Chapter 4: Pearls of Wisdom, Maybe

"GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY!"

"I hate you."

"AND GOOD MORNING TO YOU TOO!"

After the daily meeting, Charlie spoke to them. "Okay, Team Marmalade… today, I'll take you over to the Job Board and find you something to start with. Most days, you're allowed to do whatever kind of job you like so long as you pick a board job once a week. Come with me." He flew up to the second floor.

"So if time is messing up," Kip mused, "how does he know if we've done something once a week?"

"Somehow, I think Charlie would know," Trey answered.

They got another droning explanation from Chatot. Stacy wondered how a musical bird could be so boring. He explained how jobs were rated, that they should take the low rated jobs as they were just starting out. After they looked over the board (and there were some interesting ones too; sadly, rated B or A), Charlie pulled off one paper. "Here you go. This one ought to be a good start."

Stacy took the paper and read over it. "'Hi. An outlaw has run off with my pearl and I'm completely lost without it. If it's not on my head, I go bouncing all over the place. It was spotted yesterday near Drenched Bluff. Would someone please be so kind as to go find it? Thanks, Spoink.'"

"Aw 'mon, is that it?" Kip asked. "We've just got to find something some doofus lost?"

"It is very important to fulfill every job," Charlie said. "Remember, don't shirk work!"

"We'll go find it," Trey said.

Drenched Bluff was much like Beach Cave, but higher in elevation and scattered with more rocks and leafy bushes. A long jagged cliff dropped off into the ocean. "Careful, everybody," Stacy advised.

Outside the entrance, Sally snapped her fingers, then opened up her Treasure Bag. She pulled out a Pecha Scarf and showed it to Kip.

"What, that thing? Hey, it looks different."

"She adjusted it so that you can wear it without dragging it along the ground," Stacy said. "She's been working on it in the evenings and mornings."

"Really? Sweet!" He let her wrap it around his neck. "Thanks. Now I look awesome."

"And you're protected from being poisoned," Trey pointed out. "That's very useful."

Aside from watching out for long drops to the ocean, Drenched Bluff wasn't that much different than Beach Cave. There were more levels to it that they had to search more thoroughly. But that meant that they found lots of useful items. Kip had to go with Sally, though, because he couldn't store any of the items that he picked up.

Finally, at the seventh level, they found a pink pearl. It lay in a stony clearing; ferns billowed out like grounded clouds and a freshwater spring bubbled out of a crack in the rocks. "This must be Spoink's pearl," Stacy said, picking it up.

Kip saw the luster the pearl had, the inner and outer beauty it had. Almost as big as Stacy's paws, the surface seemed mystical, like one could see the future or hidden truths within its pink depths. He hadn't expected it to be much, being a low-ranked job and some weak Pokemon's treasure. But this… this was fantastic.

'Take it,' a voice in his head said. 'Take it and run far far away. You like it. It should be yours. Take it and use it as a clue to find your treasure."

He hunkered down. "My treasure is the light of the darkness," he murmured.

"What was that?" Trey asked.

"Nothing!" he replied, sitting up straight. "Chasing the moonbeams, I guess. I'm not listening to nonsense."

"What nonsense are you speaking?" the Treecko asked, giving him a puzzled look.

"Huh. You've never encountered the night, have you?" He strutted off to the exit, willing himself to not look at the fabulous pink pearl.

Back at the guild, Team Marmalade met with Charlie and the Spoink. The pearl now sat on Spoink's head, although Kip still wouldn't look at it directly. "Thank you so much," Spoink said. "Without my pearl balanced on my head, I didn't know what way to go. I was bouncing all over the place without direction! But now everything will be right again."

"You're welcome," Stacy said, smiling.

"In reward, I want to give you this." Spoink handed over 2000 Poke.

"Oh wow, this much?" Stacy asked, clearly awestruck by that amount of money.

"For my pearl, it's worth it. Thanks again; I won't forget this." Spoink bounded up the ladder and was soon gone.

"Oh, but you must pay your dues as well." Charlie took the 2000 Poke, checked it, then handed over 200 Poke. "Here you go."

"What?!" Kip asked. "You get 90% cut?"

"That's the price of board, food, information, equipment, training, and so on. So yes, but you get so much more out of it. And technically, you aren't to get anything because you're under parole."

"Ah rock smash," Kip grumbled.

Dinner was taken slow that night, because Trey was working on his sign language. "A lot of it does depend on having five fingers," he said, trying to manipulate his three fingered paws. "I can't do any of it."

On the other hand, Sally could make the signs so rapidly that her fingers seemed to become a blur. Bobby the Bidoof, who sat near them, asked, "What's my name look like in your language, Sally?"

Happily, she showed him. Trey noted how she tilted her hand slightly to show that she was making two 'B's, not one.

That night, the boys settled into bed. "You know, it feels good to be appreciated," Trey said.

"90% cut, bah," Kip replied, then went to sleep.

The next morning…

"GOOOOOOD MOOOOORRRRNIIIIINNG!"

"Shaddap."

After the meeting, Charlie told them to pick a job off the Outlaw board. "I'm afraid that I've got important tasks to take care of today, so I won't be able to explain things."

"Oh how dreadful," Kip said sarcastically.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," he retorted. "Now… Bobby! Would you help Team Marmalade pick out one of the outlaws?"

"Um, golly, me?" he asked. "Um, sure. Come with me, folks."

They followed him up to the second floor and went to the second job board. There, they found a team of three Poochenyas. One of them looked at the group. "Hey, aren't you that crazy Skitty we caught a while ago?"

Kip raised his nose in the air. "Despite all your noise and crudeness, yes."

"Hey, don't insult Team Poochy," he growled.

"It is ever a shame that I got snagged by these mangy canines," he went on.

"We are perfectly healthy and strong canines, for your information," the female of the group said snobbily.

"Kip, don't you know when to stop being a pest?" Trey asked.

"I can't help myself around…" before he could say it, the Treecko covered his mouth.

"Ignore the Skitty," the other male said. "Here, let's go chase down this bad guy." They took their job paper and left.

"Try not to get us all in trouble," Stacy told Kip.

"Hmph." He started cleaning his paw, as if none of what had just happened was important.

"Um," Bobby said. "Well I hope I get everything right. I used to be the newest apprentice before you guys were chosen, so I usually don't get called on to help others out."

"You're nice," Stacy said encouragingly, "So you should do fine. Where's your team, by the way?"

"Um, well one dropped out and the other joined an older group, so I've been by myself mostly. I do have a team name, though: Team Woodchuck."

"That's very…" Trey thought, "descriptive."

"Thanks. Well, um, this is the Outlaw board. It's got the same kind of thing as the other board, where all the jobs are rated on difficulty."

"Who decides difficulty?" Trey asked.

"Um, well in this case, I think it's Sheriff Magnezone who uses the criminal records and his memory to tell us how dangerous outlaws are. Oh, right, you'd better go into town and get supplies, store your stuff, and that kind of thing. The Outlaw board tends to have tougher jobs overall compared to the Job Board."

"That sounds like a good idea," Stacy said.

"I can't go into town still, unless my sparky parole officer is along," Kip stated. "You've got all my stuff, Sally, so do whatever you feel like." He yawned, then curled down on the floor for a catnap.

When the group was done in town, they came back to the crossroads to a surprise. Stacy's brothers Matti and Azeri were by the old well with an odd Pokemon. It was bipedal, around three feet tall, with yellow skin and a short hanging snout. "I'm sure I sensed something of that nature there, so it shouldn't be hard to locate."

"Oh good," Matti said, partly relieved.

"Hey, good morning," Stacy called. "What's up?"

"Oh, good morning Stacy," Matti said.

"Hi big sis!" Azeri squealed.

"You know that Water Float we lost a few days back?" the Marill went on. "Mr. Fred the Drowzee here says that he knows where it is.'

"Oh really? That's great."

"And he's gonna take us to it, so we get to go on an adventure too!" Azeri said excitedly.

"Is it anywhere dangerous?" Stacy asked, worried.

"No, it's a tame place," Mr. Fred said kindly. "Don't worry, I wouldn't let nice kids like these two get hurt under my care."

"Oh, well, thank you very much for taking them," Stacy said, smiling. "I would, but I'm working right now."

He nodded agreeably. "It won't take very long; we'll be back by the end of the day."

"Okay, have a good adventure, boys."

As they were saying goodbye, Sally abruptly knelt down and touched Mr. Fred. The Drowzee looked up at her. "Hmm, is something wrong?"

She looked puzzled, then shrugged and backed off. But as they left, her eyes unfocused and she cringed in pain.

"Sally?" Stacy asked, concerned. "What's wrong with you? A headache?"

"I think so," Trey said. "It's happened once before."

And she looked just as disoriented as the last time. She looked at the dirt path that Mr. Fred, Matti, and Azeri had gone down.

"Do you need to rest for the day?" Stacy said, patting her knee.

Sally shook her head. She made some signs, slowly spelling something out.

Trey watched. "Same dream? Oh, you mean you had the same dream as last time?"

She nodded, then pointed down the path.

"You think Azeri's in trouble. But you saw that days ago too, so it was probably just some bad dream."

"What about my brother?" Stacy asked.

Trey rubbed his nose. "Well last time she had that headache, she had this weird dream thing of Azeri in trouble somewhere. She was able to show it to me somehow. But it was just a dream."

"That's weird. Besides, Mr. Fred was a nice Pokemon. It's good to know, with all the outlaw Pokemon popping up, that there's still nice Pokemon like him around. And we've got to get back and do our job."

Sally still looked skeptical, but went back with them. Kip stretched himself out when they approached. "Okay, down to business. I hope it's nobody I know."

"I hope it's not a really scary outlaw," Stacy said, a little scared.

Bobby the Bidoof nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But it's okay. There's lots of different outlaw Pokemon. Some just steal little things or break stuff, but then sometimes a post comes up of a really nasty character. But if you go for the lower ranked Outlaws, they won't be the really bad ones."

"I must have been at least one star," Kip said smugly.

"I don't think that's something to be proud of," Trey countered.

Bobby shuddered. "Ooo, I wouldn't ever do a star-ranked job. Leave those for the professionals. Now… I've been thinking…"

All of a sudden, an alarm rang out. "Board updating!" a loud voice said, right before the Outlaw Board banged, spun around, and turned up blank. "Please be patient!"

Stacy had ducked into her shell. "What was that?" she asked.

"Oh, that was just Senior Dugtrio," Bobby said. "He updates the boards whenever new jobs come in. His son Junior Diglett runs the security post with Larry most days."

"Isn't Loudred one of the apprentices too?" Stacy asked, coming out.

"Well yes. Junior too. But Junior wants to be staff like his dad and Larry… well he's turned out to be too loud for most jobs. But if you ever get one that requires a lot of noise, he's great to have along."

"I imagine," Trey said.

"Hey, who's that fellow that keeps yelling back at him every morning?" Kip asked. "I don't recognize the voice any other time, but he sounds like a jolly fellow to hang out with."

"Oh, gosh, I dunno. Whoever it is is pretty good at keeping quiet about it."

"Outlaw Board updated!" Senior shouted, then knocked the board back around. The alarm sounded again a few seconds later. "Board updating!" The Job board then banged around. "Please be patient!"

"Okay, so..." Bobby looked disappointed. "Aw, the one I picked was taken off for being too old."

"Well that's probably good thing," Trey pointed out.

Without warning, Sally reached over and tapped one of the notices. 'From: Magnemite Mika Outlaw: Mr. Fred the Drowzee Current location: Unknown, possibly around Treasure Town. Crimes: lying, cheating, generally being a bully. Suspected of potentially greater crimes. Please help us catch him before he does something truly atrocious.' It came with a picture of the Pokemon who had left with Matti and Azeri.

"Oh my goodness, we just saw him!" Stacy said. "And he left… oh, I didn't ask where they were going. What's going to happyn to them?" She dropped her head back into her shell.

"Hey, don't give up yet," Trey said. "We'll go right out and look for them. But the only clue we have is a place I don't recognize."

"What clue?" Stacy asked.

"Sally's dream… oh, can you show it to Kip?"

"Huh, what?" the Skitty asked, looking between the three, puzzled.

"You've been all sorts of places," Trey said. "Maybe you'll recognize the place Sally saw."

The human knelt down and put her fingers over Kip's amber eyes. He nearly jerked back, but then paused. "Nasty. Yeah, I know the place: Mount Bristle, the rough and tumble mountain. Not too bad, but those rockslides are nightmares. Not to mention that deal with the peak." He shuddered. "Ugh. Didn't want to remember that."

"Let's get right over there!" Stacy said, then hurried out with Trey and Sally.

"Huh?" Bobby asked. "What's going on?"

"Emergency-like situation," Kip said. He grabbed the outlaw paper, then took off after them. "Later woodchuck!"

Mount Bristle was a bleak Mystery Dungeon, with rough rocks and dusty paths. The passages took form of curving trails that led further up the mountain. Stacy first suggested splitting up and looking all over, but Kip countered that. He believed that Mr. Fred would go all the way up to the peak, so it would be faster to stick together and pass levels quickly.

Five levels in, Sally clapped for Stacy's attention. She pointed over a large gap, where Matti was sitting alone, crying.

"Matti!" Stacy called, going over to the gap and stopping short of it. "We're here."

"Stacy?" he said, rubbing his eyes and looking over. Once he recognized them, he came over to the gap too. "Stacy! I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. I was looking around for the passage when I fell down a slope and got separated. I tried calling for them, but they wouldn't answer. I'm afraid something ate them."

"It's okay," Stacy said. "We're here to rescue you both."

"That gap is rather big, even for Sally to step over," Trey pointed out.

Sally didn't let that stop her. After waving to Matti to stand aside, she braced herself, then made a long running jump over the gap. Unfortunately, when she put her hand against the wall to brace herself, some more rocks came loose and tumbled down.

"Matti, Sally!" Stacy called, worried.

Kip coughed. "I told you *hack* nasty rockslides."

When the dust cleared, they saw that the two were okay, in an odd manner. Sally was coughing hard from the dust. But her usual yellow top and black bottom accessories were gone. Instead, her entire body from her neck down was covered in a strange light green steel skin. Her head was mostly covered by a helmet device, with the bottom part of her white hair fluttering along her back. This second skin had taken the rockslide without a scratch. Matti was sheltered under her, scared but apparently okay.

"Sally?" Trey called. "What happened to you?"

The human looked down, puzzled. She shrugged, then picked up Matti to bring him back to the other side. This time, the jump was much easier; she cleared at least three extra feet, causing Kip to scramble out of the way. Sally put Matti down next to Stacy; the two hugged.

"I was so scared for you, Matti," Stacy said.

"I want to go home," he sobbed.

"Sorry, but we've got to continue up and find Azeri. Mr. Fred is a bad Pokemon."

"He seemed so nice."

"Which means he's either new to the darkness or really deep into it," Kip stated. "Let's go on before they get too far ahead of us."

With a child along, they had to continue on a little slower and a lot more cautious. Matti knew how to do a few things, like twitching his tail to make a foe less wary and lower their defenses. He tried to throw a couple of pebbles he had found, but only one found its mark.

On the other hand, Stacy was able to mow through the numerous Rock type enemies with her Water Gun and Brine. Trey was able to do so a bit less effectively with Drain. Kip had only physical and status attacks, but they were useful for affecting non-Rocks that tried to sneak up on the others. And Sally was able to make her usual physical kicks and punches stronger because of her second skin, to where she could punch a Geodude out cold without hurting her fingers.

After ten long levels, they came to a flat opening near the mountain's peak. It seemed oddly familiar to Trey and Sally. Mr. Fred was near the end of that opening with Azeri. "It doesn't matter what happened to your brother," the Drowzee said, not a hint of his former warmth showing. "Now you see that little hole over there? There's treasure back there, but I can't fit through there. You though, you're going to go in there and get it for me. if you don't go in there, you're going to be in big trouble."

The Azurill shivered, gripping his tail ball with all paws. "H-h-help!"

"There's no one else around, but keep quiet," Mr. Fred replied harshly. "Now you'll do as I say, or else."

"B-b-but…" Azeri said, frightened.

"Do it."

Trey and Kip felt a chill, as that had been exactly what Sally's dream had been about. After silently indicating to Sally to take Matti and protect him, Stacy ran over to them. "Stop it! You aren't making my little brother do anything!"

Trey followed up with Kip. "You're not going to get away with bullying little kids," Trey added.

Mr. Fred tensed in surprise and turned around. "Oh, it's you guys," he said. Then he stepped back and took hold of Azeri. "You think I can't get away? I can, and I'll take this one with me."

"Stacy," Azeri called, pleading. "Mr. Fred's a meanie."

Stacy and Trey were stalled, though. Could Mr. Fred teleport and kidnap little Azeri? They didn't know if he could. And if he did, what could they do to stop him?

That doubt didn't stop Kip. "Oh, you think you can get away, do you?" he replied in an equally sharp tone. "You can get away from us. You can get away from us as many times as you like."

"Kip!" Stacy cried out, horrified.

The Skitty took a step forward, folding his ears back. "But you can't get away, no, you can't. You can't run from the darkness."

"What are you talking about?" Mr. Fred said, although the way his eyes widened at the words indicated that he might have known.

"I know what happened to you. You were just happily minding your own business when suddenly, the darkness descended upon your mind. Maybe you invited it in, or maybe it tricked its way there. But it seemed harmless at first, right? Giving you little whispers of suggestions, telling you that you could be great if you followed its words, nudging you into pushing the boundaries of civilized life. That's what it did."

He brought his free arm in defensively. "So what about it?"

Kip swished his pink tail. "And the darkness came so very close to its first victory over you. You know what's back in that hole?"

"Treasure?"

"Nothing. Just some rocks, some path, and a great big PITFALL that drops all the way down into the depths of Mount Bristle, leading to instant death to any luckless 'mon that manages to trip it. I know cause I saw somebody fall down that pitfall. And after that, things get worse. Much worse."

"You're lying," Mr. Fred tried to counter, but he seemed to be shaking.

"And after that victory, the darkness won't leave you alone. It'll badger you with both guilt and greed, trying to get you to do more and more bad things for it. With each victory it wins, the darkness in your mind grows stronger and louder. Eventually, you're broken down into a crazed raving madpoke with no hope, no will, and no happiness. I've seen that happen too. You can emerge from the depths of darkness; I'm trying to, even though it can still scream in my mind. You though, it barely whispers in you. Don't let it get its first victory. Give the child back to us and go with the Sheriff's minions. There are 'mons out there that can get you away from the darkness easily at this stage."

After Kip stopped speaking, everyone was silent, watching him. Only the wind could be heard for a moment. The blood seemed to have drained from the Drowzee's face, leaving him a pale sickly yellow. "It… it didn't seem dangerous," he said, as if he felt distant from the conversation. But he took his hand off Azeri.

The Azurill ran away as soon as he could and soon was hugging Stacy and Matti. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"You didn't do anything bad," Stacy reassured him. "I'm so glad to have you back safe."

Kip went up to Mr. Fred. "You did the right thing, 'mon. Let's go back."

Sheriff Magnezone, Mika, and another Magnemite met them at the Guild. "Thank you for apprehending this outlaw," Magnezone Bailey said. "Especially when we had no idea where he was hiding out at."

"And thanks for helping me get back my brothers," Stacy told the other three. "I'm sorry we can't really offer you any reward, but…"

"It's okay," Trey said, shaking Stacy's paw. "You're one of us."

"But don't go expecting more pro bono work," Kip said.

"You don't get paid at all," Mika reminded him.

"Bah."

"In that case, may I offer this treasure along with the office reward money?" Bailey offered, sending over a box.

Trey opened it. "Oh wow, Gummis! These are really valuable."

"It was quite remarkable that you were able to bring him in without a fight," Bailey stated. "And to have scaled Mount Bristle as a very new team, you did an excellent job. So it is a worthy reward." He turned to his helpers. "Come on, let's go."

"Aw," Mr. Fred said, as the Magnemites began forcing him up the ladder and out of the Guild building.

"There's a White, a Silver, a Blue… oo, and a Grass!"

"What's the difference?" Stacy asked.

"Well the Gummis come in different types, like Pokemon do. The blue one is Water type, the White Normal, and the Silver Steel. I guess you would get the Silver one, Sally. I don't know what type humans are, even after watching you fight."

She smiled and took it anyhow.

"What, you're going to trust me with something valuable?" Kip said.

"It's special food that is said to boost your talents," Trey said, handing him the White. "So if you eat it before anyone notices, we won't tell."

Stacy laughed as she took the Blue. "Sure, we won't."

At dinner, the story of Marmalade's first arrest somehow got a lot of attention. "So that's what's behind that tiny tunnel?" Larry asked. "A pitfall?"

"Horribly nasty one at that," Kip stated. "But the rumor's way overblown the truth."

"Golly, your story is mighty impressive," Bobby told Trey.

"What's the darkness you were talking about?" Azeri asked the Skitty. He and Matti had been invited to stay for dinner.

"Bad stuff. Don't listen to any thought that isn't yours. But you're young; it probably wouldn't try anything to you right now."

"How'd you break out of it?" Stacy asked.

"Why all the interest in me all of a sudden?" Kip asked. "And without any of it being about my cuteness? Anyhow, I've had this feeling the whole time that somehow, somewhere, there's a treasure that belongs to me. I don't know what it looks like or what it does, but I just know that when I see it, I'll know it. That's how I slipped into darkness; it kept making me second-guess every treasure I ran across as possibly being mine when I felt that it wasn't. And it gave me all sorts of crazy places to look for it too. Finally, I realized that with the darkness controlling me, I wasn't going to find it, my light of the darkness." He scratched his head with his back paw. "Of course, it kind of took Magnezone's interrogation techniques to really make me realize that. But I won't admit to being glad that some gang of mutts were the ones to catch me."

"What if your treasure is owned by someone else?" Matti asked.

"I'd steal it. No, I'm kidding. I'll try whatever it takes to get the person to realize that it is mine and it is very important that I have it. I just hope it's not in some madhouse Mystery Dungeon, like the Zero Isles."

"Where's that?" Azeri asked.

"Don't even think about going there," he replied.

"It's a special and extremely difficult dungeon," Trey said. "Or rather, it's a set of five randomly changing towers, a different tower each day. And the wild magic of Zero Isle is particularly brutal. It will take some or all of your items the moment to step in the door. And it can potentially drop weakening handicaps on you. They ought to just destroy the place, as so many foolish adventurers get trapped, lost, or even killed in there."

"You can't even do that," Charlie pointed out as he walked by. "That would just encourage the wild magic of Zero Isle to spread to other dungeons."

"Ooo, that'd be awful," Kip said, shuddering.

"Oh, and we were going to invite your mother too, but," Charlie started to say.

The three siblings went quiet. "Oh, I'm so sorry," Stacy said. "We didn't want to get separated, so we didn't tell anybody."

"About what?" Trey asked.

"Mommy's dead," Azeri said, sniffling a bit.

"I'm sorry to learn of this," Charlie said. "But you had left your brothers alone?"

"Well Matti's really responsible for his age," Stacy said, flustered enough that her tail came uncurled. "And he should be taking his Rite of Passage in a few months anyhow. And I was supposed to be nearby if they needed me…"

Charlie didn't seem too impressed with this. However, before he could launch into a rant in front of everybody, Bartleby interrupted by saying, "Well they can stay here at the Guild then."

"What?" Charlie asked, startled.

"Really?" Stacy asked, surprised.

He nodded, tossing his Perfect Apple high. "Of course they can. They are good kids; everyone around town knows that. Right Charlie?"

"Um, right Bartle," he admitted.

"And your mother and father were both really great explorers," Bartleby added, catching his apple squarely between his ears. "And real wonderful friends too. He sacrificed a lot to help others, as did she. So, it's no trouble at all if you stay here while things are tough."

"Oh, thank you so much," Stacy said, her eyes sparkling.

"Yes, thank you," Matti said, with a cheer and bounce from Azeri.

"Bartleby is so kind," Chiaka said dreamily.

"And Team Woodchuck!" the Guildmaster called out, spinning around.

"Huh?" Bobby said, jerking his head up from the table. "What is it?"

"Your team has a spare room next to the girls in Marmalade, right? Would you mind giving it to the boys to have as their own?"

"Oh gosh, no, that's perfectly fine with me."

"Then it's all settled and everybody's happy!" Bartleby cheered. He looked to Charlie and thumped him on the back. "Right?"

"Um, right."

That night, Stacy came to tuck her brothers into bed. "I'm glad to have you close again," she told them. "I had missed you."

"Me too," Matti said.

"Me three," Azeri added.

"The staff here is very nice," Stacy said. "So be good for them, okay?"

"Okay," they said.

"Are you a great explorer yet?" Azeri asked. "Everybody was talking about you and your friends."

She blushed. "Oh, not yet. I hope I will be, though."

"You can do it," Matti said. "You're brave."

"Not always, but thank you. Oh, and you might want to be up early. Larry does the morning call and he's really loud."

"Really really loud?" Azeri asked.

"Yes, really really loud. Good night, Azeri, Matti."

"Good night."

After she left their room, Stacy found Trey outside of his room. His broad leafy tail, which was usually arched up, was touching the ground now. Maybe that was a sign that he was tired; his eyes certainly looked that way. "Have you seen Kip?" he asked, annoyed. "He's the one who's supposed to have a curfew."

"Not recently," Stacy said. "But I'll go look. You go on to bed; you look exhausted."

"A little," he admitted grudgingly. "I've never been on such a long trek before. But all the rest of you seemed to have no trouble. I hope I won't be dragging the rest of you down."

"You don't have to worry about that," she said, patting his shoulder in a friendly way. "I mean, you might be the least experienced in battle; I've trained with my parents and Kip, well, he's been evading the law for years if his boasts are right."

"Sally has no idea herself," Trey added, "but you have to admit, she must have gotten training somewhere prior to losing her memory."

"Right. But I'm sure you'll catch up. I could help you with that, if you like."

"That's okay." He yawned, stretching his arms. "Well, I'd better go to bed, before I fall asleep out here."

She smiled. "Sure thing. Good night, Trey."

"G'night," he mumbled, then trudged back into his room.

Stacy found Kip fairly quickly, in the main area of the third floor. He was looking out of the large window out over the river. Coming over by him, she said, "Hey Kip, it's getting late."

"Phffft," he replied. "I know. Are you tired?"

"A little, but I can stay up and talk if you'd like," she offered. It seemed like something was on his mind. Even if he was a former outlaw, he was part of her team now, and she should help whenever she could.

"I don't want to talk," he said, then twisted his ears back in a way that made him look sad. "Would you come out for a walk with me? I can't leave this dang place unescorted."

"All right, but we shouldn't be out for long."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go."

They left the guild building. Kip led her down the slope of the cliff and around to the river below. All the time, his ears and tail kept twitching and shifting between emotions. "What's bothering you?" she asked kindly.

"Hmph." He took a few steps, then added, "I don't want to talk about it and you don't want to hear about it. I swear this by the paws of Arceus."

"By the paws of who?"

"Nevermind." He stopped by a large tree stump. While it looked like an ordinary rotting stump, Kip knocked the top off to reveal a hidden space. "The dang peons of the Sheriff raided most of my stashes," he said, looking into the stump. "But I think… yeah, they left that."

Stacy came over to see him pull out a small piece of gray metal. "What's that?"

"A ghost of my past," he said, then laughed nervously. "Nah. It came from an Aron." Kip looked at the piece of steel, serious again. Then he went to the bank of the river and threw it across the water. It dropped midway.

Stacy wasn't sure what any of that was about. And even if he said that she didn't want to know what, it only made her more curious. After thinking for a minute, she decided to ask, "Does that help?"

"I don't know," Kip replied, frustration showing in his tone. "I don't know if what happened today makes up for what happened before. I don't know if any of this helps anyone, much less redeems me. I just know that I didn't want to see that scene ever again."

That didn't help clear anything up, but she felt like he would continue being evasive if she asked for an explanation. Feeling like she should say something, she told him, "Well, you do the best you can to do what's right. Isn't that how it goes? Besides, you helped a couple of kids keep out of serious trouble. That's good in my view, even if I didn't know them."

He turned and looked at her for a moment. There was quiet, save for the motions of the river and the calls of wild Pokemon. Then, he smiled and walked back towards her. "Dang, you're a straight arrow. Never thought I'd say this, but I hope that doesn't change. Come on, let's go back before anyone catches me being out this late."

The next morning…

"IT'S MORNING TIME! GET UP!"

"Go away, Loudred."

After the daily meeting and checking with who would take care of the two boys, Charlie said, "Well you know how to run things now. Each morning, go choose a job and complete it. Make a good report when you come in and inform us if your mission might take you more than a day. If I have any special assignments, I'll have you stay after the daily meeting."