Note: This collection is also known as my attempt at making the slice of life story I originally set out to make. For these, I'm thinking I'll indicate when they take place in relation to the main story, if at all.

A Standard Outing

(Before Chapter 1)

"I know what you're doing," muttered Damia.

"Hmm?" asked the Spinda as she snagged an Oran berry from the soft grass and put it in her bag.

"Stop it."

"Stop what?" she responded, pointedly looking away from the frowning dragon.

"I'm serious. It's stupid and a waste of time."

"A waste of time!?" Clara put a paw to her chest and gave an exaggerated gasp. "Damia, I'm surprised at you. Out of everyone, you should know how important it is to secure materials for the guild!"

Damia pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "When you say things like 'secure materials' it only makes it clearer you're bullshitting."

"Well excuse me for trying to use elevated language."

"That's not even-!" she sucked in a breath and tried again slowly. "That's not what I'm referring to, and you know it."

"Oh? Do I? And will you tell me what you know that I should also know but am purportedly attempting to not know?" Clara somehow conveyed nothing but smugness with her eye swirls as she smirked up at Damia.

"You don't even know what purportedly means."

"Allegedly."

"Goddam-why is he here?" she whisper-yelled, pointed with a claw behind them. Clara turned her head.

Van was behind them kneeled over a small pond, attempting to siphon the water with a short tube into a large bag. It was clear he was struggling, and muffled curses could be heard as the water splashed on and around him, and he was covered in water. Clara put a paw to her mouth.

"How's it looking over there Vanny?" she called. The drenched Scrafty turned and waved an arm.

"It's uh, it's going! Might need a couple minutes to get this-" He had raised up the siphon from the pond, and immediately water began to gush out of the hose. He floundered with it in his hands before jabbing it back in the water, and gave a nervous chuckle.

"Remember, we need that liquid Aether to make items in the guild, so let us know if you need any help!"

"Y-yeah, alright," he muttered back, focused on his task. Damia groaned next to Clara.

"He's not even holding it right, he's just shoving it into the water," she said. Clara put a paw to her head and sucked in a breath.

"Oh gee you're right. Wouldn't it be nice if someone, preferably with a lot of knowledge and experience, were to go over there and patiently explain how to do it?"

Even for her species, Damia was a large Dragonite, looming just over eight feet tall. Clara, pudgy Spinda she was, barely came up to her shin. Despite the vast difference in physical appearance, Clara leaned against Damia's leg and grinned up at her as if she were no more than a petulant child. Damia grabbed her by the back of the neck and brought her close to her snout just so she could glare at her, which only served to widen her smile.

"...You know I have guild head stuff I should be doing. More important than whatever weird bonding thing you hoped would happen by signing us up for this simple gathering task."

"I wouldn't want you to miss out on paperwork! Go ahead and help out Van so we can get out sooner."

"You seem to think this is funny."

"Hilarious."

"We'll see if you're still smirking when you're gasping for air during morning drills, just you and me."

"Hah, as if that'll scare m-"

"Four a.m."

"Wait." She dropped the Spinda and let her plop to the ground with an 'oof.'

Damia glanced Van's way before pulling out the task they tore from the board and looked at the list of items they needed to retrieve. She had to scrunch her eyes to make out the atrocious handwriting.

Ten gallons of liquid Aether

Five Geo pebbles

Three eyedrop and three vanish seeds

Five Cheri berries

A bottle of zinc

"What is up with this list? We can grow half of this," she asked herself, brows furrowed. They flattened to a line when she read the note at the bottom.

There was a fire Had a little incident in one of the workshops, so we need to replenish some supplies. -Brook

"Of course," she muttered. With a claw on her forehead, she thought to herself. Coming across the specific seeds and berries would be tedious, but at least doable given how plentiful Whispy Woods often was with those kinds of items. What bothered her the most was the bottle of zinc. Who knows how long it would take before they stumbled across it? It would be easier to prioritize finding that than the others, which meant rushing through as many rooms as possible and hoping they got lucky.

She pinched her nose again. She didn't want to be here, but her pride prevented her from leaving a task half finished, however asinine.

"Dammit, fine. Scrafty!" she called, walking towards Van. He flinched at the sound of his name and desperately tried to scoop water into the bag.

"I'm almost, uh, done..."

"Can it. We'll deal with this later. Let's just get a move on."

She grabbed the siphon from his hands and lifted the bag. She paused and tested the weight from it, and then turned it upside down over the pond to allow a miniscule stream of water to pour out. The sound of the light stream petering out emphasized the dry look she gave Van as he twiddled his nubs.

"Still gotta get the hang of that," he tried.

"Clearly," she replied and stepped past him. His shoulders slumped, but he followed behind. She walked to the exit of the room that led to a hallway bordered with trees, and passed by Clara who had her arms crossed. She rolled her eyes down at the Spinda but continued onward. Clara gave Van a smile and a shrug, and the two followed her out to the rest of the floor.

Aside from a few encounters with ferals, which Damia batted aside as if they were nothing, the walk throughout the Dungeon's maze-like rooms was uneventful. Van reached down to pick up a berry when he glanced to the side and saw a break in the forest's constant greenery. Down another corridor, the ground switched from soft grass to bright orange carpet. Various items were laid in organized piles around the floor, and sitting with a content smile on its face was a Kecleon, right in the center.

His eyes widened when he saw what was directly in front of it, a bottle of zinc.

"Uh, hey guys? We got any cash?"

"Why?" asked Clara. When Van gestured to the Kecleon shop, her mouth opened wide, and then she smiled.

"Ooh, nice! Damia, check it out."

"Yeah. I...see it," she responded, slowly. For a brief moment, Damia had a wary look on her face as she stared at the shopkeep, but shook herself out of it just as quickly and took a step forward.

"Right. Okay. This makes things easier. Scrafty, you know the one rule when it comes to shops right?"

"Somethin' about never taking anything without paying for it?"

"And what's the one thing we never do when we walk into Dungeons?"

Van thought for a moment, before grinning and slamming a fist into his palm.

"Don't make fun of the Dungeon when the wind starts, unless you think you can outrun wind. In which case, always make fun of the Dungeon."

"...I mean, yes. But the other one rule?"

"Never walk in broke?"

"Exactly. So how much Poké do you have?"

His smile vanished.

"I didn't bring any."

Damia shut her eyes and took a deep, deep, breath in. Then let it out slowly.

"Clara."

"Yeah, I'm out too," responded Clara, who was busy balancing a stick on her nose.

"What is wrong with both of you! Ugh," Damia clenched her teeth and dug a claw into her own bag. Her frustrated expression slowly morphed into one of confusion, but she attempted to steel it before her Partner caught on. By the way her Partner sauntered over to her with a stupid grin on her face, she knew she was too late.

"Is there a problem?" asked Clara as she casually leaned on the stick.

"No."

"Really? Cuz it looks like you've come down with a case of something."

"What? A case of what?"

"A case of 'I'm a broke bitch' disease." she almost said that with a straight face, but began to chuckle halfway through. Van turned around right as a smile grew on his face. Damia just blinked at her.

"I could eat you. You know that, right? It wouldn't be hard."

"Look, it's not that big a deal. We'll just walk over to the nice Kecleon merchant, explain the situation, and trade some of the things we have for the zinc. Poké isn't the only thing we have to offer. I've got a couple prototype wands on deck, and I know Van's got some of those spikes he's working on."

"They're still not ready, but I do got a Camo orb." He held up said orb to demonstrate. Damia sighed and shuffled over.

"Fine, it'll have to do. If anything, I guess we'll see how much our prototypes are even worth."

The trio walked through the path of trees toward the shop. The merchant glanced up from his wares and made eye contact with them, then waved.

"Hello explorers!" He called, "Come, I have many things in stock for ones such as you, yes."

The moment their feet touched the carpet, each of their hearts leapt as a pulse of energy thrummed throughout the room. Van jolted and watched as flashes of light spawned in the air, and materialized into the shapes of ferals they had seen thus far in the Dungeon. Spinarak and Beedrill jerked into motion while Tangela and Parasect stalked closer. On their own they hadn't posed much of a threat, but a quick glance showed that the wide room was full of at least thirty Pokémon.

The sudden stress was compounded by an alarming jingle that seemed to play from the walls. It invited feelings of anxiety and adrenaline as soon as he registered what he was hearing, and he immediately hated it. Based on the frustrated groans from his companions, he wasn't alone.

"What even-why!? How does a Monster House appear in a-" Clara's rant was cut short as she ducked out the way of a volley of needles from a Beedril. She was yanked to the side by Damia as the Dragonite rushed around the side of the room. The hoard of ferals turned their head toward the large target, who immediately began to prepare a Hurricane. A shrill cry rang out over the sound of the strengthening winds.

"No! You must not damage the merchandise! It will be very bad for me and you if you do!" yelled the Kecleon. Indeed, the piles of berries and seeds on display began to roll around on the carpet, buffeted by the wind. Kecleon stayed directly in the center, uncaring of the chaos unfolding around him aside from a mortified expression aimed towards the rustling items on the carpet.

With clenched teeth, Damia looked at the Kecleon in rage, and the winds began to whip up to a fervor even more. Clara waved her paws in front of her Partner's face to calm her down, and yelled out towards Keckleon.

"Hey, what gives!? Do something!"

"Please, you must protect my wares! If anything happens to my stock I will be ruined! Yes."

"You gotta be kidding!"

"I am very much not!"

Kecleon pleaded from his position amidst his wares, entirely safe. The swarm of ferals spawned from the Monster House seemed to ignore him entirely as they focused on Damia and Clara. At some point Clara got knocked from her grasp and was forced to dodge and weave the numerous attacks. Damia had grabbed a Tangela by a vine and swung it around the other enemies like a mace, but was interrupted when numerous String Shots by Spinarak constricted her arms and legs in sticky webs.

As the two fought in the growing chaos, a screen of light shimmered on the other side of the room, and Van stepped out from nowhere. He took one look at all the crazy happening to Clara and Damia and cringed, thankful he had the quick thinking to pop a camo orb right before the ferals descended on them. A part of him realized that the only reason he was not targeted right away was because he was clearly seen as the weakest, but he couldn't bring himself to be offended once he saw how bad the other two had it.

He wanted to help, but didn't quite know how without just getting in the way, so he instead opted for jogging over towards the merchant. Kecleon turned toward him and smiled, all concern over the situation wiped from his face.

"Welcome to the Kecleon Shop! I'm afraid there are some complications with our stock today, but please feel free to browse, yes."

"Mon, you know there's a gang of ferals right behind you, yeah?"

"Those are the complications, yes."

A Parasect was sent sailing over their heads, and a loud curse could be heard from the side.

"What would you be interested in today?"

"Uh..."

"Scrafty!" yelled Damia. He looked to the side to see her tied up almost completely to the wall, and Clara was twitching on the ground possibly due to Stun Spores. Through sheer force of will, she still struggled against the bindings as she withstood the attacks sent her way in an attempt to reach her bag, and looked mad as hell doing it.

"Get the zinc!"

"You sure you don't just want to escape?"

"You get that zinc or so help me-" her mouth was webbed shut by a Spinarak.

"Is this what you came here for today?" Van's attention was brought back to the merchant who held the bottle of zinc up with a smile. Van nodded weakly.

"That will be 9000 Poké"

"You gotta be kidding! Bro, I don't even have cash."

"Not a problem! I am more than happy to make a trade, yes."

"9000 Poké my..." grumbled Van as he shuffled through his bag. He tried his best to ignore Clara's warcry to the right, and thought of anything valuable he might have brought. He grit his teeth as he poured out his items; a batch of orans and seeds, a petrify orb, an escape orb, a handful of spikes, and one last camo orb. His eyes lingered on the petrify orb as he considered just using it to stop the ferals, but before he could, Kecleon took the pile of miscellaneous items. With lightning fast speed, he catalogued all of them with his eyes. He gave Van a professional smile once he set them down.

"1700 Poké."

"...For which one?"

"All of them."

"Nah," Van said with a simple shake of his head.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I refuse."

"Refuse? You cannot refuse my offer, it is very fair," he held up a sleep seed from Van's pile. "Many of these items are common."

"Common my ass," Van picked up his camo orb and shoved it in the other lizard's face. "You see this? You know what this is?"

"Yes, it is a camo orb. It creates a screen where things that pass through it are hidden from the naked eye."

"And you know who made it?"

"...Made it?"

"You're lookin' at him mon!" Van's voice raised at the same time an angry roar could be heard in the background. Damia swooped in behind him and began beating a couple Beedrill into the ground with her bare claws, but Van seemed too incensed to care. "This shit just dropped a couple weeks ago! How the hell are you gonna tell me it's not worth at least more than everything here in this stupid shop."

"I will not tolerate slander of my livelihood or these baseless claims that you are somehow responsible for this item. If you are not satisfied with my service, I am afraid we will have to bid each other good day." Kecleon folded his arms and huffed at Van, but an explosion from the side wrenched his attention away. Van looked and saw a Tangela snag a blast seed from the stash and toss it towards his companions, who dove out of the way of the impending explosion. Other ferals began to avail themselves of the open items, wands and orbs being snatched up in order to make their lives even more of a living hell.

Kecleon let out a squeal.

"No! They are stealing my stock! Quickly, you must do something."

"Are y'all good!?" yelled Van. Damia was in the middle of getting comboed via sleep seed into a Geo pebble to the head, and Clara was moving faster than Van had ever seen her to avoid raining bombs of blast seeds. At some point sand started to fill the room, and he cursed as his vision was obscured by the grains. He heard something that sounded kind of like an affirmation, but it was obscured by everything going on.

"Please!" continued Kecleon. Van groaned loudly and folded his arms at the merchant.

"What do you want?"

"What!?"

"Tell me what you want us to do."

"Is this a joke? Stop them! Stop these monsters from stealing my stock!"

"If I do that, you'll give me the zinc?" asked Van with a raised brow. He looked rather calm given the warzone that the room had turned into.

"Yes yes, whatever."

"Aight." he held a hand out. "Shake on it." Kecleon hurriedly reached out, but Van jerked his hand back.

"Just so we're clear, I stop these mon from takin' your stock, and you give me the Zinc?"

"Yes!"

Van squinted his eyes, but the two shook. Kecleon looked on expectantly as Van reached down for the petrify orb. He held it up to his head and let it flash with energy. In an instant the sounds of fighting died down, and through the sand he saw shapes stuck in the middle of motion. The sand also began to die down, and through the haze he clearly saw the others leaned up against each other, gasping for breath. Damia had a claw up, ready to slice a Tangela stuck in an attack pose, but Van threw a hand out before she could.

"Hold up!" he called. Before she could end the petrification, he snagged the zinc and began to jog over. Before he made it far he felt a strong force on his shoulder yank him back.

"You are being hasty, yes? The enemies are still here." said Kecleon. He squeezed Van's shoulders so much it made him wince, and there was a dangerous tint in his voice. Nevertheless, the Scrafty looked back with an annoyed look.

"Are they as of this moment stealing your stuff?" he asked.

"Well you stopped them from doing so but-"

"Then we're good. See ya," he muttered, wrenching himself forward toward his tired teammates. As he strode on, Kecleon looked around at the damage done to his shop and wilted. The orange rug was marred by smoking burn marks and deep gashes in the ground. Ferals were placed everywhere stuck in various positions, webs and stingers were lodged throughout the room, and his nose itched as the lingering smell of spores and electricity emanated throughout. Half of his items were gone, either used up or strewn about haphazardly. His eyes flicked to the Scrafty who walked through the impromptu battlefield seemingly without a care in the world.

"W-wait! What are you doing!? This is not the way of things, explorers are meant to help those in need!" he pleaded. Van put up a finger nub as he walked away.

"One. I'm a creator, not an explorer." Another finger. "Two, if I know anything, I know damn well you could have dealt with that on your own, so this is on you, mon."

Van tuned out the rest of the Kecleon's pleas as he tossed the bottle up and down in his hand. He came up to the others and winced internally; some of Clara's fur was burned with soot from explosions and Damia had her arms crossed with a black eye and some bruises. At his approach, she visibly grimaced as she pulled herself to her feet, and Van tried his best to ignore the irritated expression on her face and just held out the zinc.

Key word being 'tried'. Her default expression was still pretty scary.

"So, uh, before you say anything, yeah I know I bailed at the start of the fight. But-"

"You got it," she muttered. Through her labored breath, her eyes were squinted as if she were witnessing something that she genuinely hadn't considered. He blinked and tried to continue, but Clara interjected.

"How much did it," she coughed. "How much did it cost?"

"Nothin'. Well, dude tried to charge me 9000 friggin Poké, but I got around that," he crossed his arms and looked down. "Can't believe that guy. Didn't even give me any respect for making my orb either. Just called it common," he grumbled.

"Screw him. And hey, wasn't this the first time you used it in action? I'd say that it works like a charm, so what does he know, huh?" offered Clara.

"Don't waste time caring about what others think. Just be better. Only you can appreciate your own worth."

Van took a moment to register what she said and flicked his eyes to Clara, who looked just as bewildered at the semi-positive statement.

"Uh, thanks?"

"Is that a question?"

"Thanks. Th-thank you for, uh, saying that," he stammered. When she didn't visibly respond, he switched gears and gestured to the general state the two were in.

"Soooo, are you guys good? Should we keep it movin, or..?."

"As far as I'm concerned, we're done here. I'm going to go have a chat with Brook when we get back," responded Damia with something dangerous lurking underneath her tone. Used to her demeanor, Clara continued with a smile in her voice.

"Yeah, all's well that ends well! I for one am happy with how things turned out," exclaimed the Spinda. She felt a chill on her neck and looked up to Damia's icy glare. Her ears lowered a bit.

"I-I mean, I know things got out of hand a little but...uh..."

"Three a.m."

"Come on!"

"Scrafty, get us out of here."

Van dug out an escape orb and held it up to activate it. Just as the flash started to grow, he saw Kecleon make one last desperate run in their direction to plead for assistance. He threw up a peace sign, and then they all disappeared from the wrecked Dungeon shop.

Kecleon slumped his shoulders and gave one last pitiful look around the state of his shop, petrified ferals stalked over his wares like hostile statues, ready to steal even more from him at any second. He held his head in his hands and sighed.

"...I knew I shouldn't have upsold that stupid bottle."

A/N: This one is a reupload that I'm putting into this collection. I have a couple other one-shots on the way too. Whenever I need a break from the main story, and want to indulge in a little idea, I'll write a side piece and upload it here :)