The gentle rays of the waking sun start to poke through the veil of the night sky, its soft rays just enough to highlight the edges of the things inside the small room.
"Rise and shine, kiddos!" the Pangoro announces with a smirk as soon as he pushes the door open, the harsh light from the hallway pouring through the room.
The Eevee groans and buries his face under the pillow, while the Nickit slowly sits up on her bed and rubs the sleep off of her eyes.
"Morning, dad," she greets him, and yawns.
"Morning, my little angel." He gestures for the two of them to come downstairs. "Breakfast should be ready soon. Go wash up before heading down, okay?"
The Nickit smiles at him and nods her head. "Okay!"
"Good girl." And he walks away, leaving the door open. "Honey!" he calls as he walks down the stairs. "Nothing happened!"
The Nickit blinks, wondering what that was about. Shaking her head, she walks over the edge of the bed and freezes in place, her face immediately burning. "Eep!" She dives back under her sheets.
"I'm really starting to regret staying here," the Eevee grumbles to himself as he rises up on all four and walks out the door.
The Nickit blinks at him as he leaves, and she then slowly gets out of bed. Ears drooping, she sighs as as she heads to her small bathroom to freshen up a bit. As she washes her face, it finally hit her what her father meant.
Her cheeks brighten as she whips her head towards the door. "DAAAAAAAD!"
He knows that tone well as he erupts into laughter, making his wife shake her head.
Four Pokémon are seated around a table, eating breakfast together. The Pangoro is sharing the tale of his recent adventure with his team, complete with lively hand movements and sound effects. The Miltank listens attentively, the Nickit has twinkling stars on her eyes as she listens enthusiastically, and the Eevee just listens as he eats because he really has nothing else to do anyway. The story sounds interesting, he thinks to himself, giving him insight on how a proper rescue team handles missions, as long as he ignores the obvious exaggerations in the large Pokémon's story-telling.
A knock from the door interrupts the lively scene. All four turn to the door being pushed open, the bell jingling above.
"Yo!" a Beartic waves at them. "Be at the guild at seven! Some sort of meeting or something is going on later."
"Really?" the Pangoro blinks. "Well, thanks for the info! See ya there."
The Beartic gives a salute and then closes the door behind him.
"You're a rescuer, too, right?" the Pangoro asks the Eevee.
"Not yet," he replies with a shrug. "I'm supposed to go back today to make it official or something."
"Wow..." the Nickit says in awe, looking at the Eevee. "You're gonna be a rescuer?"
He blinks at her. "Er, yeah. Soon at least."
She smiles an excited smile. "So are you the leader? Do you have members?"
He's taken aback a bit, surprised at her sudden enthusiasm. "Uh, well, I'm a one-man team, so I suppose I'm a leader by default."
"That's amazing." Her smile widens. "What's a man?"
"...mon. One-mon team."
"Oh." She nods her head, her smile slowly turning into a frown. "But won't that be difficult? You having no members to rely on?"
He shrugs. "I'll manage."
"Trying to impress her, I see," the Pangoro comments with a smirk, and laughs after receiving an embarrassed 'eep!' from his daughter and a death glare from the Eevee. "Anyway, let's go there together later."
"I wonder what it's about," the Miltank wonders with a frown.
"We'll let you know when we get back."
The Cyndaquil walks up to the door and notices that it's slightly open. "...huh." She pushes it open. "Vixie? Hello?" She stops and stares at the scene before her.
The soft rays of the waking sun is streaming through the window and on the occupants of the bed. Vixie's lying on her side, back towards the fire-type, and is sleeping peacefully. Shino's sitting on the floor, his head on the edge of the bed, asleep as well.
The Cyndaquil stands by the foot of the bed and smiles at the scene.
"Oh."
She turns and sees the Sentret closing the door behind him.
"Hey, Cindy," he greets her quietly as he places some packed food he has brought on a small table.
"Hey there, Linik," she greets back with a nod. She takes a glance at her two sleeping friends before approaching the normal-type. "Didn't think you'd be here."
"You could say that I was on watch duty." He smirks, and then yawns.
"You were here, too?"
"Yeah. Shino and I were out drinking last night, see, and then...um...stumbled upon Vixie." He looks at the food he's brought. "We brought her back here."
Things start to pop up in her mind. Inappropriate things. Very inappropriate things. She tries to push them aside. "Did something happen?" she carefully asks.
The Sentret sighs. "I, yeah, but..." He frowns at her. "No, not like that." He shakes his head. "But I think you should hear it from your friends, not me."
She looks back at them. "Doesn't look like they'll be waking up soon."
"They need to, unfortunately."
"What do you mean?" she asks as she turns to him.
He offers her a sandwich wrapped in thin clear plastic. "While I was out buying food, some rescuers came by and told me that there's some sort of announcement later at seven."
"What for?" Shino asks quietly, rubbing the sleep off of his eyes. He let's out a long yawn as Vixie stirs on her bed, waking up.
Pulling off the sheet, the ice-type blinks and smiles at the fire-type. "Morning, Cindy."
She smiles back. "Hey there, sunshine," she greets her back as she sits on the other side of the bed, patting her friend's head. "You doing okay?"
"No," Vixie answers quietly, her smile fading. She sighs. "But I'll manage, somehow..." She tries to sit up, but winces. "Ow... It still hurts."
Cindy tilts her head. "What hurts?"
"My, um..." she blushes and looks down. "Um... My uh..."
Cindy frowns at the ice-type. "There's dried blood on your pussy."
A soft blush graces her cheeks as she hangs her head.
Cindy looks at Shino. "...there's dried blood on your nose."
Did they actually do it last night? And with the Sentret? The Cyndaquil doesn't know if she should smile or frown.
She's about to say something when she notices the silence in the room, the downcast look from the ice-type and the angry look from the electric-type.
Shino takes a breath. "Some dudes took advantage of her," he says quietly yet angrily.
Vixie looks at him and places a paw on his shoulder.
He sighs. "I'm fine, Vixie."
Cindy frowns. "Okay, what happened last night?" she asks, and prepares herself to stay calm.
"Cindy, calm down," Shino says for the hundredth time as the two of them and the Sentret are walking towards the guild with Vixie on his back.
"You're telling me to calm down?" she hisses at him, tiny embers erupting from her backside. "While I was sound asleep, my two friends were raped and beaten!"
"It's not your fault, Cindy," Vixie tries.
"Bullshit!" she hisses. "If we didn't go to capture a stupid criminal, none of this would have happened in the first place!"
Vixie hangs her head. "I'm...not sure about that," she says, her ears drooping.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She sighs. "I think, even if we did pick a different mission, Lithe would still end up with her."
"You don't know that."
Vixie looks up at her with a sad frown.
"Cindy, please," Shino pleads. "Calm down... If not for you, then for Vixie."
The fire-type hisses, and hisses, and takes a deep breath. "...fine." She shakes her head. "But I'm still reporting this incident in the guild." She glares ahead. "No way am I letting those two shitheads walk away freely after hurting my two friends!"
"We don't even know who they were," Shino comments.
"You got their scents, at least?"
Shino frowns and shakes his head. "I was...too angry at the time."
The fire-type frowns and looks at the ice-type. "You did, at least?"
Vixie hangs her head in shame. "I...wasn't thinking straight."
Cindy groans in frustration. "Linik..."
The Sentret sighs. "Sorry."
The fire-type breathes out a fume of flames up in the air in anger, startling a few passersby.
They continue on in relative silence, until, up ahead, they see the guild with a large crowd outside.
"Wow," Vixie blinks in awe.
"I've never seen so many Pokémon gathered outside the guild before," Linik says. "This must be something big."
The four worm their way through the crowd, and finally stop in front, standing beside a large Pangoro who's crossing his arms and with an Eevee on his shoulder.
"Can you please put me down?" he asks him.
"Nah, you'll have a better view from there," the Pangoro says with a smirk.
The Eevee sighs and grumbles something under his breath.
Two large Pokémon stand by the entryway, facing the crowd. The Infernape is saying something on the microphone, yet the speakers are not working. He taps it a few times until he hears the speakers are finally working.
"Oh, finally. There we go," he says as he gives a thumbs up to a few Pokémon by the speakers. "Perhaps it's time to start," he says on the microphone, his voice amplified by two large speakers standing by the corners of the large entryway. "Good morning, rescuers. On behalf of the guild, I apologize for this sudden gathering, but fret not as this won't take long." He turns to the other Pokémon and bows. "Madam?"
The Lopunny smiles and grabs the microphone. "Heya, everyone."
A cheery greeting with a few whistles greets her back.
She chuckles and whips one of her long ears with her hand before continuing: "So as you all know, our world is full of wonders and mysteries. We don't know what lies behind every corner, which in turn make curious teams decide to go to a dungeon simply to explore them.
"Today, we are officially making explorers a separate title. Teams can now be rescuers, explorers, or both! Rescuers' jobs are to still help other Pokémon in need, and for our explorers, their main job is to, well, explore!"
She gives those who have gathered a moment to process this new information as they start discussing among themselves.
As the Pangoro and the Beartic converse with each other, the Eevee blinks as the Lopunny passes the microphone to the levitating Mew. She thanks her, and starts scanning the crowd until she sees the one she's looking for, and winks at him.
The Eevee rolls his eyes with a smirk. "Damn, girl..." he whispers to himself as the Mew clears her throat.
"Hello, everyone," the Mew greets them. "As some of you may know, I'm our resident bookworm."
The crowd erupts into chuckles.
The Mew rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, so anyway, explorers! What better way to know more about the world than to explore the unknowns! Some of the boards in the main lobby will be for explorer missions, and I'll be the one in charge of posting the missions on there, so if you want something to be explored, or if you have heard some rumor or something like say, oh I dunno, Palkia's domain, perhaps?"
The Eevee rolls his eyes once again.
"Just see me in the library!"
She passes the microphone back to the Lopunny. "Oh, and one more thing, everyone," the normal-type says, smiling. "Next week will be the spring festival. Applications for those who want to volunteer to give security to the festivities will start today." She winks at them and continues.
The Eevee blinks. "Security? From what?"
"Wilds," the Pangoro says.
He looks at him. "Wilds?"
"Mhmm," he nods his head. "Them wilds become wilder during spring, and there are many dungeons near our beloved city. The police can't handle it, especially since the spring festival is one of the largest events our city holds in the region. Lots of Pokémon folks from other towns and cities will be here."
"Wait... Wilds can get out of dungeons?"
"Yeah. No one knows why or how they do it." He blinks and scratches his head. "Huh... I suppose we can let that Mew know about it. Maybe it'll become an explorer's job."
The Eevee sighs. "I'll let her know. Besides..." Their gazes line, and he frowns as the Mew smiles and waves at him. "...I need to see her after this anyway."