~\({O})/~

31.

A Day at The Expedition Society

~\({O})/~

Mawile's Library ~ Nighttime

~Ampharos and Mawile~

Mawile's library was lit by the bright blue glow of a luminous orb. Ampharos tried his best to fit into the narrow room comfortably, but it just wasn't possible. (This room hadn't been as narrow before it was filled up with all the books Mawile collected.) He settled for shifting around uncomfortably in his seat every minute or so.

"I implore you to reconsider whether this is a wise decision," Mawile said, reshuffling some books on her ever-cramped desk. "We can house them. We can train them. But they are not old enough to join as registered explorers. We'd be in breach of our contract with HAPPI!"

"They have been on our guild register for almost a month, Mawile," said Ampharos. "Simply moving where they lodge does not change much."

"And you saw fit to register a pair of children from the middle of nowhere onto our guild system anyway?"

"I… did." Ampharos had a rare fit of silence. "I needed to be able to track them from afar, in case they were in danger. They ran into it on their way here last night."

"And with that in mind, you plan to keep them confined to the building?"

"I plan to keep them where we can see them," Ampharos said. "But remember that these children are meant for bigger things. We can't keep them here forever."

"Yet why keep them on the register?"

"The risk of taking them beyond the town without a seat on the register is greater than the risk of signing them on underage."

"And how do you intend to explain yourself to the authorities when we reach our next checkup?"

"We'll cross that bridge if we reach it."

Mawile decided to switch gears.

"When do you plan to tell them why we're letting them stay?" she asked. "The Human, at least, has a right to know."

"After a week or so," Ampharos yawned. "They should both have time to settle in first."

"They might not wait that long."

"That bridge, too, we'll cross if we reach it."

There was silence for a moment. Mawile broke it, sighing in defeat. It was clear she didn't approve.

"I pray you know what you're doing," she said.

"Have faith," Ampharos replied. "You were a child once, too. Give them a few days, before we shove our reasons on them."

"My child years are not ones I wish to emulate," Mawile stated. She finished rummaging through the desk and finally pulled out the book she was looking for, setting it neatly back on the shelf above her head.

"I request you accelerate your schedule," she said. A week is far too long and unpredictable a timeframe."

Ampharos opened his mouth to answer, but outside the office, something hit a trash can, jarring both Ampharos and Mawile out of their conversation.

But when they opened the door, no-mon was there.

~\({O})/~

Society Dorms ~ Morning

~Espurr~

Dedenne stuck a loud and obnoxious bell through the doorway of every occupied room in the Expedition Society and rang it loudly.

"Rise and shine!" she called out loudly. "The sun's up, and you should be too!"

The sun was barely up.

Espurr and Tricky wearily rose from their beds, not rested at all. Espurr felt like she could have slept at least a day's worth longer, after the ordeals they'd been through the past couple of days.

Tricky wasn't having nearly as good a time of getting up as Espurr was. After a pathetic attempt at getting out of bed, she flopped back down on her straw and yawned in defeat.

"Maybe we can sleep for… five more minutes…" she muttered in a half-asleep stupor.

Dedenne poked her head back into the room.

"Hey, you newbies don't want to miss breakfast, right? Chef Swirlix doesn't leave leftovers."

The prospect of breakfast got Tricky off her bed.

"Why do they eat breakfast this early…" she yawned, but she walked out the door with Espurr all the same.

~\({O})/~

"Today's briefing is a short one; I have no wish to keep you all from indulging in kind Chef Swirlix's fine breakfast," Ampharos said, holding the paper that Dedenne had given him in his paw. In the dining room to the right of the lobby sat the untouched breakfast spread that smelled absolutely heavenly.

Somewhere near the end of the line, Chef Swirlix was slobbering.

Ampharos read off the paper. "A new mystery dungeon has appeared near Lively Town and needs to have its severity evaluated," he said. "It should be our priority to add that to the maps here. Does anymon here have a clean schedule?"

"I'm up for it, sir." Buizel raised a paw high, puffing himself out in an attempt to make himself look as reliable for the job as possible. Not that it mattered; no-mon else particularly looked like they wanted the job.

"Splendid!" Ampharos read down the page, his eyes glazing across the second matter written there. "Next up: The Spinda Café here has requested our assistance in delivering a large shipment from the harbor tomorrow. They need two or three strong 'mon to help them carry crates from the harbor into their restaurant."

"Yeah, that's us," a member from Team Limestone that Espurr didn't catch spoke up.

"And now to address the elephant in the room: As you're all aware, the Expedition Society gained two new members yesterday."

All heads in the room turned towards Espurr and Tricky.

"We're very excited to welcome Espurr and Tricky into our ranks!" Ampharos exclaimed. "And as such, I've put together the perfect set of tasks for you both…"

~\({O})/~

"Chores?" Tricky whined as they walked up the spiral staircase towards the observatory. "I thought we were going to go dungeon exploring…"

"You didn't expect them to send us into a dungeon straightaway, right?" Espurr asked. She held a piece of paper in her paws that had a list of all the chores they'd been given to do on it. The first one on the list had been "wake up Jirachi". Jirachi slept in the observatory, and seemed to be always asleep, but that was all either Espurr or Tricky knew about him.

"Well…" Tricky dramatically sighed in defeat, letting her ears and tail flop down into effect. "I guess not… but I thought we'd be doing something more interesting!"

Espurr couldn't find it in her to argue with that. Chores weren't exactly her first choice on the list of ways to spend an afternoon.

The door to the observatory slowly opened, and Espurr crept in, followed by Tricky.

The room was a cluttered mess, but completely quiet. Paper and machines Espurr hadn't ever seen before lay all around the room, along with what looked like the model of several large orbs and a huge telescope that poked out of the roof.

And in the middle of it all floated what must have been Jirachi.

He was small and frail-looking, no larger than Espurr was. He floated asleep in midair like an abra, snoring loudly like a tyrunt.

"Guess that's Jirachi," Tricky said, as they watched him slowly orbit the room in his sleep. "How do we wake him? Didn't Dedenne say we needed something special?"

"She said we needed a remedy," Espurr said, reaching into her bag. She pulled out something wrapped in a small bundle of leaves. She wasn't sure quite what it was, but it felt squishy. "We have to feed him this thing."

"Sounds easy," Tricky said. She began to hop between her left paws and right, psyching herself up. "I'll get him on the ground, and you can feed him the thing!"

"Just try not to break stuff," Espurr said. The last thing the two of them needed was to get in trouble for smashing equipment on their first day.

"It'll be fiiiine," Tricky drawled. "Who are you, Watchog?"

She hopped up on a stack of books, then tiptoed across a table, then climbed on top of a shelf and tightrope walked along the thin surface above over to where Jirachi was sleeping.

"Get ready!" she called to Espurr silently, ready to pounce on Jirachi from above. Espurr braced herself for the chaos that was surely about to follow.

Tricky pounced. She collided with Jirachi midair; both of the pokemon were sent flying towards the ground. They both landed in a heap, rolling to the ground. Tricky faceplanted into a dusty book and wheezed. Jirachi was still sleeping. Espurr quickly walked forward with the remedy in paw.

"I guess this is why we needed the remedy," Espurr said. She walked forward with the remedy in paw—

—Jirachi leapt up, the eyes on his face half open and glowing brightly. He looked like he was in a zombie-like trance, with his limbs limp and his head hanging downwards.

"You guys shouldn't have attacked me while I was sleeping," he mumbled. It was barely audible.

"You were flying up in the air!" Tricky protested. "We had to get you down somehow to wake you up…"

"We were sent to wake you," Espurr said. She held out the remedy. "Dedenne said to eat this."

"Oh, you're new," Jirachi mumbled further in his dazed stupor, like he hadn't heard either of them speak at all. "I don't like being woken up violently. Lash out while I'm sleeping, and I might just… lash back."

A sudden blast of white energy flew out from Jirachi, snagging both Espurr and Tricky and knocking them back across the room.

Espurr flipped up into an attack position immediately. Tricky beside her did the same thing. They immediately scurried out of the way of another one of Jirachi's undirected attacks, which hit a bolted-down table and left a dent in it.

"He's crazy!" Tricky hissed to Espurr. Espurr peeked out from behind the shelf she was hiding behind, then quickly stuck her head back when another attack blasted the shelf and gave it a rattle.

"If he wants a fight, maybe we should give it to him," she said. "if you can pin him down, I can hold him in place and feed him this." The remedy was still in her paw.

"If you say so…" Tricky sounded hesitant at the prospect of going out and facing Jirachi's attacks.

"I can get you there safely," Espurr said. "You just have to stand riiight there…"

Tricky scuttled out into the open, looking somewhat uncomfortable with the idea. It was clear she had reservations.

"Are you sure about this?" she whispered back to Espurr, who was hiding. Espurr gave her a vigorous nod.

Jirachi was floating around the room aimlessly once more. It was like he had fallen to sleep again. Tricky slowly began to inch forward, her tiny steps growing into a brisk trot as she became more and more sure he'd gone dormant again. Maybe this was going to be easy after al—

Jirachi suddenly spun around, still in the same stupor he'd been in for the last minute.

"There you are," he lazily breathed.

Espurr made her move. A concentrated blast of psychic energy catapulted Tricky straight into Jirachi, knocking the two to the ground. Tricky quickly made sure Jirachi couldn't move his arms or legs while she still had the chance. They gave in easily. She was pretty sure he didn't use them much at all.

The third eye opened. It was right in the center of Jirachi's chest. Tricky yelped in fright, right before one of Jirachi's attacks sent her flying up into the roof—

"Good nigh—"

Espurr stuffed the remedy into Jirachi's mouth before he could finish his sentence. Tricky's inevitable descent through the air became slower and slower, until she could put her paws on the ground with no impact at all.

"It's not night any longer, anyway," she said.

Espurr and Tricky both looked at Jirachi, who had gone dormant on the ground in front of them. He'd even stopped snoring. They both traded a look. Sleeping was one thing but had they made him faint? Slowly, trepidaciously, Espurr poked Jirachi.

"Huh?" Jirachi leapt up into the air and stayed there. His eyes flew open, and this time they looked normal. "Who woke me?"

His eyes settled on Espurr and Tricky, then arched in confusion. "Who're you two? New recruits?"

"Pretty much," Espurr said.

"Oh. I see," Jirachi yawned, his voice taking on some of its signature laziness. "Sorry if I did anything to you while I was asleep. I have… problems getting up. Sometimes I'm not myself, see…"

"Yeah, it was…" Tricky let her sentence taper off, pawing the ground she was intently studying.

Neither Espurr nor Tricky knew how to break what had just happened to him.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Vault

The vault was located at the bottom of the Expedition Society, where the large cooling fans blew and made the hallway blare with noise. It ruffled Espurr and Tricky's fur as they passed, offering a breath of well-needed cool air after days of dealing with unrelenting heat. Espurr almost didn't want to leave.

But they had chores to do, so they continued trudging on towards the vault.

The massive bronze door slid open with a series of clacks, but no-mon was there to greet them at the door. After sharing a look, Espurr and Tricky stepped into the large room.

The first thing that became apparent was that there wasn't a single window in the entire room—it was a vault, after all. The only source of light came from a single lightbulb in the wall near the top of the room that flickered every so often. The second thing that became apparent was that the place was a mess. Stuff lay everywhere, organized with no rhyme or reason. There was a large pile of poke in the middle of the room, nearly obscured by mountains and mounds of other things.

"So…" a voice drawled from the other end of the room, catching Espurr and Tricky's attention. Nickit leaned over a wooden crate on the floor and was at a convenient height to serve as a table. The look on her face was unapologetically smug. "You're the help, huh?"

"That's us," said Espurr.

"Swell," Nickit replied. "MURKROW!"

Murkrow, snoozing at the top of the gold pile, awoke with a squawk.

"Huh?" he squawked, jumping up lazily and rearing up with his feathers bristled "Who's attacking? Where are the thieves? Who what where?"

"No thieves," Nickit said from below. "But the help's here."

"Oh…" Murkrow said, yawning. "Have I seen you two before?"

"I've never seen a bird like you," Tricky said.

"We're new," Espurr helpfully added.

"You're a bit young."

There was an awkward silence between the four pokemon in the room.

"Well, I haven't seen the day where children couldn't clean yet," Nickit said. "Heads up, this is gonna take a while."

"When was the last time you guys organized?" Tricky asked, as they sorted through a mound of what Espurr assumed was meant to be assorted berries and seeds—though everything here seemed to be a jumbled mess, so who could say for sure if they had originally been meant to be assorted?

"Last year or so," Nickit yawned, checking to make sure she had a plain seed and not a blast seed under her paw before she kicked it away into the Seed pile. "Usually Murkrow and I get what everymon else needs, so there wasn't a reason to."

"You can find stuff? In this mess?" Tricky asked, tilting her head in utter, bemused confusion.

"It looks kind of like your bedroom did," Espurr couldn't restrain herself from saying.

"Hey! T-that doesn't count!" Tricky managed to stammer out.

"Says who?"

"Says me!"

The cleaning continued for a long while; the level was underground so Espurr couldn't say what time it was by the time they decided to take a break.

"That was a lot…" Tricky said, panting on her back. Only a third of the room had been cleared.

"We did request help for a reason…" Murkrow said.

"Eh," Nickit said. "I liked it better messy."

"That's because you're a hoarder."

"Guilty as charged." Nickit took it completely in stride.

Espurr had been taking a breather against the large pile they still had yet to sort through.

"So," Nickit said. "We've still got ten minutes. Where're you guys from?"

An uncomfortable silence passed between the four of them. Neither Espurr nor Tricky looked like they wanted to say. Then Nickit let out a laugh.

"Come on, you guys!" She laughed. Espurr couldn't tell whether she forced it or not. "I'm joking. I wouldn't be comfortable tellin' my life story to a stranger either."

They returned to work soon afterwards.

"No, the razz berry goes there. The razz berry."

"What's the difference?" Tricky asked, glancing between two berries that couldn't have been more different.

Nickit brashly gestured to the smaller, red berry. "That's the rasp berry. This is the razz berry." She sighed. "Don't they teach kits anything in school anymore?"

"I… wasn't paying attention," a cowed Tricky admitted.

"Hey, perk up," Nickit said a few minutes later after Tricky had been moping for a while. "I didn't mean it."

Tricky drooped a little less, but didn't sau anything. It was clear she was still a little ticked off.

"I've got a card game I play with Murkrow a lot, but he's terrible at it," Nickit said, in one last attempt to cheer Tricky up. "We could play later. Having a fellow fox around to play with has got to be better than birdbrain over there."

That one managed to get a snicker out of Tricky despite herself.

"I think we're gonna be friends," Nickit said confidently.

In the end, they managed to get two thirds of the vault sorted out before sundown.

"Have you guys got any other chores on that list?" asked Murkrow, staring at the list Espurr had forgotten to pick up in all their working. Espurr and Tricky froze.

"Berry crackers!"

They were both out of the vault before either Murkrow or Nickit could blink.

"I did think they were going to finish up here first," Murkrow admitted, flabbergasted.

"Dang, I wish I was that fast," Nickit muttered out the side of her snout.

~\({O})/~

There was one more large chore on their list, and it took the largest portion out of the day: Sweeping the floors and halls of the Expedition Society.

It wouldn't have been so hard if there weren't so many of them.

Espurr got a broom, while Tricky carried the dustpan in her mouth and swept the floors with her tail. They started on the west side, and slowly worked their way east. There was silence between them for most of it, both because Tricky had the dustpan in her mouth, and because it was finally setting in that they were truly in a building full of strangers. Espurr hadn't known how to feel about it the entire day, and she didn't know how to feel about it now either. She supposed that at the very least, she could count herself lucky that they had some form of security – a building of strange explorers was a better shield between them and the beheeyem than a village was.

They reached one of the trash cans in the hall, and Tricky took the moment to let Espurr empty the dustpan into it.

"Espurr?"

Espurr removed the dustpan from the trash can and looked at Tricky, who had taken a seat on the floor. She looked just as exhausted as Espurr felt.

"Yeah?" she asked, setting the dustpan methodically down next to the trash can.

"I miss home."

That one got a surprise out of Espurr. She knew she did, but Tricky?

"I thought working here as an explorer was your dream," Espurr said. "Why the change of mind?"

"As an explorer," Tricky said. "But… I miss Pops, and Goomy, and… even Deerling. Everymon here's just weird. Don't you feel like that?"

It was like Tricky had read Espurr's mind.

"I miss them too," Espurr admitted. She had only been there three weeks, but Serenity Village was the only family she'd known. Neither of them had really gotten a chance to sit down and process what they'd done a day ago when they'd packed up and left. It had sure seemed like a smart decision at the time, but… was it really looking so smart now?

But they didn't have a choice.

"But we didn't have a choice," Espurr said. "If we stayed there, we'd be putting them in danger. You saw what they did to Audino's house."

"Yeah…" Tricky said.

They swept in silence for a while longer. The air between them was heavy.

"I wonder how Pops feels," Tricky said. "And Audino. We never got to say goodbye…"

Despite that one last day before they'd fled, that one weighed heavier on Espurr than anything else.

"At least we're keeping everymon else safe," Espurr said. Half of it was to console herself. "That's something to be thankful for."

"Yeah…" Tricky said, and it felt just a tad less heavy than before. "Doesn't change how weird this hallway looks, though."

"It's way too colorful," Espurr agreed.

They finished sweeping not soon after. Which was just as well, since the sun was going down and pokemon were finally beginning to return from the day's missions. Bunnelby had gone digging a burrow for somemon on the outskirts of town, while Buizel had finished mapping that local dungeon within the day. Archen had gone down to the harbor to help out with something, and though he wouldn't say what had happened he was completely soaked.

Then it was time for dinner. The spread on the table was a lavishly decked out feast just like breakfast had been—finally Espurr understood what Swirlix had been doing in that kitchen all day—but they dined with strangers. A bunnelby ate carrots and radishes by the dozen but pointedly avoided lettuce, while a buizel loudly boasted about the many missions he'd been on and a torracat, vulpix, and rockruff quietly squabbled amongst themselves to determine who was going to have the last piece of meat on their side of the table.

Espurr sat apart from Tricky, since there wasn't a spot on the table for them both to sit together. The food looked and tasted like real food, and the table in front of Espurr and the seat underneath felt just as real as the ones back in Serenity Village did. But even so, Espurr felt like she was watching everything through a glass wall. She didn't understand anything going on around her, and for the first time since they had fled, that was finally beginning to get to her.

It only served to drill in the point that had been lingering in Espurr and Tricky's head for the past few hours: This wasn't home.

~\({O})/~

Dinner ended, and then it was time for everymon to retire. Most of the Expedition Society went to bed soon after the sun had finished setting, since they all woke up deathly early in the morning. Espurr had to admit after all the work they had done that day, she was feeling quite winded too. Tricky walked alongside her, drooping further with every step.

"I'm so tired…" she groaned. "I feel like I could sleep for a thousand years!"

Espurr, similarly exhausted, was too tired to grace that with an answer.

"Which way was our room again?" Tricky asked, yawning.

"I think it's this way," Espurr said, pointing down the east-side hallway.

Luckily, she had guessed right. They found their way down to their room within a few minutes, flopping down on their beds and retiring for the night. Tricky fell to sleep soundly a few minutes after she hit her bed, snoring softly. Espurr found herself still awake.

Awake, and staring out at the night scenery that looked nothing like she was used to. Lively Town was vast, and a thousand electric lights lit up the valleys below like a silent festival in the night. And more than anything, it was eerily silent. And despite herself, safe and sound in a building surrounded by experienced explorers, she found herself wondering: Was it really safe here? Where were the beheeyem? The town below was vast. They could be anywhere. She didn't believe they would just give up that easily.

They were still hunting her, she was sure of it.

The sound of somemon tripping over something startled Espurr form her train of thought. She looked back towards the door they'd forgotten to drape the curtain over, where Bunnelby had just stumbled over the broom and dustpan they had left out. Espurr inwardly grimaced. Whoops.

"Sorry," Bunnelby said. "Somemon left all this cleaning supplies out, and it's dark. I didn't wake you, right?"

"I was already awake, " said Espurr.

Bunnelby nodded, and then was on his way. Espurr flopped back down on her bed. She knew she should sleep, but she couldn't. This was just such a weird place, and she couldn't calm down.

Then she wondered where Bunnelby went.

Eventually, the curiosity overtook her. If she couldn't sleep, she could at least see what went on in this building at night. She quietly got up off her bed, then walked to the door. After furtively sticking her head out both ways to make sure the hallway was desert, she took off the direction Bunnelby had gone.

At some point, she realized he must have just gone back to his room, since she had wandered all the way into the lobby without catching so much as a single glimpse of him. That meant she had gone all the way out here for nothing.

Now she just felt silly.

Although, now that she noticed it, there was a light shining on the second floor. Espurr could only just see the faint blue glow from the stairwell, and figured it might be worth her time. Considering what she had seen the last time she had gone up there, perhaps she could pick up something useful to know for later.

It was coming from behind the smaller room off to the west side of the floor. As Espurr climbed up the stairway and drew closer to the room, she heard the sound of voices coming from the other side. She knew better than to get close to the door, and she could hear the voices just fine from here anyway, so she staked out next to the trash can in the area, and listened.

"I plan to keep them where we can see them. But remember that these children are meant for bigger things. We can't keep them here forever."

"Yet why keep them on the register?"

"The risk of taking them beyond the town without a seat on the register is greater than the risk of signing them on underage."

"And how do you intend to explain yourself to the authorities when we reach our next checkup?"

"We'll cross that bridge if we reach it."

A pause.

"When do you plan to tell them why we're letting them stay? The Human, at least, has a right to know."

The world seemed to stop for Espurr, like it was put on pause. The voices continued talking, but she was reeling too much to listen to them.

They knew. They knew about her. She knew it had been suspicious the entire time, that they had their paws wrapped up in the same mess she was ensnared in, but now she had definitive proof they had an ulterior motive for keeping her here. How long had they known about her? And how?

"I request you accelerate your schedule. A week is far too long and unpredictable a timeframe."

Espurr shifted in her uncomfortable crouching spot, and bumped into the trash can—

It created a bang that made her heart skip a beat. She thought fast—she needed to hide. She managed to scramble into a suitable hiding place just in time.

She heard the door open. Two figures came out—one of them must have been Ampharos—and looked around. If there was talking, she didn't hear it. The door closed soon after, and the voices grew too hushed for Espurr to hear.

Maybe they knew better than to air their suspicions in front of somemon who might be listening.

Soon after, Espurr crept out from where she was hiding. She scurried down the stairs, then silently crept into the lobby. Only once she reached the hallway did she begin to relax and walk—albeit quickly—back to her room. She took a moment to think about what she had just seen as she walked.

Who were they working with? Who were they working for? Were they with the beheeyem, or somemon else? It would have been easier for Ampharos to finish them off in the mountains, if they wanted her dead. No, they still needed her and Tricky for something.

But for what? And still, the question remained: How did they know as much as they did? They couldn't have figured it out just by looking at her; no-mon back in Serenity Village could have done that. She could only think of one way they could have that information, and it wasn't one that put the Expedition Society on her side.

That was the way she found herself walking back to her room. A growing sense of distrust was building within her, and soon she found herself realizing what she had known all this time: there were secrets being kept here; ones that concerned her. She had to keep her cards close to her chest, and if it came to it, be ready to take Tricky and run for the hills.

She lay awake in her bed for a while, trying to process it all. But she was tired, and eventually she couldn't fight it off any longer. She drifted off to sleep.

~\({O})/~

Music of the Week!

Marilka That's My Name - Sonia Belousova, Giona Ostinelli