This, quite obviously, takes place at the very end of the timeline, giving a bit of setup to the earlier points in the series.
Letters
Dear Momma and Pa,
I've finally made it, Momma! Sorry it took so long, there was a little bit of trouble on the road with some Dungeon Pokemon, but a little bit of Ember sent them right off, just like you said it would! Then when I got here I had to find a place to stay, too, and this nice Arcanine pointed me towards the hotel in town- it's run by a Blissey and an Audino and their daughter Chansey, and they're really nice. They asked all kinds of questions about my journey and why I was here, and they promised to let me stay as long as I needed to.
Turns out that Arcanine is the leader of one of the local Rescue Teams from the Guild. His team mate's a Gardevoir, and they offered to put in a good word for me at the Guild when I decide to join, or they'll let me into their team if they say no!
That's not very likely, apparently. Guildmaster Wigglytuff is well known for letting any Pokemon join to test their skill; it's his assistant, Chatot, that might be a problem. He's pretty strict, they said, so he might not let a kid join.
That's annoying. I know I'm pretty young, especially for a Vulpix, but I know a lot because of everyone in the family. Seems stupid to not let me in just because of my age, and not because I'm weak.
Anyway, I'll write again really soon, I promise! Hopefully something interesting will've happened… maybe I'll even be a Rescue Pokemon by then!
Love you,
Shadow.
Dear Momma and Pa,
Thanks for writing back so quick. I've been really missing Elixa, Deltien, Luriean, and Kaltria, and it's nice to know they miss me too! I'll do my best to send some souvenirs from the town as soon as I've started as a proper sort of Rescue Pokemon. Alma is a pretty cool little town, with a massive amount of meadows really close by. Lots of Pokemon live on them, and the area near the streams gets used as farmland a lot. Maybe I'll be able to buy a camera soon and take some pictures to send you!
Oh, something pretty interesting happened the other day! I went for a walk around again, mostly just to get used to things and do a bit of practice. There's private training grounds for Rescue Teams, but there's also public ones for anyone to use, so I was going there to practice Magnet Rise- thank Uncle Makus and Gramp Lecan for teaching me that, by the way, it's really cool and some of the Pokemon I've met found it really weird; they didn't know a Mawile could learn Magnet Rise either!
Anyway, I went there to practice for a little while, I want to be as powerful as I can before I apply to the Guild, and I met another Pokemon who was there! His name was Eon, and he's a shiny Ninetales! His fur's all grey and silvery and really sparkly in the sun- I get why they're called shiny now- and his tail tips are light blue instead of orange.
I went over to introduce myself to him, then went to practicing, but he looked like he was having trouble with some kinda simple Fire type Moves, so I offered him some help with it. We talked for a while, and it turns out he was one of those transformed Pokemon! Like the one from the story Gram told us, about that Totodile and that Pikachu and the meteor!
He's only recently transformed, a few months ago, and some of the local Pokemon found him passed out in the woods a little while away. The one's that found him- apparently it was that team of Arcanine and Gardevoir from before! Small world, huh?- helped him adjust, but just about everyone in town knows about who he is. That, and him being shiny, made them a little wary of him for a while, which is kinda sad, but they've gotten used to him now, and it's not as bad.
But he's only just started practicing his Moves, since for the most part he was working on moving right and learning stuff, but he couldn't manage to do it.
We spent… kinda a long time, a few hours, working on it, and by the end Eon was able to keep an Ember going for ages, like a few minutes! It was almost a Flamethrower in length, just the power was too weak compared to when you or Pa do it. And Eon looked so happy when he managed it, like when Kaltria managed to use Roar properly for the first time! It was kinda cute, like a little kit running about. We walked back into town togheter, and he couldn't stop thanking me for the help, though he was kind of awkward about it; I don't think he's very used to dealing with other Pokemon, which makes sense if he used to be a human, lost all his memories, then had loads of trouble integrating into the town.
…man that sounds really sad when put like that.
But, well, other than that there's not been much. I'm gonna try applying for the Guild in a few days, once I've got some things totally down. I want to get used to using Charge too, and perfect Magnet Rise if I can. Then I'm gonna focus a lot on my Fire Moves, and Extrasensory. Hopefully that won't take too long, then I can become a Rescue Pokemon!
Love you!
Shadow.
Dear Momma and Pa,
Thanks for the idea in your letter back! I didn't think about maybe asking Eon if he wanted to join with me as a Rescue Pokemon on my team. That'd probably be really cool, especially once Eon's better with his Moves.
Eon came to me the next day and asked if I could help him again, since it was really helpful getting help from someone who knew what they were doing. We've been practising the last few days together, and it's actually been helping me as well! Trying to teach someone's really hard, actually, and that's with Eon being nice and listening- sorry for all the trouble we gave you as kits, Momma, if this is this hard I hate to think how hard we made it for you- but it's been useful too. Eon asks a lot of questions, and trying to answer it means doing a bit of thinking- I mean, the difference between a Flamethrower and a really powerful Ember seemed obvious, but trying to explain it? Nuh-uh.
Anyway, we've been working together a lot, mostly me teaching him, but someones some of the Rescue Team Pokemon end up using the public training grounds rather than the Guild ones- that's what the private ones are, by the way. I found that out the other day- and they sometimes help out when they hear that I want to be a Rescue Pokemon too. Arcanine and Gardevoir were here this morning- Arcanine helped me get my Ember even stronger ready to learn Flamethrower, and Gardevoir taught the both of us Extrasensory!
Well, taught Eon Extrasensory. I already know it, of course, but she helped me get it way better- maybe because she was demonstrating more with a weakened Psychic than Extrasensory, but it's a lot more stable now.
Arcanine and Gardevoir offered to help teach us more while we're getting prepared for making a Rescue Team, or just while we're getting used to things around Alma. Both of us took them up on that, and Eon did mention an interest in maybe becoming a Rescue Pokemon in the future, which is great!
I've been doing a lot of wandering around the town over the last few days too, just getting used to everything and meeting new Pokemon. Kangaskhan runs the local storage department, which uses Rescue Badges to link to other special statue-things in the field to let Rescue Teams take out their items on missions, which is so neat, and there's a Dusklops that runs the bank with his younger brother Duskull. You can't take out money in the field, but you can put money in, using the same thing that Kangaskhan uses, and apparently the different banks in different towns can link using your badge again- I have no idea how it all works, but it's so cool.
I went to the fields too, the river meadow bit is owned by a Lilligant, Torterra, and Feraligator as a group. You can rent out segments of the river bit to use as farms, there's a discount for renting under your team, while the fields where Pokemon tend to build housing and stuff is owned by a Conkeldurr and Gothitelle. Rescue Teams are the main ones that use the fields to buy places like that, most Pokemon rent or build in the town itself, but the big fields make it easier for larger teams to live in the area.
Arcanine's team has a couple of other team mates, and they normally pair up together and go out on missions with that pair- so there's always a mission on the go on that team, and if something goes wrong, there's always a couple of Pokemon that're waiting to go and help. I'll write more soon, Momma and Pa, I promise. Maybe someday you'll be able to come and visit here in Alma and we can show you all around!
Love you,
Shadow.
Dear everyone,
I did it! I'm officially a Rescue Pokemon now! You're speaking to Shadow, second-in-command of Team Inari!
Yeah, second. Bit of a story.
I went to the Guild yesterday to try and register as a Rescue Pokemon, then I was going to ask Eon to join the Team as well- I asked Arcanine, and he told me some stuff about getting started, like how they give extra badges so you can give them to other Pokemon that get recruited into the team; I have no idea how they manage to do the badges that quickly when you register, but they're normally done a few hours after. They make you go through some introduction stuff first, then get given the badges afterwards so you can start.
Anyway, I went over and asked Chatot how to register, and he brought me into talk to Guildmaster Wigglytuff. They told me I couldn't join up as a team leader, because of my age, and that meant I couldn't start a solo team and then recruit Eon either.
I was kinda... upset about that, so I left and promised to come back- the age limit is minimum thirteen, dang it, so it'd be another three whole years before I could sign up- then went to the training ground to blow some fire and calm down a bit.
Eon was there too, we've taken to meeting up at about the same time, spending the morning working together, then going out separate ways for the afternoon to do other things- normally I'm looking around, and I dunno what he does. He asked where I'd been, so I explained the idea of making a Rescue Team, and the fact that I couldn't because I was too young to be allowed to be a Team leader by Guild rules.
I set up for a bit of target practice; it's something we've been doing the last few days, ever since Gardevoir helped us with Extrasensory. I lift some bits of wood in the air, Eon tries to hit them with Embers, then we swap. Thank goodness for Flash Fire, and we've both gotten really good at putting out fires with our Extrasensory as well. So we did that for a bit, then just before we were going to go leave Eon suggested that, since I wasn't allowed to make a Rescue Team by myself, maybe we could make one together instead, with him as the leader because he's older than me.
We went to the Guild again together to go and get that set up, and they let us this time because Eon was probably old enough to run a team- because of the whole amnesia thing, no-one actually knows for sure, but the Guildmaster was ok with it and didn't let Chatot try to object.
So yeah, I'm now second-in-command of Team Inari! It's... not exactly what I was expecting when I left home to come be a Rescue Pokemon, but it's still cool! Once we start doing some Dungeon work and stuff, we'll probably end up recruiting more members, and Eon and I were talking about getting a bit of land to use as a home for us and anyone we recruit. I'm gonna be staying in the hotel for a little while longer, for the sake of getting everything set up, but that's fine. I'm just happy to be on a Rescue Team now, even if it's as a second and not as a leader like I thought. We also made sure to get a box registered with Kangaskhan before we started on missions, and did the same with the Dusclops bank too.
Oh, and speaking of shops, that reminds me! I was wandering around yesterday, thinking about what I was gonna say when I applied to the Guild, and I stumbled across a place run by a Smeargle, which lets you borrow a camera and take pictures, then print then out! It was a little expensive, sure, but it wasn't too bad, so I took some pictures for you! You've probably already seen them, they probably fell out of the envelope, but they're there if they didn't. I took a picture of my new Badge too, it looks pretty nice, the back even has the team name engraved on it for identification. I really want to know how they do that so quickly, because it's really neatly done.
Anyway, Eon and I talked about it and we decided we're gonna take a quick mission tomorrow, because the Guild helps you decide what you should be doing for the first few months and sometimes sets tasks for you, then you can graduate if you want to try the test and they think you're ready for it. We're going to ask Conkeldurr and Gothitelle to help us build a base for us and any Pokemon we might end up recruiting as well, and we'll need to start going on shopping trips for stuff as soon as we start taking longer trips, but from what Arcanine told us the Guild only sends you on trips to nearby Dungeons for the first few weeks, to help you get used to things, then they let you pick missions that have more travel time.
I'll write again soon!
Love,
Shadow.
Dear Momma and Pa,
Sorry it's been so long since I wrote, but this last week's been really hectic. Who knew setting up a Rescue Team was so much work? Even still, we've done loads and it's been really nice.
Straight away the first morning we went and talked to Conkeldurr and Gothitelle about building a place for our team, and we found them already waiting! Apparently Gothitelle is pretty good at using Future Sight, so she knew there was going to be someone coming by to ask for help today. We set up for things to get started on the building, then we went to the Guild for our first mission. Chatot helped give us an easy one to start with, finding an Oran Berry in the Ilix Forest- by the way, something really confuses me about that. Berries and Battle Orbs and stuff are really cheap to buy at the Kecleon Mart, so why don't Pokemon that want them just go there and buy them instead of asking Rescue Teams to do it? Or maybe it's a Rescue Team thing at the market, like our Badges making it cheaper for us to buy because we go into Dungeons?
Anyway… the Ilix Forest was pretty easy; it's a four floor Dungeon, and mostly made up of Grass and Bug types, so two Fire types like me and Eon didn't have any trouble, but something really weird is the amount of stuff in the Dungeons. We found a little over a hundred Pokè in there, not to mention all the berries and the Blast Seed we found, and we weren't really trying! I guess it's just a Dungeon thing, but it's really a bit weird. We found the berry ok though, and our client gave us another hundred Pokè as a reward, too.
Eon and I split up at first to go and put the Pokè in the Duskull bank and the items in Kangaskhan storage, then we met up again to go and see if we could find the Pokemon that owned the river area. We ran into Lilligant and had a chat about it- I told Eon about our little berry farm we have at home, by the way, and he thought it might be a good idea for Team Inari to have one as well. It'd mean we wouldn't need to worry about finding or buying berries as much for our missions, and we could also sell the berries or trade them for things if we needed to. It's three hundred Pokè a month to rent the land, though, so we decided not to right now and come back to it; we might still need to buy supplies, we would need to pay for the building, and both of us were still renting a place to live in town, so we had to pay for that too. Later on, though, we'll start a berry farm down there.
Most of the rest of the week was more missions, mostly retrieving lost items or finding new ones, and one rescue of a Caterpie that'd gotten lost in the woods, but one really fun one was an escort mission. A Beldum wanted to see if base of a place called Strange Cave, and had asked for a Rescue Team to escort them down there. That place was long, ten whole floors, but we found loads of stuff there. We didn't spend as much time exploring each floor, because Beldum sometimes got into trouble and we had to go and rescue them, and we stopped twice to let them recover, but we still left the Dungeon with more than a thousand Pokè plus all the items we'd found. There's nothing interesting at the bottom of Strange Cave- you'd think there would be, with that name- but Beldum didn't mind. We got two hundred Pokèfrom that one, plus a Sitrus Berry as a gift, and Eon's already been planning on going back when we can to look around more thoroughly.
The best thing was the very end of this week, though. Chatot finally gave us an outlaw mission to do! Calm down Momma, it wasn't that bad. We were asked to go find a Machoke that'd stolen a Thunderbolt TM and then gone to hide somewhere in the Dungeon, a place called the Old Ruins. They got destroyed a long time ago. It was eight floors deep, and we found Machoke on the fifth floor and managed to take him down and get the TM back. Eon and I decided to keep exploring though, because we were finding a lot of Pokè and items down there, so we went right down to the bottom.
There was a big stone wall there with a picture of some kind carved into it, but neither of us could make out what it was. We were gonna leave then, but then Eon suddenly went all sick and dizzy and then he collapsed! I was really really worried about him, but he was ok pretty quickly after that. The next bit was really cool, though; he'd seen a vision of the past!
Apparently it'd happened to him before, back when he'd first arrived, but that time he'd seen something in the future- he wouldn't tell me what. This time he saw when the Ruins were destroyed; some kind of big white Pokemon with black markings appeared from the bottom and started rampaging, which wrecked it all. Eon's been carefully looking into what it might be when he has time, since he doesn't recognise it, and when I mentioned that our family are Talekeepers we decided I'd ask you the next time I wrote. We've also decided we aren't going to mention that vision thing to anyone, though. We don't know what causes it, or what other things might be connected to it, so it's probably best to keep it a secret. So don't tell anyone else please, Momma, Pa?
We went back to the Guild after Eon was better and gave the TM back to the Pikachu who'd been robbed, and she gave us five hundred Pokè and a Reviver Seed, which is really cool, because those are rare and expensive. When we left, we went and put everything away before we went over to check on the building, and it was all finished! We arranged to pay for it, and it's a good thing we thought carefully about renting that river bit, because it was ten thousand Pokè!... It kinda sounds like a lot more than it is, though. We find a lot of Pokè when we're exploring Dungeons, and we get paid a bit as well, but it was still a big dent. I went back to the Smeargle and rented a camera again to take some pictures of it, they're in the envelope too, and we're both planning on moving in as soon as we have some time to arrange everything. We're going to save for a few more weeks before we start making a berry farm, we've decided, because that way we'll have enough Pokè stored to buy some of the rarer berries that sometimes show up in the Kecleon market. Hopefully we'll be able to get our berry farm stocked with a lot of nice ones that we can take with us on trips.
Anyway, that's been our week! Lots of stuff's happened, which is really cool, and being on a Rescue Team is so much fun. We'll probably be doing a lot of stuff while we work with the Guild, because according to Arcanine they like to push new recruits to make sure they get good quickly so they're not at risk, which is good because it means more Pokè for us! I'll try and write again as soon as I can, so you'll know when something interesting happens, and Eon and I will be careful not to get hurt, I promise.
Write back soon too!
Love,
Shadow.
"Momma, Momma!"
Kuibiena glanced up at the call and accompanying sound of paws and claws clattering along wooden floors, then put the letter down and stood in a sweeping movement.
"Hello kits." She smiled, as a Vulpix and three Absol hurried through the door in a tangle of limbs and tails.
"Morning, Momma!" Deltien called, over the top of his sister's head. Kaltria growled, shoving her elder brother to one side, making him whine over-dramatically and fall. Elixa and Luriean swapped exasperated glances, and the eldest Absol went over and dragged him to his feet by the horn.
Ignoring his whining, Luriean came over and sat at her feet, looking up and sideways at her. "Has Shadow written again, Momma?"
"Not yet, Lur." She sighed, nudging his head crest gently.
"Aww…" He grumbled, pouting and looking down.
"Shads' still on her mission?" Elixa asked, leaving her younger siblings alone and joining them.
"That's weird, it's been ages." Kaltria huffed. "She's never done one this long before!"
"She's just busy, kits." Kuibiena assured them, putting the letters away with half a thought as the other two Absol sat next to their siblings. "She's been busy before, remember?"
"Yeah, but that was the expedition." Deltien pointed out. "She had the Guild with her then, and that Arcanine's team with helped out. Shadow said it was just her and Eon this time."
"Eon's powerful, though."
"And Shadow is, too!" Luriean added, backing up his elder sister. "Plenty powerful to deal with whatever she ends up against!" Kuibiena smiled a little; her youngest Vulpix massively looked up to his slightly-elder clutch mate, and she was fairly sure he was thinking of becoming a Rescue Pokemon too when he was older, following in his sister's footsteps. It was always adorable to see him stick up for her against the Absol of the family when they worried about Shadow's ability.
Not that any of them looked down on her; she was powerful enough that her team was Hyper Rank after only two years, a great feat, and she'd basically trained non-stop for about a year before she'd actually left, just to make sure. All of them were proud of their second-eldest sister, but they did worry sometimes because they all knew her job would get dangerous, wandering in Dungeons all the time with hostile Pokemon.
"I'm sure both Shadow and Eon will be fine, kits." She soothed, making all four look up at her again. "Both of them are powerful, even if they don't have the rest of the team with them. Whatever it is they're doing, they'll handle it brilliantly and come back to tell us all the story."
Both Kaltria and Luriean's eyes lit up at that, while both Deltien and Elixa grinned.
"Shadow's stories are always cool." The latter nodded. "Even if some of them are a bit weird."
"And even though sometimes Eon wished they weren't." Her brother snarked. Kaltria pushed him slightly, growling.
"Don't be mean." She scolded, before giggling. "Even if Trikani was kinda funny."
"Poor Eon." Kuibiena agreed, looking amused. She thwapped Deltien on the nose with a tail as he growled back at his sister. "No fighting, you two. Now, who wants to come with me to the market?"
"Me!" Four voices called out in tandem, followed by chuckles.
"Then go get your bags and scarves, and we can go."
"Can we buy something there?" Deltien asked, as the two girls dashed for the door and Luriean followed slowly behind.
"I don't see why not, as long as you're good and it's not too expensive." She allowed. "What were you thinking of getting?"
"Not sure." He shrugged. His mother could read the lie in his body language, but she knew she wouldn't get it out of him; if anyone had inherited the stubbornness from her father, it had been Deltien- so she just let it go.
"Alright, take some money with you, and tell your siblings." She nodded. He grinned, then turned tail and dashed away.
"I will!"
"Having fun, dear?" Kuibiena turned, rolling her eyes at her mate.
"Of course I am. You know those four; at least they're easy to distract with other things."
"Don't I know it." Lukos laughed, leaning down to nuzzle her face. "I'm heading out to the dig site, the others think they've found something and want me to check it for traps."
"Be careful, love." She said seriously. "Don't go getting hurt because you missed something, ok?"
"I'll be careful, I promise." He nodded. "I'll probably be gone for a few days, trying to Teleport Dark types still tires Butterfree out something fierce, but depending on what's there it might be a little longer than that."
"That's fine, I'll tell the kits." She smiled, hearing the four of them getting into an argument on the landing above. "Or you can tell them yourself, of course."
"I don't need to leave for a little while yet, I'll do it." Lukos wandered off, calling to the four at the top of the stairs, and Kuibiena laughed to herself before looking over at the box again and sighing.
Gently, she lifted the letter that was still sitting on top of it, one that had been delivered just a little over a month ago.
Dear everyone,
Hi, guys. I know it's not been very long since the last time I wrote to you all, but something's come up. See, in about a week or so from the day I'm writing this, Eon and I are going to be going on a super long trip. So long, that we're not sure when we'll be back, and neither's our client.
Remember I mentioned about our new friend Hoopa a few letters back? Well, he came to us today and asked if we could help with a problem. He's gonna send us far away, to a place that needs some help, for a mission. But since it's so far away, it's not really gonna be possible to send letters back and forth, and it'd be a bit rude to ask Hoopa to send them for me. He's bound to be busy too, after all.
Inari's still going to be running, obviously. Vespiquen and Ariados have volunteered to take over the major running of stuff, since they know how to handle it, and the other pairs are going to be doing missions even while we're gone, so if you want to send letters they'll handle collecting them so Eon and I can see them when we get back. Hopefully we won't be gone too long, but Hoopa doesn't think it's likely to be a short mission no matter what we do, so it's probably gonna be a while.
Wish us luck, everyone!
Love, Shadow.
The family had written back and sent it, but there'd been no reply, so Kuibiena had no idea if she'd received the letter and not had time to write back before leaving, or if they'd missed her.
Shaking her head firmly, she placed it back into the box with all the other letters and shut the lid, placing it on a high shelf. Moments later, her four kits came storming back into the room, each wearing a little scarf- yellow, green, blue, and red- and a matching colour bag. They'd been sent as a twelfth birthday gift from Shadow, to match the bag and scarf combination they'd given her as a group just before she left for Alma, and they'd promptly taken pride of place for all four of them. A little Pokè purse was clipped to each one, sitting in a little inside pocket, a design that made it a little hard to get to but for the most part was useful.
"Ready to go, Momma." Elixa said, while the other three waited patiently.
"Yes, I can see that." She chuckled, standing and herding them towards the front door. She paused for a moment to nuzzle Lukos again. "I'll see you when you get back."
"Have fun, dear." He replied, heading into the kitchen and through the back door, going towards the meeting point for his work. Kuibiena watched for a moment, then followed her kits, taking the key from Elixa and locking the door behind her. Kaltria and Luriean were already most of the way down the road, talking rapidly about something- she wasn't sure what, though little snippets floated back to her on occasion. Deltien was trailing behind them, looking like he was thinking hard, and Elixa was perfectly happy to trot alongside her mother, looking around and just enjoying the walk down to the town and the marketplace.
In all, despite the lack of one of her kits, Kuibiena was still glad to have her family around her.
