I came to as a figure above me gave a hard nudge with its foot. Blinking gunk out of my eyes, I tried to roll over, only to mentally scream at myself as I rolled onto my cast arm. Clenching my teeth, I turned my head just enough to meet Officer Feraligatr's gaze as she flashed that crocodile smile at our group.

"They live! Get on up, it's already mid-morning," she said. Ignoring my pitiful cry, she watched as Rye clambered to his feet beside me. A muffled comment sounded out from behind me, which I correctly assumed was Mizu. Being a Sandshrew, he seemed to have rolled into a ball to sleep and, being the menace he was, was now apparently refusing to budge. Lily scowled at him.

"Mizu..." she started.

"Fvve mre mnnts..." Mizu replied defiantly, only tightening his curled-up position. As Lily groaned in frustration, Feraligatr squatted down to look the Sandshrew over.

"Allow me, Shroomish," she said, a small smirk on her maw.

While it was hard to see in the morning sun, I could make out her pointer claw beginning to glow dimly with Water-type energy. Feraligatr laid her paw to rest on Mizu, then began to rhythmically tap on his shell with her glowing claw. Mizu flinched with each tap, though to his credit, he kept it up for a good few minutes. However, once those few minutes had passed, Mizu let out a muffled cry as he uncurled to desperately swat Feraligatr away. As he whimpered and clutched his new sore spot, she stood to address us.

"Water torture, ladies and gentlemen. Anyhoo, your new best friends did nothing but give us a hard time the whole night, though we were able to find this on them. I assume it's what you came for," she said as she held up a small bag. "Says it belongs to a Ms. Nidoran from Impetus Town?"

Rye and I quickly raised our paws, so Feraligatr unceremoniously tossed the bag into my paws. As we looked it over, in awe that we had been through all this for this one little bag, she cleared her throat.

"So... let's address the Slaking in the room, alright? What happened to their legs? They said something about their boss, and I know for certain you couldn't have done that, so did you see what happened?" she asked. An awkward silence hung in the air as we all looked to each other expectantly. Eventually, Mizu, who had finally stopped whining over his welt, sniffled once more and started.

"Uh, I-I was in the middle of fighting that big guy off with Lily and Treecko when, uh, this Xatu showed up, and, uh, he started being really cool and made the big guys fly up in the air! And they were all like..." he said, swinging his arms around to mimic what he had seen before Lily calmed him with a nudge. "Uh, then he started talking about his weird secret club, said he was, like, their leader, then he... he, uh, used his mind to break the big guys' legs."

Feraligatr watched us, her lips pursed as Mizu finished his tale.

"Hrm... what was this... er, secret club called?" she asked.

"I think he called it the Fffeh... uh, Phoenix something," Mizu said. Feraligatr made a quiet noise of disgust as she looked down at the floor, shaking her head slightly.

"Phoenixes. Should have figured they'd pull this," she muttered. With that, she pulled a small sack from behind her sash and tossed it towards us, where it hit the floor with a dull clunk.

"Thanks for the information. I guess that's case closed, then. There's your reward, you all can take your time," she told us. As she walked out the door, Rye undid the twine around the sack's opening, spilling dozens of dull metal coins onto the floor. As we ogled at the Poké before us, Lily raised her foot to get our attention.

"Uh, Treecko, remember our deal?" she asked. Rye, not breaking his gaze towards the coins, blinked once and hung his head, letting out a despairing groan.


It was well around noon when our group gathered on the path out of Bassa Village to say our goodbyes. While Cap'n Brine was gorging himself to prepare for the long flight home, we and Feraligatr had decided to see Team Creosote off. Lily gazed out at the dunes ahead of her, her Toolbox slung over her back as Rye tried to reason with her.

"Uh, it's the middle of the day, and... you said you were from Cesaree City, right? It's forty miles to the coast, are you sure you don't want a lift? Heck, y-you could even come back with us to the Guild!" he said. Lily gave him a small smile in response.

"Thanks, but we got here just fine. The road back should be just as easy and boring. Besides, I'd still rather eat Muk than be bossed around by some crusty old Guildie. No offense," she said.

As I watched them talk, Mizu tapped me on the shoulder. While that was enough to startle me, I legitimately almost screamed once I saw him wielding his Iron Thorn, which was still covered in dried Poliwrath blood and berry juice. As I calmed myself down, he placed the disgusting weapon onto the sand in front of me.

"Here, have this to remember us by!" he piped. I stared down at the spike, then back up at Mizu. He wasn't actually parting with this thing, was he? As if reading my thoughts, the Sandshrew gave me a cheery smile.

"Go ahead and take it, I found a longer one in Ms. Feraligatr's trash!" he insisted, turning to show me said thorn tucked through the filthy bandanna around his neck.

'I'd question how safe that is, but honestly, I stopped trying to rationalize this guy's mindset a good while back.'

Trying to touch as little of the Iron Thorn as possible, I picked it off the ground as Mizu joined Lily in gazing at the desert ahead. Letting out one final sigh, Lily turned to us.

"Well, that's it, then. It's been nice meeting you, Beck and...?" she said, giving Rye a questioning look. Realizing he hadn't given his name last night, he coughed a bit.

"Oh, uh, Rye," he said. Shroomish flashed a quick smile.

"Well, it was nice meeting you two. Who knows, we might catch each other on the road at some point," she said. As we smiled and nodded, Mizu abruptly raised his paw up.

"Ooh-ooh, I know a song for this!" he piped before breaking into a childish tune, kicking in place for effect. "Day or night, rain or shine, when we meet again it'll be a sight..."

As Mizu continued his off-key singing, Lily pushed him along, and with one final look back at us, continued into the desert ahead. Breaking from his one-hit wonder, Mizu gave us a final persistent wave.

"Tell the cool teams in your Guild I said hi, Blubby!" he yelled back as the two shrunk into the distance. I rolled my eyes at the name, though still waved the Creosotes off all the same. Though a little shit one of them might be, I could at least tolerate him. That had to account for something, right? As I turned to strap our bag closed, I felt Rye hurriedly pull me back.

"Wait, don't pack up. There's... uh, s-something I want to do first," he said. I gave him a perplexed look and reluctantly followed him back to the town gate, where Feraligatr was waiting for us, cocking her head as Rye approached her.

"Uh, M-Ms. Feraligatr? I... uh... c-can we... t-talk? Er, alone?" he asked, dread etched into his face. Feraligatr's gaze softened.

"Oh... uh, of course," she said as Rye gave me a quick sideways glance.

"C-could you please wait here?" he asked me.

"Er, yeh..." I said confusedly as Rye hurriedly followed Feraligatr back to her house, leaving me alone in the midday heat. After maybe ten minutes, I decided on walking out of town and looking up at the imposing gate. As I had seen before, the broken green sign proudly displayed the village's name in bold Unown script.

'Basa Town? Well, Feraligatr did say it was something along those lines, I guess. It looks cut off at the beginning, I wonder what it-'

'...wait. I... I just read that.'

I stared up at the sign, a wild smile growing on my face. I didn't know what my human self was like, but I don't think he would have been as excited as I was at that moment to just read something, even if it was apparently a dead language. Before long, I found myself trying to express this to Cap'n Brine, who had just returned from the cafe. A loose strand of fish meat dangling from his bill, he gave me an odd look as I waved him over and excitedly gestured to the town gate.

"Um... yeh, that most certainly is a soign," he confusedly said. I grimaced slightly as he hobbled away, stretching his wings and muttering inspirational jargon to himself. Growing restless from the excitement, I glanced up the road.

'Surely they shouldn't be taking this long? Maybe I should check up on them...'

Looking back to make sure Brine wasn't about to stop me, I started towards Officer Feraligatr's house. As I approached the house, Rye and Feraligatr suddenly walked out the door. I shrunk back as Feraligatr sent me a flat look, clearly catching on to what I was doing.

"...here, go ahead and crash in my place. Rye and I are gonna go on a little walk, have a little conversation. Y'know, self-worth, survivors guilt, yadda yadda," she said, her voice hoarse.

"Sinni, p-please don't... not in front of Beck," Rye said. Feraligatr hung her head and sighed.

"Sorry, sorry. I get like that when I'm all upset. Feel free to hit me across the maw if I start on that again, yeah?"

Rye snorted as the two headed into town, leaving me to stare after them, at a bit of a loss of what to think.

'They really do know each other... huh. I'll give them a while.'

With that decided, I hobbled into Feraligatr's... er, Sinni's house and resigned myself to examining Mizu's horrid Iron Thorn.


Maybe an hour passed before Rye and Sinni walked in on me sprawled on the floor clutching my broken arm in pain, having failed to tighten the cast around it. As I embarrassedly followed them out, I noticed just how much in good spirits the two were. The depressive, uncertain feelings I had subconsciously come to associate with Rye were absent at the moment, some degree of hope replacing them in the Treecko's yellow eyes. As the three of us passed under the gate, a flap of wings from Sinni's roof signified Cap'n Brine's arrival.

"Oi'm not gon ask," he said offhandedly as he opened up his bill, allowing me to slip our bag inside before turning to Sinni.

"Eh... sha, shehh. Shaa," I tried to thank her. Despite the poor attempt, she seemed to get the message and gave me a signature crocodile smile, clapping me on the shoulder.

"Stay safe out there, kid. If anyone gives you shit, just fly back and tell me, yeah?" she asked. I nodded, prompting her to turn to Rye.

"Th-thank you for the talk, Sinni. It really helped, I think," he simply said.

"Anytime. Just keep what I said in mind, and try not to lose Beck again," Sinni replied.

"Sh-sha?" I asked in response.

'Didn't Mizu say Pokémon only shared their names with others they trusted?'

Rye quickly caught on to my worries and raised his hands.

"Hey, don't worry, Beck. Sinni and I knew each other way back when, she's fine," he assured me before giving a small cough. "Er, that's Ms. Feraligatr's name."

"Swha?" I inquired while gesturing back and forth between the two. Rye bit his lip and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could say anything, however, a Herdier bolted into the scene, startling us all as it panted, its face contorted with panic.

"Nick? What are you..." Sinni started.

"It's the outlaws, ma'am! I was interrogating them, they were giving me shit, and I stepped out for some water. W-when I came back in, they were on the floor screamin' with a Xatu over them. He must have teleported in or-" the Herdier explained. Sinni's eyes widened.

"Slow down, Nick. Are the bodies still there?" she asked.

"Bodies? Oh, uh, they're still alive, ma'am. Just... messed up. Like, can't even speak messed up," the Herdier replied. Sinni clenched her fists.

"Son of a Weezing!" she roared before storming away from us, the Herdier tailing her. We quickly made to follow after her, but she just looked back.

"Y-you go, this isn't a job for explorers!" she yelled. As she and Nick the Herdier disappeared into the town, Rye and I exchanged worried glances as Cap'n Brine looked at us curiously.

"Well, ye heard the lass. Come 'long, oi don wonna get too caught up here," he eventually said.

"B-but..." Rye started.

"She knows wot she's doin," Brine reassured us before opening his bill. With not much choice in the matter, Rye and I reluctantly climbed inside. Holding our bag tight, we held on as the Pelipper took off, sending dry wind into our faces. Once it died down, I leaned out ever so slightly to manage a final look out towards the shrinking Bassa Village. As I lost sight of the little village, I sat back down in Brine's moist bill, glancing towards Rye. The heat of the moment finally wearing off, I found myself grinning at him.

"Rye, shee eeh...?" I asked, narrowing an eye as I exaggeratedly gestured to Rye. He looked to me confusedly before recoiling in shock.

"Wait, i-it's not like that, Beck! We were just friends back then!" he hissed, his face red as I chuckled.

"Shaah," I said in a singsongy voice, waggling a paw at him. Rye huffed.

"A-alright, say what you want," he said before looking up at me, his own grin growing on his face. "D-doesn't really change anything, now does it, Blubby?"

My mocking smile immediately fell off my face. It was his turn to laugh at me as I stared at him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that. Forgive me, o heir to the great house of Blubbington!" he chimed.

'Oh, you want to play this game, do you? Well... actually, I can't really say anything back, can I? You win this round...'

As I raised my paws up in defeat, I slunk back as Rye gave a victorious whoop.

'This is gonna be a long one, isn't it?'


"Xatu, we need to talk."

"Is there a problem, sir?"

"A problem? Oh, not at all, you just went and lobotomized our guys in Bassa Village!"

"Why, of course they couldn't handle it. They were weaker than I assumed, most should have been able to make it through such a memory wipe."

"Memory... why?! What possible excuse do you have this time?!"

"Vigoroth and Poliwrath... they talk too much. In times like these, we cannot afford even the slightest margin of error."

"Error?! The fuck do you mean 'error?!'"

"It concerns our human. Should the secret escape, our ambitions, nay, our entire League runs risk of falling."

"...'human?!' What are you talking about?!"

"I have already briefed the other executives on this, now-"

"I-I don't give a damn, you melted our mons' minds without our knowledge! The boss oughta throw you out of the League for this!"

"Hmph. This conversation holds no further purpose. Farewell."

"What? Oh, nonono, don't you teleport away on me, you... agh! How does the boss even put up with him..."


Author's Note: 6,000 views? Damn... thanks to everyone who's read this far. Thanks especially to everyone who's left a review, I wouldn't ever be able to push this story past mediocrity without you guys.

Also, little update on that note back in Chapter 8, it's advanced from Russian music to show tunes. All I have to say on that matter is how and why.