0.

~\({O})/~

32.

Hunt

~\({O})/~

Lively Town Outskirts

The many lights of Lively Town glowed brightly in the night, like a beacon amongst the dark mountains and the vast sea to the west. A trio of cone shaped heads glode across the mountain path, overlooking the town below. Somewhere within lay the targets. It was a large city to search, but they would search it relentlessly and without pause. Finding the pokemon they were now to kill was an inevitability, even in a town this large.

They continued down the mountain path. The hunt resumed.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Nighttime

~Tricky~

Tricky couldn't sleep.

Despite being completely worn out from her trek through the mountains just a day earlier, she found herself unable to drift off to bed properly. Not that she hadn't tried. At some point she had conked out, then woken up in the middle of the night, then woken up and not been able to get back to sleep. It felt like she'd been lying in bed for hours now! She turned over in the straw bed, which was nothing like the one she had back home, and tried to see if she could get comfy that way.

It wasn't working. She felt as awake as ever! She spared a glance over to the other side of the room, where Espurr lay, fast asleep.

Eventually, Tricky decided it wasn't worth the wait anymore. She pulled herself off the bed with a yawn, and began to wearily trot towards the exit to the room. Maybe a walk throughout the halls of the building would help her get to sleep better.

The halls were dark and quiet, but Tricky didn't necessarily mind. She trotted down the tiled floor, looking at the lavender walls around her with gold-colored embellishments and the odd trash can every now and then. She didn't notice the figure lurking in the shadows before it spoke:

"Yo, newbie."

"Huh?" Tricky looked back, her ears swiveling in the direction the noise had come from. Nickit slunk out of the shadows, walking up to Tricky with a smug smirk on her face.

"Watcha doin' out of bed?" Nickit asked, sitting in front of Tricky and looking her straight in the eye.

Tricky immediately felt much smaller than she had a few seconds ago. "Well… I… couldn't sleep, and… Does this mean I'll get kicked out? I can go back to bed! I can—"

"Nah." Nickit waved Tricky off with her tail. "I'm not gonna get you in trouble. Otherwise I'd have to stop staying up all night too.

"Say," she began, getting up and walking back down the hall from which they'd came. "Since you're up… fancy that game of cards?"

"Cards?" Tricky's ears perked back up at the mention of what sounded like a potentially fun time. "What's that?"

"C'mon," Nickit said, prowling back down the hallway. She ushered Tricky along with her tail. "I'll teach you how to play."

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Vault

Nickit led Tricky into the vault they had just cleaned yesterday, which looked much more orderly than the state they had left it in yesterday.

"Took a bit to sort out, but we got the job finished," said Nickit. "How does it look?"

"Weird," Tricky admitted. "I liked the mess better."

"Same."

An immense stack of poke sat near the back of the room, nearly reaching the roof. At the very top of the pile snoozed Murkrow.

Tricky eyed him warily.

"Don't we have to worry about waking him?" she asked.

"Doubt it," said Nickit. "he sleeps like a rock on a good day."

Nickit pulled a small box out from behind a few chests of poke with her snout. Over a crate of dried berries, she arranged the cards in a neat deck, dealing herself and Tricky each seven.

"A'ight, here's how this works," she said. "Each card has a pokemon on it, with a type assigned to it. There are eighteen types total. We each choose a card from our deck and put it down on the table; whoever has the card with the type advantage wins both. If ya get ten pairs, you win. They taught you your type matchups in school, right?"

"Yeah…" hints of indignation slipped into Tricky's voice. Of course she knew them.

"Cool. Looked at your cards yet?"

Tricky hadn't. She propped her cards up the best she could with her paws, following Nickit's example and making sure to keep them out of her opponent's view. She had a dhelmise, druddigon, axew, flareon, and something called a "Silvally" that didn't seem to have a type. Or, on closer inspection, it seemed to have all the types. Tricky grew giddy—she knew what she was going to pick.

"Chose your card?"

Tricky nodded. This game was fun. She was beginning to enjoy it.

"Cool. Now place it in front of you." Nickit chose her own card, and slid it on the table. Tricky carefully picked Silvally out of the deck, and put it opposite Nickit's card.

"Three… two… one… flip!"

Nickit lipped her card face-up, and then Tricky followed Nickit's example and did the same a second later. Silvally faced down Nickit's metapod.

"Hah!" Tricky called out, slamming her paw down on the cards. "I win this one!"

"Not so fast," Nickit drawled, drawing another card from the pile to replace her own. She gestured for Tricky to do the same. "You still have to get nine more pairs to win, and you've just used up the most powerful card in the deck."

Tricky was uncharacteristically silent, as she realized how stupid of a move that had been.

"Tip to the wise: Cards' a game of wits," Nickit said, "Just like everything else in life. Never senselessly start throwing cards out; you can only go downhill from there. Learn to read the other player instead. Just like I read you. I thought you'd pick the strongest card in your claw first, so I sent out a dud to check you."

Cornered. Tricky looked through the rest of her cards. Ghost, Dragon, Dragon, Fire… what to pick? Now that she didn't have a card that was sure to win she was a lot more flustered.

"Done choosing yet?" Nickit asked, lazily watching Tricky flipping through the cards. "You can't take forever, ya know."

"Y-yeah," Tricky said, setting down a card from the pile. One of the dragons, but she just had to hope she got lucky.

"Guess I'll have to match you." Nickit calmly pulled another card from her claw, setting it opposite Tricky's. "Three… Two… One…"

The game ended nearly an hour later. Tricky consistently pulled whatever card looked coolest from her deck and paired it up against Nickit, who matched it with her own strategic choices. Tricky almost would have said Nickit was cheating if she hadn't managed to score three more pairs against her over the course of the game. Nickit ultimately won out, with ten whole pairs and not a single legendary card among them.

"Good game," she said at the end, gathering up all the cards and putting them back up in the box. She glanced behind Tricky, at the first rays of sunlight beginning to pour in through the door. "Hope you weren't still sleepy."

Tricky was a bit sleepy, but she could put that all aside for a bit.

"I have to get going now," she said. "Bye! Thanks for the game!" And with that, she scampered out the door of the vault and made a beeline for her and Espurr's bedroom.

~\({O})/~

"Rise and shine, everymon! The sun's up, and you should be too!" Dedenne rang a pair of very loud bells outside in the hallway, stopping at each door and ringing them extra loud.

Tricky had gotten about an hour's worth of sleep since her game of cards with Nickit. She pulled herself off the bed like a zombie, watching Espurr stretch on the other one. Unlike Tricky, she looked well-rested.

"Why do we have to get up this early?" was all Tricky could muster as a frazzled response amongst the ringing of bells in the background. She lifted her head, then let it flop back down into the straw.

"Do you want breakfast?" Espurr asked, stretching. "The chef doesn't leave any leftovers."

Tricky got a strange sense of déjà vu from the exchange. But all the same, the prospect of breakfast made her a little less tired.

~\({O})/~

After Ampharos' briefing, a much less extravagant breakfast was served. Most of the members took things from the table and ate on the go, since they had missions they had to get to soon after. Espurr and Tricky were paired with the three members of Team Limestone for their tasks today, so they had to quickly grab a few buns from the table and scurry to catch up.

"Hey, you two!" Holly, the white-furred vulpix, yelled out after them. "You'd better catch up, otherwise we're going to leave you behind!"

Espurr and Tricky, still scarfing down what they could snatch from the breakfast table, ran to catch up with the other three of them.

"You're going to be helping us pick some stuff up from the harbor." Cinder, the torracat, walked up in front, with their team's own exploration bag strapped to his back. "Make sure to keep up."

Granite was a bit too busy chewing on something to chip in.

"Hey, what's that you guys are wearing?" Holly asked, her eyes fixed on Tricky's scarf. Espurr instinctively fiddled with hers a bit. She was walking backwards, able to see the both of them clearly. Once or twice she came dangerously close to walking into another pokemon, but always managed to step out of the way just in time.

"They're scarves," Tricky mumbled. "My pops gave them to me."

"Holy—" Holly had to take a moment to get her breathing under control. "Is your pops loaded or something?"

"What's loaded?" Tricky asked.

"What about the scarves?" Espurr asked.

"T-those aren't scarves! They're focus sashes!" Holly exclaimed loudly, pivoting on her paws and gaping. "Those are so rare—do you have any idea how lucky your pops was to get ahold of those?"

"What's a focus sash?" Tricky asked.

"It's got a very powerful heal pulse sealed in it," Holly said, still trying to keep the stutter out of her voice. "I-if you're on the brink of death or were mortally injured, the scarf will heal you as long as you're in contact with it. Many pokemon live and die without even seeing one. And you guys are just walking around with two of them on your necks! You have to hook me up with him sometime."

Pops… Tricky's mood plummeted. Yes, he had made her clean the whole house from top to bottom, and yes, there were scary creatures that would put Pops in danger if she had stayed, but she'd still never even said goodbye to him. He must be worried sick.

But there hadn't been going back before, and there was no going back now.

"Maybe later," Tricky said, trying not to look gloomy. It almost worked.

"Huh?" Holly's head tilted at Tricky's visible drooping. "Did I hit a nerve or something?"

Tricky couldn't bring herself to answer.

"Our parents live far away," Espurr answered in Tricky's silence. "Traveling back there isn't really a good idea right now."

"So… you guys are runaways," Holly concluded, walking backwards. Neither Espurr or Tricky answered that one. Holly read their fear-stricken faces instead.

"N-not that I care," she quickly added. "If the chief let you guys on, there must have been a reason! Just curious is all."

"You know, you're walking backwards again," Cinder sighed, sending a glance in their direction. "When are you gonna learn?"

"What's the issue with it?" Holly asked. "I'm careful!"

"Careful, my tail," Cinder said. "Yesterday you walked into a streetlamp."

"That's one time!" A-and Granite was sticking her tongue out at me! How is that a fair example?"

"I alphays sptick myph tongphe ouff!"

~\({O})/~

Lively Town Harbor

The harbor was crowded and filled with pokemon and ships galore. There were several lapras arriving and departing from the docks, and pokemon loading and unloading the boats passed Espurr and Tricky to and fro. A huge marine pokemon with scaffolding meant for smaller pokemon to ride on sat in the middle of all the ships, taking a nap. Espurr read the large billboard that stood in front of the large pokemon:

Wailord Liner

Departing next for: Sand Continent, Port Archaios, tomorrow at 9 AM

"Alright, this is where you two come in." Cinder stopped outside a large lapras-pulled barge that had just pulled into the harbor. "The chief wants us to pick up a late shipment from the docks. It should be in that barge."

"Late shipment?" Espurr asked.

"Fireworks," Holly whispered to her as Cinder talked with the barge pokemon. "We usually shoot them on Deerling Day, but they were delayed by a storm or something. Now we'll have to wait until winter."

"You guys shoot fireworks?" Tricky asked, her earlier gloominess evaporating on the spot. "I've never even seen fireworks before!"

"Next year, then…" Holly breathed.

"N-next… year?"

"Yeppers."

Tricky wilted.

The crates were heavy, and it took five minutes for Espurr and Tricky to move one from one side of the harbor to another.

"How… heavy… are these things?" Tricky panted from under a crate, using her back and head to lift up one side.

"Way too heavy…" Espurr struggled on the other, using her mental powers to lift the crate. She could barely manage a single sentence under the strain.

Eventually, they reached the end of the harbor. Both Espurr and Tricky unceremoniously dropped the box down on the ground, and collapsed on either side of it.

"I hope we don't have to get more of these…" Tricky panted out. "My tail's all scrunched up."

"And I've got a headache," Espurr said, rubbing her forehead. "I think there were only three."

There was a boat docked at the end of the harbor that was empty. It looked brand new, like it hadn't even made its maiden voyage yet. There was no ramp leading up into the ship like there were into the others that were being unloaded, but a pile of crates had been stacked up next to it that looked like they'd make a good makeshift staircase. Espurr looked up at the flag that was flying from the boat's highest mast. It was a soft purple flag, sporting a badge that was very clearly the Expedition Society's own sigil. Realization hit Espurr. This must be—

"'Ey, you two!"

Both Espurr and Tricky looked over in the direction of the voice to see a scrafty angrily marching towards them.

"Any of y'all seen the 'mon who pilfered mah blast seeds?" the scrafty asked, pulling a piece of paper out of his pants. "I only saw 'em for a second, bu' I got this drawin'! Shoul' be enough, don' ya think?"

He thrust the paper out into Espurr's face. Her eyes focused on what looked like a very crude drawing of…

Espurr suddenly felt a lot less tired. She stood up and took the paper from the scrafty.

"Tricky, look."

Tricky hopped up onto the crate and took a look at the drawing on the paper. Her ears scaled back a bit.

"You've seen 'em?" the scrafty asked hopefully. Espurr looked down at the drawing again, where a crude but unmistakable drawing of a trio of beheeyem had been marked down.

"Are you sure these are the pokemon you saw?" Espurr asked, her voice urgent.

"Yes, 'course I'm sure!" the scrafty said angrily. "I don't mistake a 'mon once I see them. Now have you seen 'em or not?"

Espurr handed the scrafty back the paper. "Not since two nights ago. Sorry."

"Drat…" the scrafty shoved the paper back down his pants. "Tha hun' continues, then. Well, thanks anyway."

With that, the scrafty spun around and walked back the way he'd come. "You there!" he pointed at a passing flareon.

Espurr and Tricky silently traded one long, worried look that conveyed the same meaning: What do we do?

The crates were put on a wagon that Cinder pulled across the streets on their way back to the Expedition Society building with ease.

"Ugh," Holly said on their way back, shuddering. "There were the weirdest 'mon at the docks today."

"What kind of 'mon?" Tricky asked. Espurr's eyes lit up curiously.

"They showed up near the barge a few minutes after you guys were gone," Holly said. "Like… these three beheeyem guys. Weren't with anymon, didn't do anything but stare at us creepily. They weren't doing anything wrong, but you could feel the bad vibes…"

Espurr and Tricky uncomfortably traded looks.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters

"I didn't think they'd reach the city so fast…." Tricky said, pacing back and forth in their room with her head and tail down.

"And they have blast seeds now," Espurr said. "That means they're armed."

"What do we do?" Tricky asked. "If the village wasn't safe, and now this city isn't safe, where do we go?"

"There's nowhere else we can go," Espurr said. "If they've gone after us this far, then they'll chase us anywhere."

"Why are they even chasing us?" Tricky said. "What did we do to them?"

"I think…" the next part sent chills down Espurr's spine. "I think they're trying to kill us. They're connected to that monster we fought in the Crooked House. And as for what to do…"

She didn't know. Where was there to go, when their pursuers were relentless and deadly? Nowhere would be safe forever. Unless…

"Espurr…" Tricky started. "I think we should tell somemon."

Espurr folded her arms. "Telling pokemon in the village didn't go so well."

"But this is a rescue guild!" Tricky said. "It'll be different!"

"But we tell them, then they're involved," Espurr said. "Then the beheeyem will just hurt them too."

And that wasn't mentioning she didn't know if they could trust the Expedition Society yet.

"They're involved anyway!" Tricky said. "We can't run from it—you said it yourself! We need to get help."

"But Tricky, I don't know if we can trust the Expedition Society," Espurr said.

"What are you talking about?" Tricky asked. "Aren't they supposed to be keeping us safe?"

"It's too convenient that Ampharos knew exactly where we were in those mountains," Espurr said, "and also that he gave a pair of children from the middle of nowhere an expedition gadget! And last night, I heard them talking. They said they have plans for us; that's why they're letting us stay! They have to be in cahoots with whoever's running all this."

"But… But Ampharos saved us from the beheeyem!" Tricky paused to compose herself. "How can he be evil?"

Espurr didn't have a good answer for that. She sat on the straw, and folded her arms. "I just have a feeling."

There was a silent moment, in which neither one of them knew what best to say next.

"Well…" Tricky began. "Even if this place is evil, he saved us before. He'd help us now, wouldn't he?"

Espurr was finding it harder and harder to come up with a new answer. The more she looked at the situation to counter Tricky's comment, the more sound it was. If they could get help, then regardless of that help's motives, it wasn't a question of running anymore—they could just overpower the beheeyem!

"Alright, fine," Espurr reluctantly admitted. "You have a point. But we can't trust Ampharos. We just can't. Anymon else."

"Then who else do we tell?" Tricky asked.

"What about…"

~\({O})/~

Lively Town Streets

"So, let me get this straight." Holly trotted backwards alongside Espurr and Tricky through the bustling streets, barely avoiding a collision with a passing signpost. "Those beheeyem from earlier are here for you guys."

"Y-yep," Tricky said. Her voice quaked a little.

"And they chased you all the way from your village to here?"

"Yep."

"A-and what do they even want with you? That's pretty persistent."

"They're here to do away with us," Espurr said after a moment of hesitation.

"Holy muk," Holly sighed, breathing a breath of frigid cold air into Tricky's face. "This is some intense stuff."

They trotted in silence for a while, taking in the sights of the town. Somewhere among all the street vendors, a lavender audino selling soothe bells stood out against the crowd. The streets of Lively Town were as lively as their namesake, but Espurr couldn't stop herself from constantly glancing behind her back. There were tons of pokemon in this crowd. Their pursuers had countless places to hide and lurk in a town this big.

"Can you guys prove anything?"

Both Espurr and Tricky looked straight at Holly with worried faces.

"You don't believe us?" Tricky asked.

"N-no!" Holly stammered, making an attempt to backtrack with an exaggerated grin on her face. "No, of course I do! I don't think you guys are lying. But let's be real, the police aren't going to do anything unless you can prove they're actually after you. And the Expedition Society technically isn't supposed to handle outlaw hunting, so we can't just go after them ourselves."

"They also stole some blast seeds from the harbor," Espurr chimed in. "A pokemon there was complaining about it. He had a drawing of them."

"That's a start…" Holly said. She sat down in the middle of the street, thinking. Her tails thumped against the sidewalk in some erratic rhythm Espurr couldn't follow. A choir of small pokemon passed around them, mumbling niceties like 'excuse me' and 'coming through' as they pushed by Holly, Espurr, and Tricky. Then Holly finally spoke.

"Hey, you guys said they chased you all the way from your village to Lively Town?" she asked.

Espurr and Tricky both nodded.

"Well…" Holly made icy rings in the air with her paw. "If they chased you that far and then they appeared at the harbor, that means they're following you around town, right?"

Espurr and Tricky looked at each other, then hesitantly nodded.

"So we could set a trap for them," Holly continued, lowering her voice into a hush. "You guys lure them into one spot, and then I'll tip off the police about the blast seed thief and have them make the arrest!"

"But what if they just attack us instead?" Tricky asked.

"They wouldn't attack us in a crowded place," Espurr said in realization. She suddenly felt giddy with hope. "Not unless they knew they were going to come out on top. That makes sense—that's why they didn't just get us at the harbor!"

"Exactly!" Holly said, her grin no longer forced. "And later today the five of us are going to be working in one of the most crowded places in town."

"What place is that?" Tricky asked, curious.

"Have you guys ever heard of Spinda's Café?" Holly inquired innocently.

~\({O})/~

Spinda's Café

"So glad you could all pitch in to help today," said the very not spinda-ish electivire who managed Spinda's Café. "Having the extra paws to move around all these crates really saved us."

"Yeah, yeah," Cinder yawned. "When do we get paid for this?"

Espurr and Tricky struggled to move one of the crates through the crowded restaurant and into the storage room in the back. They set it down with a smaller thump than before, both collapsing on either side of it to catch their breaths.

"Hey, you guys are here!" Holly quickly sidled herself in, looking around furtively to make sure that neither Granite nor Cinder were around before she said anything else. "You walked around town for a half hour before you got here, right?"

"Yeah," Tricky said. "Cinder yelled at us for being late."

"Cinder's a mukhead," Holly said dismissively, brushing off the notion with her paw. "You're sure they followed you here?"

"We're sure," Espurr said, standing up and dusting herself off. "You can see them from the window out there."

She pointed out the vault door. Holly followed her gaze. Outside the window of the store, on the other side of the street, a trio of beheeyem glowered in the shadows.

Holly was clearly doing her best to contain herself, but struggling anyway. "How many crates are still out there?"

"One," Espurr and Tricky both answered at once.

"Alright," Holly said, pulling her team's expedition gadget out from behind a crate. "I'll tip off the police now. They should get here in five minutes. You guys go and keep their attention in one place."

The sudden uncertainty in her voice made Espurr equally uneasy. But she nodded all the same, and then and Tricky left the vault.

"Do you think the police are really going to do anything?" Tricky asked in a whisper as they walked out of the restaurant. The beheeyem were only a sidewalk away; the sunny sky felt like it was covered in clouds.

To Espurr's sixth sense, the atmosphere was downright malevolent. Every voice in her head was going haywire, telling her that this street was not a safe place to be and she had to flee now and take Tricky with her if she wanted to get out of here alive. It took everything Espurr had to will herself not to look at them any more than out of the corner of her eyes.

"It's worth a shot," she whispered back, shrugging off the paranoia. "I'll take anything we can get at this point."

The last crate sat all on its lonesome on the sidewalk. Espurr and Tricky both struggled to lift it up. The lid jostled as they did, catching Tricky's attention.

"Hey, Espurr," she asked in a strained voice as they moved it up towards the storefront. "Weren't all the other crates sealed? Why's this one open?"

Now that Espurr thought of it… she bumped the crate from her side; the lid rattled as well. "I think they were," she said. "Maybe something's wrong with it."

Espurr and Tricky set the crate down with twin breaths of exhaustion. Espurr studied the lid, which looked like it had been wrenched from the rest of the crate. "It looks like somemon tore the lid off with brute strength," she remarked, nudging it out of place.

"Hey—what are you two doing?!" An angry voice in the background caught both Espurr and Tricky's attention. They both snapped their heads around to see the electavire heading towards them angrily. "I never said you could open that crate!"

"W-we didn't!" Tricky exclaimed loudly, panicking. "It was already open! It was—"

There was a small opening where Espurr had moved the lid. Amongst the large bags of food and produce, a tiny sack sat. A sack that didn't look like it belonged among the larger bags of grains at all. Had that bag been put in there just now? If she could just get a closer look… Ignoring the electavire for the moment, Espurr opened the lid a little more, allowing just enough sunlight to shine in and show her what it was: A bag of blast seeds.

Wait—

It clicked. Espurr dashed forward.

"Tricky, get away—"

The beheeyem made their move. Espurr tackled Tricky and sent them both tumbling away from the crate just as a large shadowy attack flew towards the box. The attack sent the box flying straight towards the restaurant. Espurr only had time to cover her face as the storefront exploded—

The blast sent dust, debris, and smoke flying throughout the street. The restaurant was set aflame, and Espurr could hear various cries of panic from inside the building. Holly was in there. They had bigger problems right now.

"Get out of the way!" Cinder pushed the shellshocked electavire aside, heading into the restaurant. Granite followed in his wake. "Everymon out!"

Tricky pulled herself up from the street, shaking her face to clear it of debris. Espurr struggled to find her balance. She glanced around, trying to see something through the dust and debris.

"Where did the beheeyem go?!"

They came out of left field. Tricky pulled a dizzy Espurr out of the way as one of them swooped in from the smog. The lights on its arms made the smoke flash and flicker. All of the sudden the lights were all around them—coming from all sides and impossible to tell where they'd strike next from. It was disorienting. Espurr finally caught her balance and pressed herself up against Tricky's back. She looked around frantically, trying to ignore the lights and find something that could help them get out of this mess.

Tricky's ears twitched. She pushed Espurr aside, ducking herself as one of the beheeyem's shadowy attacks flew through the haze. It slammed against the café's tattered menu board and turned it to solid stone. Espurr rolled to a stop, got to her feet, and looked around frantically. She forgot all about being an explorer—for the moment, all that mattered was getting herself and Tricky to safety. The electivire was getting up from where Cinder had pushed him, shaking his head. He stared at the burning restaurant, his mouth gaping open in horror.

Tricky had her eyes closed. Her ears twitched towards every sound.

"I think…" she muttered. "There!" she pointed to their left. "Over there! There's a beheeyem over there!"

Espurr looked in the direction Tricky was pointing. Sure enough, through the dust beginning to settle, there was the outline of a beheeyem moving towards the restaurant. Only a single one, but the electavire was in its line of fire!

"Hey!" Espurr called out to the dazed pokemon. "Move!"

That snapped the electavire out of his trance. He looked over at Espurr. "What—"

Too late for talking. Espurr used her still-recovering psychic grip to pull the electavire out of the way just before a shadowy ball flew in the elecatvire's direction. He went soaring across the street and landed on the other sidewalk. The landing knocked him unconscious. Lifting such a heavy pokemon made Espurr's head ache. She clutched her head, doing her best not to fall over a second time.

Espurr stumbled back over to Tricky, trying not to let the lights give her an even bigger headache. This was bad. Really super bad. Those pokemon were going to come out of the restaurant soon, and if they hadn't dealt with the beheeyem by then, every single one of them were in danger!

Thinking made her head feel like it was going to split. She groaned in pain, falling back onto her behind.

"Espurr!" Tricky called out, running over to where Espurr was.

"We need to… run…" Espurr hissed through the pain.

"Run? Why?" Tricky asked back, frantic.

Another shadow attack. Espurr and Tricky both hit the ground and rolled over; the attack decimated the pavement where they had been.

"The beheeyem are only after us," Espurr panted, getting to her knees while she recovered from the mental strain. "We need to lead them away from this crowded street, or they'll just hurt more pokemon!"

The debris was settling, but a large crowd had gathered outside the destroyed storefront. The beheeyem's three cone-like foreheads advanced through the crowd, now in plain sight. But no-mon knew. No-mon realized how much danger they were in.

"But what about the police?" Tricky asked frantically. "They're gonna show up soon, right?"

"The police have bigger problems," Espurr panted, finally regaining enough clarity to stand up properly. She pointed at the beheeyem advancing through the crowed, prompting Tricky to look in the direction she was pointing. "The beheeyem are going to reach us first at this rate."

Sure enough, the beheeyem were steadily advancing towards their position.

"Where did they go?"

Holly, Granite, and Cinder all galloped out of the shop, looking at Espurr and Tricky among the crowd of pokemon.

"There they are!" Holly called out, pointing down the street. She had a noticeable limp.

"Time to go."

Espurr and Tricky both got up and began to run down the street, away from the destroyed burning building.

"Wait!" Holly called after them. "Where are you going?!"

"Don't follow us!" Espurr called back after her.

She looked back at the crowd as they ran. If the beheeyem were intent on chasing them, they'd have to do it in the middle of broad daylight.

But the beheeyem weren't coming after them. They stood in the crowd, motionless. Watching. Soon, Espurr could barely see them as they ran—wait. They were moving, to the left. If she squinted, she could still see them somewhat clearly. They entered a back alley, disappearing from Espurr's vision. They were taking a shortcut! How she wished she'd brought their team's bag with her… At least then they'd have something to arm themselves with.

"Can you see them?" Tricky frantically looked back, although the crowd and the storefront were out of sight at this point.

"They went into a back alley," Espurr panted as they ran. "They're probably planning to ambush us somewhere."

"But we don't have anything to defend ourselves with!" Tricky said. "A-and they could be anywhere!"

They stopped outside a house in what looked like the residential sector in Lively Town near the coast, panting for breath. Espurr could see to the west the large Expedition Society building sitting up on the hill.

"Now what do we do?" Tricky asked.

"We're safest back at the building," Espurr rasped, her lungs run ragged. "Anywhere else in the town is easy pickings. We need to keep moving, or they'll just catch up to us."

"Right…"

Without any further hesitation, Espurr and Tricky set off towards the Expedition Society building in the distance.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Ampharos' Office

"Do the two of you have any idea why you've been summoned here?"

Espurr and Tricky sat in twin stools in Ampharos' office. Ampharos relaxed in the seat behind his desk, looking at them both intently. Mawile was silently leaning against the wall in the background with her arms folded.

"Is it about what happened at Spinda's?" Tricky tried hopefully.

"Correct!" Ampharos exclaimed. Both Espurr and Tricky suddenly shifted in their seats.

"Not to worry," Ampharos quickly clarified. "Neither of you are in trouble yet. However, as witnesses, you must detail what you saw so the Lively Town police can track down the true culprit. I requested this be done from the comfort of my office, rather than at the police building. You should know we're being recorded right now." He gestured to the connection orb on the desk. "If you please… begin!"

Tricky opened her mouth, and Espurr sensed she was about to tell Ampharos everything—

Espurr stuck her paw up. Tricky fell silent before she could say a single word. She looked at Espurr, confused.

"There was an accident with one of the crates," Espurr said, trying not to trip over her words. She was barely keeping herself together as-is. "It wasn't packed properly, and whatever was inside exploded. Tricky and I ran away and got lost. We just made it back here when we got called to your office." She looked up at Ampharos. "That's what happened."

There was a click from the connection orb; the recording had stopped. Espurr eyed it, ignoring Tricky's look of shock.

"Is that all?" Ampharos asked. "Remember that the police need your testimony to be as clear as possible."

"That's everything," Espurr said quickly. "Can we go now?" she asked.

Ampharos dismissed them with a wave of his paw. Once they had left, he sighed and reclined in his seat.

"How much of that do you think was the truth?" Mawile asked.

"Little, if any of it," said Ampharos. "It doesn't match up with the manager's story at all, nor does It include why the police were phoned about a robbery at the harbor. Not to mention the shipments to Spinda's Café contained nothing remotely explosive."

"Why do you think they would lie?" Mawile asked.

"There could be a thousand reasons," Ampharos said, sitting forward. "I suspect fear. Isolating themselves so no-mon else gets hurt. Which, if my suspicions are correct, is exactly what the unknown party in this situation desires. Whoever these beheeyem are."

He reset the connection orb on the table. "Not to worry. We still have one more witness to question before we have the full picture anyway. We can circle back to this later."

~\({O})/~

"What was that about?" Tricky angrily questioned Espurr once they had left Ampharos' office. "We should have said something! Now we're on our own!"

"Don't you get it, Tricky?" Espurr looked at Tricky, her eyes full of fear. "The more pokemon we tell, the more pokemon are going to get hurt! We can't tell the entire police station! That puts them all in danger!"

They both fell silent as Holly limped past them in the hallway, heading in the direction of Ampharos' office.

"But aren't the police supposed to handle these kinds of things?" Tricky asked as they walked down the hallway towards their room.

"Have the police ever handled pokemon who can turn other things into stone?" Espurr asked. "They already blew up a building just to get to us—they'll just petrify the place and walk straight out. We have to deal with this ourselves. We can't get anymon else involved."

"But then how do we get rid of them?" Tricky asked. They had entered their allotted bedroom. Espurr stared out the window, looking at the colorful landscape of Lively Town below. Somewhere, lurking in one of the alleyways below, were a trio of pokemon who no-mon knew were dangerous. Just the sight made Espurr want to shiver with fear.

"I've been thinking about that," she said, calming herself down. "Ever since we left Spinda's. I think I know how to do it. We just need to get them far away from here, then strand them someplace where they aren't able to get back to us."

"Where?" Tricky asked, hints of frustration slipping into her voice.

"There's a ship from the Expedition Society that's leaving for the Sand Continent tonight," Espurr said. "I overheard about it yesterday, just before sundown. The Sand Continent's on the other side of the world, right?"

"Yeah…" Tricky said. "A-and most of the continent's fenced off for archeology purposes, so there aren't many wailord liners to and from there!"

"Except the one that leaves from the Lively Town Docks tomorrow morning," Espurr said. "Remember from the dock schedule? I'll bet they'll follow us there on that. All we need to do is stow away on the ship that's leaving tonight."

Tricky was quickly beginning to look more perky and animated. "So we can really get rid of them?"

"I hope so," Espurr said, clutching the window railing tightly. "Otherwise, we're out of options."

She walked away from the window, opening their exploration bag and going through it to make sure they had all their supplies. "Make sure you aren't forgetting anything. We'll have to leave after dinner."

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Lobby

"Bunmph."

Espurr sat at the bottom of the grand staircase in the lobby, checking her bag one last time just to make sure they hadn't left anything behind. The map, the expedition gadget, a half-used tube of toothpaste, a few oran berries, what little remained of their own blast seeds…

"Bunmph."

That looked like everything. Espurr had gone over the bag's contents almost five times over the past few hours, but it didn't hurt to be just a bit more safe. She latched the bag shut—

"Ephferr!"

That was enough to startle Espurr out of her trance. She looked up to see Tricky sitting in front of her, her tail wagging furiously. In her mouth was a basket of leftover buns from the dinner spread.

"Look!" she sat the basket down in front of them. "I got us buns from the kitchen! Now we won't be hungry on the trip." She looked quite proud of herself.

Espurr tilted her head at the basket. "Did you just steal those from the kitchen?"

"I didn't steal them…" Tricky drawled out. "I just… took them when the chef wasn't looking!"

"That's stealing."

"Well it doesn't matter now!"

Espurr looked both ways, then held open the exploration bag open. "Here, quick. Dump them in before anymon sees. I think the chef will literally kill us if we're found out."

The buns went into the exploration bag, and the basket was thrown out the window to avoid evidence.

"So what are we waiting for?" Tricky asked in a whisper as they both stood in the lobby, trying to look innocent. There was the sound of a door opening up on the second floor. Both Espurr and Tricky straightened up.

"I think our cue's coming now," Espurr said.

Sure enough, just seconds later Bunnelby began to lazily trot down the stairs. He had an explorer's satchel of his own, and he hummed some tune Espurr didn't recognize to himself as he walked towards the door.

"Hey," he greeted as he walked past them. Espurr and Tricky waved back with pronounced, stilted grins on their faces. Bunnelby walked out the door, and neither Espurr nor Tricky moved a muscle until it shut loudly behind him.

"That's our chance!" Espurr whispered. "Let's go!"

"But won't he hear us if we use the door?" Tricky asked.

"We'll just use a window," Espurr said, walking up towards the closest one to the door. Where did you throw the bun basket?"

~\({O})/~

The bun basket had been thrown out near where the trash cans were. Espurr jumped out the window first, followed by Tricky. She rolled to a stop on the ground, quickly getting to her feet and collecting their bag not a second later. She brushed a discarded paper out of her fur with a look of disgust.

"This way!" Tricky said. "We're gonna lose him!"

She took off down the alleyway, and Espurr ran after her to catch up.

"Slow down!" she hissed, chasing Tricky as they turned the corner around the building and ran down the hill towards the rest of the town. "We still have to make sure those beheeyem follow us to the docks! Otherwise, we're doing all this for nothing."

"Um, Espurr?" Tricky had stopped ahead, allowing Espurr to catch up easily.

"What is it?" Espurr asked, panting as she caught up.

"I don't think finding them's going to be a problem…"

Espurr directed her eyes off to the side where Tricky was looking. What she saw made her freeze up in fear. All three of the beheeyem were haunting an alleyway just off to the side. Espurr gasped and quickly edged out of the alleyway's view. Once she was sure the beheeyem couldn't see either of them anymore, she pressed herself up against the house, trying to keep her legs from trembling. She had to keep herself together.

"Now what?" Tricky asked.

This was bad. Espurr had wanted them to follow, but not this close! Bunnelby hadn't even reached the harbor yet! They had to buy more time, otherwise their own trap was going to backfire in the worst way possible.

"We just… have to sneak past them," Espurr said. "I'll make a distraction."

The lid of a trash can fell over in the alleyway the beheeyem were searching with a loud bang. Espurr peeked around the corner just enough to make sure that the beheeyem had fallen for the distraction, then waved Tricky forward. Tricky bounded across, followed by Espurr a split second later.

They splashed through a puddle of water as they went. The noise attracted the attention of at least one beheeyem. Espurr saw its head turn around just before they cleared the alleyway. For just a second, their eyes locked. And then Espurr's left foot hit the ground, and she continued dashing down the street.

"They saw us," she breathed, falling in line with Tricky as they both ran. She grabbed the strap of their expedition bag, holding it tight to her. "We're going to have to fight."

The beheeyem glode out of the alleyway and into the street, catching a good glimpse of Espurr and Tricky running off down towards the harbor in the distance. Shadowy sparks of energy collected around their blinkers, which aimed directly at the slowly shrinking figures in the distance…

Espurr spun around at the last second, and hurled a single blast seed at the beheeyem. A psychic blast caught it midair and propelled it the rest of the way across the gap. It collided with the beheeyem's shadow attack, creating an earsplitting blast. Windows cracked. The beheeyem were blown back. Espurr and Tricky were sent flying through midair towards the bottom of the hill. They hit the ground hard. Espurr didn't any time getting to her feet, and neither did Tricky. They both looked at the beheeyem up on the hill, who were still recovering from the blast.

"Quick, through the alleyway!" Espurr pointed out a small alley to their left. Pokemon were starting to come out of their houses in the aftermath of the blast, looking around for what might have caused the sound. A trio of beheeyem quickly pushed past them without a single word, heading for the small enclove below. But it was already empty.

Tricky dashed down the narrow alleyway, followed closely by Espurr. They edged around a dumpster, taking a hard left as they followed the night sky above for direction.

"Did we get them?" Tricky asked.

The dumpster slammed into the wall behind them with a deafening crash, leaving a dent in the wall and sending trash flying everywhere.

"Something tells me we didn't," Espurr said, shielding her face from the trash that was raining down. "How much longer until we reach the harbor?"

The beheeyem rounded the corner, a shadow attack prepared. Espurr only had a split second, but she reacted fast.

"Tricky, duck!" Espurr hit the ground just before Tricky did. The shadow attack flew over their heads and mangled another dumpster.

Espurr pulled another blast seed out of her bag and threw it at the beheeyem. To her horror, it slowed to a stop just before it could make contact with the beheeyem in front. They'd caught on. The blast seed began to rotate in place, gaining momentum even as Espurr edged herself back and tried to get her footing. Then it shot towards her.

The blast seed hurt. It blew both Espurr and Tricky clean across the alleyway, and felt like fire against Espurr's skin. She landed on the cold, hard ground, which helped ease the burning but stung all the same. The walls around them were damaged, and the beheeyem advanced upon them like they had already won. Tricky was beside her, still recovering just like her. It was the cliff on the mountain all over again. There had to be way out. Some way out…

The mangled dumpster behind the beheeyem began to move with loud creaks and scrapes against the pavement. Then it lifted up off the ground and flew across the alleyway. It collided with the beheeyem from behind, plastering them against the ground and walls.

For a second, all was silent. The beheeyem didn't move, and Espurr and Tricky finally had a chance to peel themselves off the pavement and collect themselves. There were a few burn marks on their bag. Espurr smoothed it over the best she could. She wondered if that could be repaired.

Tricky looked at the ruins of the dumpster that had apparently crushed the beheeyem.

"Are they… dead?" she asked, tilting her head at them. Espurr could feel a psychic presence emanating from under that dumpster. An angry one.

"Not at all," she said. "We should run while we can."

With that, they both dashed down the alleyway without a second thought. The sound of a dumpster crashing in the growing distance behind them rang out in the night and sent chills down their spines.

The harbor was quiet and dark. Espurr and Tricky ran out into the open, quickly hiding themselves behind a pile of crates. Espurr noticed Tricky was carrying herself with a mild limp.

"Is that going to be alright?" she asked, staring at the leg.

"It's just a bruise," Tricky panted, out of breath. "I've had tons of bruises before. But where's Bunnelby?"

Espurr peeked over the top of the crates, frantically looking the ships over. Were they too late? Had he left already?

She spotted the dark outline of the Expedition Society's ship, and breathed a sigh of relief. They weren't too late yet. But were they on-time? She didn't see Bunnelby there, or any other sign of life that would indicate a pokemon had been near that ship recently.

"I don't think he's here yet," she said. "We should get closer before—"

She heard Tricky's gasp, and felt her tense up. Turning around, she saw what Tricky saw: The beheeyem were approaching them from the same alleyway they had come out of. Espurr tensed up ready to fight, but her body and her head sent her aching pangs—she was in no condition to fight, and neither was Tricky. They had one last blast seed left, but using that in close quarters would just blow them all sky high.

They were out of options. The only way out was to run—

Then Espurr heard Tricky snicker. She looked over at her partner, watching the fennekin scrunch up her tail as she tried to keep her laughter contained.

"What's so funny?" Espurr asked, looking at Tricky incredulously.

"Don't they look so silly?" Tricky asked, trying her best not to devolve into a giggling fit. "Look at them!"

Very confused and on-guard, Espurr looked at the beheeyem. On closer look, they were struggling to keep themselves straight. Their cone-like heads wobbled back and forth like waving tops, and they couldn't even lift their arms to aim another attack at the two of them. Espurr had to admit the sight did look a pretty silly, even if this was a life or death situation.

There were black sparks flying around the many burn marks and dents in the beheeyems' bodies, and steam evaporated off their forms. The many dents, cuts, and burn marks in their body were slowly disappearing—whatever those black sparks were were healing them. Espurr didn't understand it, but now wasn't the time to get focused on small, roundabout details—they needed to move while they could.

"Let's go before they stop doing… that," she said, pushing away a still struggling not to laugh Tricky in the direction of the ship.

She could see Bunnelby now, lighting a torch in the harbor as he hopped up on the crates to get on the ship. Espurr and Tricky quickly cleared half the harbor, hiding behind another stack of crates as they watched Bunnelby hop up onto the ship.

"We'll use those crates to get up onto the back of the ship when he's not looking," she said. "Then we'll sneak below deck."

Bunnelby disappeared into the ship's door, and then Espurr waved Tricky along. "He's in the ship!"

Espurr and Tricky hopped over the crate they were hiding behind and made a beeline for the ship at the end of the harbor. Espurr heard the pile of crates behind them get loudly blasted away, but she chose to ignore it. The sound of crates tumbling and their contents spilling out everywhere just made it harder not to look back.

Espurr reached the pile of crates outside the ship, but stopped to help Tricky up before she went herself. She spared a split seconds' worth glance towards the beheeyem coming towards them—too long. An attack hit the crates and jostled them. They didn't fall over, but teetered dangerously over the water.

Then Espurr saw something that triggered perhaps the largest scare of her life—the ship was setting off! And they still had three more steps to climb before they reached the top of the crates!

Espurr helped Tricky up the crates as best they could. The beheeyem got closer and closer behind them. Espurr cast another glance at them—another attack was amassing between their blinkers. This one would probably topple the crates over.

Finally at the top. She and Tricky watched the ship that was setting off towards the harbor. Tricky looked back towards the beheeyem with horror.

"What do we do?" she asked, her voice dripping with terror.

Espurr was determined to get on that boat, no matter what.

"We jump," she said, desperately trying not to look like she was coming up with a plan on the spot.

"Jump? We'll land in the water!" Tricky exclaimed.

"We won't!" Espurr said. She didn't entirely know that, but she was banking on a gamble. "But only if we jump now!"

"Are you… are you sure?" Tricky asked.

Espurr decided she was. It was all or nothing. She nodded firmly at Tricky.

Tricky gulped, then grabbed onto Espurr. Espurr grabbed hold back.

"Three…"

The beheeyem's attack that was about to fly any second now.

"Two…"

The ship sailing off in the distance, getting farther away with every second.

"One…"

The crates were suddenly knocked out from under them—

"Jump!"

Espurr and Tricky both launched off the crate under them just before it gave away, tumbling into the sea below with all its lookalikes. Espurr and Tricky flew through the air, losing momentum for just a second and heading towards the water—

—An invisible force bounced up from under them, propelling them the rest of the way onto the ship's back deck. Espurr and Tricky hit the ship's floor rolling with a loud thud. Espurr's head throbbed with pain, but between that and drowning in the ice-cold ocean with a pair of wannabe killers greeting them at the shore, this was the better option by far. She and Tricky lay on the deck of the ship for a moment, clinging tightly to each other and panting in exhaustion.

The beheeyem watched them from the shore, their blinkers flickering red yellow green in the night. Espurr could feel the demented stares they were sending her from a mile away, but at the moment she didn't care. Because they had won. For the moment, they were safe. And there wasn't a single thing the beheeyem could do about it.

The ship sailed off into the night, carrying two more passengers than it should. Phase one of Espurr's plan was complete.

~\(O})/~

Music of the Week!

Those We Don't Speak Of - James Newton Howard