"...alright Ninetales, like that." Ohm said as he watched Flocon skate across the ground of the bog. It has been a day since Flocon had been made a business partner and he was out with Ohm to hone his skills while Bancho watched from a rock in the distance. Flocon was trying to turn his shell of ice into an armor and Ohm had offered his help.

However as he was skating one of his legs slipped out from under him, sending him sliding into a tree not far away and colliding with a loud thunk. Ohm's face twitched a little. "And he was doing so well…" he muttered. "alright, let's try something else for the time being. How about Frost Breath?" he recommended in an attempt to salvage the current situation.

"Frost what?" Flocon replied, his voice stilted and pained from the crash, he stood up only to slip again. Well, at least the armor didn't shatter this time. He thought as he let go of his concentration on it, letting it sublimate back into the aether. Part of his body sank into the mud as he fell a few inches.

"Frost Breath, it's a basic, but important move that almost any Ice-type can use. I myself am not an Ice-type, but I can demonstrate how to use Dragon Breath, which as far as I hear, is pretty similar." Ohm said, making sure that Flocon was watching as he braced himself. "Watch what I do, and follow."

"So, brace your back." he instructed. "Now, take a deep breath." he said, watching Flocon as he inhaled deeply. "Let it fill with your essence, then let it out with all your might." Ohm leaned back and fired an impressive stream of purple flame, wreathing the grass in fire as a thick cloud of steam arose at it's touch. Flocon focused and breathed out, but nothing more than a breath comparable to an autumn breeze arose from his attempt.

"Damn it Ninetales!" Ohm shouted, his rage finally snapping. "How hard could that be?" He attempted to strike him but was grabbed by Bancho before he could make a move, though that didn't stop him from raving with anger.

"I'm glad you're here." Flocon said, his voice small.

Bancho nodded. "I am too." he said over Ohm's shouts.

"What are you three doing over here?" came an unamused voice from just behind them.

Ohm ceased his struggling causing Bancho to let go of him Ohm fell to the muddy ground and stood back up after a few seconds before he looked up and said, "Why did you come out this far, Irukan?" He rested a fin on his chin as he continued, "It's not like you're on duty today."

She showed them a letter. "It's addressed to the name of 'Flocon' and Sylpheed told me that it was Ninetales over there." Irukan said, gesturing towards Flocon.

"I thought you didn't have any memories." Bancho stated, looking down at the Ninetales.

Picking up the letter from her fins, Flocon opened it. "I don't." he stated flatly, not thinking about any implications.

"Then why is it addressed to you?"

Flocon paused and looked up in realization, the gears turned in his head for a few moments. "I-I don't know. Sylpheed and Frukkkshin are the only ones who know my name." he eventually sputtered out.

The other three exchanged cautious glances as he stated this. "And you just… opened it?" Ohm asked, his voice quivering.

"Yeah." Flocon said as he slowly brought his head down to read the letter with a slightly nervous expression plastered across his face.

Ohm's hair started to spark. "What sort of idiot are you?" Ohm exclaimed, the outburst causing him to be smacked by Irukan. "Thanks…" he remarked as he rubbed the side of his head, his ears drooping.

Flocon continued reading the note in silence, trying to ignore the shouting to the best of his abilities. "Says here I have a doctor's appointment." he said after a few moments.

Ohm just stared at him blankly as Flocon did his best to tuck the letter back into the envelope without any opposable thumbs. "So, I'll be going later today." he said. Bancho motioned for him to hand over the letter, Flocon gave a huff and dropped it in his paws without protest.

After taking a few moments to watch this interaction, Ohm shouted, "Wait, what!?" getting close to Flocon's face, he continued, "Do you know how suspicious this sounds? It's a trap, there's no way it couldn't be." he was pulled away by Irukan before he had a chance to do much else.

"But what if it isn't?" Flocon protested defensively. "What if whoever sent out this message is the only chance I have at figuring this out?"

The Dragalge that grabbed him released him after he calmed down a bit. Ohm stood for a moment dumbfounded by Flocon's statement. "Ninetales, look at me." he stated. "This entire thing is strange, why would this mysterious benefactor want to help in the first place? And more importantly, why wouldn't they come to you in person? This is completely suspect."

Folding the envelope and slipping it into his coat, Bancho grunted and said, "I think he should go."

Ohm faced him in shock. "You too?" he exclaimed.

"Thanks Pangoro." said Flocon.

"You're not going alone." Bancho told Flocon before facing Ohm. "Our orders are to figure out what happened here. We're going with him."

Ohm sighed and crossed his fins. "I was hoping you wouldn't let him go alone." he said. "This is a trap, but you're right, we have to keep him alive don't we?"

"I'm standing right here." Flocon said, his voice filled with indignation.

"I know." Ohm responded, his voice flat as he stared off into the distance. "We should prepare for a fight, and that means…" he paused for dramatic effect before exclaiming, "...we continue training."

Walking back to where Flocon was. "Well, let's try Frost Breath again..." he said, causing Flocon to give Bancho a worried look.

Bancho turned to Irukan, ignoring the worried Ninetales for the time being. "You might as well head back." he said.

Watching the Ohm and Flocon for a moment longer, Irukan sighed and slithered away. "Be careful you three," she said before she left. "I don't want you getting yourselves killed."

Flocon let out another breath, this time his Frost breath was more powerful, but far from good. Flocon took solace in the thought that a winter breeze is still colder than an autumn one. "Well, you're making progress." Ohm said. "Still, your posture's off, you need to arch your back so it opens up, not down. You need to be able to take the deepest breath possible."

Nodding as he followed his directions once more, Flocon braced his back, opening it up in a "U" shape. Inhaling a much deeper breath of air and focusing on freezing it. Leaning his head back for a moment he let forth a Frost Breath, even stronger than the last to where it was enough to be visible to the naked eye. The breeze covered the area it struck with a thin sheet of ice.

Ohm looked down at the frozen puddle, a little surprised. "Impressive, you're making good progress already and we only just started." he said as he turned towards Flocon. "But you're still much to slow, if this were a fight, you'd have already gone down."

Just had to shoot me down last minute. Flocon thought, his ears, head and tails drooping to the floor.

"It's one thing to learn an attack, but there's a difference between knowing something and using it. Well, I think we should get back to working on your Arctic Warrior."

"This looks like the place." Bancho said as they stood outside a hospital building marked by the blue and red awning above it.

They entered into a small foyer with a hallway either side and a bored Ambipom seated behind a few bars, paperwork flanking him either side. "Hello." he said with the energy of someone who has been working for far too long for far too little.

Only fazed for a moment, Flocon responded, "Good afternoon, I was told I had a doctor's appointment?"

"Name."

"Flocon."

"Septembre?"

"The one and only."

Ambipom stared at him for a few moments before pointing down the left hallway. "Room 109. Doctor Blissey's been expecting you. Now," he said, shifting his eyes to Ohm and Bancho. "who are you two?"

Ohm stared blankly for a few seconds before saying, "Us, why, we're his… family, here to help him through his… therapy." he clearly hadn't thought this far

"What?" Flocon started. "You are n-" he was cut off by a quick shock to one of his tails. "I mean, yes, this is the truth." he corrected as he gave a fake smile.

Ambipom stared at the three of them for a few moments and said, "Room 109." in a voice that indicated that he was far too tired to care anymore. He reached under the desk and handed them a paper through the slits. "Fill this out."

Ohm grabbed it. "Thank you." he said.

"Leave me alone already."

A little stunned by his remark, Ohm took a moment before he began flipping through the papers as they walked. "Let's see here, looks like the usual contract, you know how to sign documents, correct?" he asked as he looked down at Flocon, only to be met by a very menacing glare.

"Oh quit it." Bancho reprimanded, lightly punching Flocon in the head.

Flocon looked up at Bancho then sighed, keeping his eyes forwards.

Ohm muttered, "Well, you'll need to sign just about everywhere." as they were walking a slip of paper fell out of the papers, Ohm picked it up, noticing that rather than being printed like the rest of the documents, it was handwritten. "Let's see… 'We're watching you.'" Ohm said, handing the note to Bancho and swinging his head back to grope the back of his head before grunting. "Well, looks like I was right."

Bancho peered over at him and grabbed the note. "You're not." he said.

"How do you know?"

Bancho tucked the note into his coat. "If it was a trap they wouldn't give you something like that." he said, readjusting his collar.

Flocon alternated glances between the two of them as they spoke. They know I'm right here… right? he thought as he looked down at his paws, then went back to looking forward.

Walking into the waiting area of room 109 the first thing they noticed was that most of the pokemon in the room were of older age. A few of them turned confusedly towards the trio, a couple more casting looks through furrowed brows at Flocon, if any of them had objections to their presence not a single one voiced it.

They sat down, Ohm setting the pad and charcoal in front of Flocon. Flocon fiddled with grabbing the wooden handle on the stick of charcoal and loosely put down a signature with what little leverage he had, using a few symbols that clearly weren't Galetian. Bancho seemed to be watching him closely as he fumbled with the writing instrument, seemingly oblivious to Ohm's prodding throughout the room investigating behind various furniture as he bothered other guests.

Flocon finally finished the final page, clumsily set the charcoal back and hacked a bit, having got some dust into his mouth. He then got up and took the pad over to a moderately amused Chimecho who lifted it out of his maw with Psychic. "I'll be sure to hand this off to the right people, all you have to do is wait." she said, floating it off to an Audino in the back of the room.

Flocon sat back into the chair he was given and began to wriggle around, trying to make himself as small as possible.

Without turning to face him, Bancho asked, "Having issues?" though for someone like him, it was far more of a statement than anything.

With as little movement as possible, Flocon responded, "A couple, but none in particular."

Bancho turned back around with a grunt. "Then don't act like that." he said in a gruff voice.

Peering up at him, Flocon took a moment before he asked, "What?"

"That." Bancho motioned towards Flocon's seat. "You're making yourself seem a coward. Soon enough, you'll believe it to be true."

Flocon went back to looking forward. He eventually pushed himself out of his hidden position to sit at his full height. "I don't see how this'll help, but okay." he said in earnest.

After readjusting himself a bit to cross his legs, Bancho told him "You will, not today, but you will."

Taking only a few moments to stare up at Bancho, Flocon sighed and looked around the room noticing that most of the elderly had gone back to their books or kin. Flocon stared at a group consisting of an old Aggron and his presumed son, also an Aggron by this point. He watched as they shared a conversation, muffled by the distance between them, he set himself back against the chair and took a moment to think, I wonder… How do pokemon look at me? What do they really think? He found himself enthralled by their interaction, the way the two of them would laugh after a short dialogue. Flocon found himself feeling oddly incomplete, he let out a long sigh and peeled his eyes away from the two as he faced forwards once more.

Flocon was stirred by a light jab from Bancho. "You're doing it again." he said, referring to how Flocon was slinking down again.

Looking down at his seat he gave a slight huff and straightened up again. Flocon opened his mouth as if to say something but shut it after a few seconds.

Ohm sat back down near them. "I didn't see anything, but that doesn't mean there aren't any spies." he said.

"How about you settle down?" Bancho told him.

His hair sparked a little, Ohm's face twitched, before it settled back down. "Look, I just… fine." he said, rubbing his forehead.

"Flocon? Flocon Septembre?" a familiar Audino called from across the room.

Flocon managed to get out of his chair with some difficulty and walked over to her. "That's me."

"Follow me." she said in a reserved voice as she looked up at the other two. "I presume the Ampharos and Pangoro are with you?"

Flocon nodded. "They're going to come with me into the room." he said.

Audino took a moment to think. "I suppose there's nothing in the rules against it, I'll show you to the room."

As Audino guided the three through the dim hallway. The strong scent of alcohol permeated the narrow halls, a scent that was thinly veiled by some astringent citrus that nauseated the Ninetales. The floor itself was cement, perfectly matching the walls which had the dignity to at least be painted in an off-white color akin to cream.

"Right here," Audino said, opening a door and motioning the three in. "Doctor Blissey will be with you in a minute. Just climb up onto the table in the meantime Ninetales." she said as she left the room.

Flocon jumped up onto the oaken table, almost slipping off of the surface smoothed by hundreds of other patients. Taking more than one attempt to finally settle down.

Both Ohm and Bancho took a seat at one of the three chairs, both wooden and of fair craftsmanship. Ohm shifted a few times in an attempt to get his tail settled, before getting up and moving the chair away from the wall. "You know, Ninetales, I have issues with only one tail, I can only imagine what the struggle would be like if I had nine of them." he said, sounding somewhere between condescending and genuine. Ohm took the time to look around the room before being lightly tapped by Bancho.

A few minutes of silence passed by before the door opened once more, this time it was a Blissey plainly dressed in the white clothes. The garb was expected for a doctor in Galet: a shirt that covered the arms and legs and a cloth covering the top of the head. "So, you are…" his voice trailed off, it was unprofessional and casual as if they were already acquainted with one another. He pulled out a pad and read it aloud, "Flocon… correct?"

Flocon nodded his head. "Yeah, that's me." he said. "You must be Blissey."

"Doctor Blissey, Ninetales, I didn't go into twelve years of schooling for nothing." he said, his voice just a tad defensive. "But I'm not here to have an argument, I'm here to…" his voice trailed off as he flipped through the notepad. "determine if you have dementia and give a general check-up." said Blissey, pausing in thought, "I believe we should start with determining just how bad your dementia is."

Flocon nodded. He's saying all this like I should know what it means. He thought as he did his best to fake a smile.

"Very well, the test is rather simple. And I expect honest answers…" Blissey said, pausing for a moment to look up at something before clearing his throat. "…as I was saying, I've read the initial report on you. But I'd to hear what happened that day-"

"There!" Ohm shouted, springing to his feet and swinging a cabinet wide open, the rest was a blur as a flurry of feathers blasted the room, Ohm was stunned as the petit figure of a Taillow shot past his head.

The tiny bird barreled through the room at blinding speeds, Bancho ventured to intercept it, but failed, crashing into the door. Ohm vaulted over him into the halls, not sparing even a moment to help his fellow up, but from the looks of it, it didn't take long.

Flocon began to stir from his position but Bancho shouted at him, "Stay here Ninetales, we won't be long." Before barrelling out of the room after Ohm.

Sprinting to Ohm's side, Bancho matched pace with him. "Damnit Ohm, how obvious can you be?" he questioned with visible anger.

Ohm huffed and said, "This isn't the time for this Bancho, we'll be fine, all we have to do is catch that bird. Easy."

"To say, yeah, doing is something entirely different." Bancho said as the two stormed into the waiting room filled with elderly pokemon, panicked by the flailing Taillow zipping through the air.

Ohm's tail began to spark as he elevated his fins and clapped them together, an erratic pulse surrounding them, but his movements were arrested by Bancho. "We can't risk that here." he scolded.

Loosing a sigh, Ohm acquiesced, "Then how about this?" He rushed forward and wheeled his fins around and created a thin sheet of electricity between them. A moment passed and the solid sheet of static ripped, coiling around his fins like blades. All I have to do is use a controlled shock to take them out. He thought to himself as he began to observe the movements of his opponent closely.

"Ohm, we need to minimize our damage." Bancho called as he steadied an old Lucario. "You catch them, I'll clear the room."

Giving the Pangoro a nod before turning back to his opponent. Ohm saw they had undertaken an attempt to open a door of substantial weight, presumably trying to escape. Ohm sneered and launched forwards, his hair sparking with fury. "You're not getting away!" he exclaimed as he jumped towards the tiny bird, who used her size to maneuver out of the way and managed a fly by attack to Peck Ohm in the ribs.

Ohm watched her move once more and smiled almost meanly. "Even I have to admit, there is some fun in the chase." his voice had gone from his once scholarly and professional one to a more boisterous and charged one, excitement spelt across every inch of his body as he pursued Taillow across the room.

Bancho had been clearing out the Aggron from earlier when Taillow launched past him once more, the Aggron in their golden years was sent crumbling to the ground by the sudden pass. But before he had even a chance to touch the floor a loud voice boomed from across the room, "Nobody messes with my father and gets away with it!" an Aggron, much younger, but still getting on in years charged the Taillow. She managed to barely eek past him as he flew by but the draft was a different beast entirely as it sent her tumbling to the floor. The Aggron tried to stop himself but couldn't as he tumbled over a row of chairs and into a table, splintering it entirely.

Ohm saw a chance and took it as he ran forwards and jumped over the massive Steel-type, managing to graze Taillow with a blade. Taillow was not only sent flying by this, but she also had her feathers singed by the oscillating pulses surrounding Ohm's fins.

He watched her for a moment. After seeing little movement he dispelled his blades as the static rose up his fins and into his body once more. But the moment he got close to her she leapt to her talons and flew into Ohm with a Wing Attack, smashing into him and drawing a bloody line across his face. The sudden attack dazed him momentarily as she shot past him, aiming for the door. Bancho dropped what he was doing and blocked her exit with Protect as a green barrier surrounded the door.

Taillow tried her best to stop herself but it was too late and she smashed headlong into the barrier, cracking her beak and destroying any momentum she had. Ohm dashed over and grabbed her by the talons as she fell, suspending her at a fin's length as she tried to weakly flail out of his grip.

Bancho waited a moment before dropping the shield and quickly regaining his cool exterior. "Let's get back and decide what to do with her later." he said with a grunt.

Ohm wiped the blood off his face with his free fin. "You go ahead, we can't have her listening in." he said between huffs as he looked around. "I'll get this place cleaned up a bit while I'm at it."

Bancho shrugged and walked back but a loud crash echoing throughout the hallway, not dissimilar to glass prompted him to break into a run.

The first thing he noticed about the room was the door off its hinges. The second thing was the room itself, the cold temperature, and the destroyed cabinets. Flocon was shaking where he stood, visibly struggling to even stand, his body criss-crossed in oozing lacerations. Blissey was sent against a wall and an unknown Gengar with a chunk of his leg torn out was splayed across the ground.

Flocon turned his head weakly, ectoplasm dripping from his mouth, blood leaking from his face. "Do I have a story for you." he said as he crumpled to the ground and passed out.

Hey I finally uploaded something on time for once!

Either way, this is probably going to be the average chapter length from here on out as I normally write chapters to be "bite-sized" as it were, but it's also why I can upload once every two weeks versus once a month.