.9

"It's hot out lately, isn't it?"

~ Citizen of Lively Town

~\({O})/~

10.

Interlude the First

Strange Things on The Horizon

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Lively Town

The Last Day of Spring

~Dedenne~

"Five minutes until the ambassador gets here—Everymon hurry up! Where's Nickit?!"

Dedenne had received a fuzzy transmission from the Exeggutor at half-past-noon stating that the Ambassador of the Water Continent would be staying several nights at the Expedition Society—although the transmission itself had been sent hours earlier, from a completely mechanical transmission machine aboard the ship itself. Dedenne cursed those machines with all her heart—Why couldn't the snobs on Mist get their paws dirty and send transmissions via electrical pokemon like everymon else?

But the real kicker was that the Ambassador was due in half an hour, which naturally turned the Society upside down the moment it finally came through. That was 25 minutes ago. Now, Dedenne was scampering down the hall at a brisk pace, rapidly assigning orders to whoever she came across.

Bunnelby, who had just stumbled out of the observatory and spotted Dedenne from across the hall, quickly hopped into pace with her.

"Where is everymon?" Dedenne hissed, pulling herself to two paws. "It's gonna look bad on us if we can't even organize ourselves properly!"

"Half of us just got done dealing with Jirachi," Bunnelby panted—Dedenne was just noticing that he looked mighty beat up—"And Team Limestone left on a mission. They aren't gonna be here for the ceremony."

Dedenne resisted the urge to slap her paw into her face. Of course they would do that. One, Two, Three… that was five members missing now. And the Chief. She was going zu-bat crazy trying to keep the Society in check, which wasn't getting any easier when the engineer needed a remedy to keep himself on a nine-hour sleep schedule, the chef ate everything in sight, and the medic kept disappearing to probably play cards with Murkrow! Why, oh why, did the rest of the executive faculty decide to leave on a pair of farfetched missions?

"Find Nickit," she told Bunnelby. "Try the vault first—they're probably in there." Bunnelby nodded and hopped off as fast in the direction of the vault as his legs would take him.

"Pokemon incoming!" Buizel yelled down from the spiral stairway leading up to the observatory.

"Is it the Ambassador?" Dedenne screamed back up.

"No! It's… Mawile! And Archen!"

Dedenne perked up with new life. That made her day so much easier.

"Well, help me get them inside!" she promptly bossed up at Buizel.

Mawile slowly came to a stop, folding her arms behind her back as she looked up at the Expedition Society. She and Archen traded looks at the faint yells and crashes that were coming from inside the building. Not a good sign.

The double doors of the Society slowly opened one after the other, and then Dedenne and the rest of the Expedition Society slipped out through them and lined up on the pavement outside. Bunnelby stumbled out after them, followed by a murkrow wearing a tie and an unruly-looking Nickit.

Mawile quickly took her place next to Dedenne as Acting Chief of the Expedition Society, and together they welcomed Primarina to the Expedition Society.

~\({O})/~

Residential Wing

~Archen~

"I just wanna sleep," Archen murmured as dragged himself into his allotted bedroom in the Society—which, like all the other bedrooms, had a view of Lively Town at Ampharos' request—and flopped down headfirst on one of the two straw beds in the room.

"That one's mine."

Archen pulled his beak out of the straw, gazing at the pokemon who had just stepped into the room irritably.

"Since when?"

Nickit strode over, maybe-on-purpose nudging a potted plant dangerously close to falling out the window with her tail.

"Since you left for nearly a week and I switched the beds around, birdbrain. Yours smells like bird dander, by the way. Might wanna look into getting it cleaned."

Archen just rolled over and folded his wings. Seeing that they weren't going to be humored anymore, Nickit trodded over and flopped on the other bed.

"Can't have the window forever, you know."

Archen opened his eyes and stared at her annoyedly.

"What is it?" he asked. "What's bugging you so much that you need to come here and ruin my nap for me?"

"Well firstly, it's my room too," Nickit ticked it off on her paw, a smirk on her snout. "I can come here if I want."

Archen's eyes narrowed.

"Does something rub you the wrong way about that Braixen guy?" Nicket asked, dropping the pretense. "I keep feeling off around him."

"I don't think he likes a lot of pokemon very much," Archen grumbled. "What makes you special?"

"Don't you ever just 'know' something?" Nickit asked. "Even though you can't prove it—and then later, it turns out to be true?"

"Never had that feeling."

"Huh," Nickit trilled. "Must be a fox pokemon thing."

"You'd better get used to it." Archen rolled over the other way. "Because he's staying with us for the next week."

And then he left Nickit in silence.

"One more thing."

Archen turned over one last time.

"What?"

"Come nightfall, that window bed is mine, sucker."

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village Outskirts

~Ampharos~

Ampharos was lucky that the inn rates in Serenity Village were low. Well, at least compared to places like Pokemon Paradise (Swanna Inn drove a hard bargain). He had needed to leave the hill with the big tree before Espurr and Fennekin to collect his supplies. By the time he had made his way back to the hill with his bag over his shoulder, they were gone.

And this time, he was leaving.

He had to admit, he would miss this cozy little village. It seemed to be the perfect little slice of everything—he hadn't been entirely lying when he had said he'd come to see the sights. Maybe he'd make this his retirement spot when he decided to officially duck out of the mapping business.

But that was far off into the future, and Ampharos needed not think about it now. He adjusted his cloak and his bag, and officially set off for Lively Town.

~\({O})/~

Music of The Week!

Something Dark is Coming - Bear McCreary