Chapter 18

Another Child

After finishing their meals, Team Vendetta piled into their room and settled into their beds. Well, Terron and Zekra anyway. Impetus was staring at the hay on the floor with an odd gaze. She didn't quite seem to understand she was supposed to sleep there.

"Just sit down in in the hay," Terron instructed. "You'll like it. It's comfortable. It's a lot better than tree branches."

Reluctantly, Impetus put her foot on the bed. When she found that it was safe, she slowly sat in it. Her eyes grew in wonder at how cozy the bed was. She was so entranced by the bed, in fact, that she fell back into the hay and rolled around in it. Terron smiled at the sight before looking over at Zekra.

"So, how'd your trip go?" he asked curiously. "Everything go okay?"

"Oh, well it went fine," the Zorua answered. "Didn't have any problems. It was nice going there."

"How come you had to go anyway?" Terron then asked. "If you don't mind answering."

There was a pause. Zekra played with her paws during this silence. There was an uncomfortable look on her face.

"… I guess I might as well tell you," she said with a sigh. "I went there because I wanted to leave a message for my brother."

"Your brother?" Terron repeated. "You've got a brother? How come you never mentioned him?"

Zekra frowned in melancholy as her eyes lowered.

"Because I never really saw any purpose in talking about him," Zekra answered. "And thinking about him sometimes… is so painful."

Zekra let out a sigh as she set her head on the floor.

"But, I might as well tell you about him," she then said. "You deserve to know. My brother's name is Zeverous, but I always called him Zev. He's twenty years older than me. You see…"

Zekra went on to explain how her brother used to live with her until she was a year old. Then, she went on to say he started leaving to go on trips and would start visiting her once a summer and had been doing this for the past six years since she was two.

"But on the year I would turn eight… last year's summer…" Zekra went on. "He never showed up. Everyone started to think he died. It was the only explanation everyone could think of for him not coming home. I believe he's dead too, but there's still a small part of me who keeps believing he's alive. Even after not coming home for two years as of today, there's a part of me that believes he's alive. And so, in hopes of him returning, I went back to my old home and left a message for him on this voice recorder called a Frism. I figured that if he'd come back, he'd want to know why the town was vacant. So, I left him that message so that if he comes back, he can know what happened and be able to find me. I wanted to stay and wait for him, but I knew I had priorities with the Fellowship. I couldn't abandon the Fellowship when I was the one who was so eager to join their cause."

Zekra closed her eyes.

"And then I left after that," she finished. "That was pretty much how my trip went. I visited a few places in town to see how they were doing, but not much else happened. What about you? How'd your day go?"

"Oh, my day," Terron said in surprise, caught off guard by the sudden shift in topic.

He quickly regained his composure as the day's events went through his mind.

"Well, it was pretty interesting." Terron began. "I talked with Len and told him about the Weavile, and I also talked to him about my amnesia. He helped me remember something kind of interesting: the name of my world and how its layout is exactly the same as Shiron."

"Really?" Zekra asked in wonder.

"Yeah, my world's called Kuron," Terron explained. "Shiron and Kuron are both planets with one large continent and a bunch of islands everywhere. Don't know why that is, but maybe there's a connection. Maybe they were once the same world, but they got split somehow into two planets. Or maybe they're the same world, but one's the present and the other is the future of that world."

"You think you got mixed up in time travel?" Zekra asked.

"Well, maybe," Terron shrugged. "I'm just guessing. I don't really know. I just know that my world is pretty different from here. There's no Pokémon, there's less nature, and we have so much technology."

"Such similar worlds… yet so different," Zekra said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but moving on, then I found out that apparently we need to hide that Impetus is a wild Pokémon," Terron said solemnly.

"Why's that?" Zekra asked curiously.

Terron went on to explain to her what had happened with Rey and what Novus had told Terron afterwards. When he finished, Zekra shook her head in disapproval.

"Why must everyone think like that?" Zekra wondered. "I mean, are getting wild Pokémon to like you such a rare thing?"

"I don't know," Terron said. "But, that's how things are. If we want to keep Impetus safe, we need to keep her origins a secret and help her become a civilized Pokémon. I haven't quite figured out how we're supposed to do that, but I think I have an idea for now. We'll see how that goes. Also…"

Terron went over to their bag in the corner and pulled out a strange, red cape from within before sitting back down. He showed it to Zekra.

"Novus suggested I buy this for Impetus before I left," Terron said. "It's something called a Reunion Cape. Got it on sale thankfully, or else I never would have been able to afford it. He said that there might be times when Impetus will run off and we won't be able to catch her. And then, she might get lost and we'll never find her. But, this cape fixes that problem. You see, whenever she wears it and gets separated from us, the cape will warp her back to us. They say the cape warps the wearer to whoever touched the cape last besides the wearer. Not sure how that works or how it even teleports, but I'm not going to question it. Anyway, we just need to attach it to her when she goes to sleep and everything should be fine."

"Huh, interesting," Zekra replied. "I could think of a lot of uses with that. But alright, I'll help you put it on when Impetus goes to bed. Nothing else happen today?"

Immediately, the memory of being in that lava-filled area with the voice came to mind. Yet, Terron still found he didn't want to talk about it. He felt bad knowing he would be keeping it a secret, but he knew that's how things had to be for now.

"No, nothing else," Terron said.

Zekra slowly nodded. Just like him, she also felt bad that she was keeping secrets from him. Specifically, it was about her breakdown and the true reason behind Terron's name. She didn't have the heart to tell him. And so, the two friends kept their most personal information locked away from the other, neither suspecting anything.

It was dawn of the next morning now and Zekra was nudging Terron so he would get up. Terron was reluctant to end his sleep since he barely got any, but he eventually got up after being bothered for a few minutes. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. When his eyes were able to remain open, Terron noticed Impetus wasn't in her new hay bed Team Vendetta got for her last night. In fact, she wasn't even in the room.

"Where's Impetus?" he asked. "She was sleeping in her bed, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, she was," Zekra replied. "Strange… why'd she run off?"

Terron slowly got to his feet and went over to the window. He stuck his head out and looked around, thinking that she went out since staying in a room for hours at a time was too much for her. Sure enough, Terron found her in a tree branch nearby their window. She was passed out. The Reunion Cape was still tied around her neck, much to Terron's relief.

Terron was rather glad to know that Impetus hadn't tried to take it off. It had taken several hours of staying awake to wait for Impetus to fall asleep. Once she finally done that, Terron and Zekra were very quick to tie the cape around her so she wouldn't wake up. He didn't want to sacrifice his sleep all over again just to get the cape on again.

Terron looked back at Zekra.

"She's sleeping outside in a branch," Terron said. "I guess she doesn't like sleeping in rooms yet."

"Well, maybe she'll get used to it in time," Zekra shrugged. "But, how do you plan on getting her back here?"

"We could just walk out of the room and then that Reunion Cape will activate," Terron suggested. "She'll just pop right back next to us."

"I bet that'll be really weird, but I don't see why not," Zekra said carelessly. "Might as well test out that cape you bought."

Terron grabbed their travel bag and the two exited the room. Zekra shut the door behind them and waited for their feral companion to show up right next to them at any second.

VIP!

Suddenly, Impetus was asleep on the floor in front of the children. There were no sparkly lights or bright colors to mark her appearance. She just appeared out of thin air. She came so quickly, in fact, that Terron and Zekra were startled by her presence. They nearly jumped backwards.

Impetus woke up, realizing that her surroundings were different. She swiftly got to her feet and hastily looked at her new environment. She seemed to recognize where she was, but didn't quite understand what had brought her here. After all, she was paying no heed to the cape attached to her.

"Well… I guess it works alright," Zekra said. "Just wish it was flashier with the teleporting thing…"

Terron nodded and glanced at his feral friend.

"Hey, Impetus," he said calmly.

The Mienfoo stopped moving around and looked at Terron. She had her full attention on him, despite how occupied she was just a moment ago.

"Today's going to be different from yesterday," Terron explained. "We're going on a mission. And, same goes for pretty much every day after this. We're going to have these missions every day, and you're going to come with us. We can't just leave you here. You're a part of the team. Plus, it's the only way I can think of to get you to become a civilian. I figure that if you spend time with us, you'll understand our world better. It'll give you more to learn than if you stay here. Plus, I think you'd like it better if you could fight stuff again like you always did."

Terron smiled.

"Being in this Fellowship helped me learn about this world," Terron went on. "It's tough at times, but I really think it'll help you. It helped me, and since you and I are from other worlds, I think it'll help you too. So, that's why after we leave the Fellowship today, things will be rather different than what you normally do. I just wanted to let you know that."

Zekra glanced at Terron.

"So that's why you care so much about Impetus," Zekra thought aloud. "You see yourself in her."

"Yeah, something like that," Terron replied. "But, it's just a one-sided connection. I don't think she sees me the same way."

Impetus gave Terron an odd stare. Zekra smiled pleasantly at the Mienfoo.

"Don't worry, Impetus," Zekra chimed in. "Everything will be fine. You've got us to help you. That's what friends are for."

Impetus continued to stare at them, her expression becoming even more confused.

"Well, let's go get our mission since we didn't get to do it last night," Terron then said. "And then after breakfast, we can get going."

The three headed downstairs and treaded through the base until they came across the Bulletin Board. As usual, there was a large selection of jobs to choose from.

"Alright, let's see what we can do today," Zekra said eagerly. "We're gonna destroy the Plagued Ones one day at a time, and every mission counts."

A smile filled with resolution etched itself onto her face. Terron was about to comment on Zekra's sudden zeal, but before he could, she ripped off a particular assignment and started summarizing it.

"Hey, this one looks cool," Zekra said. "It's an escort mission. It says we have to take this Meganium family's son from Pecha City to Lavender Town. According to the map…"

Zekra wandered over to the large map behind the board. She glanced at it for a moment.

"… it's not too far away, and we get flown to the client's house." Zekra continued. "I mean, we'll have to walk from Pecha to Lavender since apparently we can't fly due to the client not being Fellowship members, but it won't be so bad. Should take only about a day's walk and then we can come back here by sometime tomorrow by Drifblim."

"But why an escort mission?" Terron asked. "I mean, that sounds kinda… I don't know… boring."

"Oh, I know it does," Zekra agreed. "But, it's a 'B' ranked mission. Not only do we get 900 Poké if I calculated the Fellowship's deductions properly, but if we can complete this mission successfully, then King will teach me how to use Dark Pulse. This seems easy, so if we can just do this, then I can learn that awesome power."

Terron recalled the various times he had seen such a dark power. In every single one of those times, the user had managed to accomplish quite a feat. Having Zekra with that very ability would be incredibly beneficial and make their team even stronger than it was now. They could turn the tide of many battles with that power.

"Sure, let's go on that mission," Terron replied. "And maybe it'll be more interesting than we think."

"Yes!" Zekra cried with glee. "Alright, let's get some breakfast then and plan out a route to get that Pokémon to the destination."

About an hour later, after careful planning over breakfast, the team had managed to come up with an efficient route to take them to Lavender Town. It followed the various trails that stretched along Shiron, mostly evading the need to travel through forests and other environments where wild Pokémon ran most rampant. They did need to go through one cave towards the end of the journey, but the cave was so small, that they weren't too worried about it. Besides, they were mostly satisfied that they had managed to completely avoid going in Mystery Dungeons.

Now, with the route thought out, the three were inside the Drifblim Transportation and preparing to get flown off to Pecha City. Or, at least trying to anyway…

"Impetus! The Drifblim is not going to hurt you!" Terron shouted in exasperation. "Just let him carry you!"

A Drifblim was floating a few feet away from the Mienfoo, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible. Still, every time the Drifblim tried to get near, Impetus would gather up the white energy in her palm. Whenever that happened, the Drifblim would back off, and Impetus would dismiss the attack. Then the Drifblim would try again, and Impetus would have the exact same reaction. This had been going for five minutes. Terron and Zekra had been watching the whole thing with their Drifblim.

"Why is this Mienfoo so terrified of me?" the Drifblim asked unsurely to Terron. "I could easily take her into the sky since she cannot hurt me, but I wish to make her as comfortable as possible. What is it that frightens her?"

Terron knew the right answer was because she was a feral and she hated to be touched, let alone come very close to strangers. Still, Terron remembered how Novus said not many Pokémon were fans of feral ones. He knew that the Drifblim might have dealt with wild Pokémon before due to working with the Fellowship, and known the truth about them, but Terron didn't want to take that chance.

"She just doesn't like strangers," Terron said. "She's very vicious about that."

"I see," the Drifblim said thoughtfully. "Well, I see she wears a Reunion Cape, so perhaps she could stay here. Then, when you two get to your destination, she'd instantly teleport to your location. Of course… I'm not entirely sure if that's what would happen. Her cape might make her teleport to you two while you're still flying, and then she'd plummet to the ground due to not having a Drifblim. Then, before she hits the ground, she'd probably teleport back to you and this cycle would continue until you got to your destination. That would be a rather… interesting experience."

"Well, we could always give her one of our Sleep Seeds," Zekra's Drifblim said. "She'd be knocked out, but it's the only method I could think of to get her into the air without her being a complete panic."

"Yes, that's a good idea. We've actually had to do that to a couple of passengers who needed to travel, but were too crippled by their fear of flying," the original Drifblim said before he looked over at Terron and Zekra. "Is that okay with you two?"

Zekra frowned in dismay at the thought, but she nodded her head since it was the only solution that seemed to work. Terron, just as reluctant with the idea, let out a sigh.

"I don't know…" Terron said. "When will she wake up?"

"In about three hours," the Drifblim answered. "By then, we should be at Pecha City. So, we shouldn't have to worry about her waking up in the middle of the flight."

"… Fine," Terron said quietly. "Give her the seed."

The Drifblim nodded as it went away for a moment before coming back with a single seed in one of its arms. It slowly drifted toward the Mienfoo, causing Impetus to once again prepare her Force Palm. The Drifblim didn't drift away and continued to approach her. When Impetus saw this, she put her paw onto the Drifblim's face and unleashed the energy.

Her palm went straight through the Drifblim's head and the energy failed to release since there was nothing to release it on.

When she realized her attacks weren't going to do anything, Impetus attempted to run away. Unfortunately, the Drifblim wrapped an arm around hers and brought her to a halt. Impetus opened her mouth to let out a cry, but before she could, the Drifblim stuffed the Sleep Seed into her mouth.

Immediately, Impetus collapsed to the ground, fast asleep. The Drifblim let out a sigh before gathering her up in its arms.

"Sorry, Impetus," Terron sighed with a melancholy tone. "Maybe one day… we won't have to do this anymore."

Pecha City

Terron and Zekra were lucky enough to have Impetus wake up a few minutes after they landed outside the city. When she had awakened, the Drifblim left the children to themselves and headed back for Aurora Town. Impetus was rather groggy when she first woke up, but she managed to become her usual alert self after walking around a bit.

Pecha City was an interesting place to the team. It seemed to be just as populated as Aurora Town, yet there weren't any giant trees growing throughout the area as the children were used to. Instead, there were simple berry trees spread about. Several Pokémon could be seen picking fruit off the trees, giving the team the impression that these trees' fruits were free to the public. Various water fountains could be seen throughout the city, which seemed to have no other purpose than to act as showpieces for four-way roads.

The three looked around curiously at all of this, taking in the different atmosphere. It didn't quite feel like their beloved town, but it had its own little charm.

After wandering around for some time, the team eventually came to the house of their clients. It was a simple, dome-shaped house constructed out of wood. Its sides were painted a white color while the roof of the house had various plants growing out of it. Terron stared at such an odd house, finding it quite strange compared to those he remembered from Kuron. Yet, he could see how it might be considered comfortable.

The team went up to the door and Terron knocked on it a few times with his handy bone club. A Meganium opened the door and peered down at the three. She looked very tired, and the flowers growing around her neck were starting to wilt.

"Hello?" the mother asked. "Who are you three?"

"We're from the Fellowship!" Zekra said as she held up her paw to show the Fellowship mark along with the mission paper. "We got your request about needing an escort, so we came here to help you with that."

"Oh… I see," the mother said awkwardly. "I didn't realize that you were since you're children. I didn't really expect the Fellowship to have children as members…"

A grimace formed on her face. As soon as Zekra saw this, she put on a more serious expression. It was almost an expression of annoyance, but Terron could see Zekra was trying her best not to show that emotion.

"Well, we're just as good as any other members there," Zekra insisted. "So, whenever you want to go, we'll take your son to Lavender Town."

The mother seemed to consider something. She spent a few seconds pondering before making up her mind.

"Alright, well thanks for coming," she then said with a smile. "Sorry for my doubts. Anyway, I need you to escort him to Lavender Town so he could go visit one of his out-of-town friends. My mate and I would take him ourselves, but we've become a bit ill and can't seem walk for such long distances at a time."

"It's fine," Zekra said. "We don't mind. We'll take good care of your son."

The Meganium smiled. The mother turned her head and looked somewhere inside of the house.

"Come here, Syn!" she called. "Your escorts are here!"

A green blur suddenly shot out of the door and landed behind the three.

"Yay! You're here!" the child cried to the team. "I didn't think you guys would show up until later, but I'm glad you're here now!"

The mother smiled.

"You four take care of yourselves," she said before shutting the door.

Terron grew confused at the sudden and odd departure, but he didn't dwell on it. The three turned around to address the Chikorita, but just as they were going to…

"Hey, wait a minute!" Zekra exclaimed. "You're not a Chikorita! You're a Snivy!"

There indeed, was a Snivy a few feet away from them. This Syn, the one who was the son of a Meganium, was a Snivy. He was shorter than most Snivy, but that was probably because this Snivy was young and still needed time to grow. Terron and Zekra stared with unsure expressions while Impetus kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't get anywhere near her.

"Yeah, I am," Syn said with a pleasant smile. "It's funny, because I thought I was a Chikorita too until a couple months ago."

"But, how are you this family's son if you're a Snivy?!" Zekra asked in disbelief. "Even if your dad's a Serperior, you'd still be a Chikorita!"

"Mommy and daddy told me that they found my egg when they were going through some forest," Syn explained, his voice still full of that cheerfulness. "And since then, they just took care of me. But that's okay. I like being a Snivy. Being a Snivy is awesome!"

"Oh, you're adopted," Zekra said in understanding. "I get it. I think I met someone once who was adopted. Sorry if I offended you with my weird questions about why you're a Snivy. It's just that adoptions aren't very common… to me anyway."

"It's okay," Syn said. "What are your names? Mommy and daddy said some Pokémon were going to take me somewhere today, but they didn't say what your names were."

"Well, I'm Zekra," Zekra introduced before point to her teammates. "And this is Terron and Impetus."

"Hello Zekra, Terron, and Impetus!" Syn said. "I'm Synergy, but I like being called Syn better! So call me that!"

Terron found Syn's cheeriness to look odd on the Snivy, who were more known for their smug expressions, but he didn't mind it too much. Besides, at least this Snivy didn't look like he was going to cause too much trouble for them. His expression seemed to show off a more peaceful happiness than a normal childish excitement.

"We might as well go now," Terron said. "That way, we can get most of the trip done today and you'll be able to get to Lavender Town by noon tomorrow."

"Alright, let's go!" Syn said enthusiastically.

And with that, Team Vendetta led the Snivy out of Pecha City and began the route that would eventually take him to the destination.

About two hours went by as the team led the Snivy along the travel route. So far, their mission was not a difficult one. Sure, there were times when the team would wander off the trail and get lost, but they managed to get back on the proper path before they went off too far.

Yet, that didn't stop some other problems...

"So, how many escorts have you done before?" Syn asked curiously.

"Fifty of them," Zekra answered, not wanting to worry the Snivy with their lack of escort experience. "We've been all over the west side of Shiron."

"Do you guys work for anyone?" Syn then asked. "Or do you work by yourselves?"

"We work for the Fellowship," Terron answered. "It's this cool place that we get to live in while we work. There's a bunch of Pokémon who live there with us, so it's kind of like a giant home for a bunch of teams who do random jobs."

"So does that mean you're mercenaries and this Fellowship is a home full of mercenaries?" Syn asked some more.

"No… well yes," Terron said oddly. "Sort of. I guess we could say that we are. We don't really call ourselves mercenaries… but now that I think about it, I guess we really are that. Surprised you even know what a mercenary is. I didn't think kids knew what that meant."

"You're a kid just like me!" Syn cried. "All of you guys are!"

Before Terron could say anything, Zekra shot Syn a glare.

"I am not a kid!" Zekra interjected. "I'll have you know that I'm eight years old, and soon to be nine in another two months! I'm nearly an adult! You look like you're about six months old!"

"No, I'm eight months old!" Syn corrected. "And plus, I'm a Snivy! Snivy get smarter faster than other Pokémon! I'd be like a five year old if I was any other Pokémon! But either way, you're still a kid like me! Don't go talking down to me as if we're not in the same age group!"

"I'm closer to being an adult than you are!" Zekra stated. "You're closer to the day you hatched! That's a big difference!"

As Zekra and Syn went on with the age nonsense, Terron thought about Syn's parents. Something about how the mother had given the team Syn so quickly wasn't right to Terron. He would have figured that a parent would have at least said goodbye to their child when they left with Fellowship members, but that never happened.

Terron was about to say something about that to Syn, but he was interrupted.

"Looks like we've got a stray Linoone in the way," Zekra alerted.

Terron looked back in front of him and sure enough, a few yards away, there was a slumbering Linoone in the middle of the path. He wasn't sure why it would choose to nap on a dirt path, but Terron didn't think much of it. What he did know, however, was what Zekra was implying.

"So are we going to have to fight it?" Terron asked in annoyance. "I mean, can't we just wake it up somehow and scare it off?"

"We could… except that it might attack us instead of run away," Zekra considered. "So, let's just attack it to get it out of the way. Besides, it's more fun than scaring it off."

"Fine," Terron grumbled. "So who wants to-"

"I'll take care of the Linoone!" Syn suddenly said with glee.

The Snivy immediately ran forward, laughing as he prepared to attack the wild Pokémon. Terron hastily chased after Syn. Zekra and Impetus were quick to follow behind him, though Zekra didn't seem nearly as worried as Terron.

"Syn! Get back here!" the Cubone shouted. "Let us take care of it!"

Unfortunately, Syn was much faster than the entire team and made it to the Linoone in mere seconds. He jumped onto the wild's back, making it abruptly wake up and thrash around in pain. It clawed at Syn, but before it could strike, Syn leapt back and landed a couple feet away from the Linoone.

"Impetus!" Terron said urgently as he pointed to the wild Pokémon. "You're the fastest on this team! Go stop that Linoone!"

The Mienfoo gave Terron an odd stare, but sped up and went toward Syn and the Linoone anyway. As she did, the Linoone got to its feet and charged at the Snivy. It sprang at him so quickly that Syn was unable to get out of the way and was knocked back by the headbutt. Syn fell and the Linoone lunged at him yet again to slash him.

A vine instantly shot out of Syn's collar and slapped the wild's face. The Linoone cringed and stopped attacking. As the Linoone was temporarily delayed, Impetus came in and delivered a kick to the wild's side. The Linoone went flying across the trail and tumbling farther down the road. It was quick to get to its feet, but it no longer continued to fight. It ran away, going farther down the trail and disappearing out of sight.

Terron and Zekra made it over to Syn just as Impetus ran off to finish off the Linoone. They paid no attention to this though; she'd just be teleported back if she wandered off too far. Instead, they looked down at the Snivy as he slowly got to his feet. The vine sticking out of Syn's body slid back inside him.

"Why'd you try to fight that Linoone on your own?!" Terron asked. "We're your escorts! We do all of the fighting for you!"

"I'm trying to get better at battling," Syn explained. "So, I thought I'd try to battle that Linoone so I can get better. I've been doing that whenever I can. Practice is what you're supposed to do if you want to get better at fighting, isn't it?"

Terron frowned. He couldn't argue against that. Practice was needed in order to improve in anything. Besides, he realized that disagreeing with Syn would be hypocritical. Despite what Zekra was denying, Terron and her were still children and doing exactly what Syn was doing. They might have been somewhat close to adulthood, but Terron knew that they weren't adults. They were no different from Syn, even if they were slightly more competent than him.

"Still, you can't just rush into fights and do whatever you want," Terron reasoned. "You have to strategize. Otherwise, you might get yourself killed."

Syn stared up at the Cubone curiously.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" the Snivy asked. "I keep asking mommy and daddy to teach me how to fight, but they won't for some reason. Neither will anyone else. I'm smart in everything except battling, which is something I'd really like to know how to do. So, can you help me while we're on this trip?"

Terron sighed. He hadn't signed up for a tutoring session.

"I'll teach you some stuff," Zekra suddenly volunteered. "If we run into more wild Pokémon, I'll show you some good strategies."

Terron stared at Zekra in disbelief. Just a minute ago she was yelling at the kid for calling her a child. Now, she was willing to help him?

"Thanks!" Syn cheered as he hugged the Zorua.

Zekra chuckled as she pat the Snivy on the head with a paw. She looked over at Terron, who was still wearing a dumbfounded expression. She let out another laugh.

"What? It's not like I haven't done this before," Zekra grinned. "I mean, I basically had to teach you how to fight. It was kinda fun when I had to do that. It feels nice being able to help others learn. So why not do it again with this kid?"

"I just don't want him to get hurt on the trip," Terron replied. "We'd get held responsible for that. But, if you can somehow keep him safe, then it's fine. You can tutor him if you want. Surprised you want to help him when you just got done fighting, though."

"Eh, it's not a big deal," Zekra shrugged. "Just a little squabble. I'm already over it."

"Sure…" Terron said sarcastically.

VIP!

Impetus instantly reappeared besides Terron, completely out of nowhere. She quickly looked around, trying to figure out where she was and what had just happened. Terron found himself chuckling at her random return.

"Well, since everyone's here, let's keep going," Terron said. "We've got quite a ways to travel."

"Can one of you guys carry me?" Syn then asked. "My feet are getting sore from walking so slowly."

"I'm not carrying you," Terron stated.

"Come on, please!" Syn asked again.

"No!" Terron insisted. "Why don't you ask Zekra to give you a ride?"

"Sorry, but I'm not very good at that," Zekra said, faking an apology. "I can't support anyone on my back very well. But Terron, you'd be a lot better at the job. You've got better carrying strength than me."

The Cubone glared sharply at the Zorua.

"Don't do this to me, Zekra," Terron said lowly with gritted teeth.

A playful smirk grew on her face.

"But you're a Cubone," Zekra reasoned. "Cubone can carry heavy stuff, and Syn's not even that heavy. He's probably as light as a leaf. You should have absolutely no trouble at all."

"Yeah!" Syn chimed in.

Terron's eyes started twitching. His own partner was selling him out. While he probably shouldn't have been surprised since Zekra was a Zorua, he still felt quite a bit of annoyance toward her words. Just as he was about to retort, Syn went behind the Cubone and jumped onto his back. The Snivy crawled up until his arms and chest were resting on Terron's skull.

The feel of having the Snivy on Terron made him very uncomfortable. His body felt so plant-like, and Terron didn't like how that felt against his skin. It just felt so wrong and he became incredibly bothered by a thought that involved him accidently getting cut by the leaf on Syn's tail. He knew why he felt this way, however; Syn was a grass-type. Terron knew his kind weren't exactly fond of those types.

"Get off me!" Terron shouted as shook his head.

Syn jumped off the Cubone, gracefully landing on the ground. Terron let out a sigh of relief before looking back at the Snivy.

"I'm not going to carry you," Terron said firmly. "Just… no. No!"

"You weren't very comfortable anyway," Syn replied casually. "Your head feels like a rock."

Syn looked over at Impetus, who was patiently waiting for the team to get going again. Syn smiled as he quickly got behind her and got onto her shoulders. He held onto the sides of her head.

"This is a lot more com-"

"MEEEEIIII!"

Impetus started shrieking and ran around wildly. She was in far too much of a panic to think about pulling off the Snivy. Running away was the only option on her mind right now. Syn held on tight as he laughed in glee, clearly not realizing the problem. Impetus raced down the trail, showing no signs of stopping. Zekra glanced at Terron with a frown.

"You should have just carried the Snivy," Zekra said in disapproval.

"What?" Terron cried. "Why couldn't you? Were you just really lazy!?"

Zekra shot Terron the dark expression that she gave anyone when truly mad at them. The bared teeth and pink aura were all there. Yet, Terron didn't feel scared of her expression as he had in the past. He didn't know why, but he didn't think much of it.

"Shut up!" Zekra shouted. "I'm not lazy! I just don't want to carry the kid!"

"So because you don't want to do something, you pass it onto me?!" Terron asked incredulously. "You'd rather give me some task rather than suck it up and do it yourself?! What kind of a reason is that?!"

"Like it's a big deal!" Zekra stated. "It wouldn't kill you! Cubone are strong! You've even carried me at times! Why do you have to make such a fuss out of this!?"

"Why do you have to be a little shrew sometimes?!" Terron asked in return.

Zekra's blue eyes glowed maliciously. Before anything could be said, Zekra rammed her head into the Cubone. The two fell to the ground, where they immediately scuffled. As the two bit, scratched, bashed, and punched one another, Impetus warped back to the two. She was about to continue running, but she noticed the fight and temporarily forgot about the Snivy still attached to her.

She wasn't sure what to make of the situation. She didn't know why they were attacking one another when they always seemed to get along so well earlier. It was a very odd contrast.

Syn peered over the side of Impetus's head and noticed the fighting. He gently got off the Mienfoo.

"Why are you guys fighting?" he asked.

Terron and Zekra stopped. They looked over at their client and then back at each other. They quickly separated from one another and got back to their feet.

"Had a little argument," Zekra answered blandly. "But, it's all good. We're fine now."

"Yeah…" Terron said half-heartedly.

Syn smiled as he got ready to climb back onto Impetus's shoulders. The Mienfoo was quick to move out of the way. She charged up the white light in her palm.

"Syn… just walk," Terron said, not in much of a mood to talk. "Impetus doesn't like carrying Pokémon. None of us do."

"Awwww, you guys are mean!" Syn whined.

Nonetheless, Syn didn't bother to climb onto any of them. With that taken care of, the four once again headed for their destination. Their journey was certainly turning out to be an eventful one.