Chapter 4: Bug-Ridden Bonds

After finishing their early morning training at the Waregle, Jermy and Demurke had led them back to the resort lobby, where the rest of the Club had gathered. Aside from some cursory glances made by Meowth, they meshed with the others without issue. Shortly after they had arrived, Mr. Persian grabbed everyone's attention.

"Today, all of you will pay a visit to Asulaguah Beach. I have a suspicion it's been rendered filthy again…" he had explained. "Of course, that means you will take the — ah, right! Mathew and Joey haven't seen it yet. Why don't we surprise them?"

A short walk out of the Resort to a wall on the side of the building later, and the Club stood before a tall garage that was now slowly raising.

Next to Mathew, Joey's maw gaped open in awe. "Woah… Ain't that something…" The cubone couldn't help but agree. Before them was a large yellow buggy, familiar but quite different from an Earth vehicle — it had more of a defined arc shape, with a front row featuring only two seats and two back rows that only had one wide seat that could fit several people each.

"This is the Pick-it Up Buggy!" Mr. Persian exclaimed. "Our wonderful benefactor provided it for us during our first week to make navigation more convenient."

Jermy waved. "Hello, I'm wonderful benefactor."

"You are only one of the wonderful benefactors," ORB clarified. "Stealing all the credit would be shameful."

"Well, you guys did a great job," Minichino said. She led the group into the garage, giving Mathew and Joey a full look at the vehicle. "Couldn't think of a better way to get to Asulaguah Beach!"

"Yeah, and don't forget the looks we get while we're driving it," Breloom added. "Doesn't matter if it's to Asulaguah or through town, they're absolutely priceless."

Instead of walking with Mathew and the others, Meowth hugged the nearby wall. "I still don't see the point of the buggy. We really should just walk to the beach. It's not that far, and it's better for building the leg muscles."

Politoed squinted at him. "Know what else is good for the leg muscles? Not torturing them." Meowth grunted in response.

"I like the buggy, but it isn't t-totally perfect," Demurke said, mainly to Meowth. "Um…" Mathew didn't have to be a mind reader to see her struggling to come up with a flaw. "Oh! It's not fun if you're wearing a hat, which is m-most of us. It's hard to h-hold mine down…"

"You mean it's hard to hold your head down," ORB corrected.

Demurke looked down at him, holding the brim of her headwear. "It's… It's a hat."

"Sure. I'll believe that when I see you take it off."

"Just ignore him," Jermy said, intervening. "I, for one, respect the hatliness of your hat!"

"Th-thanks," was all she said. Now that Mathew had a closer look, the transition from head to 'hat' was rather seamless. Could she really not — actually, he probably didn't want to know.

"Enough with the chit-chat!" Minichino told them all. "Whether you like the buggy or not, we've got a beach to clean!"

Breloom grabbed the attention of the Club veterans. "Do you guys want me to drive again, or do you want me to let one of the new guys have a shot?"

"Actually, I'd like a chance at it." Mathew said. "It's just a hunch, but something tells me I'm the most familiar with driving out of all eight of us…"

Breloom shrugged "Eh, sure, why not? Go for it, Math."

Jermy ran to the other side of the buggy as fast as he could. "I call shotgun!"

The rest of the Club leapt to their seats just as fast. Mathew took the front seat with Jermy, who carried ORB in his lap. While adjusting the rear-view mirror, he watched Politoed and Meowth file into the middle row and Joey, Minichino, and Breloom into the back. Breloom immediately got comfortable, leaning back, shifting her tail so it laid on the floor, and planting her ankles next to Politoed's shoulders with little objection.

Mathew set his satchel and bone club on the floor beneath his feet and — wait a minute, those pedals were much too far from the seat for his cubone body to reach. Just as he was about to ask the Club, Jermy reached over and wiggled a slider nearby the gas and brake pedals that caused their position to raise and lower.

"One of those 'personally resizeable assets,'" Jermy told him.

"Clever," Mathew muttered before playing with the slider and setting them to a level fit for his legs. When he rose, Demurke was next to him.

"You'll n-need this." She handed him her key ring with the ignition key isolated before hopping in with Meowth and Politoed.

There were very few simple pleasures that Mathew missed from his old life on Earth, but listening to the familiar roar of the engine as he turned the key, and the deep click of moving the gear shift awoke a strange nostalgia in him for the ease of commute. It was unlikely he was going to be driving many things after this buggy. He decided to make the most of it.

Mathew backed the thing out of the garage and drove around the premise of the Resort, feeling out the handling of the vehicle. After spotting Mr. Persian watching them go in the mirror, Mathew picked up the pace. "Out of the waaaaaay! Coooming through!" he shouted in tandem with a horn he got out of smacking the front of the wheel. The dirt roads were perfectly sized for the buggy to roll straight through, but it needed to be cleared of pedestrians. Kalmwa'er citizens ran, jumped, flew, and floated out of the way, many of them shooting Mathew and the others looks. Some annoyed, some shocked, some curious, some enthralled…

"See what I mean about the faces now?!" Breloom shouted to him.

Mathew couldn't hide a chuckle."Hell yeah I do!" he yelled back. For the first time in a long, long time, Mathew felt like a stupid teenager, and he was living for it.

Eventually, he made it to the edge of Kalmwa'er, where the street ended with a wide bridge splitting up the beachgrass that connected the town to its beach. Now instead of bounding over dirt, the buggy was rummaging through sand. For the most part, it didn't feel much different.

Mathew slowed down to align the buggy straight with the beach. He looked back to the rest of the Club. "How far to Asulaguah?" he asked.

"Usually we get there in ten minutes with the buggy," Minichino said. "You've got another eight minutes to go."

Mathew clutched the wheel tight. "I'll make it four!"

The cubone floored it. The buggy's wheels kicked up copious amounts of sand. If he reached a hand out, he would get covered in the stuff. Mathew's skull mask rattled in the wind, and his burgundy tie threatened to fly behind him and strangle his neck if he didn't keep it straight on his chest.

The speed was fun — at least for a couple minutes. It was entertaining to watch Joey, Minichino, Demurke, and Politoed desperately hold down their headwear in the rearview mirror. Unfortunately, the novelty didn't last long. Soon enough, Mathew was left staring at an empty beach with nothing to entertain him but his own mind. Since that was always such a great time, he immediately disregarded the nostalgia for anything Earth and turned to something he enjoyed much more: the job training!

...At least comparatively speaking. Mathew wasn't really sure how he felt about SEAS and his potential position right now. Jermy, Demurke, and David had all been so kind to him and Joey, but that bombshell from earlier was a lot to take in.

Based on what he had done this morning, it seemed this entire little job of his was going to involve the possibility of failing to meet demands and landing himself as a soldier, far from what he had agreed to. Knocking villainy down a peg was one thing, but putting himself at such insane risks when he didn't know the first thing about the natures of this world? Mathew wasn't sure he could survive ending up on the front lines of an army.

"Something on your mind, Mathew?"

"Uh, no!" Mathew exclaimed, louder than he had intended. He had forgotten Jermy was right next to him.

Jermy jumped a bit in surprise from the intensity. "Well, it can't be nothing with that stare you just had," he said. "I was starting to wonder if you were really looking at the beach!"

Mathew sank into his seat, loosely holding the wheel steady. "I'm just worried about doing a good job. Getting the new start I wanted has turned out so much harder than I expected." He grimaced. "If I spent eight months getting here just to fuck it all up at the finish line because—"

"Hey, don't talk like that!" Jermy said. "It's only your first real day. We're not expecting you to do anything magical right now."

"He is correct. That will come later," ORB added.

"Besides, you're Mathew Walker. I know you can do this! And once you do, it'll be...better. A lot better. That's what you wanted, right?"

"That's what David said, too," Mathew said. He shifted his foot's placement on the pedal. "What's got SEAS interested in me, anyway? I told you before, I'm not special. The only thing I was good for in the world was the suit, really."

"The what?" Jermy asked.

Mathew regretted opening up the pikachu's curiosity. "Uh, never mind."

Jermy shrugged it off. "Well, whatever that was, I beg to differ about your specialness, mister Cat-Tongue!"

"What, you mean that cat robot I made in college?" Mathew said. "That's nothing."

Jermy was gobsmacked. "Nothing? Mathew, did you see all of the bootlegs of the AI system posted online?"

"Why would I care about the bootlegs?"

"Well, duh! Because they use your code, silly! They take from all of the big-names, but I've never seen any other indie project get their code stolen like Cat-Tongue."

This was really all about his success with Cat-Tongue? Mathew had to shake his head at that. "SEAS has the wrong idea about me if they're basing my hiring off of a side job I took for money."

"The fact that it's a side job is the point!" Jermy said. "You understood how to adapt real-life emotional stimuli to artificial systems better than anyone else in your heyday! Your work started the movement that made AI just that much realer! If it wasn't for you, I couldn't make...you know…!" Jermy raised up his arms like a proud parent. Mathew looked, and there he was in his lap.

ORB. An AI system that was both informative and sassy. It was based on his programming, wasn't it?

Jermy continued, "and you did all that when software development was your minor. You have a gift, Mathew, and David and I can see that."

Mathew was bewildered and flattered all at once. "You want me to work with you...because...you're a fan? Of me?"

"Yeah, now you're getting it!" Jermy's smile went from comforting to jubilant. "Y'know, when I first found out about you, I always kinda thought we were really similar. We're both engineers, we've made big discoveries, we both have messed up name spellings…"

"Oh, I feel that last one. So many people write my name with two Ts, it drives me nuts."

"Don't forget you called me Jeremy when I introduced myself yesterday. Trust me, you're not the first…" Jermy quietly remarked.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Mathew said. "How did that name happen, by the way? I get mine, but—"

"Miswrite on my birth certificate," Jermy quickly answered. "But as soon as they realized it, they fell in love with the name, so it's all mine now. I wouldn't have it any other way, really."

"In case you couldn't tell," ORB said, "the rest of Jermy's family didn't have all of their screws in."

"Ha! See what I'm saying? He's snarky, but he never feels like he's fake!" He raised up ORB again. "Talk more!"

"I'm just going to ignore the fact that I'm being treated like a trophy dog." Jermy turned the robot towards the cubone. Mathew watched him out of the corner of his eye. "Mathew, did you know that Jermy was so bad at playing the violin that he never went a session without breaking the strings?"

"Come on, I was five! And Mom made sure never to give me the expensive fiddles! I moved on to the harmonica the next year, anyhow. You don't have to tease me for old things like that."

"And who was the person who programmed into me knowledge of all those old things?"

"Ah! Phooey! Don't give me that!" Jermy snapped.

Mathew chuckled at Jermy. If there was one thing he appreciated about this recruitment process, it was the employees they had assigned the two of them. He had a feeling that SEAS could have easily sent them corporate, emotionless suits that just guided them where they needed to go. Instead, they had given them a gentle friend and a companion that happened to be a fan. He...liked having a fan around.

A fan. Of his achievements on Earth.

Mathew's heart began pumping. The fact found him fast, falling on him like a fist. "Jermy…"

Jermy stopped just in front of him. ORB paused right beside the pikachu. "Yeah?"

"This stuff is all things I did on Earth."

Jermy seemed to shrug that off, letting his eyes drift elsewhere. "Well, of course. I used to be human, and all."

"That means...you know. You have to…" Mathew looked down at the floor of the buggy. The club on the floor. The club.

"I know what?" Jermy's distressed voice seemed so far away now.

"What happened after…" It was happening again. "After…"

We're not expecting you to do anything magical right now.

magical

magic

L—

"Mathew!" Minichino's voice. "Look up! You gotta look up!"

Mathew was barely able to snap out of his own head. "Shit!" He pumped the brakes, turned the wheel, and braced for impact.

Crack.

The cubone jumped in his seat when the buggy made impact with something solid. When he got his bearings, it was immediately apparent what he had done. The buggy had veered far to the right towards the water and slammed into a large, textured rock that was damp on one side. Mathew sucked air through his teeth and looked up at the damage. The rock had split in half, almost right down the middle, in response to the impact from the corner of the buggy.

"Well, Math," Breloom remarked behind him, "I think we figured out which one of us is driving back."

"I'm sorry, okay?!" he whirled around and told the Club. "I got caught up in my own head!"

"Caught up in… How does this even happen?" Jermy asked.

"I don't know. It just does!"

Mathew was faced with a bad impression from his coworkers. Joey's head was cocked to the side, confused. Demurke was still reeling from the crash. Minichino was struggling to find how to react, only able to mouth "Dude…" Meowth...Meowth was just as angry-looking as ever. Politoed looked...afraid?

"Mathew...think you should be worried less about us and more about...him."

It was then that Mathew noticed that the driver's seat was covered in a shadow. He slowly turned and...oh God.

Standing at the top of the left half of the rock was a towering creature. Held together by rocks making up its shoulders and waist, the orange and brown colored pokémon had four arms and two legs, each with sets of long claws. Even the head seemed to resemble a potential fist.

Mathew looked up at him. "Uh… Hi?"

"Our rock," it said stoically.

Mathew glanced at his handiwork, then back at the pokémon. He really wished he knew this species. "Do you live here?"

"You jerk! You broke our rock!"

Mathew winced. That voice didn't come from the head. Where… Wait. Was he seeing things, or was that thing on one of his right palms an eye? In fact, there were eyes on all four of the palms.

This wasn't one wild pokémon he had enraged. It was seven.

The lower left palm chuckled. "Look at them all, quivering in their seats! How cute."

"Sure wish I could see it…" A muffled voice cried from the left sole.

"Quit complainin'. Heady will give us a looksee when he feels like it," the right sole said.

"Quiet!" Heady exclaimed, and the limbs went silent. It focused its attention on Mathew. "This is our only rock. And you broke it."

"Oh. Well…" Mathew could feel the tension radiating off of the pokémon. He needed to salvage this situation, fast. "At least...you have two rocks to share among yourselves now?"

Nobody said a word. Heady was quiet. The limbs were quiet. The Club was quiet. Mathew could feel their stares on his back.

"Two rocks," Heady repeated. "Would you like two heads?"

"...Noooooo?"

Heady glanced at one of the left arms. "Left hook."

In a flash, the conglomeration of barnacles sprung to life, working as one. Mathew couldn't even react to it landing on the hood of the buggy. The next thing he knew, his mask rattled on his head, his body tumbled in the sand, and brain burst into a splitting headache from a powerful punch.

"Then you shouldn't have given us two rocks."

"Mathew!" he heard Joey cry past a chorus of shouts from the rest of the Club.

"Uggh… Owwww…"

The cubone looked up just in time to see a surge of electricity burst from the passenger seat, veering to the side. In a blisteringly quick attack, Jermy leapt up and shoved the pokémon off of the hood. "Help Mathew!" he exclaimed, chasing it away from the buggy.

The rest of the Club scrambled to escape their seats. The first to make it to Mathew as he climbed out of the sand was Meowth. He wordlessly handed him an Oran Berry from his kit. Mathew tried thanking him, but he was stopped by his own flinch. "What was that for?" he asked Minichino, who had just raked her tail around his body.

"You were covered in sand," she said. "I can't live with that."

Jermy was still busy holding off the pokémon. "Alright, Mr. Four Arms. This is my moment! Face the wrath of Jermy Shock!" Jermy lobbed a mighty bolt...which promptly turned away from the target and took off towards land. "Oh, come on! Who throws away a—" Jermy looked towards the objects stuck in the beach. "Two! Two lightning rods! Are you joking?!"

"Slash him!" The pokémon wasted no time, making an attempt to cut Jermy open with its claws. He narrowly dodged the strike.

Poltoed watched Jermy's predicament nervously. "Anybody willing to whip up a plan before this barbaracle makes a pancake out of Jermy?"

A chance at redemption! Mathew had to make the most of it, so he quickly started pondering. There were eight of them and seven of it. If they took advantage of the seven all being stuck to the same body and contributed to the fight individually, they might stand a chance. That wasn't so different from allocating roles in a project, right? He had done that plenty of times, especially aimed against strong-muscled jerks like this. "Okay, this guy hits like a truck, so we need to have more recovery on-hand." The spoken thought drew him to Meowth. "You should stay back with ORB. And, uh, Joey, you stay with him and pretend you could kick this guy's ass."

Joey bore his sharp teeth at Mathew. "Rawr."

Mathew shot him a look of disappointment before addressing everyone else. "We're gonna need somebody for it to focus on. Who here could risk taking a few hits?"

"That'd be me you're looking for," Breloom said, preemptively stretching her arms.

Mathew nodded. When he went from looking up at Breloom to looking straight at Minichino, he got an idea. "Minichino, you're smaller than Breloom, so try sneaking up on him. Could you climb on top of him or something?"

Minichino smirked and rubbed her paws together. "Leave that to me!"

"Oh!" Demurke interjected. "Then I c-could hit him from the air where he can't reach!"

"Looks like a plan now!" Politoed remarked, impressed. "Just leaves you, me, and Jermy."

It took Mathew longer to even start finding a place for the others. "I'll—"

"Aw, fish sticks!"

The Club turned their attention to Jermy. The pikachu was held tightly in the clutches of the barbaracle's upper left hand.

Heady fumed at Jermy. "You...have wasted our time!"

Mathew's eyes widened as he watched the wild pokémon turn and rear back like a football player.

"Bye bye~" the limb said. An instant later, Jermy was chucked into the air.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…" The pikachu hurtled through the sky at high speeds before hitting the water with a splash.

Heady's eyes landed on Mathew. If glares could deal damage, its would be lethal. "We will drown you next. Unless your companions want to go first?"

A beat of silence passed.

"Just...gonna go for a swim." Politoed shuffled away in short bursts as if Heady could only see movement. Once at the edge of the water, he took off towards Jermy.

"Try me, 'Ed!" Breloom burst into a sprint, aiming to deliver a punch to the barbaracle's right leg. Heady ordered it to step out of the way, then barked a command for a lower arm to hammer down on Breloom. The barnacles' fixation on a target gave Minichino and Demurke a chance to move into position.

Breloom gave a kick to Barbaracle's slammed fist, only to be met with a swing to the chest from another arm. She was pushed back, but kept her feet firmly in the sand.

"Try again!" Heady commanded, and the limbs obeyed. Both lower arms went for Breloom at the same time. Catching this, she ducked under them, causing each limb's claws to smack the other. Without missing a beat, Breloom leapt for the upper left hand and grabbed onto it.

"You must be full of energy to throw that far. Mind if I take some of that?"

Suddenly, Breloom's red claws began to give off a glow. In a desperate fit, the arm tried to fling Breloom off to no avail. The claws on her hands sunk deep, and, when airborne, the ones on her feet did just as well. The better Breloom held on, the worse the limb tried to shake her off. Mathew had a guess as to the move: Drain Punch.

"High-lefty!" The lower left palm exclaimed as it sunk to the body's side, losing consciousness. Breloom let herself fall into the sand as she let go of the limb. She couldn't scramble to her feet fast enough to avoid it grabbing her out of the sand. "You're gonna pay for that. He wasn't the only good throwing arm here!" Breloom struggled in its grip, but the newfound energy wasn't enough.

Shit! Breloom needs my help! Mathew realized. He clenched his...wait, where was his club?

"Forgetting this?" Mathew looked to his right to see ORB, kicking up sand as he rolled towards him. In his grip was his club. "You left it in the buggy, right next to your dignity."

"Thanks!" Mathew seized the club and charged at the barbaracle. "Get the hell away from—"

He realized too late that shouting a battle cry had given himself away. A leg came flying at his face, knocking him away. Refusing to be downed, Mathew dug his feet in the sand just like Breloom did.

Thankfully, the distraction was just what Breloom needed. She burst out of the lower left's grip and jumped for a kick at the torso. Heady yelped, unprepared for a blow, and fell onto the body's rear. Just then, Minichino sprang into action. Having slipped to the other end of the battlefield, she approached and clung onto the barbaracle's back.

"Who...is that?!" Heady exclaimed, breathing heavily as it leapt back to its feet. Breloom had knocked the wind out of him.

"Don't worry, I'll get her!" One of the right palms exclaimed. They each took turns trying to strike Minichino as if they were the hammers in a Whack-A-Mole game. The minccino nimbly hopped all around the torso, letting the limbs smack Heady's body. Mixing the grip of her paws with their uncoordinated friendly fire, she dealt damage to Heady quickly and easily.

"You two…!" Heady tried to command. "Stop missing...or I'll—"

Demurke landed atop the shoulder-rock. It only took two seconds and one wing smack to finish the job. Heady slumped over.

The remaining left palm gasped. "Heady's down!" he shouted.

Mathew leapt into the air with glee. "Yes! They're doing it!" he exclaimed. He looked to Breloom, then to Joey, who both shared his excitement. Even Meowth was nodding in approval.

"Everyone!" a sole shouted. "Position shift! Now!"

With no time to react, Minichino and Demurke scurried around as the barbaracle's remaining limbs shifted the body sideways. Now Heady and upper-left were the limp left arms, lower-left topped the body as its new head, the right palms took the role of the feet, and those that were once the feet had already taken hold of both of the Club members.

"You've taken out Heady," one of them said.

"Now it's time...for the Feeties!" the other shouted.

"Dunk them!" the new head barked, and so they did, slamming them both into the sand. Breloom tried to strike back, but these new right arms were more powerful than the last — a sweep from one was enough to send her lying on her back.

Mathew quickly realized he may have celebrated too soon.

"Breloom!" Suddenly, Politoed ran up to Breloom, having returned from the ocean with Jermy in tow. "You okay?"

Breloom didn't even give time for Politoed to worry, leaping to her feet like it's nothing. "I'm fine. You know it takes more than that to keep me down…" Evidently, the same was true for Minichino and Demurke for the time being, as Mathew saw both of them rise as well.

As the barbaracle adjusted to the new weight distribution from moving the waist rock from below to beside the torso rock, the new head studied the the Club. "They're all here now. We need more protection! Find a weapon!" The five remaining limbs hobbled away from the group, making good speed despite the body being horrendously lop-sided.

A weapon? Mathew grimaced. "Shit. We need a new plan." Just like that, everyone surrounded him. The cubone was taken aback by how quickly they agreed to this.

"What's it gonna be, Mathew?" Minichino asked between her attempts to clean herself off.

"Let me think…" he was still piecing together what to do with Jermy. "You've got the type advantage and can hit at a distance. Is there some way we could get you to hit it?"

In reply, Jermy craned his neck to see behind Mathew. "I don't know for sure if that's an option now, buddy."

Mathew turned back to see the barbaracle's two right palms reach into the sand and try to pull out what else but the very lightning rods that had impeded Jermy earlier. It struggled with them — they were buried deep.

"That thing's going to beat us with lightning rods?" Meowth remarked. "That doesn't seem very effective."

Mathew was about to address coordination for the others when suddenly, his mind lingered on what Meowth just said.

Where. Where had he heard that before? It was familiar…

Oh… It was there.

"What kind of weapon is that?" she whispered to him. "He has a death wish if he's gonna use that against a firearm. How much are you willing to bet those nails are just for looks?"

Mathew stared and stared and stared at that barbaracle as it pried the rods out. It clutched them firmly. The head looked towards the Club, now sitting ducks waiting for orders.

Towards him.

The cubone's club shook in his trembling hand. "No… Don't you come closer…" He took a step back. Breloom said something to him, but he didn't hear a word that came out of her mouth. His heart was beating so loudly that it flooded his ears.

One of the former soles shouted something as the barbaracle charged Mathew down. He wanted to leap out of the way, but he didn't. It was as if his mind was detached from his limbs. Why was he like this? He couldn't make sense of himself and he was running out of ti—!

Mathew was caught up in somebody's arms, getting pulled out of the way. He clenched his eyes shut as the rod came down. He didn't see the outcome. He didn't want to see it. When he opened them again, he was sat down facing the shore, facing away from the action. Sand spread across his arms and water lapped at his legs. He couldn't feel any of it.

"Dammit. I did it again…" he said to the one that saved him. "I'm sorry. I keep losing my shit—"

"Don't apologize." To his surprise, it was Meowth who was standing in front of him. "Just stay out of the fight and calm down."

"You saw how they looked at me!" he exclaimed. "They need me!"

"You're not needed. Politoed is taking the lead right now."

Behind him, Mathew could hear Politoed bark commands in the midst of an audible scuffle. Meowth was right.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Joey approaching him. "Is Mathew okay?" he asked Meowth.

"He's sitting there, not doing anything," ORB's voice stated nearby. "Does he look okay?"

"Joey, I—" Mathew flinch, cut off by a piercing shout. Minichino was hurt.

Meowth looked up from Mathew, likely towards her. "Joey, stay here and make sure Mathew doesn't get hurt. I'm going in." Meowth's prompt departure from Mathew's side gave the cubone an impression that the fight was going south fast. "And you shut your voice box," he added as he walked off. "You're not calibrated to deal with somebody like this."

"I don't remember when it was your job to tell me what to do, but okay," ORB said.

"Make sure he doesn't — Why do y'all act like I could do a thing to that beach hydra?" Joey muttered. He came up to Mathew's side. "Uh...are you okay?" he asked him more directly.

"No, Joey, I'm not!" Mathew clenched his chest. "Why are there so many people out to kill us? First those wingull, and now this. I wish they'd just rot! I came here to get away from them!"

Joey's mouth was agape. He was clearly struggling to process his rambling. "Them...being the stuff you can't tell me about?"

"Yes, Joey, yes!" Mathew exclaimed. Now he was fighting back tears. "What they did…"

That was enough to leave Joey without words. They just sat there for a few short seconds as the fight raged on, Mathew struggling to wipe his eyes clean through his mask's holes.

Then came the footsteps.

Joey looked up and gasped. Immediately, he leapt to cover Mathew back-to-back. The cubone desperately wanted to turn around, but he knew what would happened if he did.

The head spoke first. "Give us the cubone, 'dile."

"We'll quit beatin' up your friends if you do," one of the limbs added. "The only one we have beef with is that homewrecker!"

"Y-you ain't laying another finger on him!" Joey's bluff was so evident, Mathew could hear it in its tone.

"Hmm." The head paused for only a second after Joey's declaration. "You might be right. Don't lay a finger on them!"

Instantly, a foot smashed into Joey, and Joey into Mathew, sending them both tumbling. Mathew's bone club flung out of his hand, rolling away. He laid down and curled up — he didn't know how to deal with this anymore. The barbaracle's shadow loomed over him once more. He was powerless beneath it.

It raised one foot, hovered over him like a hammer to a nail. It went down, down, down...and into Breloom's arms. Bravely, she stood between him and the dungeon pokémon, becoming the only thing stopping it from crushing him. That was when Mathew remembered the position shift — she was targeting the less experienced limbs. With a shove, she threw the foot back, making the body stumble.

At that moment, a bolt of thunder rocketed from the side into the two lightning rods. The barbaracle cringed in pain from the electric attack, falling onto its back and dropping the rods. "Yes!" Jermy exclaimed off to the side. "I didn't think that would work for some reason!"

"Owth! Dem! Let's get them now!" Breloom wasted no time. She grabbed the leg she had shoved over and pried it right out of the rock body, then threw it over the shoulder. Its head smacked the sand and went out like a light.

Mathew watched as she, Meowth and Demurke finished off the last of them. Demurke used her familiar wing smacks and beak slashes. Meowth, meanwhile, drew long claws from his paws and swiped at them. In just seconds, a quiet air fell upon the beach.

Joey was the first to break the silence. "Did y'all do it?"

Meowth slowly walked around the body. Two limbs had been pulled, and the rest were unmoving. "I don't see any sign of movement." He prodded one of the heads."They're not faking it. We should be safe."

"And it only took two of us…"

Mathew followed Breloom's gaze towards Minichino and Politoed splayed in the sand, just as unmoving. The cubone grimaced — their undoing was because of his own inaction, wasn't it?

Joey was coming close to him again. "I need a minute," he told him. His thoughts were still chaotic and clouded. Joey at least seemed to understand that and backed off. He sidled into a sitting position deeper in the tide, letting the gentle waves push him around as he watched the others on the shore quietly.

As Meowth rummaged through his emergency kit, Breloom came up to him and put hand out. He smacked a seed into it and took another for himself. They split off, Meowth to Minichino and Breloom to Politoed. Mathew watched as each one fed a seed into the unconscious pokémon's mouth. Seconds later, they sprang to life.

"Alright, which one of you wants some-?" Minichino said as she scrambled to her feet, only to realize there was no action around her. "Aw, is the fight already over?"

"Do you think I would have given you that if it wasn't safe?" Meowth asked.

Minichino crossed her arms. "Oh, right."

"Well, I'll be. You ain't dead…" Joey looked at Minichino in awe. "Did that seed do that?"

"It woke her up, yes," Meowth replied. "Have you never seen a Reviver Seed before?"

"Uh...can't say I have." In reply to Joey's answer, Minichino seemed intrigued.

Jermy stepped in to explain it to him. "You know how you jumpstart a car's engine when it doesn't work? The Reviver Seed does that for people!"

"Speaking of cars…" Demurke said, having finished attending to Breloom and the now-conscious Politoed. She looked towards the buggy. "Who's g-gonna check on that?"

"I will." Mathew stood up, feeling decent enough to start talking again at the very least. As he approached, he grabbed his bone club out of the sand. "I messed it up, and now I have to fix it. That's how it goes."

"I elect Jermy to help him, since he took shotgun," ORB said.

"Hey!" Jermy exclaimed. "I was gonna help anyway…"

"I'll stay too," Meowth declared. Minichino shot him a side-eye, which he quickly reciprocated.

"Guess that means the rest of us should walk the rest of the way to Asulaguah," Politoed said.

That took Mathew by surprise. "Wait. You mean we aren't in Asulaguah now?"

"Nope!" Minichino said. "We stopped just short."

"But…" Mathew stopped himself as he realized how stupid what he was about to say was. This wasn't a video game. Dungeon pokémon can likely go where they please.

"I'll c-come check back on you guys if you take too long. See you soon…!" Demurke ushered the Club away from Mathew, Jermy, Meowth, and ORB. Joey gave Mathew one last thoughtful look before he joined them.

Jermy led Mathew towards the impact site, letting Meowth stay behind them and watch. After taking a moment to ensure the wheels weren't locked, the two grabbed onto the front corner not up against the rock and carefully pushed the buggy away. The damage was clear: the left side of the hood was deeply dented.

"Dammit…" Mathew remarked.

"Hey, no worries!" Jermy lifted the hood, revealing a large, complex engine. There didn't seem anything immediately broken or out-of-place. "We designed this thing to be sturdy. Everything has to be sturdy on Solceus, after all."

"Huh." Mathew looked up at the raised hood, then back at his bone club. "Do you think I could push that back out with my club?"

"You're free to try." Jermy let go of the hood, still held up by a pole. "I'm gonna inspect the rest of the buggy to make sure it's in one piece. Be back in a jiffy!" He left Mathew to it.

Mathew poked the interior of the hood. The edges seemed to pop back up easily, but the core would take a more concentrated effort. He worked at those edges for the next minute or two — one thing at a time.

He sighed to himself as he worked. That fight had been a total disaster for him. He was doing so well before, but now… He was right to have worried. He wasn't prepared for this kind of job at all. But what choice did he have at this point? He was only being exposed to this more and more. Now it wasn't a matter of what to do, but how long it would be until something broke—

"Hey, Mathew," Jermy called out. "You good? You're just kinda standing there."

Mathew returned to reality once again. He had already delivered a strong smack to the dent and pushed it out. "Yeah, I'm just…" He hurriedly jumped and slammed the hood. He approached his club's handiwork and—

Don't look down

"I'm taking a walk," Mathew said as he stood up. He needed a break. Now. "I'll be back in like, five minutes." The cubone hurriedly tossed Jermy the bone club and walked around the side of the buggy.

"Wha-" Jermy clumsily caught it, not anticipating his stunt. "Mathew, wait!" Mathew couldn't get four paces away before Jermy stopped him. He reached over to their right into the driver's seat with his free hand and grabbed Mathew's empty satchel. "You should take this before you go."

Mathew stared at the satchel, begging to be filled. "Pass." He sidestepped around Jermy. "I'm walking to unscramble my head, not work more."

Much to his annoyance, Jermy stopped him again. "Hey, I'm not asking you to do extra work! This is just to make you look busy. Demurke is a sweetheart, but...my bosses know how to get her talking if her report is missing details. If she happens to see you walking around not doing your job after you wrecked the buggy, it won't look the best."

It took some time for Mathew to fully digest what Jermy was implying. Surely he wasn't serious about that, right? "What, am I not allowed to take a break after having two freakouts on the job?!" he asked for clarity exasperatedly. "I seriously only need five minutes. My head's going all over the place, and if I don't catch it, it won't be pretty."

"Geez." Jermy put his hand to his bandana. The patience was slowly peeling off his face.

ORB joined their conversation. "Jermy isn't asking you to rescind your break. It's just a satchel. You really shouldn't mind carrying it with you."

"I do mind," Mathew barked. "A lot, actually. If I have the satchel, I'll feel like I'm working, which I do not want when I'm taking a break to destress about work so I can work better. If you think you can wake me up before the sun's risen and work me for hours and then try to control my break time after that, you are sorely mistaken!" Mathew stomped past him again. If that wasn't enough to get his point across—

There was Jermy, in his face again. "Mathew, I am on your side!" he exclaimed. "I get that it's annoying, but this is just what we have to do if we want you to get this position! I really believe you can do something as easy as—"

"Do you ever shut the hell up?" he asked. "At this point, you're wasting your own time! You could have fixed the buggy by now but—"

"Can you stop being such a whittled bean bag for once?!"

Mathew tensed up. He hadn't heard Jermy yell like this before.

"Just carry the dang bag!" he added. "It's not a waste of my time when I'm making sure you miss the moment David catches you slouching and gets on my case—"

"Jermy, that's enough." Out of nowhere, Meowth had inserted himself into the narrative, placing himself in front of Jermy and ORB. When did he get so close to them? "Let him have his break. This argument is a waste of time. You don't even know if Demurke will recognize that Mathew isn't doing anything in the first place." He reached an arm out towards Jermy. "In fact, let's make sure it's a non-issue. I'll carry his satchel and walk with him."

Jermy floundered to find a response. "But… I… Rgh." Scowling, he gave Meowth the satchel without a fight.

ORB, on the other hand, did not hesitate. "If you think Demurke won't report you two, I have news for you. I archive video recordings of almost everything. If she won't tell them about this, I will."

"Don't listen to him," Meowth muttered to Mathew, ushering him away from them. "He's just trying to upset you."

Mathew was completely fine with that answer. The two of them strolled down the beach with vigor in their pace, putting some distance on Jermy and ORB. Meowth clutched both his and Mathew's satchels around his arms.

"That's the second time you've helped me today," Mathew pointed out as they waded through the shallow shore, flinging water with each step. "Thanks for that."

"It's fine. I find it absurd that Jermy wanted to control your break. We all need a break at times, but you were especially in need of one after what happened earlier."

"Yeah…" Mathew still was unsure what to make of his landlord of sorts. Meowth's tone was so matter-of-fact, but his words were kind and thoughtful. Regardless, he had helped him out, so he deserved at least a little explanation. "I get like that sometimes. Joey saw a bit of it yesterday, but nothing like this." The cubone looked down and gave a hard kick to the water, splashing it forwards. "It's gonna take some brainstorming to figure how I can get everyone's mind off of that…"

"I'm sure you can think of something," Meowth said before suddenly changing the subject. "You mentioned in that argument that you were working virtually nonstop until now. What were you doing then?"

Mathew almost recounted his earlier day, but he was reminded of what David had told him earlier. The decidueye had even singled out Meowth… "Not much, really. But it was annoying busywork." He settled on that statement to get the point across.

Meowth grunted. "It's unfair that our employer lets that happen."

Mathew wasn't really sure what Meowth meant by that, other than that he was against busywork. "You really like your breaks, huh?" He tossed as a safe question, not wanting to press him.

"Why do you think I stayed and watched you two fix that buggy?" Meowth's smile suggested he took the remark well. "Say, why don't we grab a meal together after our work today is done?" he asked. "You seem to have a lot on your mind."

Mathew gave pause at that offer. It was only his first day and Meowth was already offering an outing? He didn't feel ready for that. However, the more he thought about it, the better an idea it seemed. After having such a disaster of a first impression on the job, consulting a Pick-it Up Club veteran might help to determine how he could improve on the following days.

For that matter, wasn't Meowth not only a physician, but a therapist? To be honest, he needed something like that. Maybe this could be a chance to prove once and for all if Politoed and Breloom were wrong about Meowth…

"You know what? I'd like that," he said with a nod. It had been a rough start, but maybe this day was going to get better after all.