With our determination renewed after the most difficult obstacle was passed, we pressed onward. As Torkoal had stated, the path forward was more difficult than it was before. However, it wasn't too much more difficult for the three of us to navigate. A field of fire passed before the grass finally began to look green and not burnt. Slowly but surely unsinged forests returned as we continued. Paths were much scarcer, fields of rocky pebbles overgrown with vines and weeds passed by. A dark cave leading into the unknown appeared behind us, which Oshawott said was known as Lapis Cave.
"Why is there a statue of Kangaskhan?" I asked. Wouldn't be my first choice for decorating a random cave in the middle of nowhere, but caves like that don't need it.
"That's a Kangaskhan Statue." He responded.
"Yes. I can see that. Why though?" I repeated.
"Oh, sorry. It's, uh, they're mysterious statues which no one really knows how they got there. They act like a deposit box, allowing you to withdraw money and items. In fact, thorough investigation of these statues is why the deposit box exists. Some Pokémon figured out how their mysterious powers worked and were able to make the deposit boxes." Oshawott explained. I nodded not fully understanding it but accepting the explanation. A huge crag splitting the earth appeared from almost nowhere. A makeshift rope bridge was placed to cross it. Time was passing, the sun was less than an hour away from setting, but our goal was finally reached.
Standing on a nearby hill, we gazed upon the city. We finally made it to Pokémon Central, the largest city in the world. I had been to a fairly large city before, so I was expecting something massive. Something larger than life, with buildings with more history than several towns combined. This place was much smaller. It was clearly a little bit larger than my home town, however it was far less than the metropolis I was expecting. Oshawott and Cyndaquil however were clearly extremely impressed. Standing on the hill, I noticed a large and strangely Pikachu shaped building. I thought that was a bit odd, even for this world. Mildly disappointed by the lackluster city, I made my way into town with my friends in tow. The town was quite busy, more than expected. Pokémon of all sorts rushed by, conversations merged into a cacophony of noise. Many Pokémon passed us, carrying bags by their sides. Scarves, bands, and more wrapped around their bodies. The two of them were clearly awe inspired for some reason. I guessed these were rescuers, judging by their reactions.
"Hey, you know where we're heading, right?" I asked, nudging Oshawott to get him to focus.
"Yeah." He responded, clearly not paying attention.
"Then, lets go." I said. He wasn't listening.
"Alright, I'll go and you two can figure out wherever I am." I stated.
"Yeah, okay." Oshawott responded. Things weren't going to end well, I could already tell. Following the hunch that the massive Pikachu building might be important, I traveled to there. Buildings on my left and right were made entirely from a smooth granite, with the rooves being a deep dark wood. While their varying sizes were probably only around the same as any typical suburban house, I was much smaller than I had been before. The stone buildings were extraordinary monoliths in my current form. Wandering from place to place, I made my way to the Pikachu building. A painted wood building stood before me, the mouth acting as an entryway.
A sign was posted out front, "Rescue Team Pokémon Headquarters, Rescue Team Federation Headquarters, and Rescue Team Museum. Apply to be a Rescue Team inside" I was about to walk in when I heard two voices. Oshawott and Cyndaquil were barreling towards me. Jumping to the side, they tripped and fell down, crumpled into a small pile.
"Done admiring the rescue teams?" I asked. They blushed.
"I- uh- I mean, we weren't. It's just- there's not a lot of rescue teams back home, so when one does come up it's always an event." Oshawott stated. I laughed.
"Get up, come on, we came here for a reason." I said, smiling and offering Oshawott a hand. He took it and dusted himself off, picking up the shell and dusting it off as well before placing it back on his stomach. I had no idea how the shell was staying on his stomach, but I probably didn't want to know. Cyndaquil and Oshawott took a deep breath, but I was already walking in.
"Alright. Lets- Huh, hey wait!" Oshawott shouted.
"You have no idea how important this is to us. If you're not gonna respect our feelings, at least respect how important this all is!" Oshawott stated.
"Sure." I responded. As far as I remember, this was the first outright lie I had told them. There was a large counter with a sign saying "Rescue Team Recruits through here." A sign was pointing towards a room in the back. Oshawott and Cyndaquil were quivering with excitement, taking slow but certain steps. I was afraid they were gonna pass out. Glancing around, I noticed a large stairwell leading upward to a balcony on the right. Doors leading to somewhere were just visible from the ground. The ground floor was fairly busy, many different Pokémon looking at four different boards on the left side. The stairs leading up weren't being traversed much.
While I knew I should stick with my friends, my own curiosity made me break off and begin heading up the steps. The dark wooden stairs lightly creaked under my feet. The upstairs portion had much lighter traffic. Only one Pokémon passed me, a large purple Nidoking, heading down the steps. On the far end there was another staircase leading up. A sign read, "Rescue Team Museum" on the right near the center of the hall. The door was open. No one else was up here, which while I thought was a bit odd, I ultimately didn't think much of it.
Wandering in the museum, there were memorabilia of various kinds. There was a pedestal and glass container with a small object held aloft on a pillow confined within the glass barrier. A label read "Team Lucario's Normal Rank badge." I didn't exactly get it. Other items included "Team Charm's Master Rank Badge", "Team Raider's Scarves", and several others. Wandering around, looking over everything at least once, I turned around and exited. Everything was strangely quiet. It wasn't exactly loud before, but there were a few quiet conversations going on. I walked down the stairs, noticing everyone had left. The doors closed and barred, and the sun was setting, so the amount of light was fading quickly.
"I was only gone for about ten minutes minutes. What's going on? Did they close up? Oh boy..." I thought. Heading to the back, I hoped I would find my friends there. As I had thought, my friends were waiting there.
"Hey." I said.
"Oh hey, what took you so long?" They asked. They were sitting on a red and blue stool. Oshawott was on the red one, and Cyndaquil was on the blue one.
"I was looking at the museum. Uh, you know this place is now closed, right?" I responded.
"Huh!" The two of them jumped off the stools. The two of them rushed out of the room. I followed shortly after. The building was getting darker by the second. They were panicking.
"What do we do, what do we do?" Oshawott spoke quickly, clearly panicking.
"Deep breaths, you two. At worst we're stuck in here for the night. It'll be okay." I responded.
"But-" Oshawott began to say something, but I interrupted him.
"It's fine. We'll be fine, okay? Everything will be fine." I stated. The two of them looked at each other, clearly not happy about the current situation. The two of them took a deep breath.
"What do we do?" Oshawott asked. I took a breath as well and thought for a moment. The doors were locked from the outside so we couldn't unlock them. Even if we could, then we'd be leaving the building unlocked which didn't seem like the right thing to do, especially with the museum upstairs. I may not get why those things are so important, but I knew they had to be. They likely wouldn't be in a museum if they weren't. There were windows far above, but there wasn't an easy way to reach them.
"We sit here until morning, not touching anything. That's the most responsible and safest thing we can do." I responded, walking into the other room. Oshawott and Cyndaquil stared at each other for a moment before following. Returning to the room, Oshawott and Cyndaquil sat on the floor. I sat next to them. Time passed, things got pretty dark. I got up and wandered into a dark corner. I had no idea where I was, which was kind of funny. I started walking back when I tripped on a ledge. Falling onto my stomach, I crawled in a straight line to another part of the room. Being in a windowless room that can only be lit by either torches or natural light meant it was extremely dark, so exploring the room at this time was not a good idea. Hours passed, and I stayed where I was. At some point I drifted off to sleep. An unknown amount of time passed before a strange noise woke me up.
"Huh?" I mumbled. I opened my eyes, but the room was extremely dark still. Practically no light made it in. I sat up and stretched before I slowly made my way to the door. Peeking from behind the cover, I noticed my friends were being held down by some strange looking Pokémon. That couldn't be good. A white and black furred Pokémon known as Absol held down Oshawott, while a metallic magnet monster known as Magneton prevented Cyndaquil from escaping. Hiding behind the door, I waited to see what would happen. I knew I couldn't take the two of them out on my own. I'm not sure the three of us could take the two of them down together in our condition. If we hadn't spent two days traveling, starving ourselves for this mission, then I figured it would have been possible. However, half-starved, badly dehydrated, and exhausted as we were we wouldn't stand a chance against the both of them at once.
"I don't know how you've gotten in here, but we're gonna be the ones to take all the valuable stuff upstairs. It's all ours, you hear?" The ghost stated. Oshawott struggled against the white and black form of Absol, but had no luck in escaping. "Take them and tie them up." A voice commanded. The Magneton and Absol turned towards the voice and dragged them up the stairs. I couldn't let them disappear from my sight, so I quietly and quickly rushed out and up the stairs. Peering into the other room, I noticed the Absol and Magneton typing a rope around the two of them before tying them together.
"You'll never get away with this!" Oshawott shouted.
"Oh how original. Do you know how many times I've heard that one? More than you can imagine, and it always ends the same, with us getting away." The purple bipedal ghost taunted. It was a Gengar. I passed the door and slowly made my way up the other set of steps. I couldn't fight the three of them, but I could free my friends after they left. Walking up the stairs, I to the right and noticed a large straw bed. That was when I remembered that this was also the headquarters for Rescue Team Pokémon as well. I wasn't entirely sure where they were, but if they were here I'm sure these guys wouldn't have tried breaking in. I heard rustling downstairs. I hoped they were finally leaving, but then I heard something coming up the steps. Looking around, there wasn't many places to hide. There were no desks or pots or barrlels. there certainly were no cardboard boxes, though an upturned cardboard box would probably look somewhat unusual. I dove into the hay bed, it providing just enough cover to hide me completely. It absolutely looked conspicuous if they were paying attention, but all I could do was hope they didn't.
"Another weak group. Ugh. Why do so many people get it into their heads they can be a part of a rescue team?" Gengar asked.
"The two of them did well, in Zzzpite of them not being at full strength. They managed to defeat you, after all." A metallic voice rang out. I assumed this was the Magneton.
"I was holding back, you know. And they didn't fair well against you, even with a type advantage." The Gengar stated.
"All of us were holding back, that's a part of the test. They focused their efforts on the one they perceived as the biggest threat. That was a good tactical decision. Unfortunately it left them too exhausted to stop the rest of us." A calm voice stated. The Absol, I assumed.
"I suppose I am way more dangerous than the two of you." The Gengar stated.
"They still have a chance of succeeding, you know. They just have to untie themselves and defeat us before the sun rizzzes. I didn't tie them very tight, after all. I wouldn't be surprised if they've already broken free." The Magneton stated.
"The two of you head downstairs and look like you are robbing the place. I will stay here and show up when needed." Absol stated.
"Yeah, yeah." The Gengar responded. The two disappeared down the dark stairwell. I was trapped underneath a bunch of hay and I didn't know how to fight in this form. I knew elemental affinity was a thing, something instinctual that did me no good at the moment. I knew I was a grass type. I knew there are moves I can use, but I didn't know how to use them. My friend's dreams were on the line, and I didn't want to let my lack of ability hinder them. I had to try something. I looked through the hay for something I could do. The hay limited my vision, and the darkness didn't help at all. That's when I noticed a lump in the corner.
Moving my face subtly to remove a bit of hay away from my eyes, I was able to see there was some rope in the corner. I could work with that. It was probably my only shot to help them in any meaningful way. This plan might not work, but it could, which was good enough for me. The only benefit I had was that the Absol didn't know I was there. This all depended on if timed it right, however. The Absol looked down the stairs, listening and that's when I made my move. Quietly sitting up and grabbing the rope, I made my way to the Absol. It suddenly turned around, and seemed surprised, before shaking its head. It's dark horn glowed silvery-white before it launched a strange razor sharp power from it's horn. I was able to block the attack, but the rope was cut to pieces in the process. It's glowing horn indicated it was preparing to launch another attack.
"Hey, that's not very fair. Aren't you guys supposed to be holding back?" I stated. The Absol took a step back, the glowing power fading suddenly. It was clearly surprised by my statement. It's back legs were inches from the stairs. This was my only chance to do something, since my first plan went wrong. I charged towards it, lowering myself to get underneath it slightly for better leverage. I pushed it back, it instinctually attempted to take a step to steady itself, causing it's foot to slip. It tumbled down the stairs with several thuds before stopping on it's back a bit over half way down. Jumping after it, I landed directly on it's stomach. It's eyes went wide, and it let out a somewhat quiet wheeze before it went limp.
At the time I didn't know if it was faking being hurt, or if I had actually winded it by throwing all thirteen pounds of me at it from nearly ten feet up. That'd be enough to hurt almost any human, but I didn't know how biology works in this world. For all I knew that could have easily killed it, or me. With what I know now, I can safely say I did knock the wind out of him pretty badly. A weaker Pokémon could have died from that, but this Absol was tough. He definitely felt the impact for a day or two after, though. Walking quickly and carefully, I peered around the corner and into the room. That's when I noticed my friends facing against the Gengar and Magneton. They hadn't heard my little scuffle over the fight.
Cyndaquil launched several bits of flame from his mouth, which the Gengar countered by hitting it with a strange pink beam. Oshawott summoned a watery blade to counter a colossal bolt of electricity from the Magneton. That looked so cool! I wished I could do something like that, but I would have to wait. I quietly walked in and grabbed something heavy. It was a wood beam, from the 'Team Constructor's first beam' stand. It was extremely heavy, but I could just manage to lift it. Lifting it up, I proceeded to stumble out the door and nearly fall over the railing. I could lift it, but I couldn't easily wield it as a weapon. I regained my balance, using the railing to properly adjust it onto my shoulder. I couldn't hold onto it well, and I couldn't really swing it properly, either. I'd get one shot at using it, so I knew I had to make it count. Walking as quietly as possible, I snuck up behind the Magneton.
"Face it, the two of you will never be able to beat us." The Gengar stated. Cyndaquil and Oshawott were breathing heavily. My friends had exhausted themselves trying to fight.
"Well, it-it's lucky. It's not just. The two of us." Oshawott stated. The Gengar tilted his head in confusion.
"Ugraah!" I unintentionally let out a loud roar as I swung the heavy pole into the magnets. It hit them dead center, causing them to fall. With the benefit of hindsight, this certainly didn't hurt it, but it had decided that what I did was enough.
"What? Where did you come from? There were only two of you before!" The Gengar shouted.
"I separated to look at the museum. I guess you didn't see us reunite earlier when, uh, casing the place, then." I responded, dropping the wooden beam. I knew the real reason they were here, but I wasn't going to let that out yet. It helped against the Absol, so I figured I should keep it a secret as well
"Why you, you tricked us!" He shouted, launching a strange dark purple orb at me. It hit me square in the chest, throwing me into one of the display cases. He rushed towards me, and I picked up a shard of glass from the remain and threw it at him. He put out his arm and stopped them from hitting his body-torso. The glass imbedded into his arm pretty deeply. While he hadn't made any noise, the look on his face told me that hurt pretty badly. I proceeded to chuck every bit of available shrapnel towards him. He dodged left, then right before being struck in the center of his forehead with Team Lucario's Normal Rank Badge. It had little effect. He stared at it, then at me, then back at it, before finally returning his eyes to me.
It's like he was silently asking "Really? You really did that?" He rushed forward, hitting me point blank with another dark purple orb. It threw me into the wall. My head was dizzy and throbbing. The faint light from the barred windows cast a menacing shadow over me as the Gengar's eyes glowed a malicious red.
"Did you think you could beat me? Really?" He wondered, standing over me.
"No. I thought I could hurt and distract you." I responded. the Gengar looked confused before he suddenly realized what I meant. He turned around to be met with a storm of embers and finally being slashed with a watery blade. He collapsed. With hindsight, this didn't really hurt him much. Throwing glass at him was the most painful thing any of us had managed to do. Though to be fair, that would be pretty painful to anyone. The only other pain inflicted was probably the embarrassment of seeing me throw a badge at him.
"Where's the Absol?" Oshawott wondered.
"Beaten. Don't worry, I managed to stop him." I responded.
"What? How?" Oshawott questioned. I was about to answer, but a sound from nearby stopped me. The Gengar and Magneton had gotten up, and the Absol was standing at the door. Oshawott and Cyndaquil looked worried as they gathered towards me.
"What do we do?" Oshawott asked. I think I knew what was going on, but I wanted to be completely certain first.
"Break a few things, get shrapnel." I responded. The two of them looked at me. Vandalizing a museum for use as weaponry was not something they wanted to do, especially a museum full of things they respected and admired.
"That's enough." A voice rang out. The Absol fully entered the room and too a step back to let two Pokémon in. It was a Raichu and a Delcatty. My two friend's stared for a moment before their eyes went wide.
"You-you. It's- you. It's-" Oshawott stuttered out. I really didn't know what was special, but clearly it was. They were shaking for some reason.
"Uh, hi." I said. Oshawott and Cyndaquil turned towards me, looking as though I had just killed a puppy in front of them.
"'Hi?' Hi? Do you know who these two are?" Oshawott asked.
"A Raichu and Delcatty?" I responded. There was so much instinctual garbage in my head that only ever helped out slightly. Honestly I felt it would have been easier if I didn't remember anything, then at least my head would have been clearer and these little blips of info would actually seem relevant.
"No! They're the founders of Rescue Team Pokémon! They've saved the world before!" Oshawott shouted.
"We didn't do that much, all we did was get Rayquaza to destroy a meteor." The Delcatty responded, smiling. The two of them were awestruck by the celebrity speaking to them, while I was just embarrassed by my friend's infatuation.
"We were watching you battle. The three of you did well. Oshawott, your scalchop techniques are powerful, and you are clearly very skilled at using them. Cyndaquil, while it's clear you were nervous, you were still able to direct your flames in a way which harmed your opponent but didn't harm any of the valuable museum pieces. That shows you have very good spatial awareness and control over your flames. And you," The Delcatty stated, turning towards me, "when you were fighting Absol, we were surprised. We hadn't even known you were there at the time, but you managed to impress us with your quick thinking. You saw what was available nearby and were able to quickly create a plan, when that failed you were able to recover the advantage and knock down Absol." Oshawott and Cyndaquil looked embarrassed, shaking heavily. Even in the low light, the blush on their face was evident. They were barely able to remain standing, clearly flustered after being praised by people they held in such high regard.
"So this was a test?" Oshawott responded, not looking at them.
"Being a rescue team is dangerous, now more than ever. Violent Pokémon, a surge in outlaws, and commonly occurring natural disasters made it necessary that rescue teams were able to handle themselves. While years ago you could send an SOS mail out if you were in over your heads, at some point so many SOS mails were sent as inexperienced teams got in way over their heads, it was decided that a test had to be done. Of course, this is usually a timed obstacle course, but you showed up a bit late in the day, so we had to come up with some other way of testing you. So it was quickly decided to test your battling abilities. Even being tired after your journey, you still managed to hold your own. I think it's safe to say you've earned your place as a Rescue Team." Delcatty stated. Oshawott and Cyndaquil finally looked up, shaking even more.
"Wh-wha- Buh, Really?" Oshawott responded. I found myself smiling as well. I was happy for them. It was then I came to a realization.
"How did you know where we came from?" I asked.
"One of our friends overheard you and Torkoal speaking, and so notified us that we may have a late arrival." Delcatty explained.
"Who?" I asked.
"Moltres." Delcatty responded. The three of us jumped, somewhat startled by this information.
"Yep, We need your team name and the main team leader!" Delcatty stated, grinning widely.
"I-I mean, Uh, I- So, Uh, I- um, that's." Oshawott sputtered and spat, clearly unable to say anything.
"We want to help pe-uh Pokémon in need. As cliché as it sounds, we'll be a trio of guardians for those who don't have anyone else to save them, especially since there aren't a ton of Rescue Teams back home. We're going to help as many as possible. So, Team Guardians, if you don't mind, that is." I responded, turning towards the two of them. They stuttered more, but eventually nodded several times indicating their approval. All five of them laughed, before the Delcatty spoke up.
"So Team Guardians is it then! A fine choice, I think." She said. Something told me she would have said that even if I said our team name was "Butt Fungus", but I wasn't going to say anything.
"So, who have you decided on as the leader?" Delcatty asked.
"Him." Oshawott responded, turning towards me. I jumped a little, surprised by my friend's statement.
"Uh, what? The rescue team was your dream, I'm just helping you out." I stated.
"You recognized the flaws in our travel plan and were able to come up with a plan to fix it. It was because of you we were able to get across the lava river. You defeated Absol on your own, and were able to think of using the wooden beam to knock out Mangneton, something that neither Cynadquil or I would ever even have thought of! You've been calm and level headed even when the two of us weren't. You've kept the goal in mind, even when we were distracted by everything. You've earned the right to be our leader." Oshawott explained.
"I- I don't. I mean, that's, uh." I stuttered. I took a deep breath, slowly exhaling as I tried to think of something to say. I looked at the Raichu and Delcatty, then back to my friends. They were looking at me expectantly. I didn't think I could turn them down now, Oshawott had already shown not to think things through properly, and Cyndaquil didn't communicate often enough for him to make any plans or strategy, so we'd be relying on our own intuition most of the time. There wasn't a lot of choice really. I took another breath and exhaled quickly.
"Alright. I'll lead." I stated.
"Great! I know you'll do amazing!" Delcatty stated. The Raichu pulled something from his bag. It was a small round, copper rust green circle with wings.
"This is a rescue team badge. You start at Rookie rank, but once you accomplish a single mission you will be at Normal Rank. Work hard and you'll reach Bronze and higher! Who knows how far you'll be able to go!" The Delcatty explained, handing us the badges. The two of them looked down at the badges, before collapsing.
"I think they're tired." I said.
"I think so. What do you think, partner?" Delcatty said with a wide smile.
"Oshawott's adorable like that." Raichu stated.
"You think so, too? I wasn't gonna say anything to him about it, but yeah. You should see him when he's talking about something he enjoys. The enthused look on his face combined with that headband always makes me smile." I responded.
"I can imagine." Raichu responded, a big smile on his face. I didn't really know how the Raichu understood so well, but I wasn't going to complain. The Absol, Gengar, Magneton, and Delcatty looked at the two of us like we were lunatics.
"I guess we finally found someone with your same strange sense of cuteness." Delcatty responded.
"What should we do with them?" Absol asked, quickly changing the topic.
"We have guest beds, we can move them there. Just be careful not to wake them." Delcatty responded.
"I think Oshawott and Cyndaquill will probably be angry if I didn't at least say 'We'll be fine, you can just wake them and we'll be on our way'." I stated.
"And we'll say 'We insist you stay.' Though, you don't seem to mind, do you?" Delcatty wondered.
"I'm tired, hungry, and thirsty. I know they are too, whether they want to admit it or not. If you're willing to put us up for the night, I'm in no position to argue. Either way, thanks for this." I responded. The Raichu and Delcatty nodded in response, and the Absol and Magneton grabbed them, carefully making their way out and up the steps.
"Oh, and sorry about the Museum." I stated.
"Don't worry, we'll close the museum for repairs. It'll be as if nothing ever happened!" Delcatty responded. I nodded.
"They didn't even get their bags handed before they passed out, yet they still somehow passed." The Gengar complained.
"This is why you aren't the one who decided who gets to be a Rescue Team or not. They might not seem much now, but they are clearly capable fighters. They'll do good." Delcatty responded. Gengar folded his arms and mumbled, turning away. Walking up the stairs, a few spare beds had been hastily made.
"Beats sleeping on a cliff." I said. Delcatty and Raichu laughed quietly.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened with your tail?" Delcatty asked. I wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"Oh? I don't really know. I woke up in the forest, and found out my tail was cut in half. There's probably a reason for it, but I probably don't want to know." I responded.
"You don't know how you got injured?" Delcatty questioned. She seemed genuinely surprised about that.
"No. Sorry, I can't really elaborate on it, either. Whatever happened happened, but I don't know how it happened, so I can't really explain. All I do know is that I was lucky those two were nearby, and I should have been hurt even worse than I was. I wish I could say more, but I honestly don't know so I can't. I'm sorry." I responded.
"I see, well, that's probably for the best, anyway. Sleep well, in the morning we'll give you the rest of your items, and perhaps a bit of breakfast since you've had a long journey." Delcatty stated.
"That's, sure. O-okay, thank you." I said with a deep nod. I laid on the bed and swiftly fell asleep.