0.

~\({O})/~

35.

Yellow Scarf

~\({O})/~

Treasure Town ~ Grass Continent

~Sparkleglimmer~

Despite the harness that secured her to the back of the flygon she was riding, Sparkleglimmer clutched both her paws and ribbons tightly around the flygon's neck as it zoomed over the sea at speeds she failed to forget were possible whenever she wasn't riding a flygon. Perhaps she had blotted them out from her memory somehow. She could feel the flygon's discomfort with having a passenger clutch its neck through her ribbons, which made her uncomfortable by extension. She removed her ribbons and used only her paws instead.

The striking façade of the Grass Continent's Treasure Town lay dead ahead, just a few miles out. By virtue of being a tourist location, Treasure Town possessed an amount of wealth and prosperity unknown to any other settlement on the Grass Continent. Which, by the standards of other continents, only equated to paved roads and electrical lighting, but it was something. The town had needed to be renovated before tourists from the richer continents would touch it, anyways.

There was only one part of the town that had proven frustratingly elusive: the Wigglytuff's Guild. Wigglytuff, the old zubat, was much shrewder than he appeared—when the time had come for him to step down, he had left the guild not to the HAPPI officials who were offering a large sum for guild ownership, but to the most stalwart rising star in the guild's ranks—a bibarel. And on behalf of the Grass Continentals' pride, Bibarel didn't sell. No matter how harshly the town was taxed or how many benefits the guild was excluded from, Bibarel refused to sell. His choice soon reflected upon the entire guild, and even some of the town—the wigglytuff décor on the guild's front tent had become greyed and tattered from disrepair, and its members were frequently underpaid and underfed. Now the situation had become dire enough that Sparkleglimmer had a feeling Bibarel would finally bend. And the economic benefits of finally controlling the last major Explorer's Guild in the world could not be turned up so easily. She had come prepared.

The flygon landed on the ground deftly, its wings finally slowing to a speed where Sparkleglimmer could see them flapping again. She sat up, using her ribbons to undo the harness attached to her belly. The flygon was tipped twice his usual fee as she stepped off his back, enough that the issue of neck clinging was never brought up between them.

The paved roads of Treasure Town were narrow and crooked, done by 'mon who had clearly never paved a road before. That was what happened when you sourced a Grass Continent construction company to do a decent job. It was cheaper, sure, but they weren't good for much else beyond cutting wood.

Sparkleglimmer climbed the stairs that led to the tattered Wigglytuff's Guild. She stepped onto the padded grate, the old mossy bars of which had long since been replaced by a more comfortable grid mesh.

"A footprint, a footprint!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

Mentally, Sparkleglimmer rolled her eyes. What a primitive method of security.

"The footprint is Sylveon's!"

"Darn right it is!" Sparkleglimmer called into the vents. "I'm here on official HAPPI business. Open up!"

There was some quiet muttering below the vent Sparkleglimmer didn't catch. Then, the wooden gate in front of her began to open, pulled back by the chains operating behind it. Sparkleglimmer made a show of clearing her throat daintily and walked through.

~\({O})/~

The inside of the Wigglytuff's Guild was no less desolate than the outside. Sparkleglimmer walked in, glancing up at the holes in the tattered grey canvas above.

There was a quadruped-friendly ramp that led deeper into the guild, but not much else. The few guards who stood on duty looked tired and malnourished. There was a charmeleon close to the ramp that looked like it was on the brink of death. It looked up at Sparkleglimmer with sunken eyes as she walked down the ramp. Sparkleglimmer hid a grimace as she passed. What poor, ugly souls. She'd have to take care of that once the guild had been bought out.

Biberal's office was lower down, in the underground portion of the guild. Sparkleglimmer had heard Wigglytuff used to sit up above ground on a throne when he was still alive, but if there was still a throne up in that room, it was in shambles.

The door to Biberal's office was pushed open by a flaffy and a bidoof, allowing Sparkleglimmer to walk in. The doors shut behind her, and then she faced Biberal.

He looked just as underfed and tired as the rest of them. Parchment was all over his desk in a messy mound, and the office smelled like paper had been rotting away for a good while.

"Bibarel," she addressed him, sitting down on the floor. The barbarians didn't even have cushions.

"Sylveon."

"Sparkleglimmer, thanks."

.The remark was cold and all business. Biberal's silent eyes matched it completely.

"mind tellin' me what you're here for?"

"It's simple," Sparkleglimmer said. "I know your contract with what's left of the Rescue Federation expires in a month. I'm here to buy the Wigglytuff Guild."

"Then I, and all my workers, ain't interested," Biberal said, cutting her short when she opened her mouth again. "We've told you tha' before."

"Hmm, but are you interested in going bankrupt?" Sparkleglimmer said. "You're on death's door as is."

"We'd sooner go bankrupt than sell ta you."

Sparkleglimmer didn't see that as worth replying to. It looked like diplomacy wasn't going to work. She needed to switch gears.

"Well, as I see it, you have two very large problems," she began, reaching into the purse that hang from her bow with her ribbons. "First, you're impoverished. Tourist money and whatever pathetic offerings the Rescue Federation can still give has kept you afloat until now, but even that is failing you. Getting harder and harder to find townies who will do business with you, y'know? Why bother posting independent requests and supporting your local guild when the Connection Orb Network is just so convenient? Explorers from off-continent get here in a day, and get the job done twice as fast. Second problem: your guild isn't listed as a part of our database."

"I don' see tha' las' one as a problem," Bibarel said, taking a breath. He was old, centuries old. Sparkleglimmer could hear it in his throat.

"Oh, but it is," she said coolly. "You'll fade into obscurity! Just think: the Wigglytuff's Guild, an ancient relic of the past that refused to move on and became just another name in a history book. You may be willing to make that sacrifice, but even you can't deny the facts."

Bibarel sighed, shutting his eyes wearily.

"It used ta be simple," he said. "You saw a 'mon, you rescued that 'mon. There wasn' a license on wha' you coul' and couldn' do. Ya didn' go to jail for doin' a good deed. That's how it shoulda stayed. Doesn' matter how much the times change, things like tha' shouldn't."

"The times never changed," Sparkleglimmer said. "There's always been a price tag attached. Always been restrictions on what you could and couldn't do. Always been pokemon jailed for doing good deeds. Maybe you just didn't see it back then."

There was a silent moment of tension. Biberal didn't say anything, and rightly so. What could he say? She had him backed into a corner.

"Think of this as your saving grace," Sparkleglimmer continued in Biberal's silence. "Just think of all the things you'll be able to do once you're a proper part of the network! You'll have the money to feed and pay your employees properly! Full access to the Connection Orb Network and mystery dungeon archives! Transfer teams and aid from HAPPI! And all you have to do is sign this paper."

"Bu' we won' have our independence."

"'Independence'…" Sparkleglimmer drawled. "Such a big word. Franky, you've twisted it so much I thought you'd forgotten what it meant."

"If Ah sign that paper, we're at y'alls mercy," Biberal said. "I can't bring myself to do tha'."

"You're at our mercy either way," said Sparkleglimmer. "Shame you can't seem to understand that."

"Perhaps we have differen' definitions of 'mercy'."

"This paper is mercy," Sparkleglimmer snapped, leaning in across the desk. "It's the last and only mercy you will get. I recommend you sign it."

There was a moment of silence. For every inch that Sparkleglimmer leaned forward, Bibarel leaned a bit more back.

"Or!" she perked up, leaning back and suddenly looking a lot less menacing. "Or! I could simply approach that start-up guild a few miles south with my proposition instead! What was it, the… Blackthorn Guild? That would put you all out of business for sure. So, what's it going to be?"

Biberal was silent. His angry eyes did the speaking for him. Sparkleglimmer placed one of her ribbons on her chin in an exaggerated thinking gesture.

"Hmm… I'll take your silence as a no. That's unfortunate. This offer won't be on the table for much longer."

She took the paper off the desk and placed it back in her purse. The doors of Biberal's office opened for her as she walked out.

"If you change your mind, you know how to reach me!" she yelled on the way out.

~\({O})/~

Pokemon Paradise ~ HAPPI Dorms

~Alice~

Pokemon Paradise was just as frigid as Alice remembered it. Without her partner, it felt even colder.

She'd been through all the forms, the signup sheets, the paperwork. So far as HAPPI knew, her partner had died of natural causes while having a bathroom break in the alleyway. She didn't think they'd believe the real story, and with good reason, she reckoned.

There was more paperwork to go through after that. She had to confirm her current registry papers were up to date, confirm her results from the last exam were up to date, confirm she was okay with having any assigned pokemon as a partner. (she wasn't, but if it kept the lights on at night and a roof over her head, she'd do it.)

Already, it felt like morning had come too fast. She wanted to sleep the entire day, but that wasn't an option—HAPPI was assigning her a new team member… she checked the clock… right now.

Right now?

Alice shot up from her bed like a spooked litten. It was a good thing she'd gotten up when she had – at the rate she'd been sleeping, she would have missed her appointment and the guild breakfast too. But the first one was more important right now; she couldn't afford to be late to that.

She walked out of her room and then, after checking to make sure no-mon else was in the hall at that moment, started sprinting down the corridor so she'd get there in time.

~\({O})/~

As it turned out, this wasn't going to be as quick and tidy as she had expected. All she was told was that her next partner was a braixen that would meet her at some point in the mess hall, and then left to her own devices.

That left her to uncertainly mill around the lunchroom, collect what she was to eat for breakfast and sit at the tables, looking around for the pokemon she was supposed to meet.

Most teams had headed out by now to do their assigned missions, leaving the tables mostly empty and bare. Luckily, that meant there were less heads to sort through. Alice soon saw a lavender head through all the others, one that obviously belonged to a braixen. That looked like her cue.

She got up from her bench, deciding to cut the meeting short. As the braixen walked over, she saw the slip in his paws. Looked like this was the one.

The braixen must have noticed at some point that she was approaching him, because he stopped and focused on what was written on his slip.

"Are you…" he began. "Vaporeon Alice?"

"You're the new partner right?" Alice didn't bother with introductions. She noted that it was the braixen she had run into at the Noe Town docks, but didn't really care. "That's me."

She turned around to the table, gesturing the braixen along with her tail fins. "Come on. Get something to eat. We need to talk.

"Have you ever been in a rescue team before?" Alice asked as the braixen chowed down on whatever was left over from the guild breakfast. He ate ravenously, like he hadn't eaten well for days.

"No," the braixen said, his mouth full of food. "But I can fend for myself."

"That's good to hear."

She took a lap of water, then began speaking again without looking at her partner. "We don't usually go into mystery dungeons here. Most of our job is spent doing tasks around the city." Another lap of water. "if you're lucky, or unlucky, eventually you get transferred off to another guild to do actual exploration work. That's about 10 percent of every pokemon who signs up for a team here. In other words: don't count on it. Got that all down?"

"They told me that on the way in," Braixen said. "Just… less cynically."

"Well, you needed to hear the cynical version," Alice said. Maybe it was the grey sky, or the lack of sleep, or the ambient cold of winter creeping its way indoors, but she was in a bad mood today.

"One more thing you need to know," she said. "We are partners in name only. I know the terrain here better than you do. You do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it. That way, this is easy for all of us. Kapeesh?"

"Kapeesh," the braixen said without hesitation. He was still practically inhaling food, albeit slower now. But even so, Alice got the feel it came too eagerly.

"Well, good to hear it," she said, sticking her head in the water bowl and absorbing the rest of the water. She was too lazy to drink it. "When you're done, we can see what missions we can take today.

The braixen nodded, seeming like he was finally finished wolfing down food.

The large doors of the hall opened, and in walked two pokemon that Alice wasn't expecting to see at all: the heroes of Mist, Alexis and Elliot.

They walked off to the side, turning the heads of every guild member that they passed. It wasn't an unheard-of occasion for those two to walk into the building on guild business, but to do so in the middle of breakfast unannounced was new.

For some reason Alice thought she saw Alexis glance over at her table, but it didn't look like he was looking at her. Braixen had looked over his shoulder and immediately looked antsy in their presence. It was a moment before they passed on, entering a door off to the side of the hall and letting it close loudly behind them. The hall behind was left in shocked silence. It even took Braixen a little time to settle down again.

She supposed she couldn't blame him. It was his first day, after all.

~\({O})/~

~Alexis and Elliot~

"I hope you understand I'm a little irked you two decided to take a mission request to Noe Town this close to an important briefing," a noctowl said as they fell into stride with Alexis and Elliot. "The resident team there had it under control, and you two are needed here."

"The resident team there was taken hostage by the pirates," Alexis said. "I hope you understand that if this headquarters received a mission request, that either means the other team was taken out of commission or is wholly incompetent."

"And you felt the need to go yourselves, instead of sending a different team?"

"It looked like a nice jot out of town," Alexis said. "I've been getting cabin fever."

By his side, Elliot looked like he wanted to say something, but decided to hold his piece.

They reached a room with a large table, then entered it. Alexis took a seat, then Elliot and the noctowl did as well. The three other pokemon at the table were still and silent.

"Today, we take a vote on whether to go ahead with the Paradise Expansion Project or not," the noctowl began. Before the six of us—" he glanced at a single empty chair"—and the one absentee cast our votes, it's important that we're all on board with the current status of the project. Does anymon need briefing."

Alexis flippantly raised his paw. The noctowl pointed a wing at him.

"Alexis. Yes."

"Did we solve the problem of Traveler's Demise yet?" he asked. "Last I checked that dungeon is the whole reason we're building upwards and not outwards. We had to push the trail back six feet just this year to account for growth, and we're moving ahead with the project?"

"Yes, we recently uncovered a solution for that," the noctowl said. "As you know, Cloud Nine docks at Pokemon Paradise for its bi-annual maintenance in a few days. The HAPPI director claims she can remove the dungeon for us."

Alexis raised an eyebrow.

"Remove the dungeon?" he asked. "How? Even I can't control the dungeons."

"That's above all our paygrades, apparently," the noctowl said. "All we know is that the director has utmost confidence it can happen. Any other questions?"

Now Elliot raised a paw. The noctowl pointed him out with a visible sigh.

"Have we considered building around the slums instead of mowing them down?" he asked.

"Those are old, rotting buildings," the noctowl said. "It's better if they're all demolished." They'd had this argument before.

"Well, we can take the time to overhaul them," Elliot protested. "We don't need to displace all the pokemon living there just to build out more."

"That's twice the cost of supplies, twice the cost of labor, and the pokemon living there will still need to be evicted," The noctowl said. "Stop being naïve. A proposal like that would push our plans back to next summer."

"What about relocating them, then?" Elliot asked.

"Too complicated," the noctowl said.

"It would only take a warehouse," Elliot countered.

For once, the noctowl didn't have a reply to shoot his suggestion down. Elliot saw fit to continue. "Kicking pokemon out into the streets in the middle of winter? That's cruel. Aren't you worried about all the pokemon who will freeze to death because of that decision?"

His remark only seemed to stir vaguely uncomfortable glances among the council.

"All we'd need is a warehouse, food, water, and some blankets," Elliot continued.

"I-I'm sure a lot of them will find new homes on their own," another one of the councilmon, an arbok, spoke up. He didn't sound entirely convinced. He was met with uneasy agreement from across the board. Elliot stood up in his seat, placing his paws on the table angrily.

"Of course they aren't going to!" he yelled angrily. "Kicking those pokemon out into the streets is like sentencing them all to death!"

"That's enough," the noctowl commanded. "We've had this argument more times than is good for the health of anymon at this table. If there are no other questions, we will now vote on whether the project will advance or not."

He raised an arm. "All for?"

Two of the others raised their arms.

"All against?"

Elliot and the arbok raised their own appendages. The noctowl's eyes fell to Alexis, who hadn't raised his arm at all.

"Alexis," he said. "You haven't voted."

"Sounds right," Alexis said. "Haven't decided yet."

The noctowl sighed. "I'd suggest not being problematic about this, Alexis."

"No need to get aggravated," Alexis said. "I said I haven't decided yet, not that I won't." He rose from his chair. "You'll have my answer, and the answer of that empty chair, by tomorrow's end."

~\({O})/~

Pokemon Paradise

~Zoroark-as-Braixen~

It was frosty out in the streets of Pokemon Paradise, but it was seeming more and more like that was just a normal staple of the place. Zoroark-as-Braixen trudged along behind Alice, trying not to draw too much attention to himself as they both plodded along.

His head was a mess. He didn't know whether to be celebrating because he'd finally opened up a path to survival, or cowering in fear because he was in one of the most precarious positions he'd ever been in his life.

The vaporeon he'd been partnered with was the one he'd stumbled into at the docks. He hadn't expected her to be this scathing with her remarks. Their mission today was to patrol the streets of the city, specifically the portion in the slums. Extra attention was being focused on that area today, and they clearly weren't the only teams in this section of the city.

"Stick close to me, and don't draw attention to yourself," Alice said as they entered the slums. "A team went missing yesterday in this area, so that's why it's getting the extra attention. Just keep your head down, and all we'll have to do is make a few laps of the place."

It didn't look like getting any trouble was a likely possibility, though. All the resident pokemon camping out in the streets and lurking in the houses shied away from them as they walked through, like the rescue teams were hungry monsters on the prowl. And considering what Zoroark had been on the losing side of yesterday… he couldn't blame them.

It continued like that for a few hours. The two of them slunk through the streets, keeping a cursory eye on all the going ons around them and trying not to draw unnecessary attention. The grey skies above rumbled and threatened to start raining. The buildings creaked and swayed in the wind. The air and ground was chilly to the touch.

Then there was a shout.

"You two!" a granbull pointed at them. "Over here! We've found something."

The granbull's team and a few others were huddled around a crooked and narrow alleyway. Zoroark-as-Braixen suddenly felt a bit uneasy as he went. He was good with illusions from a distance and around one or two pokemon, but around a bunch at once… he'd never had to try before.

In the middle of the alleyway, there were the tattered shreds of a few scarves. Scarves that belonged to a rescue team. Zoraork-as-Braixen breathed out a barely audible sigh of relief. They hadn't found the ashes of the scarves he'd burnt yesterday.

The granbull stood back, looking down at them.

"What do you think?" he said.

"Could they have blown in on the wind?" Alice asked.

"And right into a crooked alleyway where we'd be able to see them easily?" the granbull scoffed. "No, these were deliberately placed."

"What are you implying?" Alice asked hollowly. "That somemon wanted us to find these?"

"Seems like pretty obvious bait, doesn't it?" the granbull asked. "There's even a trail." He pointed further into the alleyway, where drops of a substance that looked scarily similar to blood had frozen on the ground to make a path.

"I'm gathering every team in the area to take a look," Granbull continued. "That's you two, my team, and Alfonso's over here."

The pangoro waved at the sound of his name.

"So you want us to spring an obvious trap?" Alice asked dryly.

"Not unprepared," the granbull said. "Do you have a better option?"

"I guess I don't." Alice padded over behind Alfonso. Zoroark-as-Braixen followed, hoping to stay mostly out of sight.

He didn't know what he was going to do if he had to fight.

The eight pokemon total made their way down the alley, following the trail of blood. One of the buildings had long since leaned into the other for support, blotting out all light from above. Zoroark mentally counted his blessings as they walked. The darker it was, the less he had to worry about disguising himself.

"Keep an eye out for anything that looks suspicious," Granbull said as they walked. Zoroark-as-Braixen joined the other seven pokemon in looking around as they walked. He didn't see anything amiss with the walls or the floor. There weren't any cracks in the wall, or crevasses where a 'mon could hide. Nothing looked like camouflage, and Zoroark definitely would have spotted any illusions right off the bat. Even above was closed off. That meant the only place an attack could come from was…

"Hmm." The granbull said, stopping in the middle of the alleyway. "The trail ends here."

Sure enough, the blood stopped in the middle of the alley, lit by the light of the exit ahead. Granbull stood up and waved the other seven pokemon on forwards.

There was suddenly the sound of the tromping of feet all around them. The eight pokemon in the alleyway looked at the exits, seeing them blocked off by pokemon on both sides.

"I told you this was a stupid idea," Alice growled.

"Not the time," Granbull grouched back.

"Alright!" he yelled to the pokemon ahead of the alleyway. "Stand back, let us pass, and no-mon gets hurt. Proceed with whatever you're planning, and face the wrath of three rescue teams working together."

The pokemon didn't respond with words. They marched forward, beginning to quicken up with each step.

"Last warning!" Granbull called out. Around him, the other seven pokemon were beginning to shape up for battle. It was looking less and less to Zoroark like they were going to get out of this without a fight.

He hoped he could at least stay hidden long enough to get out of it.

One of the pokemon in the lead, a weavile, began to charge forward with its claws out.

"You asked for this," the granbull said, and then he charged to meet the weavile halfway through the alley. His large jaws ignited with fire.

The initial clash of fire and ice sent out slivers and shards of both through the alley, which met and evaporated into steam. Then the scene devolved into chaos. Zoroark's first instinct was to use an illusion and disappear—he could creep away from the battle that way. But then he remembered he was Braixen right now. He'd be found out if he did that.

A sneasel swiped for Zoroark-as-Braixen, who fell to his feet and backed away just quick enough to avoid having his snout sliced off, once, twice, thrice—

—A large fist punched the sneasel into one of the alleyway walls, knocking it out cold. Alfonso looked down at Zoroark-as-Braixen, holding out his other paw.

"You're a fire, yeah?" he asked. "We could use that right now."

Zoroark thought quickly.

"I—I lost my wand," he said, quickly checking his fake tail to make sure he'd removed the wand. He just had to count on Alfonso buying that.

A barrage of ice slammed into them both. Alfonso braced himself and blocked most of it; Zoroark-as-Braixen caught the tail end of the blast.

"Never met a braixen who needed a wand to do fire before," Alfonso said. He clenched his fist, and it began to brim with black energy. Seconds later, a group of ice-types responsible for the ice barrage were sent flying back into the alleyway.

"Duck!" came a voice from behind them.

Zoroark and Alfonso turned around just in time—razor-sharp icicles jutted through the air, heading straight for them. One of them clipped Alfonso in the shoulder. He let out something between a growl and a roar, regaining his bearings just a bit too late. One of the ice-types iced his foot to the ground.

"Hey!" he yelled as Zoroark-as-Braixen stumbled off. "Unfreeze this!"

Zoroark was too frenzied to hear him.

The space they were in was getting too close to comfort. Zoroark suddenly felt a long tail hook around his midsection—

—Seconds later, he found himself pulled right next to Alice by her tail.

"What did I just tell you?" Alice loudly asked, keeping her eyes on the group of advancing ice-types ahead of them. They were backed up against the team members facing the group from the other side now. "Stay with me, do what I instruct you to! You know some fire moves, right?"

Panicked and short on time, Zoroark-as-Braixen shook his head 'no'.

"No?" Alice asked. "You're a fire-type! How did you even make the entrance exam?"

The entrance exam had been purely demonstrative, and he was good at making something that looked like fire. Not that he would say that here.

"Never mind," Alice said, shooting another geyser of water out of her mouth. Much of it was frozen before it could reach the other pokemon, and she was beginning to look tuckered out herself.

"Granbull!" she yelled. Granbull was over on the other side, desperately using what little fire he could summon to push the ice-types back. "We need to try and get out of this as soon as possible! Can Alfonso clear a path?"

Alfonso looked back upon hearing his name.

"I can—" he began.

Suddenly, a large ball of ice flew through the air and struck him on the head. It knocked the lights out of him. Slowly, he began to bowl over, the other, smaller pokemon in the vicinity trying to jump clear before he hit the ground with a large crash. Just like that, the largest pokemon in the alley was out cold.

"Now would be a really good time to learn some kind of fire move…" Alice nudged Zoroark-as-Braixen pointedly. By now, the ice-types were beginning to realize there was no reason they had to keep their distance anymore. They began to creep closer.

"These are…" Zoroark-as-Braixen said, trying to come up with an excuse. He looked at the walls around him. "Too close quarters. You don't want to start a fire, right?"

"You don't want to die, right?" Alice retorted. Seconds later, she had to dive out of the way of a spheal's bite.

He couldn't use a big fire attack, not when it could so easily be revealed as fake in an area this small. But he wasn't helpless. Zoroark-as-Braixen ran ahead of the group and into the gang of ice-types, using invisible claws to swipe through pokemon left and right. To the others, it looked like his arms had been wreathed in controlled flames, just weak enough to avoid being obviously fake. The smoke and mirrors got the job done.

Then somemon else stepped into the alleyway.

They were just as big as Alfonso was, and they towered over Zoroark. Their claws were encrusted in pure, pristine ice.

The beartic charged, and Zoroark-as-Braixen was in his way.

The last things he heard and saw before he had the lights knocked out of him was Alice's cry, and the sight of the large bear pokemon charging straight for him.

He'd later learn the beartic had steamrolled the entire alleyway of pokemon into unconsciousness.

~\({O})/~

Old Room

When Zoroark came to again, he was in the middle of an old, rickety room. The floorboards softly swayed under him, and he could feel a chill in the air that wasn't becoming of the indoors.

"It's a little cold."

Zoroark jumped at the sound of the voice. He wasn't alone in here, it seemed. He looked over, seeing a scyther standing with his back towards him at the unlit fireplace. Had he been waiting there all that time?

"Who are you?" he asked.

"A friend."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"To talk."

"About what?"

The scyther turned around. "About something very important to me, and something very important to you."

Zoroark sat up in the straw.

"Where are all the rest of my teammates?" he asked.

"Unconscious, but unharmed," the scyther said. "They'll wake up in a completely different part of town. I only needed you."

He walked over, taking a seat a good three feet away from Zoroark. Next to him, on a small table whose edges were riddled with what looked like steep cuts and dents, lay a teacup that fit over the scyther's limbs. He raised it up, and took a sip. He did not offer any to Zoroark.

"You…" Zoroark was trying to put together coherent sentences, but his head was still a little muddled from the hit he'd taken. "I remember you. From the stage yesterday."

"And I remember you," the scyther replied. "'Just passing through', you said. How curious that you've gone and joined the HAPPI ranks. Illegally, at that."

"You're not going to turn me in, right?" Zoroark asked.

The scyther chuckled. "No, no, far from it. Not that I could. The fools at HAPPI would be far more interested in my head than yours."

Zoroark finally regained enough clarity to sit up and keep himself that way

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

The scyther cleared his throat, stood up, and turned away from Zoroark once again. It was like a rehearsed movement.

"This house, this hut on stilts," the scyther began. "It creaks and sways and shakes, like it could collapse at any moment. And yet, it is home. For me, for my brethren, and for those who don't bear scarves but cannot afford to live anywhere better."

He took a sip of his tea, then sighed.

"But come this winter, that home will be a distant dream. The blizzards that come will knock our houses over, and an innumerable amount of lives will be lost from the destruction and the cold. Unless we can get that repair bill footed."

"What do you want me to do about that?" Zoroark asked.

"You are the most important piece in the plan," the scyther said. "A disguised zoroark with full access to anything in the HAPPI ranks is a valuable position we haven't seen for years. You can be our eyes on the inside, gathering information as one pokemon and sneaking here by night as another. I want you to be my spy."

Zoroark took a moment to think it over. He was in a bad enough situation as is, but at least as it was he had the option to lay low and stay out of sight. If he start spying on things for this pokemon, he'd be drawing attention to himself. Even if he couldn't bring himself to disagree with the cause.

"What if I say no?" he asked, testing the waters.

"We turn you in," the scyther said.

"What?" Zoroark asked. "I thought you said you wouldn't turn me in—"

"I said I wouldn't turn you in," the scyther cut in. "Do you think I'm working alone?"

That shut Zoroark up.

"So what's it going to be?" the scyther asked. "Will you help me, or shall I strike you down?"

As much as Zoroark detested it, he didn't see another way out of this.

"Yeah, I'll help," he said. Then he decided to throw in one last twist. "But if you sell me out at any point, I'm taking you down with me."

"Then it sounds like a deal," the scyther said, not fazed in the least. To the contrary, there was a grin spreading across his face. "Call me Amadeus, by the way. Do you keep a name?"

"I don't."

"Pity."

The scyther got up from his seat, pointing a blade to his side. "The door's over there. Memorize where it is. I want you to visit tonight, just so we have it all down."

~\({O})/~

HAPPI Building

~Alexis and Elliot~

The mist and the buildings of Paradise obscured the sunset, but some rays of orange light were still getting through to the elevated walkways of the HAPPI barracks. Elliot followed after Alexis, who was walking along back towards where the mess hall was.

"You're going to vote with me, right?" Elliot asked.

Alexis was silent.

They walked for a couple more minutes. The silence could be cut with a knife.

"No," Alexis said.

"What?"

Elliot's appalled reply did a lot to phase Alexis, but he didn't let it show on his face.

"You're voting with them?" Elliot said. "You're just fine with driving out all the pokemon in those slums?"

"They're living in slums, Elliot," said Alexis. "That's basically on the street in the first place."

"I don't…" Elliot's voice was a soft stutter of disbelief. "You're really okay with this?"

It was a moment before Alexis responded.

"No."

"But you're voting with them anyway—"

"That's the only option," Alexis said, cutting Elliot off. "It was decided the moment the director signed on."

"Then why didn't you vote then?" Elliot asked. "Why wait until now?"

"To diffuse tensions," Alexis said.

"You mean to keep me quiet," said Elliot, reading between the lines.

Alexis didn't answer that.

"I remember when you would have stood up with me and argued against the rest of the council right there and then," Elliot muttered. "You did that once. That's why this place exists. This is supposed to be paradise! Not a place where pokemon go to live in ramshack buildings and die in the streets!"

He stopped walking for a moment, letting himself catch his breath and calm down. Alexis kept walking without him.

"What changed?"

The voice came from Elliot. That was enough to make Alexis stop.

"When did you change?" Elliot asked.

Alexis didn't turn around. He spoke without facing Elliot. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to.

"When one of us grew up," Alexis said. "And the other didn't."

He started walking again, leaving Elliot behind him. This time, it was a while before Elliot followed.

~\({O})/~

HAPPI Building

~Zoroark-as-Braixen~

Zoroark had to trudge all the way back through town the way he came. By the time he could see the HAPPI building, it was already beginning to break nightfall. He wearily made his way up into the building as Braixen, showing his rescue team scarf to the guards so they let him through after hours.

He found Alice waiting by one of the desks in the lobby, surveying the pokemon who came in and out.

"Where were you all this time?" she asked him harshly once he had gotten close enough. "You weren't with us when everymon else came to."

"I… got lost," he said, trying his best to cover up for himself. "I woke up alone somewhere else. I was searching for you. But after a while I couldn't find anything, so I decided to come back to headquarters and file a missing pokemon slip."

It sounded believable enough. He hoped. He nervously fidgeted and tried not to look like he was nervously fidgeting.

Alice looked like she wanted to say a lot of things, but refrained from it. Instead, she gestured Zoroark-as-Braixen on with her tail, heading off towards the mess hall.

"Come on," she said. "Let's just eat."

Her apathy grated on Zoroark, but he followed anyway. Low moods and empty stomachs would only make things worse.

~\({O})/~

Team Colbat Quarters

Sleeping in a cozy room with stone walls felt wrong. Zoroark was used to sleeping in silently swaying cabins of wood. But sleeping inside a room was better than sleeping on the outside. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

He made sure to cover up until none of his mane or limbs were sticking out of the blanket. He wasn't one of those talented illusionists that could maintain their illusions well into their sleep; Everything he'd learned recently had been on the fly. Going to sleep and hoping he woke up before somemon could catch him was a risky move, but it was one that he was going to have to find a solution for sooner or later. Best to start now. At least with this amount of time until morning, he'd be able to sleep and wake up before anymon else did.

Then he remembered: he had to go see that scyther tonight. Suddenly he felt glued to his bed. But the scyther's threat of outing him to the HAPPI 'mon lay clean in his mind. Every second he spent here was a second that scyther's proverbial blades hung over his head.

For a moment, he considered whether the scyther would actually make good on his threat if he didn't show up. Either way, it was too big to risk, he supposed. He's just have to play along and see where it got him.

Zoroark rose from his straw, and dove out the window.

~\({O})/~

Amadeus' House

The scyther looked up from where he was sitting as the door to the rickety old house on stilts slowly slid open.

"Ah. You're here."

Only a fire burning in the stone fireplace lit the room. Zoroark slowly slipped in, closing the door behind him.

"Sit down," Amaedus said, pointing to the straw beside him with a blade that gleamed with the fire's light. "We're going to have a talk."

~\({O})/~

Pokemon Paradise

Two figures slipped off into the night, pulling cloth hoods over their faces as they stalked off. They stuck to the shadows, making sure to keep out of sight even though there weren't any pedestrians in the nearby area. The less chance of a pokemon seeing them, the better.

"Sucks to be out this late tonight," a scraggy silently complained. "I feel like I can barely stand."

"Suck it up," the marowak leading them grunted. "It's just like any other job we do. And that dewott pays buckets of poke. You can go without sleep for one night."

"Yeah…" the scraggy sighed, stretching. "Just sucks is all. Did the mission slip tell us where the target was?"

"Been hanging around the slums today and yesterday," the marowak said. "I reckon we'll find him there again tonight."

~\({O})/~

From this chapter onwards, I'll be moving into a more laissez-faire schedule for updates. I hope to publish a chapter roughly once within every two-week timeframe, but let the day I update be relatively freeform. I hope this will give me time to get ahead in my backlog, polish chapters to a degree I'm happy with them before release, and deliver an overall more polished version of this story on a consistent timeframe.

Music of the Week!

The Curse of The Black Sun - Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli