Off the coast of Arconia and the Pentun Archipelago, on the Sinkhole Sea, the Charging Gogoat, a large ship, was sailing on a journey. It was the ship of a group of treasure hunters called the Mushroom Caps, lead by Porto the Breloom, who had started off just by himself, but grew his crew as he quested. They were searching for the legendary treasure left behind by the late Magmortar Volcast, one of the greatest treasure hunters to ever live. It was true that Porto and the other Mushroom Caps (especially their navigator Renara the Braixen) were on the lookout for the riches, but Porto was truly doing it for the adventures they would have along the way.
"We're headed straight for the Pentun Archipelago, guys!" Renara announced. "We're going to explore all the islands but Wisper Island. Something about that place just gives me a bad feeling... maybe the rumors of terrifying monsters plaguing the island... or what about the dark and gloomy forests that make up the island... or maybe the fact that no adventurer that has set foot upon Wisper Island... has ever returned!"
Just then...
RRRRRRRUUUMMMMMBBLLLLLE...
"GAH! SEA MONSTER!" Fletcher the Wartortle, another member of the Mushroom Caps, screamed as he retreated into his shell.
"Lemme in! LEMME IN!" Sparky the Dedenne, the medic of the crew, shrieked as he tried to get inside of Fletcher's shell.
"Sea monster?" Kentoryu the Gallade, another Mushroom Cap, said as he extended the swordlike appendages that jutted out from his elbows.
"That's not fair! I'm fighting it first, birthing hips!" Kentamo the Blaziken, the ship's cook and Kentoryu's rival, said.
"No way, Bunnelby ears!" The argument devolved into combat.
"Whoa, guys, calm down!" Porto told everyone. "That was just my stomach. There's no sea monster, but if there were, I'd probably punch it 'til it goes back to the depths of the sea that it sleeps on."
Of course it's Porto's stomach. He's always hungry, Kentamo thought as his fight with Kentoryu grinded to a screeching halt. He stormed off towards the kitchen to prepare a meal for him. An eager Porto followed behind him.
"Well, if there was a sea monster, I'd tame it and name it Poe," Fleur the Absol, another member of the crew, chimed in.
"You WOULD?!" Fletcher, who had since poked his head and limbs out of his shell, ducked back in. "I swear, you come up with the most morbid ideas! I just can't take it!"
"Classic Long-ears," Fleur said to herself. "Anyways, I'd love to go to Wisper Island. I think it sounds pretty nice."
Renara, Fletcher, and Sparky all went white with shock.
The silence was cut by Kentoryu, who chimed in with, "I'd also like to go there. It'd be a good training opportunity."
"Me too! Me too!" Porto said.
"I am... conflicted. But... I'm gonna make a little change of plans. Even if it'll kill me, we're going to Wisper Island. But to prepare ourselves, we'll go there last," Renara announced.
"Uh, I don't think I can do that," Fletcher, who had come out of his shell, said. "I have... No-Wisper-Island-For-Me Disorder. Yeah. It's hereditary."
"Enough fibbing," Kentoryu replied. "We're going no matter what."
Fletcher retreated inside his shell, but later popped out.
"Now that that's over with," Renara said, "we'll be going to Hadlun Island first. It's the northernmost and most central island of the archipelago. The others are mostly untamed wilderness." Fletcher retreated into his shell yet again. "Don't be silly, Fletcher. We'll try to stay out of harm's way while we explore them. We'll be docking at the largest town on Hadlun Island, Tamukko Town. We'll be spending most of our time there. And speaking of Hadlun Island, we're going to be docking soon." Sure enough, the Charging Gogoat was headed straight for Tamukko Town on Hadlun Island.
Just then...
CHOMP! GLUP! NOM! SLURP!
"Sounds like Porto finally got his snack," Fleur remarked.
"Yeah," Kentoryu said.
Right on cue, Porto met up with his crew.
"BUURRRRP! Phew, that was a good meal!" he said.
Finally, they docked at Tamukko Town.
As he got off the ship, Porto remarked, "WHOA! This is a really cool place!"
"Yeah!" Fletcher commented.
Just as they were about to actually touch the ground of Hadlun Island, Sparky scurried past them with a "HA! Last one off is a stinky Trubbish!"
Kentamo and Kentoryu immediately started fighting to try and beat the other off the ship.
But they were too caught up in their fighting to notice everyone else had gotten off before them and they scuffled all the way off the ship.
"Looks like the two of you are both stinky Trubbish! HA!" Fletcher said.
Suddenly, a very loud voice cut them off.
"HEL-LOOOOO, INTREPID TRAVELERS! I WELCOME YOU TO THE TRUE CROWN JEWEL OF THE PENTUN ARCHIPELAGO, TAMUKKO TOWN!"
The voice turned out to be Polaris the Magnezone, mayor of Tamukko Town.
"Uh... hi?" Renara wasn't sure what to say.
"Of course, someone's gotta run this holy grail of a place. That's where I come in! Polaris, the mayor of the magnificent Tamukko Town!"
Just then, Porto's stomach let out a very loud rumble... again.
"Oh, deary dear! Is that an earthquake I hear? Well, I don't want my beautiful town to slip into the ground! I'll go-"
"Actually, that's my stomach. Are there any really good places to eat here in your magnificent town?"
"All of them, honestly," Polaris replied. "But may I point you to Bash Bouffalant's Bar 'n Buffet over there?"
"Great! See ya!" Porto used his stretchy arms to grab the rest of the Mushroom Caps as he ran towards Bash Bouffalant's Bar 'n Buffet.
"Hey, wait, Porto! Let's decide as a group first!" Renara said. "Oh, nevermind. He's erased everything else in his mind and is just thinking about food now."
And just like that, in a flash, they were at Bash Bouffalant's Bar 'n Buffet.
When they got there, Breloom asked the bartender Powdero the Mothim, "So what's the deal with this free food thing?"
"So, if you order a drink here, anything from the buffet here is completely on us," Powdero explained.
Kentoryu stepped forward. "How are the drinks here?"
"They're really good," Powdero said.
"Well, I think I'll have one," Kentoryu said. "One Totter Seed juice, please. Maybe more."
And just like that, Porto took off toward the buffet, with Fletcher and Sparky following close after. "Don't forget us! We're starving!"
In a flash, they were at the buffet tables.
Porto took a tray, and got a Slowpoke tail from the table and put it on his tray. Then he decided to just gobble down the rest of the tails at the table.
But those tails weren't the only foodstuffs at the buffet that would be decimated by Porto and his pals.
Fletcher dashed straight for the Basculin fillets, while Sparky went for the sweets.
Porto, however, ate almost anything in sight as long as it was edible.
After a while, a foul stench suddenly filled the air.
"Fletcher! Did you just... fart?" Porto noticed the smell and paused his feeding frenzy.
"Hah, no! It was... Sparky!" Fletcher replied.
"What?! That wasn't me!" Sparky yelped.
"Well, then, if it wasn't Sparky, it was... you, Porto!" Fletcher said.
"Whuh? I know that was you. The fart smell was comin' from you," Porto replied.
"Okay, hah hah... guess I did fart," Fletcher said, tracing a circle on the ground with his leg claw with his arms behind his back.
And just like that, the feeding frenzy resumed, until...
*boink* *boink* *boink* *boioioink*
Sparky had eaten so much he had literally become spherical and rolled off the buffet table.
"Help! I've fallen and can't get up!" he said.
Fletcher noticed, picked Sparky up and put him back on the table.
Meanwhile...
At the bar section of the restaurant, Renara, Kentoryu, Kentamo and Fleur were chatting together, with Kentoryu mostly focused on his Totter Seed juice (his 8th so far here), when a gorgeous Beautifly fluttered into Bash Bouffalant's Bar 'n Buffet.
Kentamo immediately took notice (he was like that with pretty girl Pokémon).
"HEL-LLOOOOOO, MY BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFLY!"
Maripa, the Beautifly, immediately replied with "I'm not gonna take any of your TS. See this?" She unfurled her long tubelike mouth and pointed at it. "You wouldn't want to know what I can do with it. Also, I'm already taken. See him?" She pointed at Powdero. "That's my boyfriend. Shocker, huh?"
"Oh... okay," Kentamo said.
Suddenly, a random voice called out "HEY! YOU GUYSH ARE THOSHE TREASHURE HUNTERSH!"
"Well, nice of you to notice, random drunk Pokémon," said Kentoryu.
"NO! IT'S NOT NISHE! I'M THE REALLY REALLY REALLY BESHT BOUNTY HUNTER IN THE WORLD! I'LL KILL YOU GUYSH AND THEN I'LL BE RICH! RICH!"
Kentoryu finished his own juice and said, "OKAY! TIME TO DIE, BOUNTY HUNTER!" He threw Renara's table at the stranger, who turned out to be a Darmanitan named Ogarus.
"WHAT IN THE DISTORTION WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!" yelled Renara. "You've both had too much juice! Stop! You'll just get us kicked out!"
Kentoryu and Ogarus didn't seem to listen to Renara.
And when a glass thrown by Ogarus hit another Pokémon in the face, the whole thing erupted into a full-on bar-room blitz, while Renara, Fleur, Kentamo and Maripa looked on in sheer terror.
Chairs, tables and glasses went flying, and when they weren't being used as projectiles, they were melee weapons. Windows were broken.
Powdero was beaned by a flying bottle of Berry Juice.
Several (male) Pokémon got hit in the area where it hurt the most.
Some were even set on fire!
Meanwhile, back at the buffet, Fletcher, Sparky and Porto had eaten every single bit of food at the buffet tables. They sat together with their bellies bloated and Sparky was an even bigger ball than before. Porto in particular looked like he had swallowed a wrecking ball whole.
"I can't believe we ate all the food here," Fletcher said, patting his round stomach.
"Yeah," Sparky agreed.
"Well, you've got me here, so it doesn't seem like too big a surprise," Porto added.
"Yeah, you and your appetite," Fletcher said. "Me and Sparky are so full, we're fit to burst. But you? You're still probably a little hungry."
"Yup!" Porto replied.
Of course, Fletcher thought.
FRRRRRT!
"Kihihi," the Mushroom Pokémon chuckled. "Now that toot was me."
Back at the bar, where chaos still abounded, Powdero thought to himself, I should probably go check the buffet. Make sure we aren't out of anything. He flitted over there, and he was in for quite a surprise.
"GAH! THEY ATE EVERYTHING?!"
He gawked at the sight of the buffet tables being completely cleaned of any food, and Porto, Sparky and Fletcher just sitting there with their bloated bellies.
He quickly went back to the bar and flew straight over to Renara.
"Uh, your companions ate all the food at the buffet. Every single thing."
"Why should I be surprised?"
"You're gonna have to pay for all the food that was eaten. That'll be 49,000 Poké." He held out his arm, expecting Renara to pay.
Unsurprisingly for the other Mushroom Caps, she was furious enough to whip her twig out of her tail, and the resulting friction set the twig on fire.
"BUT I THOUGHT THE FOOD WAS FREE!" She pointed the flaming twig at Powdero.
By now, Powdero's anger, which had been slowly building up ever since Kentamo tried to hit on Maripa, reached a boiling point.
"THAT'S IT! ALL PATRONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MUSHROOM CAP TREASURE HUNTERS, OUT!"
"Why?" Porto and his pals were lured out by the commotion. Strangely, they seemed to have slimmed down, except for Porto, who still had a small potbelly.
"YOU GUYS STARTED A BAR BRAWL, ATE ALL THE FOOD AT THE BUFFET, REFUSED TO PAY THE DAMAGES, THREATENED ME AND TRIED TO STEAL MY GIRLFRIEND AWAY FROM ME!"
"Huh?" Porto was confused.
"NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS! OUT!"
Powdero stirred up a forceful Gust with his wings that blew the Mushroom Caps out of Bouffalant's Bar 'n Bistro.
Upon getting the boot along with her treasure hunter friends, Renara said, "You just had to ruin it all."
"No, Powdero had to ruin it all," Sparky said.
"Party pooper," Porto added.
"Anyway, we should try to find a place for the night," Fleur said. "Otherwise, we'd freeze to death in the cold night, leaving just seven lifeless husks that once contained our souls."
"Thanks for that horrifying image," Fletcher remarked.
"Hey, is that-?" A building had caught Renara's eye. The dimly lit billboard said: TAMUKKO TOWN INN, JUST 140 POKÉ PER NIGHT.
"Hey! 140 Poké per night! Shut up and take my Poké!" Renara said.
"Uhh, maybe we should think about this first," Fletcher cautioned. "Places like that are usually dives that smell of mildew and Trubbish and advertise having color TV as an amenity."
Renara whipped out her twig again. "YOU WILL NOT SEPARATE ME FROM A DEAL LIKE THIS!"
"O-okay, we can stay there if you're gonna kill me for asking if we could stay somewhere else..."
Renara put her twig back, and the Mushroom Caps made their way towards the inn.
Once they reached the lobby, however, it was exactly how Fletcher described places like this.
The lobby was very unkempt, with brochures strewn everywhere and the walls rotting away. At the front desk, an Eldegoss sat, spinning around in her swivel chair out of mind-numbing boredom.
Everyone knew this was a bad idea, but avoided mentioning it for fear of sending Renara into a fury.
Upon noticing the Mushroom Caps, the Eldegoss, Coton, quickly came to attention and said as if she were reading from a script, "Welcome to the Tamukko Town Inn. How long will you be staying?"
"1 night." Renara knew that if they were to stay for longer, they would have to pay extra, and they only wanted to stay here for one day, and then sail off to the other islands.
"Very well. That'll be 140 Poké, please." Renara reluctantly took the required funds from her tail and handed them to Coton.
"Fancy that... a limited edition 40 Poké coin from over 45 years ago depicting the notorious treasure hunter Volcast, worth about 600,000 Poké nowadays! The perfect addition to my collection!"
Renara's eyes widened. Out of all the coins, WHY did I pick that one? Why am I so dumb?!
"Uh..." Renara tried to exchange the coin she gave to Coton for a normal 40 Poké coin, but Coton just turned around in her chair and said, "No take-backsies."
Right on cue, Renara exploded with rage and whipped her twig out of her tail.
"How about if I set you on fire? Then will you give it back?"
"Ma'am, threatening our staff is against hotel policy. I'm gonna have to ask you to lea-"
Renara cut her off. "Oh, so you're gonna toss me out over this coin? Well, I'll have you know that I'm 'Sly Fox' Renara the Braixen of the Mushroom Cap Treasure Hunters and-"
Coton gave in out of fear and accepted the normal 40 Poké coin in exchange for the Volcast coin.
"Here's your room keys." Coton handed Renara 2 keys that seemed to be in very poor condition. They had rust covering every part of them, they seemed to have been chewed up (likely by a young Poochyena), and you could barely make out the number 208 on them.
"Your room is 208. Come back here by 11:20 for check-out," Coton said as the Mushroom Caps walked out of the lobby.
"Why can't they have hallways?" Fletcher said. "I don't wanna walk to our room in the cold, cold dark night!"
"Hey! Look!" Porto noticed a sign talking about some amenities that they didn't see before when they initially noticed the billboard for the inn.
It read:
POOL
COLOR TV
COMFY BEDS
And at the bottom, in very tiny lettering:
ADULT MOVIES 4 RENT
"Wow! There's a pool! I wanna check it out!" Porto said.
"Me too! Me too!" Fletcher replied.
"Okay, you go do that," replied Renara as Porto and Fletcher sped off in the direction of the pool.
However, when they got there, they were in for quite the surprise.
The pool was completely devoid of water, and in its place were tons of wild Rattata and Spinarak crawling around, which gave fraidy-Meowth Fletcher a major case of the creeps. He leaped up and clung onto Porto.
"GAH! Water should be in a pool, not those things!"
"Yeah. Why say you have a pool if there isn't any water?" Porto added.
"Yeah, why not just remove the pool?"
Meanwhile, back at the hotel room...
"Wow, they're so cheap, they couldn't hire maids?" Kentamo wondered.
The other Mushroom Caps were examining their room. It was dirty and unkempt, with bedsheets and towels strewn every which way, mud tracked straight across the cramped room, and above all, it was very cramped, with not a lot of wiggle room. Also, there was only one bed.
Renara examined the sheets... and found a mysterious white stain.
"Yuck! What kind of lowlife wants to... you know, do it in a place... sorry, dump like this?"
"I would!" Kentamo said, as he climbed atop the bed and laid down there in a "Draw me like one of your Kalosian girls" position. "My lovely vixen, care to join me?"
Renara whipped out her twig. "Do you want a Psyshock crammed down your throat?"
"Okay," replied Kentamo, "then how about you, Fleur, o mistress of mysterious?"
Fleur just walked away in the direction of the curtains. "Actually I'd like to get a nice view of..." She used her Dark Claw Technique (which lets her manifest claws made from Dark-type energy like the ones she had) to open the curtains. "...the building next door."
"Kentamo, I haven't finished checking the bed! Get off!" Renara said. Kentamo did as he was told and Renara resumed her sheet-checking... when she found a large brown stain. "...ew."
"Okay, the bed's way too dirty for any of us to sleep on," Renara announced. "Looks like we'll all be sleeping on the-"
Just then, Porto and Fletcher got back. Porto instantly plopped himself on the bed and fell asleep.
Crap, Renara thought.
"We went to the pool, but..." a hyperventilating Fletcher said, with lots of panic in his voice. "There wasn't any water! Just a buncha wild Spinarak and Rattata! We need to get outta here!"
"Calm down, Fletcher, calm down," Renara told him. "It's just for one night."
The next day...
It was a beautiful morning in Tamukko Town. The wild Flying-type Pokémon were chirping, and the sun was shining... right into Kentamo's eyes.
"Have you no shame, sun?!"
This woke everyone else up except for Kentoryu, so Kentamo quickly solved that problem via a flying kick to the face.
"WHY IN THE DISTORTION WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"
"Okay, okay, let's break it up," Renara said. "Who's in favor of doing some sightseeing?"
Porto, Fletcher, and the rest of the crew except Kentamo and Kentoryu were.
"But I gotta finish what he started!" Kentamo said.
"What I started?!" Kentoryu shot back. "You were the one who kicked me in the first place!"
Renara pulled out her twig. "Didn't I tell you to break it up?"
"Okay, okay, we'll come along, my lovely vixen," Kentamo said.
Does he have to do that? Renara thought.
But when they finally got out of the hotel, they were treated to a very unexpected scene.
"YOOOOOOUUUUUU!"
It was Polaris!
"Hey, what's with the sudden attitude change towards us, Polaris?" Fletcher wondered.
"Well, a little mothie told me you guys were treasure hunters!" Polaris explained.
"So Powdero snitched on us after he kicked us out. That's not that bad," Renara said.
"Oh ho! That's not all, girlie. Did I ever tell you I'm a member of the..." Polaris paused and took out an important-looking card that read: PJF MEMBER: 2772
"Pokémon Justice Force! An organization dedicated to tracking down the most ruthless treasure hunters like YOU miscreants and exterminating them! Now witness my fury!"
"Killing us on the spot won't work, dummy," Kentamo said. "We are tough, and we might kill you!"
"Oh, sorry, did you think I was gonna do that?" Polaris said. "Well, I was actually gonna use my Magnet Rise to scatter you across the Pentun Archipelago and leave you to die there for a change."
"Thank you for explaining that to me, so I can do this," Renara said as she took out her twig so she could amplify her psychic powers to stay on the ground.
Right on cue, Polaris busted out his Magnet Rise, sending all the Mushroom Caps (except Renara) flying towards the different islands.
"Gee, I sure hope that isn't Wisper Island," said Fletcher as he went flying over an island. But just then he noticed the distinctive wispy shape of the island, which he had seen on Renara's map of the Pentun Archipelago.
"CRAP! THAT IS WISPER ISLAND! AAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
