Hay was not a substitute for a proper bed. He slept better than he did on the forest floor, but the shifting and scratchy pile of leaves left much to be desired. This was supposedly one of the most populated and advanced settlements on the continent from what he had gather the night before. He was not impressed. He rose with bags under his eyes and wearily greeted the new day. Gaia oddly enough seemed more than satisfied with the situation, which her found odd as he made sure she had only the most luxurious materials to sleep on back at the Rocket research base. Cinder and Stumpy looked right as rain for their part, maybe sleeping on whatever random shit was lying around and feeling rested was a Pokémon thing. He wasn't sure.

Cinder started what looked like a morning stretching ritual, while Stumpy groomed himself after getting his own short stretches in. Gaia got up and sat next to Oscar, who simply sat still for a few moments as he was a little too groggy to be all there. He had a slight hangover, but nothing debilitating. The silence reigned for a few minutes before Stumpy spoke through a mouthful of fur.

"So Treecko, what do you and your 'Master' plan to now?" He said with a wink.

"Yeah aren't you a little young for that kind of thing?" Cinder added without looking, head toward the floor as he stretched his hamstrings.

"I'm eight years old! And it's not like that!" Gaia stepped forward with one first raised and clenched.

"Uh huh, so you are a late bloomer too? I'm almost ten, and stumpy here is pushing nine." Stumpy smiled and gave a little bow before returning to groom himself in the ways mutts often do. "What about you 'Master'?" The Charmander said, finishing his stretch and giving Oscar a toothy grin.

"Uh," clearly telling the truth was not the play here. If Gaia was a 'late-bloomer' at eight then he shuttered to think was someone over 50 would be seen as. Instead he said he was eight, just like the Treecko. He left the implication that they were hatched around the same time and place to hang.

It still boggled his mind just how young all these Pokémon were. True, he couldn't really compare human maturity to Pokémon maturity one-to-one, but it still surprised him just how adult these creatures acted with less than a decade of life experience to call on. And there was the fact that Pokémon in general lived very long lives, the Charmander could expect to break 150 barring an accident and the Poochyena should hit 60. So why were there so few 'elder' Pokémon around? He tabled the thought for later.

"I think we need to find work." He said, changing the topic. "Get some money and a proper home with some proper beds." He said disdainfully, finally getting up and shaking the stray hay off his legs.

"Good luck with that." Cinder said with some venom. "The only jobs around here that pay well are the guild ones, and they have been pretty picky lately on who they let in. Being a foreigner isn't a problem, but not having locals to vouch for you is. That, and there haven't been a lot of big disasters lately, so the demand for rookie teams to fill out the ranks is low." Stumpy had finally finished slobbering all over himself and went to sit by his partner. "Being a foreigner is a problem for the non-guild jobs around here, however. You'll only get the jobs no one else wants, and even then they will only pay you half of what they would pay a native. There just aren't enough jobs to go around, the locals take care of their own first. Why do you think so many Pokémon choose to stay wild. Or," he gestured to himself and his partner "choose alternative job options."

"So you are both foreigners then?" Gaia asked.

"Poochy is. I was born in the wild. My parents weren't wildlings, but since they moved into the wild to have their clutch, I'm in a grey area." Cinder sagged his shoulders a bit. "Well as far as the guild is concerned I'm in a grey area. They don't know I was kicked out of the nest shortly after hatching. By their rules I'm completely wild, never being hatched or raised in a settlement or by civilized Pokémon." He bared his teeth at no one in particular, and ended his part in the conversation by moving to his pouch to rearrange the goods inside over and over again to keep himself busy. Stumpy spoke next.

"Yeah it's pretty much impossible to find work if you don't have the right friends around here. But we get by. Hey!" He jumped to all fours and wagged his tail at whatever thought crossed his mind. "The Boss has plenty of work. You could join our team! You are pretty strong, I'm sure he'd take you!" Stumpy had a sparkle in his eye, this was a great idea. He was sure.

"Absolutely not!" Cinder and Gaia spoke simultaneously. Oscar and Stumpy both pinned their ears back at the volume of the dissention.

"We can't let them join our team. The Boss will be so mad if we bring strangers to the ruins."

"But they whopped us! And they completed our mission for us and gave us all our stuff back. Well, traded it back, but still! There was no way we would have been able to take that village all on our own." The two brigands were focused on each other completely now.

"All the more reason! What do you think the Boss will say when he finds out that two strangers completed the mission for us, after beating us up! Best case he'll kick us out in favor of them."

"The Boss will be happy we completed a mission for once, he won't care how. I know it. C'mon Cinder, we are the weakest team at the camp. This is our chance to show them what we are made of!"

Quantity had a quality all its own, Oscar supposed. On top of being the runts of the litter, these Pokémon were also the runts of the bandit camp it looked like. Talk about life giving you lemons. Cinder seemed to relent a bit, but Gaia wasn't convinced.

"Why should we throw in with a bunch of runts like you? First you attack us and fail, then I hit your mark for you, and then we essentially turn in your mission for you. Why shouldn't I just knock you both out and let Oscar rummage through the Charmander's mind to find your camp and make our way there ourselves?" Oscar thought this was all a little mean, but these were very good questions and he was curious to see what kind of answers the two would come up with.

Stumpy didn't have any answers, as it turned out. After her tirade the joy and hope left his eyes, and he simply stared at the ground and sniffled. His eyes alternated between welling tears and hardening, but it seemed that the little Dark type couldn't settle on an emotion and simply stewed in his thoughts. Cinder had to take a few moments, but he at least had an answer. It was horrible, but at least he came up with something.

"The Boss won't just let any random Pokémon into camp, y-you need us to get in! And even if you did sneak in, he won't be happy that you trashed us to find his camp. That isn't how it's done." Cinder wasn't convinced of this, and it showed in his eyes. He was grasping at straws, but still he was trying. That counted for something.

"'The Boss' will be happy to have some Pokémon that can get the job done, I'm sure." Gaia finished. It was true, and the two knew it. This was it, they were going to be replaced by a couple of foreigners not a month on the continent and there was nothing they could do to stop them. Cinder was sure Stumpy would follow him into the wild, if he had to. It's not like they had anything left to lose here. They certainly couldn't face the boss again. Maybe they could-

"Ahaha, you two are easy. Look how miserable you are. You should be more confident." Oscar joked, but no one else was laughing. "I think it would be a good idea to join your team."

"You do?" All three other Pokémon in the room asked at the same time.

"I do." He nodded sagely. "You two need to toughen up a bit, and we could help with that. We need guides in this land, and you can help with that. I do not know how I feel about your boss, but if he lets you two stick around, he cannot be that bad." It also sounded like his original plan to find steady, legal work while he figured out just what was going on in this world was not going to pan out. He already worked with one group of criminals in the past, why not another?

"Thanks!" Stumpy said. Cinder was pretty sure he was just insulted, but decided with was best to be thought of as a fool than speak and dispel any doubt.

We can always abandon them if we do not like the way things are working out. Oscar added to Gaia on the side. This seemed to placate her.

"I guess I can do that. You two aren't the worst Pokémon I ever met."

"Yeah! Team Doombringers is on the rise!" Stumpy bounded around the room, his enthusiasm was almost enough to make Oscar forget one small detail.

"Team what?!" He misheard, he must have misheard.

"Team, ah, Doombringers." Cinder shifted around awkwardly. "Some of the older teams suggested that we think big, you know? Envision ourselves bringing doom to our enemies, and one day we would." Perhaps he bit off a bit more than he could chew with these ones. The look Gaia was sending him suggested she felt much the same way.

"I think we need to discuss the name. But after breakfast, I am hungry."

Oscar was relieved when he found out there was something like a continental breakfast at the tavern. About 20 patrons from the night before were eating, and there was a medley of berries, eggs and some Magikarp to choose from. The food was on platters on the floor, so small Pokémon could get to it without hassle. The newly formed team helped themselves and sat down on an open rug in the least traveled section of the tavern floor.

The Seviper from the tug-of-war games and an Umbreon had just finished their food when the four sat down. The snake gave a curt nod before slithering out of the tavern, partner close behind. From his conversations the previous night, Oscar learned that most of the Pokémon at the tavern were in fact working legally in the area. This was not a collection of thugs and crooks as he originally assumed it was. Well, it was a collection of thugs and crooks, just not officially. It worked like this:

The Alakazam Guild was pretty spread out, collecting rare and powerful items scattered from some cataclysm or whatever a decade ago. Between the item hunts and taming dangerous wild Pokémon, the Guild kept pretty busy. Oscar thought that this would mean that they would be recruiting rookie teams to take some of the slack off, but it turned out Alakazam was satisfied with the balance of things at the moment. They were busy enough to keep on their toes, but not so busy that veteran teams couldn't mentor greener teams. They were making enough money from jobs and selling the less dangerous items that their needs were met on this front, and what came in was directed towards getting their current roster of teams all up to veteran level. Alakazam's plan, which had been made public a few years ago, was to take this time of relative peace and go all-in on making a core group of super-experienced and super-powerful teams. The next time a crisis happened, these veterans would be able to rapidly take on and train several rookie teams at once. They were also to be trained on crises management, logistics and peacekeeping. All of this would take a lot of time and resources, and so the Guild couldn't afford to split its attention on several new rookie teams. Oscar thought this was an excellent idea, he would do the same thing in the Alakazam's position.

This, however, meant that more low-level problems that Rookie teams would usually handle were left to fester. Or they would, if not for "unofficial" rescue teams like the Seviper and Umbreon. Small scale wildling incursions, lost Pokémon in relatively safe areas and low-level 'mystery dungeons' that would pop up would be handled by these unofficial teams. The Guild looked the other way because these teams were handling some of the lesser issues it was not interested in handling at the time, and the civilized residents of the various town and villages got rescue team service at a discount. You couldn't expect a knock-off to command the same price as a sanctioned Guild team, after all. For their part, these unofficial teams were able to find steady if low-paying work, and could supplement their income by selling whatever goods they came across in their missions. This was why the tavern and somewhat shady shops in the town were tolerated.

This set up also allowed for less scrupulous Pokémon to sell stolen goods. Any stolen item could be explained away as something found on a mission, so long as it was not unique and reported as stolen. Most Pokémon had the sense not to steal one-of-a-kind items and go to the Guild's center of power to sell them, though. So while the tavern and it's satellite shops and infrastructure were 'legal' in the sense that the official power structure tolerated its presence, it served as a veil to hide more illicit activities. Oscar was sure that the Guild or at the very least Alakazam was aware of this, but apparently the value provided by discount rescue teams outweighed the cost of occasional petty theft or muggings. Or more likely, Oscar thought on reflection, it was to keep your enemies close and the Guild was going to bring down the hammer sooner or later.

"So what's a 'placeholder' anyway?" Stumpy brought Oscar out of his musing.

"It is something that 'holds the place' for something else. Like you saving a seat at the bar for you partner."

"But why 'Team Placeholder Name'? I admit that we were probably being played when the others suggested we go big-" Cinder began before being interrupted by Gaia

"No 'probably' about it."

"-but it's got the be better than no name at all. Why not just make something up?" Cinder ignored the interruption, and directed the question to Oscar.

"You cannot just 'make up' a name, you need to feel it. It takes time to come up with a good name, and you need to let it simmer for a while. Come back to it multiple times. You know you have the right name when it only sounds better and better the more you think about it, and that process takes time."

"Well Fennekin, you are always saying 'if it aint broke don't fix it', why not Team Ro-" Gaia started to say before Oscar silenced her with a paw to the mouth, looking around the room to see if anyone had noticed. Salazzle had, but she simply shrugged and got back to cleaning the countertops.

We survived the trip. The kid might have made it as well. Or, his Pokémon at least. Kid is probably dead. The last thing we need is that kind of heat on us. Oscar told her. She nodded after a moment.

"Hey, are you doing that psychic stuff? It's rude to keep others out of the conversation you know." Cinder pouted a bit. "And you looked pretty weirded out there for a second Fennekin, is there something we should know? You on the run or something?"

"We're not on the run, but there are some twerps who may or may not be around that we don't care for. We have some bad blood between us and don't want to deal with it right now." Gaia said, summarizing the situation well enough. They were criminals, sure, but no official sources here knew that. If the kid did mange to survive, Oscar doubted he had the presence of mind to come to the conclusion that they had made it as well. The kid was focused almost entirely on Samuel at the time of the accident and probably had forgotten Oscar was even there after the trauma of getting shot. The only one in the room that day who was unambiguously aware of his presence was the Charizard, and they were not known for their intelligence. Likely the brute forgot all about them.

"Those 'twerps', darling. They wouldn't happen to look like this, would they?" Salazzle asked walking up to them and holding out a piece of parchment. Gaia took it from her claws and Oscar saw the blood drain from her face. He bolted from his spot on the ground to see, and was quick to join her expression.

The paper looked to be in the format of a news article, and while he could not make out any of the words there was no mistaking the image of a Riolu with a bandage around its stomach flanked by three very familiar Pokémon and a Torchic. "What is this?" Oscar asked, pointing to the page.

"Just read it, darling." The Salazzle said, gesturing to the page.

"We can't read." Gaia stately, eyes coming off the page and towards the door, as if waiting for them to get raided at any moment.

"Ah well, it's a rare skill I suppose." The Salazzle said, taking the page back. "I just assumed from how well spoken you two were that you had some education. This is a page from last weeks Pokénews. It is the Guild announcing the newest recue team, Team Resolve."

"I thought the guild wasn't taking new recruits?" Cinder asked, he had the look of someone who just found out they got cheated.

"Well it's not every day two fully evolved Pokémon, an apparently super powerful Pikuchu and a Riolu are found washed up on the beach. A local Torchic found them and they apparently blasted their way through two mystery dungeons on the way to the town like it was no problem. I know you two are still sore after being turned down, darlings, but you have to admit no one would turn down a readymade team of powerful and rare Pokémon if they washed up right to your home!" She smiled sweetly, and Cinder signed. Yeah, he guessed, that made sense.

"So are these your 'twerps'?" Salazzle asked again. Oscar let out a sigh of his own.

"Yeah, that is them. Just our luck." Well, looks like they had to pack up again.

"Wow, what did you do to tick off so many strong Pokémon? You steal something important?" Stumpy asked.

"We didn't do anything! Some hothead we were working with almost killed the k-Riolu, and they blame us for it." Gaia didn't see the irony in blaming a hothead for rash action.

"It should not matter. They do not know we are here, and we have not done anything to warrant attention. We will get some shopping done today and head out tomorrow morning. We were going to meet your employer, right Charmander?"

"Eh I wouldn't call him that, but yeah. I don't want to stick around to meet those Pokémon you ticked off."

"Well, about that." Salazzle began, "Sallie mentioned that a Flaaffy guard came in this morning asking about you two. Well, about Treecko. Apparently they are on the lookout for a non-local Treecko travelling with a companion of an unknown species. Sallie led the guard off your trail and none of my regulars would volunteer information to the Guild, but you might not want to enter the town."

Something didn't add up. "Does the Guild usually start man- er monhunts on the word of a rookie team?" Oscar asked. What had they said that got the Guild to search for them.

"Normally no, but this seems like a special case, stud. The feeling I got from Sallie was that this was more a 'bring them in for questioning' rather than a 'Wanted: awake or unconscious' kind of thing." A Salandit walked up to the Salazzle and poked her in the leg. She bent down to listen to what was whispered, and stood up after a few seconds. "In unrelated news, it seems like the caravan from the forest village just got into town. They are ranting and raving about Fire types attacking them and stealing their goods. The Guild usually takes this kind of thing pretty seriously, and they usually put Silver ranked teams on the hunt for the outlaws responsible."

Oscar decided that things were going tits-up entirely too quickly, and it seemed like the rest of his team had the same idea. Stumpy and Gaia scurried off to the room to gather their supplies, while the others deliberated on the provisions they would need for the eight day trip to the bandit camp in the mountains. Cinder mentioned that there would be two or perhaps three 'mystery dungeons' along the way, so they should pack more food than they normally would. It was still not clear to Oscar what a mystery dungeon was, but he figured now was not the time to ask. He could do so on the road, as apparently they would encounter the first one on the third day of travel.

On Cinder's council, they bought a second bag and filled with apples and a few Pecha berries. Two escape orbs for two dungeons, and three stun seeds and about 5 Oran berries. Oscar made sure to add rope and tarp, so they could make some makeshift tents. After everything was said and done they had spent about two Poké on all the supplies, leaving them with two left after pooling their funds. Oscar grabbed the supplies and made his way to the room so Gaia and Stumpy could finish packing. On his was back he stopped before turning the corner and coming down the stairs, as his sensitive hearing picked up a deep voice coming from the tavern floor below. He peeked around the corner and saw a Charizard with a gold scarf around his neck standing in the center of the room, talking to Salazzle.

This was the kids Charizard, Oscar had no doubt. Larger than most of his species and covered with scars and corded muscle, this was probably one of the strongest non-legendary Fire types in Kanto at the time of the accident. Once a weakling from what he had heard, years of training had turned him into a powerful Pokémon. A beast that could hold its own against the Elite Four, he commanded the attention of everyone in the room. Salazzle put on a strong face, but Oscar could tell she was more than a little intimidated. This was not the typically Guild Pokémon that would be sent to her for answers.

"I was told," his voice was deep and smooth, and carried more dignity and intelligence than Oscar's preconceptions on the beast would have assumed, "that a Treecko and a Fennekin spent the night here. Where are they?" He wasn't angry, he wasn't pushy. He didn't need to be.

"You just missed them." Salazzle said without missing a beat. "They left about an hour ago." The Charizard grunted, a small amount of smoke leaving his nostrils.

"Where?"

"I don't know." The Charizard wasn't buying it, he simply tilted his head up to sniff the air.

"Less than an hour." He sniffed some more, and his eyes fell on Cinder. The Charmander went rigid at the attention. "Runt. You smell like the Treecko. Where are they?" Cinder was shaking now, and Oscar was sure he was going to rat them out. He was about to silently make a break for the room when Cinder spoke.

"T-they were here last night. We, ah" his lips were trembling a bit, and his voice was shaking as he continued "had some bouts, y-you know? They were real friendly like, talked to everyone in the tavern last night. M-morning too. I haven't groomed since then." The Charizard stared quietly for a moment. His face left no tells but Oscar knew he was suspicious.

After a few moments of intense silence, the Charizard spoke. "I don't know why you are protecting them. These are not petty thieves, like the rest of you bottom-feeders. You have no idea how dangerous they are, or will be if fools allow them to take root and spread their rot. Where are they?" He did not yell, but punctuated his statement with a small stomp of his foot. The room shook. He looked around at Cinder, Salazzle, any and all of the patrons still in the room. No one dared to meet his eye, save for Salazzle.

"I think you should leave. I don't appreciate myself or my guests being insulted." Charizard snorted.

"Brave, but stupid. Have it your way. I will be back." And with that, Charizard left. Everyone in the room held their breath for a few seconds afterwards, but quiet conversation slowly returned. Salazzle's knees shook, and she fell to the floor. She was immediately attended to by half a dozen Salandit, who embraced her in a large group hug. After a few moments, she shooed them away and stood up, her mask firmly back in place.

"You owe me big, stud." She said, looking up the stairs. Oscar rounded the corned and moved to join Cinder, Gaia and Stumpy just behind. They had joined in near the end of the confrontation with Charizard, enough sense to stay quiet and out of sight when the subject became clear.

"I think I do. Thank you." Oscar said, but added quickly "Why not just turn us in? This kind of heat can't be good for business?" Salazzle simply smiled.

"Us bottom-feeders need to stick together, don't we stud? The Guild ignores us at best, and we don't answer to them. Certainly not when they send some brute with no sense of decorum to handle their business. One day you are going to owe me an explanation for what just happened, but for now I think you should get out of here. There is a tunnel in the basement that leads to the forest, you can find your way to the smuggling route from there. I'm sure the brute is in the air watching for you, so be careful."

The said their farewells and one the Salandit directed them to the hidden passage. After about ten minutes of trekking in the cool underground air, Cinder's tail lighting the way, they popped out into a small clearing in the forest. Oscar what saw what looked like a game trail leading deeper into the trees, and assumed this was the smuggling route. They remained quiet as they made their way, eyes darting between the trees, the path behind them and the sky.