I'm not getting any tips on improving my writing, so I'm just going to take my best guess at what I should change. Right now I'm thinking I rely too much on dialogue, so I'm going to try to fix that.

The form this idea originally took was terrible. I hope it's better now.

Disclaimer: -insert standard disclaimer here-


6. Mobile Scarf

Bolt lay down, exhausted. He and Kevin had experienced a particularly stressful day. They had taken a job to rescue a Metang in Dark Crater. After wandering around the dungeon for hours and failing to find Metang, they eventually realized that the idiot had wandered into the lava, gotten burned, and fainted. After an exploration that draining, Bolt just wanted to sleep.

"You two, get up and come here!" a voice screeched. Bolt groaned and lifted his head to see a very impatient-looking Chatot glaring down at them. "Come on, we haven't got all night!"

Bolt sat up and blearily stared back. "Now...?"

"Yes, now!" Chatot bounced from foot to foot. "I expect to see you in the Guildmaster's chamber in two minutes!" With that, Chatot turned around and flapped away.

"...Ugh," Kevin groaned. He stood up and kicked Bolt, who had immediately collapsed back onto his bed. "Come on, let's go." Kevin kicked Bolt several more times until he finally stood up, and the two friends stumbled through the hall to Wigglytuff's chamber.

"Hi, friends!" Wigglytuff greeted as Bolt and Kevin dragged themselves into the room. "Why are you here?"

Chatot flapped his wings nervously. "Guildmaster, you said you had something to give them, remember?"

"Oh, yes, that's right!" Wigglytuff held out a box. "You remember how you skipped dinner a few weeks back? Well, that was actually the day where we celebrated the sixty-first anniversary of the founding of Treasure Town! I have a tradition of searching for some pretty neat items in dungeons and giving them to the apprentices on that day, but you never got yours."

Kevin went up to take the box from Wigglytuff. Bolt wondered for a moment why it had taken this long for Wigglytuff to give them anything, but quickly decided that there was no answer. Wigglytuff was Wigglytuff, and that was all the explanation he could expect.

"What is this?" Kevin asked. Bolt lifted his head and forced himself to focus on what Kevin was holding. He saw a frayed deep-green scarf covered with dark brown dots. It appeared to be quite silky and soft, but Bolt thought it must have been too thin to keep the average Pokémon's neck warm.

"That's a Mobile Scarf!" Wigglytuff explained. "It's a very wonderful scarf which will allow you to walk anywhere. You can even walk through walls!"

Kevin brought the scarf up to his eye for a close look. "That's cool. So we can just ignore walls and go directly to the stairs. Pretty useful."

"Oh, no, you shouldn't do that!" Wigglytuff cautioned. "You'll get too hungry in a dungeon really fast if you do that."

Bolt's snapped his head up, suddenly wide awake. He had only been half-listening, but after the disaster which had caused them to skip dinner that day in the first place, he had been very frightened of any mention of getting too hungry. "Do you mean to tell us that if we use this in a way that's actually helpful, we'll faint from hunger in no time?" he demanded.

"Yep!" Wigglytuff grinned. "Well, good night, friends!"


Bolt was fuming as he and Kevin went back to their room. Why had Wigglytuff given them an item with such a horrible side effect? It was ridiculous.

"No point getting upset," Kevin whispered, noticing Bolt's expression. "It's still a pretty cool item, after all. And Wigglytuff meant well."

"Yeah, he gave us an item that makes you faint in a dungeon, basically!" Bolt snorted.

"Hush!" Chatot snapped, startling them both. They whipped around and discovered he had entered the room right behind them. "I don't want to hear you complaining!" Chatot lectured. "This is a very rare and sought-after item. You should consider yourselves lucky. Why, the Guildmaster wanted to give you a TM for Protect, but I convinced him that your team deserved a rarity such as the Mobile Scarf."

"What?" Bolt wailed. "You decided we should get this scarf? And Wigglytuff was going to give us the exact TM we've spent a month looking for?"

"Certainly!" Chatot icily hissed. "And I expect you both to be utterly grateful for my time!" With that, he turned and flew off towards the top of the ladder for the night. Bolt put his head in his paws in dismay.

"Well," Kevin noted, "that explains a lot. I guess we should get some sleep now, eh?"

Bolt gritted his teeth. He definitely was not tired anymore. He was too pissed. He watched as Kevin laid their bag and the scarf into the corner and lay down on his own bed. "G'night, Bolt," Kevin said sleepily.

"Yeah, 'night," Bolt muttered.


Bolt estimated that about an hour and a half had passed. He was sure that everyone else in the guild was long asleep. He stepped off of his bed as silently as he could manage and reached for the corner. Chatot wants us to have a Mobile Scarf, does he? Bolt felt his paw brush against the silky scarf. Perhaps he needs to have someone change his mind for him. He grabbed the scarf and silently slipped into the hall. As he carefully tied it around his neck, he went over what he would do. He'd had plenty of time to think about it, of course, but somehow his exact words didn't satisfy him. Good enough, I guess. Bolt sneaked as close to the ladder as he dared. When he felt it was time, he reached towards the wall. Here goes.

Inside the wall, Bolt decided, was not a very pleasant place. Wigglytuff had been right when he said traveling inside walls would make you hungry; each step seemed to suck energy right out of him. On the plus side, the Mobile Scarf seemed to provide air. It was as easy to breathe inside the wall as it was outside.

Bolt forced himself to stand as close to the edge of the wall as possible. He wanted to make sure he could be heard, but he couldn't risk being seen, either. "Chatot..." he moaned in the deepest voice he could muster. Chatot stirred slightly. "Chatot!" Bolt repeated, this time a bit louder. Chatot opened his eyes and looked around. "Chatot!"

"Wh-Who's there?" Chatot stammered, eyes widened as he spun his head. Bolt forced down laughter; this might be easier than he thought.

"Chatot... in this guild... you have a cursed item."

"What?" Chatot gasped. "A cursed item? Impossible!"

"A cursed item... cursed by its original owner... a Mobile Scarf..."

"The Mobile Scarf? Cursed? How do you know? Who are you?"

"I am..." Bolt momentarily panicked as he tried to come up with something convincing. "I am Siotan the Elekid... the scarf's first victim... my life taken from me... far too early... I have come to warn you."

"The scarf was a gift to Team Tenacity!" Chatot wailed. "I cannot simply take it from them!"

"You must take it... get rid of it... for their sake... or your whole guild will fall to the curse..."

"But take it! And it was given to them for Treasure Town's Founding Day, too!"

"Do you wish for the curse to fall onto your guild?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Then get rid of it... give them something else, instead... your Guildmaster was right, a TM for Protect was a much better option..."

"C-certainly!" Chatot flew off of the ladder. "I'll wake Team Tenacity and do that right away!"

"No!" Bolt ordered. "Let them sleep now. The curse takes effect after a long period of time... you have kept it these weeks with no ill effects, haven't you? One more night will not kill you. But wait much longer..."

"I understand, Siotan, sir!" Chatot settled back onto his perch, shivering. "I'll take care of it, you can count on me!"

"Good... now, farewell..." Bolt turned and walked deeper into the wall, barely resisting the urge to burst into laughter.


Bolt left the wall once he had made it into the crew room hallway and walked happily into his and Kevin's room. As he tossed the scarf back into the corner, he noticed Kevin was awake and looking in his direction.

"Okay, Bolt," Kevin said. "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing much," Bolt grinned widely. "Just making the world right."

"Whatever." Kevin closed his eyes. "I suppose you'll be wanting me to keep a straight face in the morning again, right?"

"Exactly."


About the Mobile Scarf's appearance... I decided that it's really stupid for all these different items to look identical in the story just because the game uses the same picture. I know most of you are fine with this without any sort of explanatory note at the bottom, but there's going to be some person out there who says, "Hey, that Mobile Scarf should be pink!" Well, it isn't. Deal.