Chapter 2 — Pokéopolis

"So what are your names?" Emolga asked as they walked out of the Misty Forest. Bright sun pounded down on the party, causing Ethan to put a hand over his eyes so they wouldn't get fried. He hadn't realized how dark and cool it was in the forest until now, where the sun was high in a cloudless sky and baking the earth below. It was warm, not hot, but it was still uncomfortable after the forest.

"I'm Fennekin, and this is Ethan. You two are Aipom and Emolga?"

"Ethan," Emolga repeated slowly, as if testing the name out. "That's a weird name for a Pikachu. But yes, I'm Emolga and that's Aipom. We're scouts at the Adventuring Academy."

"That's so cool!" Fennekin beamed. "What's the Academy like? Have you gone on a lot of adventures? How is being a scout different than being an explorer?"

"They'll be able to answer all those questions at the Academy," she said in a sigh. Whether it was out of exhaustion from the battle or from Fennekin's questions Ethan wasn't sure, but he figured it best to not ask. She already seemed angry at Aipom, no reason to get her angry at him, too.

Aipom, on the other hand, turned around and began bouncing on his tail while moving backwards. "Being at the Academy is awesome!" How he wasn't falling down, Ethan had no idea. "We've been to some really cool places, and we keep looking for more! Unlike explorers who go into the Mystery Dungeons and look for treasure inside, we as scouts are the ones that go find new places that we think have treasure. Then, we come back and share what we've found, and everybody else can go inside and explore!"

"You just find the places?" Fennekin asked with a tilt of her head. "You don't want to go inside and explore them?"

"We explore them sometimes." As they started down a hill, Aipom quickly turned in between hops and settled back on his feet. "We can't let everybody else have the treasure, you know? Plus, we need to make sure there actually is treasure somewhere and it's not just a bust."

"Where were you going?"

"We were actually going to investigate the forest," Emolga spoke up, sounding almost confused at her own answer. "Mystery Dungeons have been popping up everywhere, but there's never been this one so close to Pokéoplois. We were wondering if there was something special about the forest that might cause it to change, or if there was something that showed up that could cause it. Everybody in town is getting really worried because of how close these are getting."

"They're moving? Where did they start from?"

"Not here," Aipom shrugged. "Somewhere out to the west, but we're not sure where the first one was. By the time word came here, there were already dozens and dozens. It's pretty much everything anyone can talk about."

As the party continued their way along the packed dirt path, Ethan's attention floated in and out of the conversation as Fennekin asked Emolga and Aipom a plethora of questions about things he had never even heard of. Exploration badges? Ranking up? For someone who claimed to not be an explorer, she seemed to know a lot about it. She was probably trying to join the Academy and was studying up on it. Wait, was there an entrance exam or something? There must be if she knew that much. Right?

The sun got higher and higher as the trek went on, and before it had even reached its highest point in the sky, the day tipped from warm to downright hot. Fennekin seemed to enjoy it, but she was alone in that regard. Just when the heat and pounding sunlight seemed to become downright oppressive, the group crested a large hill, and as they looked down, a large and sprawling town of brightly-colored stone nestled in a valley on the water, bounded by a river on its southern side. The city seemed massive; they had to be very far away, and it still seemed like it was taking up a lot of what they could see! "Is that Pokéopolis?" Fennekin beamed, stopping at the top of the hill and staring down. "It's so much bigger than I ever expected!"

"What," Emolga giggled as she lead the party down the hill towards the city, "were you expecting it to just be the Academy and a few other buildings? Lots of Pokémon call it home, and there's everything you ever wanted there!"

"Not that we get the free time to go into the city," Aipom grumbled to Ethan and Fennekin. "At least, we wouldn't, if we actually went on all the explorations we said we'd go on!"

Emolga scoffed, then started waving her hand in the air dismissively. "If you actually went into town and didn't just sit around the Academy moping all day, you'd enjoy it! There's more to life than exploring, you know."

Aipom rolled his eyes almost excessively dramatically, so much so that Ethan wondered if Emolga would even be able to hear it. "First she says I need to go on more explorations, then she says there's more to life than exploring. Everybody else at the Academy is better, I promise."

As the group descended the hill approaching Pokéopolis, the hard-packed dirt worn down from countless travelers turned to a more narrow worn cobblestone, forcing Aipom to begrudgingly walk next to Emolga to avoid spilling over into the grass. "Emolga doesn't seem as bad as he says she is," Fennekin whispered once they were out of earshot. "Aipom doesn't seem that bad, either. It'll be fun to explore with both of them, don't you think?"

Ethan studied the two in front of them; the silence between them seemed all too intentional. But he nodded, for individually they seemed fine. Wait, had she just talked about exploring together? He supposed traveling through the forest was interesting, but fun? He was lucky he could still stand!

By the time he could register Fennekin calling out his name, it was too late for him to move and avoid getting slammed into by...something...moving at high speed. Were they being attacked? If Pokéopolis was this dangerous, he wasn't going to take another step further! At least there were four of them this time.

"Linoone!" Emolga yelled, much in the same tone she has used previously with Aipom. "How many times do we all have to remind you to watch where you're going?"

"Sorry, sorry!" a feminine voice apologized. Whatever was on top of Ethan got off, and he saw a very long white Pokémon with light brown stripes carrying a satchel scrambling around the road, hastily picking up crumpled envelopes that had spread across the ground. "I've got the most recent adventure completion letters, and Roserade hates it if they're late!"

"She doesn't mean to run everybody over on the way out," Aipom spoke up. "Didn't you even run her over once?"

"Sorry, can't talk!" Nearly as soon as she shoved the last letter into her satchel, she dropped to all fours and took off, quickly becoming a blur on the top of the hill.

"That's how most people meet Linoone," Emolga laughed nervously. "She's really nice, but she gets a little too focused on her job."

"She never delivers anything late," Aipom shrugged, "if that counts for anything. Don't think she's rude for running into you and not even apologizing, if you manage to find her when she's not running around she'll give you a proper apology. Just get out of her way if you see her and you'll be fine."

Fennekin was still giggling as she came and reached out a paw to help Ethan up. "I told you to move. What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," he dismissed. "Let's just get to the Academy and find out what's going to happen from there."

"Get Helioptile to go with you instead of dragging me next time," Aipom groaned. "She's always asking everybody to go to the Café with her, I swear she never actually explores."

"I already go with her all the time! And she does go on explorations, more than you do! Maybe if you actually spoke to her instead of just taking all the easy missions that come in and going with me whenever Luxio sends us out together you'd know what everybody else is doing."

"Come on Emolga, someone's gotta do all those missions! Just because they're easy doesn't mean they're not important, have you not gotten completely sick of Roserade telling everybody that?"

Emolga scoffed again and grumbled something under her breath, causing Fennekin to fall back to Aipom to speak quietly with him. Caught awkwardly between the two, Ethan slowed down to stay with Fennekin and Aipom. "Are you two not friends or something?" she asked gingerly, almost personally embarrassed to suggest it.

"Emolga's just kind of particular," Aipom laughed. "She's fine and a good explorer, but you have to get used to her. As much as I don't like to say it, if you want to learn how to explore new places, you'll want to go along with her. She's saved me more times than I like to admit!"

A huge smile grew on Fennekin's face; maybe that's what she was interested in doing once she became an explorer? "Who else is at the Academy? Are Luxio, Roserade, and Helioptile all other Pokémon training there?"

"Helioptile is one of the other recruits with us," he began explaining. "Luxio is the instructor, so she teaches us everything we need to know about being proper adventurers. And Roserade is the headmaster, so she oversees everything and makes sure we're all doing everything we need to. It's really great, though! Whatever you like doing, they'll try and accommodate that and get you missions to focus on your interests."

Fennekin stared straight ahead, almost unaware of what was going on around them. "I'd love to do everything. What do they usually focus on?"

"They'll help you figure out what you like; even if you had an idea, they like to give us exposure to everything early on so we can find out what we really enjoy. I thought I wanted to be a really strong battler when I joined, but I really liked scouting and exploring a lot more than getting in fights."

"I guess I'd love to be an explorer. What about you, Ethan?"

He nearly flinched; he had only the faintest idea what she was talking about. "I'm not really sure. Being an explorer might be fun, it would be really neat to go and see a lot of places."

"We can help you if you want to explore!" Aipom beamed, jumping back onto his tail and bouncing next to Ethan. "I'm sure Roserade will assign us to help you sometime."

"What's the best place you've explored? Where was it?"

"Definitely the Marshy Lowlands!" he exclaimed. "That Seismitoad was really tough, though. We barely managed to run away unharmed!"

Emolga sighed, rubbing her temple. "You and I remember the Marshy Lowlands very differently, Aipom…"