye. 'Trapped by a siren's song' I grab it off of the board. It's D- ranked, so we should be able to do it.
"Did you find a good one?" Avia asks. I give her the request.
"Help! A beautiful siren has trapped me, and I can't escape. I want to leave, but I'm too in love with her! She must be using some form of attract!" Avia reads.
"Let's save that innocent..." Avia starts, she looks at the paper again "Wooper! We're going to save the heck out of him!"
"Yeah, that's the spirit!" I say. So we start heading out of the guild.
"Hey, I've got a question," I ask once we're on the road. "How are you so happy all the time? In the time I've seen you you've seldom not been very happy," I say. Avia blushes.
"Um... W-well it's because I... Because you... and Cyria... Because you're both... It's because I get to live my dream with friends every day!" Avia says.
"You seem pretty unsure that's why you're happy," I say. Avia laughs.
"What can I say? Some things are just hard to word right."