CHAPTER 5: A Treasure Town Welcome

The next day, the morning cheers had passed, and team Lightbringers were once again standing in their place, looking around aimlessly, and their ears still ringing from Loudred's wake up call. After a few seconds, Chatot noticed the two and asked them to follow him up the ladder.

When they got to the second floor, Chatot hopped to the other board in the room. 'Today, we'll have you do a job listed on this side.' He said pointing to the board. 'Take a closer look, if you will.'

Upon closer inspection of the board, the two noticed a lot of Pokémon on the board, all with weird symbols next to them that Tristian couldn't make out.

Rachel, on the other hand, was able to do that. 'So these are outlaws, right?'

Chatot gave a small nod in response. 'Yes, that is indeed what they are. They're all shady characters, and they're wanted for committing crimes. Because of that, there are bounties on their heads. In other words, there is a reward if you capture one.'

'Wait a minute, why do Exploration Teams catch outlaws?' Tristian asked inquisitively.

'That's a long story, and not one for today.' Chatot answered. 'So, these outlaws are ranked, with F being the easiest, and S being the most difficult. Since you two are new, I would suggest tackling an F-ranked outlaw first.'

'But… how strong is an F-ranked outlaw? I have nothing to compare it to.' Tristian questioned.

Chatot laughed. 'You worry too much about that, Shinx.' He calmed down and cleared his throat. 'But, you might want to prepare for that, so I will have someone give you a tour of the facilities.'

With that, Chatot turned to the ladder and called for Bidoof to come over. 'Huff-puff-huff... You called?' He answered Chatot's call.

'Bidoof, I need you to give our recruits a tour around Treasure Town.' Chatot ordered.

'Yes sirree!' Bidoof immediately replied. 'By golly, I'll do just that! Yup yup!'

Chatot gave him a nod and turned to face the recruits. 'I believe you two are already familiar with Bidoof, and the rest of the guild for that matter, so I trust that you two will be able to follow his lead. Off you go!'

And with that, Chatot headed back down the ladder.

'So,' Bidoof began as he turned to the Vulpix and Shinx. 'Are you two ready to go?'

'Pretty much.' Rachel answered.

'Then let's go!' Tristian announced as he sprinted up the ladder.

Rachel sighed. 'Tristian is quite…'

'Energetic?' Bidoof responded.

Rachel gave him a small nod.

The trio found themselves standing near the edge of Treasure Town. From here, they could see the multiple tents dotted around the town. Some were normal tents, while others had a Pokémon on the top of them. If one were to describe them with a single word, it would be "Cozy".

'So…' Tristian began after a bit of silence. 'Where do we start?'

That question made a smile form on Rachel's face. 'Well, I suggest getting you a bank licence first, then showing you the shops on the left side of the river, after which we…'

'Golly Rachel, you certainly have things planned out.' Bidoof interjected.

'Yeah, it's always handy to be prepared as an explorer, or that's what I've read, at least.' She responded.

Rachel was about to continue her ramblings until a voice called out to them.

'Hey! I think you need to be here!'

Turning their attention towards the source of the voice, they found that it was Robert who flagged them down. The three walked over to the bank.

'So, the lost Shinx here needs a licence, right?' The Duskull asked.

'Yup!' Rachel confirmed. 'Can you do that?'

The Duskull had a mischievous look on him before turning around to grab something behind him. When he turned around, he was holding a small piece of paper. 'All I need you to do is to put your paw on this paper here, and your account will be validated.'

'And there are no strings attached?' Tristian asked cautiously.

'Only your soul.' Robert said, before laughing maniacally. Eventually, he calmed down and cleared his throat.

'I'm just joking, but just remember that it wouldn't be in my interest to do such a thing.' He said, eyeballing Rachel.

Tristian nodded and stepped on the paper that was laid down in front of him. When he removed his paw, a print of it was left on it.

'And that's about it.' Robert said. 'Have a good day.'

'Wait, that's it?' Tristian asked, perplexed. He looked to Rachel for answers only to see her laughing.

'Yup! It isn't that hard.' She said between her laughter. 'Really important details I'll tell you when they are important. Now, let's go!'

With that, Rachel travelled down the road to the next shop, with Bidoof following closely behind. Tristian was about to follow before he felt the Ghost-type banker poking his back.

'Consider this a favour, because otherwise she would have yapped your ears off about every minute detail of her plan.' The Duskull said.

Tristian simply nodded and went to catch up with the others.

'The dojo will rise again…' Monaco muttered to himself as he carried some tools to his dojo, exhausted from the constant repairs he had to do.

It had been a week since his dojo collapsed, and since then he has been busy trying to repair it. He would have gone to get more supplies today, but the whole "Shinx from the sky" situation caused some delays.

But then, something caught his ear as a conversation wandered his way.

'-know that Volt has gone somewhere, but why is Chansey not here?' A male voice asked its peers.

'Sheesh, I'm afraid I don't know that. No siree.' Another voice said, who Monaco could discern must have come from Bidoof.

Monaco, curious about what was going on, decided to look around the corner. There, he saw the weird Shinx from 2 days ago, the sister of Treasure Town's banker, and Bidoof. 'Chansey had to leave town because her sister Clefable needed some help with finding some rare medicine.'

The Shinx cocked his head curiously. 'What for?'

'Oh, that's because Jolteon is busy with some type of experiment, trying to see if he can cure a Shadow Pokémon.' Rachel replied. 'So he asked them for help, most likely, sincethey are the most knowledgeable when it comes to all things medicine.'

'I see.' The Shinx answered before turning to look at the Dojo with intrigue. 'And what is this?'

'This is, or better said, was the Marowak Dojo.' Monaco told him. 'It has collapsed, but fret not! It will rise again.'

Rachel seemed to have an idea and turned to face her fellow guild members. 'Tristian, I think it's a good idea to go to the dojo when it's fixed, since it's the best place to get your Level up.'

Tristian gave a quick nod and faced Monaco. 'Are you okay with that?' He asked.

The question took Monaco by surprise, but he quickly regained his composure. 'O-of course! I will be certain to notify the guild when the dojo is operational again.'

The Shinx gave another nod in response and turned back to his partner. 'Alright then, what's the next stop?'

After an exchange between the three, the new team and Bidoof split up, with Bidoof going back to the guild and the other walking further into Treasure Town. Through this interaction, Monaco was motivated, determined to repair his treasured dojo. He will put his best efforts into repairing the dojo. He soon composed himself and went back to work, for the dojo will not rise on its own.

At this time, inside a big bastion, Zamazenta and Zacian, both wounded from a fierce battle, made their way to the middle of the building. There was an eerie sense of dread that filled the two, but they pressed on regardless.

Someone had to bring the bad news…

In the middle, they found the Creation dragon of Space, Palkia. She noticed her visitors but didn't turn to face them.

'WHY ARE YOU AWAY FROM YOUR POST?' She asked them in a stern tone.

'W-we are here to report on the current situation of Treeshroud Forest.' Zacian answered.

'WHY, DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?' Palkia asked, still not looking at the two.

'That's why w-we're here, Spatial dragon.' Zamazenta added.

'THEN GET TO THE POINT. UNLIKE MY BROTHER, I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF PATIENCE OR TIME TO SPARE.' Palkia said, getting agitated at their attempts of stalling.

Zacian felt his confidence vanish. He had to tell Palkia the truth. 'We… lost the Time Gear.'

She immediately turned around with fury and disappointment in her expression. It wasn't often that Palkia was this serious.

'YOU LOST IT?' She asked coldly.

'The i-intruder was fast, like they knew that we were there, waiting for them.' Zamazenta said with fear in his voice.

'DO YOU TWO REALISE HOW MANY PROBLEMS THIS COULD CAUSE?' She asked the two, her voice still not getting any louder.

'Y-yes…' Zacian said.

Palkia stared at the two in silence, before giving them a simple demand.

'SOUND THE CALL FOR ALL LEGENDARIES TO COME TO THE SPACIAL BASTION. WE NEED EVERYONE HERE IF WE WANT TO SOLVE THIS CRISIS.'

The two dogs didn't question her order and quickly headed back to sound the call. Alone again, Palkia let out a sigh of frustration. 'BROTHER… WHY DO YOU HAVE TO FALTER NOW?'

'And up next is the Kecleon Market. Here you can buy and sell stuff.' Rachel explained to Tristian as they walked towards it. 'They have a lot of items, from berries and apples to TM's and orbs.'

Rachel walked over and looked at the goods the Kecleon's had at the moment. Soon enough, she turned around, holding some items that Tristian couldn't make out immediately.

'So, what now?' Tristian asked.

She motioned Tristian to the building next to the market. 'Now we get you a registration at Gen's storage, so that you can store your items if you are ever carrying too much.'

'Well hello there!' Gen greeted the two as they arrived. 'It's great to see that both of you are fine after what happened two days ago.'

She immediately turned to Rachel. 'I was so worried when you did that. Who knows what could've happened?'

'I'm fine, you don't have to worry about that,' Rachel laughed, 'I actually came here to store a few things and get Tristian a registration.'

Gen gave the Shinx a cursory glance before nodding. 'Sure, let me grab some things.'

While she was busy, Tristian noticed something going on back at the Kecleon's stand. Two small water type Pokémon were handed two apples by the Kecleons and seemed to be on their way. However, the small one tripped and dropped his apple. Tristian thought he might help by picking up the apple and handing it to them, but in retrospect he found that a bit suspicious looking. Sure enough, the problem solved itself as the small Pokémon got up and grabbed the apple.

Tristian got brought back to reality as Gen handed him a paper that looked a lot like the one Robert gave him not too long ago. He did the same thing as before, and it was done.

'So, now that you have registered, you can use any Kangaskhan statue in the world to get access to your storage.' Gen explained.

Tristian gave a perplexed look. 'How does that work, magic?'

Gen seemed to ignore the question and gave the two a smile. 'Good luck with your dungeon diving!'

The two walked away to the last tent nearby, which seemed to be empty.

'Welp, seems like Xatu isn't here.' Rachel mumbled. 'I wonder what he's doing…'

'Why did she ignore my question?' Tristian suddenly asked her.

'That's just Gen. She's quite secretive about how those statues even work.' Rachel explained. 'Although, your guess of it being magic might as well be the conclusion, since I don't understand how they could work otherwise.' She humoured.

Tristian let out a chuckle. He might be right about that. However, his attention was then drawn to some tall buildings in the distance. He stared at them, intrigued. The leftmost building had a Clefable silhouette on top of it, and next to it was a building with a Magnezone silhouette, and the last building next to that had an Eevee silhouette.

Rachel noticed her partners leave from reality. 'Right, I guess I should explain those buildings, eh?'

'I would certainly appreciate it.' Tristian wittily responded.

Rachel began with the Clefable building. 'From left to right those are the hospital, the Magnezone police station, and the Library. I don't think I need to explain the first one, and I know for a fact that we'll be getting into touch with the second one later today. So that just leaves the Eeveelution Library.'

Rachel looked ready to continue her lesson in buildings, but then, one of their guildmates, Corphish, walked up to them.

'Hey, hey! Bidoof is wondering where you two are, so maybe you should pick up the pace, rookies, hey, hey?' Corphish said to them.

Rachel sighed and looked at her partner. 'I know you're getting tired of hearing it, but…'

'That's a story for another day?' Tristian finished.

'What I wanted to say was "those are the mysteries of this world".' Rachel taunted, 'But really though, we should get going.'

Tristian gave a nod and thanked Corphish for the reminder.

'It was no big deal, hey, hey.' He replied.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the ocean, a Legendary ground type was walking, with each step he took creating a new piece of land for him to stand on.

'THIS SUCKS. WHY MUST THE OCEAN EXIST?' Groudon muttered to himself.

As if to answer his question, bubbling appeared on the surface of the water, out of which came a Legendary water type.

'BECAUSE SCREW YOU, THAT'S WHY.' Kyogre answered, mocking the ground type.

With veins popping off in his head, Groudon snapped his head to his rival. 'YOU WANNA GO FISH FACE!?'

'I WOULDN'T MIND FLUSHING YOU AWAY!' Kyogre answered in response.

Before the two could continue their bickering, an all too familiar roar was heard across the sky, and the two looked up to find none other than Rayquaza.

'CAN YOU TWO DO THIS LATER?' The flying snake asked the two Legendary Pokémon. 'NOT ONLY DO I NOT WANT TO BREAK YOU TWO UP LIKE KINDERGARTENERS, BUT YOU TWO WOULD BE IN TROUBLE IF PALKIA FOUND OUT YOU WERE JUST WASTING TIME INSTEAD OF ANSWERING HER CALL.'

The two looked at each other before sighing in defeat. 'FINE.' Groudon relented. ' LET'S JUST GET GOING.'

'WHY DO YOU THINK THAT SPACE DRAGON WANTS US IN THE GRASS CONTINENT ANYWAY?' Kyogre wondered as the three of them continued onwards.

'I HAVE NO CLUE.' Rayquaza replied. 'MAYBE SOMETHING BAD HAPPENED, OR SHE WANTS TO PULL A PRANK ON EVERY LEGENDARY IN EXISTENCE.'

'MAYBE SHE WANTS TO MOCK YOU TWO FOR BEING DEFEATED BY SOME REGULAR POKEMON.' Kyogre answered in jest.

In response, the other two turned to him menacingly. 'MAKE ONE MORE COMMENT ABOUT THAT, AND I WILL HELP GROUDON TAKE YOU DOWN. GOT IT?' Rayquaza threatened in a sinister tone.

The rest of the trip was quiet.

Back in Treasure Town, a Drowzee was standing around, impatiently tapping his foot on the grass. 'Why is he taking so long? It's been 3 days, and he still hasn't arrived…'

He knew it wouldn't be long until someone else would try to take the treasure, he even suspected that his confidant would've taken the opportunity to take the treasure for himself.

He knew one thing for certain, waiting any longer would just increase the chances of him losing out.

Then, his opportunity arrived on a silver platter.

'Sir, are you alright?' An Azurill asked Drowzee.

'I'm fine.' He answered, not paying the child much attention. 'Just waiting for someone to bring me…'

'Your important item?' Marill made a guess.

Drowzee let out a small chuckle. 'I guess you could call it that.'

'We can understand that.' Marill said to him. 'We also lost something important to us.'

'Su-' Drowzee fell silent as he thought about it. The only reason he can't get the treasure is because he's too big. But Azurill is small enough to get it… 'What… did it look like?' He asked, repressing a grin.

Marill got a spark in his eyes. 'It's a Water Float, have you seen it by any chance?'

'Yes, I think I have.' Drowzee answered. 'I'll guide you to it if you want.'

Azurill cheered as Marill thanked him for his offer to help. He scratches his head and acts flushed. 'Please! It's nothing.'

'You don't want anything in return?' Marill asked.

Drowzee laughed and shook his head. 'Oh, please... I'd have to have a cold heart to ignore kids in need! I can't turn a blind eye! Let us be on our way to begin our search!'

After a cheer from the brothers, the three headed out towards Drowzee's treasure.

He bumped into some bystanders, almost tripping in the process. He quickly got his footing again and turned to face the two. 'Whoops! Excuse me.' He told the Shinx before turning away to catch up with the two kids.

'Is that Shinx blind or something?' He muttered to himself in frustration. He quickly pushed that question away and continued onward.

Tristian was completely confused. One moment he was talking with Rachel about how nice Drowzee is for helping the brothers for free, and then he sees some kind of vision of Drowzee cornering Azurill, with the latter screaming for help. When he came back to reality, Rachel was giving him a worried expression.

'Tristian! What happened? You seemed to have frozen up or something.' Rachel asked with concern filling her voice.

'I… I have no clue…' Tristian admitted. He tried to give an explanation of what he saw, understanding that the Vulpix would most likely not believe him.

'You're right, that does sound highly ridiculous.' She said after he was done. 'It could be true, I mean, you arrived via a portal in the sky, but we can't know if it's true…'

After some thinking, Tristian nodded in agreement. 'Yeah, maybe I just have the wildest imagination in existence, who knows. Not me, that's for certain.'

That last part caused Rachel to chuckle. 'C'mon, let's not keep Bidoof waiting.'

The two descended to the second floor of the Guild, where Bidoof was waiting for them. 'We're ready to go!' Tristian announced.

'Oh, yes sirree! I reckon you all are all ready! Let's pick ourselves a lawbreaker for you to find.' He said.

The three turned to the board. 'Let's go with one that's nearby.' Rachel suggested.

Bidoof then raised his paw to her. 'As your mentor, how about I do the choosing?'

Rachel relented and let Bidoof take a close look at the board. 'Let's pick…'

'Stand clear! Updating listings! Stand clear! Updating listings!'

Suddenly, a siren had gone off, and the board flipped around to the surprise of team Lightbringers.

'Is this the job Dugtrio has been assigned to?' Tristian asked.

'Yup!' Bidoof answered. 'He should be done any minute now.'

'Update completed! Stand Clear!' Dugtrio announced. And just like that, the board returned to its normal state.

'Yes sirree! The data is updated.' Bidoof said. 'The list of outlaws has been refreshed, so let's pick one.'

But before they could pick a gasp from Rachel caught their attention, seeing her staring at something in front of her. Bidoof and Tristian try to see what has frozen her, and it didn't take long for Tristian to realise why.

The poster had a picture of Drowzee in it.

Bidoof stood, dumbfounded over why this poster freaked those two out so much, so he asked what was wrong.

Rachel took a shuddering breath. 'That guy… that's the guy Azurill and Marill went with…'

'They could be in trouble!' Tristian screamed.

Bidoof had a closer look at the poster and saw that Drowzee was an E rank outlaw. He didn't want to go against Chatot's wishes, but if Drowzee was deceiving those kids…

'Looks like we have our target.' He said to the recruits. 'He won't get away with this, no sirree!'

The two partners immediately gave each other a nod, and Tristian turned to Bidoof. 'Where is he?'

'Mt. Bristle…' A Buizel said to himself, looking for that dungeon on his wonder map. 'They better not be pullin' my leg here, since such endeavours can end up being quite expensive.' The water type quietly fiddles with the hilt of his scimitar.

The mon looks at the clock in his room and was reminded that he left his client waiting for long enough.

That treasure will be his, or he won't be eating tonight.

That took long enough...

I want to thank a anonymous Beta Reader on Discord for well... beta reading this chapter.

No promises that I get more consistent with my uploads.