Chapter 7: The first mission


Ember and Kit both went to their respective jobs to inform their bosses about what happened, while I was left with the mayor to complete the registration process.

A Chansey was next to him, with a paper and a pencil, ready to write information.

"Alright, Jake. I assume you will be the leader?"

"Yes"

"Ok. What is your team's name?"

My team's name? I haven't thought of that!

"Do I have to answer now? I don't have any name planned and I wouldn't like to make the decission without asking my friends first"

The mayor nodded and answered. "It's ok. Next up, I need you to tell me some personal information"

"Oh... I'm sorry, but I don't remember anything about me. I am amnesiac"

The mayor widened his eyes, but quickly regained his composture. "I am sorry to hear that. Anything you can tell me?"

"I just know that I am not from anywhere near this town. That's all I remember"

He nodded. "I figured something like this would happen. You see, both of your teammates have been registered in this town's census, but despite having searched thoroughly, I haven't found any single thing about you"

I tensed up, but I decided to play dumb. "Really? That's weird"

The mayor nodded again, but his piercing glare was fixed on me, as if he were trying to see into my soul.

Finally, he turned to the Chansey and asked. "That isn't much, but did you write it down?"

"Indeed" She answered.

"Good" He turned back to me. "Alright, we are done here for now. My assistant here will deal with all of the paperwork, so don't worry about it. As for you, go outside. A Quilava should be waiting for you. He is the assistant of the boss of the mission department. He will explain to you and your team all that is needed to know"

I nodded. "Alright sir. Thank you for giving us this opportunity"

He smiled. "Don't worry. I am sure you youngsters have the skill needed for this"

As I was about to leave, however, the mayor said one last thing. "Jake! Remember to think of a name for the team! You cannot take longer than today to pick it. Understood?"

"Clearly. See you, Mr. Mayor"


After stepping outside of the building, I saw the Quilava the mayor was talking about, with his flaming tail giving enough heat to melt any ice types that stood too close. He was eyeing some sort of bulleting board, but stopped when he realized I was there. He was also wearing a small satchel.

"Heya! You must be Jake, right? The leader of that new team formed by those guys that beat those criminals yesterday?"

I nodded. "Yep. That's me"

"That's so cool, man! You beat those criminals like if they were babies! No surprise that the mayor gave you the chance to form a team!"

"Thanks, I guess. He also told me that you were an assistant of the boss of the department of...missions?"

"Correct! And he tasked me with teaching you and your team the basics!"

"That's cool. By the way, do you, by any chance, know where they took those criminals?"

The Quilava hummed and thought, looking up. Finally he looked back at me and answered. "I think they were going to be interrogated today, but I'm not sure. What I am sure of, is that thanks to you, that kid saw his mother again"

I blushed a bit from all of the praise. "I'm sure it wasn't that important"

"Don't go acting humble! You beat them good! I'm sure that kid and his mother will never forget it"

I smiled, and sighed. This Quilava looked really enthusiastic about all of this type of stuff.

"By the way, you haven't told me your name!"

"Oh, that's right! I'm Blaze. Nice to meet you, Jake"

We shook hands, and for what felt like minutes, we stood in silence, not knowing what to say. Thankfully, certain Zoroark decided to appear at that very moment.

"Hey, Jake! I'm back. How was the paperwork? Was it too boring?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle. Just a few questions. By the way, we have to pick a name for our team"

"I forgot about that! I'm sure you will choose a sick name, though"

"What did Nash tell you?"

"Nothing important. He just went..." As he said this, he used his illusion to become and speak like Nash. "You can do whatever you want, but you won't get paid if you aren't working here, blah blah blah" He said while he dramatically shaked the fake bone club around.

Blaze began clapping at the imitation, causing Kit to revert back to his normal form, and bow.

"Didn't know I had fans! Sup, Q. I'm Kit"

"I'm Blaze"

I was also laughing under my breath a bit. "Did you just imitate your boss? You can get fired, you know?"

"It's nothing bad if he doesn't know!"

"Guys! I'm here! What did I miss?"

That femenine voice came from Ember. She was walking towards us, with a small grin on her face.

"Hey Ember! How did it go?"

"Great! At first Agatha didn't believe it, but when I told her again, she was happier than what I ever saw her be! She wished me good luck, and that she would always have a spot for me in the shop if I wanted to come back"

"That's great! At least you have a backup plan"

Blaze cleared his throat, catching our attention, and putting and end to our conversation.

"Very well. It seems like everyone is here. As both of you, Jake and Kit, know, I'm Blaze, and I will teach you the basics of how to accept missions, and all of that. Now, if you take a look at this board..."

He turned to the board he was looking at earlier. "Here are all the available missions. All of them have a different difficulty, so you should start with something simple. To pick the mission, just take the paper and go to the direction that it says, and the client will give you more details. Of course, you will need this"

He opened his satchel and pulled out three shiny objects. They were white, and had a small pink stone in the middle. From their sides, small wings portruded.

On the top, it had what looked like a small button.

"These are your badges. They prove that you are a real team and not some impostors trying to earn some cash. They are also imbued with psychic energy, which allows you to rescue the Pokémon trapped in dungeons, serves as an ID card, and also as a small communicator"

"Cool" I muttered.

"Now, about Mistery Dungeons. As you probably know, they are space-time distortions. Their layouts change every time you enter, and the items and enemies inside too. All of them share these characteristics, and should be explored with precaution"

"If all of you three faint inside one, you will be expelled from it, making you lose half of the money you were carrying and up to half of the items too. But don't get fooled, there is still a risk of dying there. Despite the dungeon Pokémon ignoring fainted members, take too many strong blows, and you will go straight to the grave. Any questions?"

All three of us shook our head. "Understood clearly, B!" Said Kit.

He grinned. "Good. Now, you should go get a bigger bag. Because the one your friend has is too small. You could go to the department store for one, I'm sure they have them. Meet back here when you have it, and I will help you choose your first mission"

"Got it"

"Oh, so I just came back from there to say that I am leaving, and now I have to go back as a customer so soon?" Said Ember.

"You worked at the store?" Asked Blaze.

"Yep. As the cashier. Never saw you there, though"

"You see, teams usually buy their things in the Kecleon store, but the only thing they don't have are bags. That's why I told you to go to the store"

"Alright, so buy a bag, and come back here?"

Blaze nodded.

"Well then. Lets go guys! I can't wait to begin our first mission!"

"Calm down, Jake. You are shouting a bit too much!" Ember had a firm tone, but she was smiling.

We walked back to the shop, and entered it, seeing it full of different kinds of Pokémon. This time, however, Agatha was the one behind the counter, acting as the cashier.

Once we stepped in front of her however, she looked at us, and widened her eyes.

"Ember? What are you doing here? I thought you left to become an explorer?"

"I did! But we need some bags, and we thought that this place was the best! Do you by any chance have a larger bag than the one we have?"

"From cashier to customer, huh?" She said giggling. She floated away into the storage area of the shop, dissappearing from our sight. After some time, the Froslass came back with three bags big enough to hold a pair of laptops.

I doubt they have those, though.

"Here you go. This is all I have, try them on!"

The bag was perfectly adjusted, and didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

"Woah! They are perfect! How much do we owe you?"

"Lets say...30 Poké for all of them?"

"What?! That's too cheap! I can't accept it!" Said Ember.

"Come on girl, I'm trying to help a friend. Just take it!"

She reluctantly gave Agatha the coins.

"Well, darlings! I'm sure you have things to do, so I won't hold you back any longer. Good luck, team!"

After waving her goodbye, we walked back to the town hall, and saw Blaze talking to someone. He was a Mismagious. After realizing that, I instantly fell a chill go down my spine. He looked familiar, but I never saw him, right?

When we got closer, the Mismagious looked at me, and frowned, but his expression rapidly changed to a friendly one.

"Hey guys! I see you have the bags already!" Said Blaze.

"We do!" Said Kit.

"Umm, if it's ok to ask, who is he?" I asked pointing at the Mismagious.

"Him? Of course you never met him, did you? He's the leader of another exploration team, and came here to meet you, apparently!"

"Indeed! When I heard that a new team was going to be assembled, I couldn't wait to meet the members!"

"Oh!"

I don't know. This still seems a bit weird to me...

"What are your names?" He asked.

"I'm Jake"

"I'm Ember"

"And I'm Kit"

The Mismagious widened his eyes at that last sentence. "Did you just say-" He stopped himself, cleared his throat, and went back to the friendly expression.

"Well, nice to meet you! Everyone calls me just Mismagious. I'm keeping my real name for when I become a famous explorer!"

"Well, nice to meet you, Mismagious!" Greeted Kit.

I didn't notice this earlier, but I could swear he was...sweating?

"Well, don't want to hold you any longer. Good luck with your first mission!" He said while floating away very quickly. I could swear I heard him mutter something between the lines of "reporting this".

"Weird dude..." Said Ember.

She then noticed my expression. "Something wrong, Jake?"

"I don't know why, but that Mismagious...is familiar to me. Like if I had already seen him somewhere..."

"Must be your mind playing with you. Also, did anyone else see how he got surprised when Kit said his name, or was it just me?"

"Yeah. That was weird" He declared.

"Well, lets continue with this! Now, if you please, get closer to the board!" Commanded Blaze.

There were tens of missions, just posted here, waiting for someone to pick them and complete them. Blaze stood on his hind legs and grabbed one of the papers, and handed them to me.

"This seems to be one of the easy missions. Come on, go ahead. Read it out loud"

"Oh! Umm..."

How do I tell him...?

"Actually, maybe I should read it. Don't you think, Jakey?"

I nodded and handed him the paper. Blaze raised a brow, but didn't comment.

Kit read the mission out loud, and this was what it said:

My precious item was stolen!

This morning, I woke up and realized my Power Band was missing! It was instead replaced by a note that said that if I wanted to see it again, I would have to come to a Mistery Dungeon to get it back! Please, someone help me!

Following that was what sounded like a name and an adress.

"So this is our mission?" I asked.

"Yes. You have to go to the client's house and ask them for more details. When you finish the mission, just get inside the town hall and tell the receptionist you want to see me. Good luck, guys!"

"Seems easy enough. Lets do this, team!"

After waving Blaze goodbye, we headed to the client's house, which apparently, was in that very same street.

We stopped in front of one of the big houses that this street had and I knocked on the door.

"I'm coming!"

The door opened, revealing a small Pachirisu wearing a headband.

"Hello, who are you?"

"We are an explorer team. We were looking for...Kira?"

The Pachirisu let out a sigh of relief. "Finally someone decides to help us. Come on in, that's my mom"

We entered the house, and to say the least, it was nothing like Ember or Kit's.

This house was big, and it had stairs going up, hinting that it had a second floor. All the furniture was still made of wood, but it definitely looked like it was of a much better quality.

"MOM! COME HERE, YOU'VE GOT COMPANY!"

I jumped at the sudden shriek of the Pachirisu, but I tried to not appear too surprised. Not too long after, an Emolga came gliding down the stairs.

"Jeez, daughter! Don't yell like that! I'm sure even the town two continents away heard you!"

"Sorry, mom"

She sighed and looked at us. "I suppose you are looking for Kira? That's me, nice to meet you. You need information about the mission, right?"

"Yes, ma'am"

"Alright. Come inside and sit. Do you want something to drink?"

We shook our heads. We headed to the sofa and sat. It was a lot more confortable than Ember's by a long shot.

"So, I am one of the producers that make all the bands and ribbons that explores buy. A few days ago, I finished a new prototype of Power Band, but it got stolen overnight. The thief left a letter saying that if I wanted to get it back, I would need to go to Treeshroud Hills to find it. And since that's a Mystery Dungeon, I can't go inside, both because of the rules and because of my almost null fighting abilities"

"So you want us to go to that Mystery Dungeon and get it back for you?" Summarized Ember.

"Yes. I will pay you a whole 200 Poké for the job"

Woah! 200? Isn't that a bit much? Well, Kit said that you could win a lot of money with this, so I guess that if you pick a lot of missions you will end up with a big pile of money.

"Alright, we'll do it. You can count on us!"

Kira smiled and nodded. "Thank you. I thought we would never get help. Explorers are too busy with all this criminal activity they don't have time for the simple quests"

I am going to skip telling her that we are new, and that this is our first mission.

"Don't worry! You'll get your band back in no time!" I said.

We waved the duo goodbye and exited the house. "Man. Where is that dungeon they are talking about?" I asked.

"I honestly don't know. In fact, I only know where Darkness Cave is because...you know..." Added Ember.

"Guess I'm going to be the nerd-y guy, huh? Treeshroud Hills is not too far from the main gate. Just exit, and keep walking forward until you see a huge wall of trees. Then you know you are at the dungeon's entrance" Said Kit.

We started walking to the gate, but a doubt came to my mind.

"And how do you know?"

"I kinda did some...exploration in the past. I know where the closest dungeons are. Why do you think I have that MP3?"

"Yeah, actually. Why do you have it? Isn't it like, a human thing?"

"Mistery Dungeons are dimensional distortions. Apparently, and very, very rarely, weird objects appear inside instead of the usual berries or orbs. Spark and I explored a lot to find that thing. We didn't even know it was human until you came! They even got a museum somewhere a few towns away. There are a lot of weird things there, but I'm sure you will be able to identify all of them. Maybe we should go there sometime"

"What?! MD'S can bring human things here?! What if..."

"I doubt a Mistery Dungeon brought you here. If it did, I'm sure you wouldn't have become a Pokémon"

"Well, one thing is sure. We have to go to that museum!"

"After a few misions, we may be able to afford it!"

When we were about to go, though, I realized we were missing something.

"Shouldn't we buy equipment?"

Both of them stopped and turned back. "Right..." Said Kit.

"Can't believe I almost made the same mistake twice" Added Ember.

"Lets go to the Kecleon store then?"

Both nodded and we headed to the shopping street. It was just like when we went to the dojo, but this time, we stopped in front of one of the shops. The same one that was so crowded the first time I went through here.

This time, however, it was a lot more empty, probably because all the explorers had already bought their equipment.

"Hello, there! Long while since there were new faces around!" Said one of the Kecleon, the green one.

"I suppose you want some of our high quality equipment?" Added the other Kecleon, the purple one.

"We do. We are new here, and we'd like to buy some basic things. Maybe four oran berries?" I asked my teammates.

"That sounds good. Add a Reviver Seed too" Said Kit.

"And definitely an Escape Orb" Ember added.

"Alright! Let me search for those" The Green Kecleon went to the back of the store, while the purple one stood waiting with us.

"That will make...around 700 Poké, with the first-time discount"

Seven hundred?! For four berries an orb and a seed?

"That would be our whole budget..." Informed Kit.

"Worth it, I guess. Lets just not use all of the equipment today" Ember said while taking out the money.

Just then, the Kecleon came back with all of our items.

"Here you go"

Ember gave them the money, and we put them in our bags. Ember took the orb and a berry, Kit took the seed and another berry, and I took the last two berries.

"Thank you for shopping here!" Began the first Kecleon.

"Hope to see you soon!" Said the other one.

"Bye!"

We walked out of the store, and, this time for real, we began marching to the gate, towards the dungeon known as Treeshroud Hills.


"Let me get this straight..." the misterious figure began. "You say that not only that bastard has decided to show his face again, but also that he has joined that pathetic excuse of a hero?"

"Yep, knew it would shock ya" Mismagious confirmed.

She tried keeping calm, but couldn't help but crash a fist on the table.

"I am not tolerating this! That bastard will pay for what he did to us!"

After some deep breaths, she went back to her calm expression. "This will requiere extensive planning, countless amounts of information and our best teams to do the work. They already beat those rookies yesterday; We can't let them become any stronger. I want a team of spies surrounding that town not later than two days from today. No one will exit or enter it without me knowing, got it?"

Mismagious put a hand in his forehead, saluting. "Afirmative! I'll inform Team Shadow that they got some work to do!"

"Very well then, you are dismissed. And leave the formalities for when you actually need them, buddy"

Mismagious laughed and put his hand down. "Aren't you the 'big boss' after all?"

"But I'm still your friend. And because of that, I'll give you an advice: Move your ass!"

Mismagious exited her office floating as quickly as he had entered. Seeing that she was alone again, the boss sighed and looked at her desk. There, laid a small framed picture. It was torn apart, but the part that was here depicted a small, pale grey Zorua with yellow eyes, looking to her side, a small, timid smile present on her muzzle.

She let the small photo back on the table, resisting the urge to throw it against the wall.

"This has been our great ambition since we were kids, and I am not going to give it up. I am going to do this, Kit. Either with, or without you"


END OF CHAPTER 7

Heya. Just wanted to tell you that I found so many errors while looking at the story, that I can't believe how I missed them.

Anyway, class has started again, which means I will have less time to write, but I hope that you won't have to wait too much for an update.

As always, if you find any errors or things of that sort, tell me so I can fix them. I also promise that I will try to make the next chapter longer. I thought that leaving this chapter as this small cliffhanger could help.

Goodbye, and I hope you have a great day!