After completing their day's last mission, Team XYZ retreated to their rooms for a good night's sleep. The last mission had been extremely tiring, since they'd busted a drug-peddling ring accidentally (Yvette had selected today's list, but it turned out that the berry juice business was just a front for selling alcohol, which was apparently illegal in the pokémon world). In the end Zachary, Yvette and Xavier were forced to take down four Machoke and a particularly powerful Scrafty. Needless to say, Xavier was happy that they managed to pull it off, although his butt was still aching from the Scrafty's Crunch attack.

He was also happy at his progress during the past two weeks. Even though he was tired from the constant chores their team had selected (Zachary had insisted on doing as much as they could to be selected for the expedition) he managed to spend his free time with Merlin, who had been kind enough to make sure Xavier didn't let the truth spill out. The Treecko had memorized the entire map, learnt all the facts about his high King and even brushed up on the curse words that were used frequently. Xavier was now even used to saying 'majuu' instead of 'pokémon', although it still felt weird saying it, but he knew he'd get used to it.

When the next day came, Xavier and his friends headed to the meeting room with bleary eyes, since Zairian had an important announcement to make.

"Good morning, my guildlings!" the Azumarill greeted cheerfully. Once the guild members chanted the greeting back dully, she continued. "As you all know, I'm here to make a special announcement...and that is we will be on our way to our annual expedition tomorrow!"

"WHA?!" gasped everyone in the crowd. Eyes were wide and murmurs spread about.

"This year, we will be heading for Grifflet's Valley," Zairian informed. "It will be a five-day trip to and back, starting tomorrow. While I am gone, Polo will be in charge," she added, nodding at the Chansey behind her, whose hair-like extensions at either side of his head twitched in acknowledgement. Zairian looked back at the guild members and cracked a grin. "As for the teams who will be going with me...Vicky?"

"Right-o," the Hawlucha said, nodding. She closed her eyes and began reciting the names of the selected teams at top speed. "Team Strike Now, Team Splash, Team Predators, Team Lard Bucket, Team Claws, Team Trickster, and Team...XYZ!"

There was polite applause from those that weren't selected, while the others practically exploded in happiness.

"Hell yeah, baby!" Yvette screamed, jumping up and down. "WHOO!"

"That— that's enough, Yvette," Zachary said in a failed attempt to calm his friend down.

Xavier blinked. "They really chose us?" he wondered out loud, but winced as he felt mental fingers prod his mind. A split-second later, a familiar voice, deep, calm and reassuring, spoke in his head. I may have dropped in a word or two to Zairian, he heard the voice say.

The Treecko's eyes immediately trailed to Merlin, whose eyes twinkled merrily from behind Polo the Chansey. The Oranguru had formed a mental link between himself and Xavier as a way to communicate via telepathy, although only Merlin could 'activate' the link, since he was the only one with psychic abilities. Still, Xavier was grateful towards Merlin for that; in that way he could ask his friend questions he couldn't normally ask while with his peers.

He was jarred back to reality as Zachary playfully slapped his back. Xavier winced slightly and involuntarily as the area that had been touched began to tingle from a dose of minor toxins. "Come on, Xavier," The Croagunk said. Xavier briefly wondered how similar Zachary and Merlin sounded. "Don't be such a pessimist!"

"Exactly!" Yvette agreed, but she glanced at Zachary a second later. "Uh, what is a pessimist?"

Xavier snorted. As Zachary explained what a pessimist meant, Xavier glanced over to Team Claws, where Rachel the Weavile had crossed her arms and was smirking arrogantly while her teammates, a Sandslash and Drillbur, flanked her. Team Claws had been nasty and snarky to Xavier and his friends since the time they'd been introduced to the guild, cat-calling and trying to provoke them for no reason. For the most part they'd ignored the baits, but it was only Xavier and Zachary's strong arms that managed to restrain Yvette from roasting Rachel and her lackeys to a crisp, although Xavier highly doubted that would happen since the Weavile was more than double the Torchic's height and strength.

"Those selected, make sure that you've stocked up on supplies and medicines, since we'll leave tomorrow at eight in the morning. Assemble here, and not a second late – we'll be leaving without a second to lose, and those who are tardy will be left behind. Understand?" When the crowd of pokémon – no, majuu, Xavier corrected – nodded, Zairian smiled. "Good! You are dismissed."

The crowd dispersed, most majuu groaning in disappointment at not being chosen, while the selected teams were chattering excitedly amongst each other. A few of them stayed behind and began bombarding the Guildmaster and her fellow staff members with questions and the rest trailed away slowly.

Team XYZ immediately headed out in order to buy supplies from Gem Town's local bazaar. They were low on medicines and food, which had been severely depleted over the week, during which they'd carried out innumerable tasks and missions. Xavier engaged Yvette in gossip to waste time as they walked towards the bazaar while Zachary carefully counted their money over and over again.

Xavier found Zachary grinning giddily and frowned. "What's up?"

The Croagunk snickered and tightened his grip around the Pikachu-shaped wallet that was bursting with coins. "I think we have enough money to splurge on TMs for each of us!"

At 'TMs', Xavier's eyes nearly widened, although he was now a master at hiding his shock whenever surprising things were revealed, but his amazement lessened almost immediately. Now that he thought about it, he'd seen TMs on his first day here...although he wondered how the application process would be...

Yvette gasped. "Wow!" she squealed, hopping on her talons. "Are you sure, Zac? I don't wanna go broke just because you wanted to buy TMs early..." She pouted as well as she could with her beak.

"I'm certain, Yvette." Zachary pounded his chest with a clenched fist. "We'll only have a hundred coins left after buying food and TMs, but I'm sure we can manage with that much."

"I'm fine with it..." The Torchic's eyes shifted to Xavier. "What about you, Xavier? Should we buy TMs for us?"

"Um, okay, I guess." Truth be told, he didn't exactly promote technical machines and their usage on pokémon, but there was always a first time for everything. Now that he was a majuu, he might as well give it a try. It was literally a once in a lifetime experience.

"It's settled, then!" Zachary clapped his hands, grinning. "Team XYZ – onwards!"

They headed towards the Kecleon Shop, which was the only place that sold TMs. It took quite some time to get there, since the bazaar was bursting with pokémon – apparently every other majuu had decided to buy supplies right now, just to irritate the trio. Still, they trudged on, ignoring the accidental shoves and pushes from the rest of the shopping majuu, until they finally reached the desired store.

The Kecleon brothers had just finished selling to a Braixen, and they perked up when they saw Team XYZ approaching.

"Welcome!" the purple Kecleon – Ignotus, Xavier remembered – greeted. "How may we help you today?"

Zachary shifted in his spot. "Uh, we'd like to buy..."

And so Zachary listed off the amount of each item they'd needed, Ignotus quickly packing up the supplies while Yvette and Xavier stood behind, whistling to their heart's content. They made sure to buy the bare minimum of food and supplies required so that they'd have enough coins to buy TMs; Xavier stuffed their purchases inside their sling bag.

Xavier rubbed his palms in anticipation. "Can we see your stock of TMs, please?" Yvette asked in her most polite tone.

The other Kecleon, who didn't have the Shiny phenomenon like his brother and had the name of Beedle, grinned. "Of course! Take as much time as you want!" he exclaimed.

His brother Ignotus reached at the back of the store and pulled a case of circular disks, most of them having different shades. "Whoa," Xavier muttered. "Take a look at this load..."

"We got Protect, Dream Eater, Sleep Talk, Shadow Claw, Focus Blast, Brick Break, Solar Beam, and Sunny Day," Beedle informed. "Wha'd'ya'll wanna take? They're all the same price."

Zachary tapped his chin. "I think I'll take Focus Blast," he said slowly, in the deep and calm voice of his. "I need some energy attacks on my arsenal."

"I'm taking Shadow Claw!" Yvette barked without a moment's hesitation. Xavier rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm. "Then I can bust up those punk-ass psychos for Zachary!"

The Croagunk in question cringed a bit at the crudeness of her remark. He looked at his third teammate and friend. "Xavier?"

"Protect," he said immediately.

Yvette frowned in confusion. "Huh?" the Torchic uttered. "But...but what about Solar Beam?! You'll be able to kick ass with that move!"

Xavier pursed his lips. "I know, but Solar Beam requires a lot of sunlight to be created," he countered. "And what if we're duking it out in a cave or something? It'll probably take an entire battle for me to use that move. While incredibly powerful, it does have limitations. At least Protect'll save me from devastating techniques. Sometimes the best defence is a good offence," he finished.

"Looks like Xavier's entered 'Professor mode'," Yvette said in an undertone, rolling her eyes.

"Well said, Xavier." Zachary clapped his comrade on the shoulder before turning to the Kecleon brothers. "Well, that's what we want to buy. How much will that be?"

They paid the required amount, receiving three disks in return. The trio bowed to Ignotus and Beedle Kecleon, a gesture which the normal-types returned, before heading back to the guild. Zachary had the TMs hidden from view and Xavier and Yvette were huddling protectively around the Croagunk and keeping a watchful eye on anybody who came near.

XxXxX

"So...How do we apply these things?"

Zachary, Yvette and Xavier were back at the guild, lounging in the assembly room. They were lazing around right now since they'd been barred from carrying out missions, direct orders from Zairian; the Azumarill didn't want any of the selected teams to overexert themselves, and wanted them to reserve their energy for the expedition. Needless to say, Xavier was happy by this order, since the past week of constant working had made him wonder whether the slave-drivers back home were worse or not.

Yvette looked at him like as if he'd fame from another dimension...which was kind of true, although the Torchic didn't need to know about that. "You don't know how TMs work?" she exclaimed, astounded.

Xavier felt like cursing himself for his big mouth, but thankfully Zachary came to the rescue. "Don't be mean, Yvette," he chided. "So what if he doesn't know? There's a first time for everyone."

Xavier breathed a sigh of relief. While he was more careful about blowing his cover (courtesy of Merlin) he was still afraid of the others finding out about his true identity. Merlin had told him that while there were some who wouldn't bat an eye for him being a human, there were other majuu who would freak out and make him an outcast or the local pariah and drive him out to the wilderness at the very least. The worst case would be for the High King himself to step in and have him executed, which was kind of lame, but Alexander III was very superstitious, at least according to the friendly Oranguru.

Yvette and Zachary told Xavier to follow them, something which he complied to. The Croagunk and Torchic lead him to a small room, which had a gold plaque overhead that read TM ROOM. It was fairly small, and it had a large machine at the opposite end of the room. The trio headed towards it without hesitation.

The machine was as big as Xavier and looked more or less like an ATM. The small screen lit up when Zachary pressed one of the two buttons to the side of it, displaying a menu with three options. From top to bottom, they read: Apply, Load, and Eject. Without pressing anything else, Zachary reached for the Focus Blast TM and inspected it for a second.

"Let me show you how it's done," he said. He inserted the disk in the slot on the machine, which was placed at the level of Xavier's midsection. The machine made whirred as it swallowed the TM before the sound ceased, indicating that the machine was done processing the information.

Xavier watched as Zachary reached for the compartment next to the TM slot, pressing said compartment and causing a headgear to eject out. The headgear consisted of a jetted out of the machine and branched off into two separate wires that had electrode pads at the end.

Zachary carefully placed the pads on either side of his forehead. He then nodded at Xavier. "When I say go, press the option that says Apply."

The Treecko nodded, hovering a finger over the option on the touchscreen that said Apply. Yvette watched nervously and flinched when Zachary said "Go!"

Xavier pressed the option and the machine began to emit a fan-like sound. The Croagunk didn't receive any pain, but he did wince as soon as the process started. His eyes achieved an orange-red glow as the process continued for over twenty seconds before abruptly stopping.

Zachary waited for a few seconds before pulling the headgear off. "Did it work?" Xavier asked.

The Croagunk clenched a fist, grinning as he nodded. Yvette squealed. "Me next!"

Zachary disposed the Focus Blast TM, which had lost its data, while Xavier booted up the Shadow Claw TM. Yvette was almost giddy with anticipation as the Treecko placed the headgear on her head and began the process – it was identical to what Zachary underwent, although the Torchic barely twitched, and her eyes instead glowed a menacing purple.

Yvette immediately began flexing her talons while Xavier prepared himself for his own turn. The electrode pads stuck to his temples with a thin layer of glue. He exhaled deeply and gave Zachary a half-hearted thumbs-up.

It took two hours for Xavier to remember what happened next.

He felt as if someone had given him innumerable static shocks, although the discomfort and pain was directed to his head. A sheen of translucent, white energy formed in front of his eyes, making everything seem blurred as gigabytes of data flowed into his mind. His body stiffened and he felt the discomfort for thirty solid seconds, which felt like centuries, before everything cut off abruptly.

Xavier found himself gasping for pain, and Yvette caught him. "Whoa, Greenie," she said, stabilising the Treecko. "Can't handle a little bit of pain?" she teased.

Xavier scowled. "I was taken by surprise, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Zachary cleared his throat. "Xavier, how do you feel?"

"I don't know." He paused, briefly touching his temple. "I don't feel stronger, but...I really don't know. It's like my capacity for knowledge has increased, and my brain has expanded, or something. I can't really explain it."

"Well, learning Protect doesn't make you stronger, but it certainly helps. Can you try it, since you won't destroy anything?"

Xavier nodded. He took a step back and focused. He hadn't really thought of using moves before; it had been purely instinctual to him, although using Dragonbreath made him feel a bit exhausted, as if he'd been using his life force or something, and it took a lot more willpower to use the energy-based attack. As he tried to use Protect, he felt an imaginary hand reaching for his subconscious, drawing a piece of information, like pulling a scab off the back of his mind.

He grunted as he tried to manifest his mental fortitude into a pin-sized point right between his eyes and project it outwards, but the first time nothing happened. He screwed up his eyes in concentration the second time, putting all his willpower into the move as he thrust his hands outwards, his tail stiffening.

The barrier appeared in the form of a circular shield of translucent emerald energy, barely covering the length of his body. He felt a bead if sweat trickling down his reptilian green forehead and grinned at his friends, who were looking a bit impressed. "How's...that?" he said in between gasps.

"Not bad for a first try," Zachary complimented, and Xavier let the shield fall down. He couldn't hold it for long before his knees went weak. "Using TM moves accurately takes a bit of time; you've got to practice it, since only the information needed to use the move is stored in mind. It won't be perfect immediately."

"Well, a prodigy like me is only going to take a try or two to master Shadow Claw!" Yvette boasted. Zachary simply snorted.

"What do we do now?" Xavier asked after an uncomfortable silence.

Yvette grinned. "Why don't we train?"

XxXxX

Xavier and his teammates woke up at the crack of dawn – they were too excited to sleep in. While they still had an hour left, their eagerness had overtaken them and they immediately packed up before shooting down towards the assembly room.

Many of the chosen teams were already present in the assembly room, most of them talking amongst each other. Xavier greeted the members of Team Splash while Goldeenson the Mightyena of Team Trickster engaged Zachary in conversation. Xavier waved at Whis the Exploud, one of the two members of Team Strike Now, who smiled back at the Treecko, while Yvette chirped a greeting at his partner, Whitney the Flaaffy.

"So," a voice breathed on the back of Xavier's neck, partially freezing it, "the newbies finally made it in, eh?"

Yvette wheeled around, her eyes narrowing into a glare as she recognized the intruder. "Rachel," she hissed.

The Weavile smirked, looking down on the shorter pokémon with smug eyes. She flexed her foot-long claws, which flashed under the light. Her teammates, a Sandslash and a Drillbur, flanked her, looking equally arrogant. "I hope you've got preservatives," she drawled, "'cuz you'll need to last long enough to catch up to us."

Spyke the Sandslash guffawed in a weedy voice. "Ha!" he barked. "Buuuuurn!"

Yvette snarled. "Piss off, you filthy cunts!"

"You better watch your tongue, newbie," Kuronova the Drillbur growled, her metallic claws glowing silver with the power of Metal Claw, ready to tear into her prey. "I think you're going to apologise. Right now."

"Well, we didn't start this fight, so you're going to be ones apologising," Xavier said with a frown, backing up Yvette. The Torchic cast a grateful look at her comrade before returning to glare at the three members of Team Claws.

The quills on Spyke's back stiffened. "Do you wanna go to war, punk?" he said in a dangerously low voice.

"M-Maybe." Xavier wasn't feeling particularly ballsy, but these three were asking for it.

"Guys, we need to stick together!" Zachary called out as he hurried over to them, his cheek-pouches puffed out as he drew in deep gulps of air. "I think we should...Team Claws," he muttered as he noticed them.

"Croagunk," Rachel acknowledged, with the slightest tilt of her head. He looked at the amphibian up and down with a sneer on her lips, then sighed as she finished gauging Zachary. "As much as I'd like the workout from crushing your asses, I don't wanna waste any of my energy, however little that might be. The Guildmaster might disapprove, no?" Her teammates sniggered, and Yvette scowled. "Ciao."

"What a bitch," Yvette mumbled angrily as the three Silver ranked guildmembers left. "I hope that coccydynia with a microphallus falls into a lava pit and rots there for the rest of eternity!"

"You must be pretty angry to use words with more than two syllables," Xavier teased with a cheeky grin. The Torchic stuck her tongue out in response.

"Everyone, listen up!" they heard Vicky shout suddenly. There was silence, except the quiet mumbling from Team Claws, as everyone focused on the female Hawlucha, whose right fist was engulfed in flames as a show of her strength. "We're gonna leave from in five minutes. Say your goodbyes or whatever girly shit you wanna do right now. Got it?"

Vicky nodded and walked away to give a set of instructions to Polo, while Xavier was approached by Merlin, who had a slight smile on his ape-like face. The Oranguru's fan was glowing faintly as he focused his psionic powers into it. "Could I borrow Xavier for a minute?" he said to Yvette and Zachary.

Yvette frowned suspiciously, and even Zachary looked a but puzzled. They looked at Xavier, who shrugged. "O-Of course," Zachary complied.

Merlin walked a few meters away, Xavier following, shooting an uneasy glance at his teammates. Were they suspicious about him? They must've realized that he spent most of his free time in the library by now...

"Rest easy," Merlin assured, making Xavier flinch. The Treecko stared at the psychic-type in confusion, and Merlin elaborated. "I can sense nothing but trust in your comrades' minds when thinking about you, although that Torchic hasn't completely accepted your presence. Rest assured, I do not think they will be able to work out the fact that you've come from another dimension."

He panicked a bit at that, but calmed down when he realised that no one had heard that last part. Xavier shifted in his spot. "So...what did you wanna talk about?"

Merlin shrugged his muscly shoulders. "Just to tell you to take care. Grifflet's Valley isn't particularly dangerous, but the rockslides are threatening. Plus the feral majuu are extremely territorial, so make sure you're up for a fight in case you get into one."

Xavier pouted. "That's it?" he complained. "My own mother could've done that, if she was here."

The Oranguru smiled dryly. "I also wanted to tell you that I will be researching on the infinity fragments while you are away. The presence of a human in our world is a warning that something ominous is about to occur. I won't be able to communicate with you while you're so far away, but make sure to remember everything that happens in your...dreams."

Xavier nodded. He'd had several 'dreams' over the past few weeks that included the Voice, as he'd dubbed it. The Voice always asked him first whether he'd collected any of the infinity fragments or whatever the hell that was, but he had no choice to say no to those constant questions. The Voice would get angry and immediately cut off the conversation, while lasted hours although it felt like mere seconds, and he always woke up clammy and drenched in sweat.

"I'll make sure to do that," he said.

"Good. Farewell, Xavier!" Merlin said with a smile, walking away.

Once Xavier reached his team, Yvette kicked him in the shin, albeit playfully. "What was that about?" she demanded.

"N-Nothing," he replied quickly. "Merlin just asked if I needed History of Opolov for the trip. I said no, obviously."

"Oh." Yvette no longer looked sceptical, and Xavier felt like something heavy had just been lifted off his reptilian shoulder.

The entire room went quiet once again, although this time Zairian approached the podium, wearing sunglasses and holding her surfboard. The Azumarill's mouth was split in a wide, ecstatic grin and she surveyed her guildlings before finally speaking up. "As of now," she yelled, "the group expedition has begun!"