Snute reached a tail up to muffle her sneeze as dust invaded her sinuses.

"Does no one ever clean up here?"

Her eyes flicked about to take in the narrow space. She could hardly see more than a few feet ahead, no thanks to her sub-par flashlight.

The flimsy shelf she balanced on top of sagged below the focused weight of her paw.

"Hey, Silly! You awake?"

The ninetales took in a sharp gasp. She immediately regretted the decision as her lungs and throat were assaulted with dust. She broke into a coughing fit, losing her balance. She fell backwards, breaking through the shelf with a loud "snap", its contents emptying atop her as she landed onto the carpeted floor.

Concerned, Aundei pulled back the ninetales' curtain to peer into her space. He frowned, taking in the sight of her body on the floor.

Snute's face was covered by an assortment of two halves of a broken plank, some fractured wood chips, a few books, an alarm clock, a couple stray papers, and a dislodged tile from the dropped ceiling. With a groan, her head rose out of the pile. Her flashlight chose that moment to finish rolling out from atop the ceiling, eliciting a cry of pain as it plonked against the ice-type's head.

The glameow cringed, letting out a sympathetic hiss.

"Oh, dear... Are you okay, Silly?"

The ninetales shook her head aggressively, clearing her brain of fog. She stood up with a snarl, fixing a glare upon Aundei.

"Do not startle me like that!"

The glameow simply blinked, looking up to the ceiling, then to the discarded tile on the floor. He raised an eyebrow.

"Why is your ceiling tile missing, Silly?"

"It fell," Snute huffed, plopping down onto her bed. "I was putting it back in."

"Ah, I see!" the glameow smiled, buying the fib. His face then fell a bit. "Perhaps ask me for a stool, next time. Those shelves aren't very stable, you know."

"Oh, really?" Snute gave an exaggerated gasp, placing a paw to her chest. Her eyes narrowed, fixing onto the mess of junk strewn across the floor. "I had not noticed."

Aundei's beaming grin returned in full force.

"Always happy to help a friend!"

"I'm not your-"

"Come on, Silly! I've got something to show you!"

Snute felt her response die in her throat, only released as a discontent grunt upon realizing that the glameow had already left. With a sigh and a shake of her head, she walked out into the main part of the room.

Aundei had a peculiar device laid out in front of him. He looked up to Snute with a grin.

"It's for you!"

Quirking an eyebrow, the ninetales leaned down to eye it. She gave it a few tentative sniffs before sitting down on the floor.

It was rectangularly prismatic in appearance, with a keypad on it below a square display screen. It was quite long, and a bit thick, featuring numerous ports and plugs along its surface. She lightly batted at it with a paw.

Above the screen in one corner was the standard explorer's logo, situated next to a simplified ice-cream icon.

Snute blinked, baffled.

"What is this?"

"That," Aundei explained, "is one of the greatest advancements in Guild equipment!" With a proud smile, he let his eyes fall closed. "The All-in-one Portable Explore and Rescue Gear, or, APER Gear for short, is a nifty little gadget with all sorts of cool features! It can make calls, it has a map, it can take photos... Heck, it even has plenty of physical utilities, too!" To demonstrate his point, he clicked a button on it, activating a flashlight.

Snute glanced back to her dinky flashlight which rolled across the floor. She looked back to Aundei's smiling face.

"Anything else I should know?"

"Glad you asked!" the glameow cheered. "It's fully customizable! Not just with programs, but you can install whatever hardware into it that you value most! Given you've got the cash, of course. As well, it's linked directly into the Vanilluxe Guild's network, so you can look at our data with it, update mission statuses in real time, and a whole bunch more!"

Snute looked down to the device with a grin. Aundei was oblivious to the sinister undertone as the ninetales replied.

"Huh. Neat."

Aundei nodded.

"Indeed! And, it's all yours! All you'll need before you can use it is a badge." He blinked. "Oh, and, be sure to charge it every chance you get, in case an emergency comes up."

Snute gave a thoughtful hum.

"And, why not just use a normal cell-phone?"

"Well... Security concerns, the aforementioned hardware upgradability, and your cell-phone probably isn't going to survive being hyper-beamed into a lake."

"I see."

"So..." Aundei stood up with a stretch, then raised a paw to adjust his cape's tie. "Guess we should see the Guilldmaster for your badge, now! Should be dinner time by the time we're done!"

"Sure."

Snute picked up the device in her maw, then running back to her bed to place it inside her bag. She slung it over her shoulder quickly, before getting a move-on. She took one self-conscious look back at her mess, opting to close the curtain on her way out.

Aundei and Snute walked together through the door into the office. It was quite small, Snute noted; about one-tenth of the lounge. Though, with it being directly connected to said lounge, perhaps it was instead contributing to making the lounge larger than she had originally determined?

Snute shook her head, taking in the room.

It was plain and empty, aside from the desk. A vanilluxe sat at the desk, all dressed up in a sparkling red tuxedo.

"Guildmaster Vanilluxe!" Aundei greeted, hopping forward eagerly. "We've got a newbie for you!"

The right head of the pokémon glanced over with a smile. The left one appeared to be asleep. He flew right up to the two.

Snute flinched at the sudden movement, stepping back in fright. As she gazed into the eyes of the vanilluxe's right head, she felt as if she gazed straight in the distortion world.

"Fresh... Meat..." muttered the ice-cream, before chuckling lowly.

Aundei gave a beaming grin as Snute appeared to freeze in place.

"Not the phrasing I'd use, but, yeah! Think you can wake up the Guildmaster for me?"

Taking a moment to ponder, the head gave an almost sinister grin and a small nod. Before long, the left head's eyes shot open, looking around.

"Huh? Wuzzat?" His much more friendly eyes appeared to settle onto the pair, giving a warm grin. "Oh, Aundei! And, it seems you've brought the newbie I've been hearing about!"

Snute re-opened her eyes. She'd no clue when they'd closed, but the more bubbly voice served to soothe her nerves. Before long, the vanilluxe had flown over to their task, picked out an ice-cream shaped badge, and returned to pin it to Snute's chest.

The ninetales gave an offended scoff at the latest in a long line of personal-space violations that day.

The right side of the vanilluxe seemed to glare with a toothy grin.

"So..." it breathed, "You're the one with the supposed voluptuous behind we've heard about..."

As Snute's eyes narrowed, the left side of the vanilluxe frowned.

"Hey, now. That's rude, Righty," he lectured. "And, not to mention, quite inappropriate."

Righty gave a snort, closing their eyes dismissively.

"Whatever you say, goodie-two-sprinkles."

"So..." Snute ventured, "Why don't I get the snowflake one?"

"Oh!" Lefty smiled brightly. "Those were just from Guildmaster Cryogonal's time. I only took over the Guildmaster mantle, say, five years ago"

The ninetales nodded.

"I see." she turned to leave without another word, exiting the room. She heard Aundei bid a goodbye to the Guildmaster before heading out with her.

Snute found herself sitting down at one of the tables within the dimly lit cafeteria. She'd wanted to retreat to her room, but found herself stuck there, as Aundei had wanted to hang out with some friends.

She found herself staring down at her tray of food, eating slowly, savoring each subtle flavor. It was a thick and crispy diner-style omelette, loaded with thinly diced spring onions, evenly distributed chunks of feta cheese, and generously seasoned throughout with a liberal dusting of black pepper.

Her eyes lazily glanced about the table as she ate in silence. Aundei sat beside her with his large bowl of pasta, a bit too close for her liking. Across from her was a simisage with just a hefty protein shake. And, finally, a lopunny sat across from Aundei, with a half-eaten sandwich on her tray.

Snute felt a smug grin cross her muzzle as she looked down the lopunny's figure.

"Hah! Her ass is bigger than mine," she noted with perhaps too much satisfaction.

The lopunny after making a comment about something or another to Aundei turned to the ninetales. Upon following Snute's gaze, the rabbit cocked an eyebrow, wiggling her hips just a bit.

"Like what ya' see, hun'?" she quipped, waggling her brows.

Snute felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment, quickly turning to look away. The others at the table, sans the glameow, gave a hearty laugh at the ninetales' expense.

Aundei simply blinked, tilting his head.

"Huh? What's so funny?"

The lopunny leaned to place an elbow on the table, resting a cheek in her hand before speaking.

"Oh, you'll get it when you're older, hun'."

The glameow simply gave a shrug, smiling.

"Well okay! Well, while it's relevant, s'pose I should introduce you all." He turned to eye all three at once. He first pointed a paw to Snute. "This is Silly! She's a newbie, and my new teammate!" He then pointed a paw to the lopunny. "And, Silly, meet Touchy!"

The lopunny gave a wave.

"'Sup, hun'. The name's Ooka."

Aundei's paw then shifted to point to the simisage.

"And, that's Grumpy!"

The grass-type crossed his arms, eying Snute with suspicion. He silently scrutinized her, much to the ninetales' annoyance.

"I don't trust her."

Snute only nodded, turning back to her food. Her attention was soon ripped away from it, as well as everyone else in the room, as the door burst open with a shouting voice.

"Everyone! Listen up!" Everyone in the room - the majority of the guild - perked up at the interruption. Their gazes flicked toward the entrance to see Inu standing there. The meowth's usual cream fur seemed more pale in appearance, matching that of the absol cowering behind him. "Draco-shredder is, or at least was, in the HQ!"

Several pokémon stood at once. Others froze up. The entire cafeteria room fell into a tense silence.

Snute, still seated, jolted in surprise as she heard a growl leave Aundei's throat. He was the first to speak up.

"Inu!" called the glameow. "What happened?"

The meowth quivered as he spoke, stepping aside to put the absol into view.

"Yuku here and I were getting ready for supper, you see. She went into the bathroom, and before I know it, I see the lights go off and hear a scream!"

The absol was quivering as well, tears in her eyes. She tilted her head up to show a fresh patch of red matting the pristine white fur of her neck.

"Th-they did this!" Yuku stammered. "They got me pinned down, and... I... I don't want to think about what would've happened if Inu hadn't come in..." Her voice cracked on the last syllable.

An older absol came jogging over from a table, giving the smaller one a hug. Yuku began to cry into his fur.

"There, there," he soothed. "Let's get you to the medical ward, Yu'." The two left hurriedly, leaving Inu to look back and forth in conflict. The cafeteria's noise picked back up at a lower level as everyone began to converse with each other about the new information.

"Are you serious?" Snute grumbled. She caught stares from those at her table.

"What do you mean?" Ooka inquired, tilting her head.

The ninetales raised a brow.

"This kind of thing is in our job description. Must be a pretty sucky team if they were overpowered by a little criminal."

"Snute," Aundei sighed, taking a serious tone. "The Draco-shredder isn't your run-of-the-mill petty thief. This is an accomplished serial killer." He shook his head, looking up to meet the ninetales' dismissive gaze. "We round up the bad guys sometimes, yes, but there are levels of criminality. Just as there are differing levels of skill, experience, and expertise of our teams here."

Snute rolled her eyes, waving a paw.

"I don't think you should be excusing that absol's weakness, Glameow."

Ooka slammed her fist on the table, startling the other three sitting at it.

"Come on, hun'! Weak or not, don'tcha think you're being a bit insensitive? The poor gal had her throat sliced up, for Legends sake!"

Snute turned to give her a harsh glare.

"And, that's her own fault," the ninetales declared.

The fuming lopunny's face turned red. She stomped her foot with fury.

The simisage took a long puff of his cigarette, then exhaled it slowly.

"If you think it's so simple, Ninetales, why don't you go out there and hunt down the Draco-shredder? Who knows, they might even still be in the building."

Aundei shook his head.

"Now, now, Grumpy; that isn't quite necessary. We don't need to endanger Silly to prove a point."

"No, he's right," Snute interjected. Aundei, Ooka, and the simisage all looked to her with varying levels of incredulity. She turned to look around. The rest of the room had ceased talking, looking towards their table's increasingly heated conversation. "I'll go out there, if you cowards are too scared to do it."

Without another word, Snute turned to leave the room, leaving those present in disbelief.

"Huh. So, she's brave after all," the simisage shrugged.

"Stupid, more like," Ooka sighed with a shake of her head.

Aundei looked back and forth between the table and the door, clearly conflicted. With a heavy sigh, and a loud groan, he hopped up and took off toward the exit, trailing after Snute.

A half an hour later, Guildmaster Vanilluxe was stood atop a podium on the left wall of the cafeteria. All of the doors leading out had been barricaded with various tables and chairs.

Lefty turned himself to address the massive crowd of pokémon.

"Okay, so, listen up, everybody," he began. "As Inu has so kindly informed us, a killer, suspected to be the one and only Draco-shredder, was in the building. We do not know if they are still inside. No one is to leave until we get the clear. After taking a head-count, We have compiled a list of all pokémon not accounted for that aren't away on a mission or staying with family, so that we may know who to let in."

The vanilluxe stepped away from the mic. A raichu stepped up, grasping a sheet of paper. He cleared his throat.

"Let's see... Snute, Aundei, Taffy, Ydiephi, Yuja, The Alder, Styphic, Azo, Ouwok, Tab, Inu, Kysen, and Yuku." He paused, before turning to the Guildmaster. "Was it really wise to let the last three head out to the medical wing?"

Righty gave a harsh glare.

"Neck wounds are quite serious..." The glare turned to a sour smile. "I'd know from experience."

The raichu shuddered, nodding.

"O-kay..."

Righty leaned back into the mic.

"Well, now; leave any questions in the tissue box! We have pencils and index cards!"

Amidst absence of other noise, Snute found herself able to pick up on the more subtle sounds she'd not typically hear. The faint buzzing of the bright lights lining the hallway, the steady pace of her breathing, the soft pitter-patter of her claws on the floor, and even Aundei's abnormally fast heartbeat right beside her.

"So," Snute breathed. She glanced down to see Aundei returning her gaze. He did not hold his usual smile, but rather a disappointed leer. This made her feel nothing of note. "I've got a plan."

The glameow nodded, replying.

"Spill."

Snute halted, looking up to the ceiling. Aundei did the same as the ninetales began to speak.

"Assuming our friend is still here, our best bet is to get a sneak attack in on them. I took a look at the crawl space above the dropped ceiling earlier, and it appears just barely big enough for me." She glanced down to Aundei. "And, plenty big enough for you."

Aundei raised an eyebrow.

"Is that why you were standing on your shelf earlier?"

Ignoring the glameow, Snute took up position behind him.

"I'm going to jump onto your tail. Spring me up."

"Got it."

With a deep breath, the ninetales began to scamper forward. She gracefully leapt into the air, with all four of her paws landing onto the glameow's tail. It surrendered under the weight of her body, before suddenly decompressing, launching her into the air.

Snute gave a quick shout, with a rush of adrenaline coursing through her body. The shout was cut off as her head knocked a ceiling tile out of the way, before promptly crashing into the metal surface above.

Dazed, but still aware, the ninetales grabbed onto the top-side of the ceiling, quickly scrambling atop it. Feeling the frail drywall beginning to sag under her weight, she quickly shifted her paws to rest on the aluminum frame holding them in place.

She felt her heart slow down as the pain faded from her head, though being hunkered down in the tight space put her on edge. It was only a moment later that she gave a shriek, scampering back as a yellow pair of eyes flashed in front of her.

She almost fell back out of the displaced tile's hole, but two white paws reached into the meager spread of light to hold onto her own. The figure stepped forward, revealing themselves to just be Aundei.

"Sorry, Silly!" the glameow whispered. "Didn't mean to startle you."

Snute gave a dismissive scoff.

"How'd you even get up here so quietly?"

The glameow merely shrugged.

"Hey, I'm a cat!"

"Whatever."

Snute began carefully crawling forward, tentative to be sure she'd made as little noise as possible. With some frustration, she'd noticed that Aundei was able to walk atop the tiles without them deforming.

Inu felt every fur on his body standing on end as his feet padded along the floor of the hallway.

The meowth's whiskers twitched. His gaze darted to every corner of the brightly lit space, tail sagging and paws clasped together.

With a shaky breath, he reached up to move the microphone part of his headset away from his mouth. A short cord came from the device, hooked up to the APER Gear hanging from his waist.

"Keep it together, Inu," he whispered to himself. "It's like th-that bratty ninetales said, right? Just an outlaw... Just an outlaw..." A shiver coursed through his body. Not of his own volition, his claws poked out from their sheathes.

With a deep breath, Inu stood tall. He puffed out his chest, paws on his hips with a confident grin. With renewed vigor, he placed the mic back into speaking range.

"Don't you worry, guys," he said with a grin. "I'm gonna show this 'Draco-shredder' a real shredding! Kahaha!"

Yuku's worried voice crackled to life in his ears.

"Be careful out there, Inu! Don't be afraid to come back if you don't find anything!"

The meowth chuckled.

"Don't you worry, my number-one pally gally. Not only will I put an end to this Draco-shredder's reign of terror, but I'll find out who they are outside of the cover of darkness!" His arms crossed. "No mystery is too great for I!"

A chuckle soon met his ears. He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah; laugh it up, Yuku."

The absol's confused voice came once more.

"I didn't laugh?"

The meowth's blood ran cold. He gave a shrill gasp as an explosion met his ears, combined with the crunch of glass. The stretch of hallway fell into darkness.

A new voice met his ears, very much not from his headset.

"Hadn't you heard, Inu?"

The meowth stood up straight upon hearing those words. He whirled around. He could make out a silhouetted figure approaching.

Inu shook off his fear, crossing his arms. He tilted his head to give them a sidelong leer as a smirk crossed his face.

"I've heard a lotta things. You'd best be more specific."

The figure continued forward, giving a small chuckle.

"Curiosity killed that cat!"

With a gasp, Inu jumped to the side as a bolt of electricity crashed down where he'd just been standing.

"Yikes!"

Within the flash of the attack, he'd caught a brief glimpse of the attacker's appearance. His superior feline vision granted him a better look than he may have gotten otherwise. He worked to commit the details to memory.

Black mask, with some sort of protruding beak-like design. A flash of purple eyes beneath the disguise. Nine red tally marks on the beak.

"Inu!"

The meowth froze up a bit as a gruff voice came into his ears.

"Hey, Kysen!" Inu responded. He gave a yelp as he leapt to dodge an incoming slash, the figure's raking claws laced with dragon-type energy. "What's up, buddy ol' pal?"

"We heard you shout! Is everything okay?" the older absol's concerned voice queried.

"Well, I'm not dead!" Inu leapt up once more to avoid a second dragon-claw attack. He landed atop the Draco-shredder's head with a firm stomp, before vaulting up onto a nearby vending machine. Yet another dragon-claw cleaved through the front of the machine, eliciting a few loud hisses and booms as numerous pressurized rinks within were abruptly raked open, spilling their sticky, fizzy contents all over the floor. The meowth cringed. "Correction; Not dead, but with collateral damage."

"You idiot!" Kysen reprimanded from over the line. "Quit joking around and get out of there before you become the collateral damage!"

Inu laughed lightly, hopping down to avoid a focused strike of lightning.

"Good one, old man!"

"Y-"

The meowth did not get to hear the rest of the response. He gave a loud howl of pain as claws raked through his back, flinging him across the floor and sending his APER Gear into a nearby wall.

Periodically, Snute halted to lift up a tile, just enough to peek underneath. Each time, she saw nothing but empty hallway.

Aundei kept a small buildup of dark energy within his maw, dutifully prepared to discharge at a moment's notice.

The ninetales sighed heavily, shaking her head.

"Nothing, again," she whined.

Aundei smiled.

"Hey, maybe that's a good thing. Best case scenario, Draco-shredder has left the premises."

Snute was about to reply, but found herself jolting in surprise as what sounded like several explosions met her ears. For what felt like the thousandth time that day, the ninetales' poor skull suffered abuse, smacking into the ceiling. She rubbed it with a groan, looking to Aundei, who'd ceased grinning. Both pokémon's eyes briefly widened at the same time as a pained cry met their ears.

"That sounded like Inu," whispered the glameow.

Snute gave a short nod.

"Guess we know where to go."

Both pokémon next spoke simultaneously.

"Let's go save Inu!" Aundei declared.

"Let's go kill Draco," Snute commanded.

Inu coughed and sputtered on the floor. He felt a warmth trickling down his form. Lifting his head, he slowly struggled onto his feet, eying the approaching killer. He gave a light smirk to his assailant. The fizzy, sugary puddle of grape soda sent a burning pain flaring up his bloodied back.

"Good shot," he conceded, nodding lightly. "But, haven't you heard?"

The Draco-shredder continued forward toward the meowth.

"Mh."

Inu snickered to himself, before continuing.

"Curiosity killed the cat. And you, Draco-shredder, are not curious. You will be little more than a footnote in history!"

"Keep it to one-liners," the figure criticized. "You're better at those."

Inu huffed.

"Tough crowd, tonight."

The meowth eyed his opponent's large claws, composed of a pulsing reddish dragon energy. Tutting softly, Inu let his own claws extend to a similarly greater length, channeling them full of ghostly aura.

As a flash of red moved towards him, Inu leapt over the attack, landing behind the Draco-shredder. With a swift motion, he smiled victoriously as his claws slashed through the killer's back. His smirk dropped. They went straight through their back. Not even a scratch marred their body.

A bolt of electricity struck Inu's body, eliciting another shout. He found himself falling to the floor, spasming violently. He attempted to roll away, but it was no use as a foot came to step on his chest.

The beaked mask came to loom over him, shining purple eyes peering deep into his own. One-thousand emotions filled the meowth's head. Fear, regret, dread, anger, confusion. These feelings bubbled up in his chest all at once. His eyes shrunk to pinpricks as the glowing red claws raised into the air.

The figure was flung off from them with a loud cry. The meowth gasped, scrambling back to his feet, made sluggish by the lingering paralysis. He looked to see the killer rubbing their head with a groan.

Inu looked to his left to see Aundei standing there with a grin. The glameow nodded to the meowth.

"Good to see you in one piece, Funny!"

Inu shivered, smiling weakly in return.

"Barely." His eyes turned to his right, then all around. "Where's your girlfriend?"

Aundei's head tilted.

"My what?"

Inu heard an annoyed growl from above. He looked up, then struggled to stifle a laugh.

A very irate ninetales hung from the ceiling. Most of her body had gotten through, but appeared to be stopped just before her back legs.

"No freaking way!" Inu wheezed, partially from the pain, partially from the paralysis, but mostly from his oncoming laughter. "There's no way it's that big!"

Snute snarled.

"Shut up! I made it up just fine!" With one more wiggle, Snute's bodacious backside finally squeezed through, letting her fall face-first onto the floor below. With a long groan, she stood up.

The three turned to glare at the Draco-shredder, who simply loomed at the edge of the shadows.

Aundei was the first to speak.

"We have you outnumbered, Draco-shredder! Come quietly!"

The killer re-ignited their dragon-claw attack, resuming their advance forward. They made sure to give an audible yawn.

Snute snarled, pawing aggressively at the ground.

"Why that little..."

Aundei held out a paw.

"Don't split up, Silly. We're safer in numbers."

The ninetales shook her head.

"Psh."

Without another word, Snute began to form icy spikes along her fur. She charged forward, barging directly into the Draco-shredder. The killer gave a short grunt, casually reaching up to slash Snute's neck open. The ninetales gave a shrill scream as she stumbled away, before falling over.

Aundei and Inu both shouted in alarm, with the former rushing forward. He stopped, however, as a new arrival joined them.

Kysen rounded the corner, sliding into view with a growl. The Draco-shredder turned to face him, claws still aglow. Their advance stopped, however, as a minccino calmly approached as well.

With brief hesitation, the killer turned and ran away, leaping up to use Aundei and Snute's displaced ceiling tile. Inu leapt up to pursue, followed shortly by Kysen, whilst Aundei and the minccino rushed over to check on the fallen ninetales.

Snute gave a light growl, cringing in pain as she rose back to all fours. She put a paw to the wound on her neck, shivering lightly. Aundei gave her a concerned appraisal.

"You okay, Silly?"

"...I'm fine," grumbled the ninetales.

The minccino then cleared his throat, garnering the two's attention.

"You're not fine, and you're coming with me."

The ninetales raised a brow.

"And you are?"

The minccino adjusted his white coat.

"I am Doctor Tab Brooks. You can just call me Doctor."

Snute snorted dismissively, waving a paw.

"I don't need your help. I've had worse."

Tab gripped her forepaw, eliciting a growl. Aundei shook his head, smiling.

"Come on, Silly! It's better to just let Bossy help you. The alternative is to suffer pointlessly."

The ninetales let out an irritated sigh. She sat in place, glaring at the doctor. He shook his head at her antics.

"I don't have time for this," he stated. "The longer I have to stay to convince you, the longer Yuku and the others have to sit up there without medical treatment."

Snute continued glaring, before speaking.

"I don't care."

Aundei poked Snute's side, eliciting a small, warning bark.

"Silly, come on!" pleaded the glameow. "I'll even give you extra food for being good!"

The ninetales shook her head aggressively.

"Don't patronize me!" she fumed quietly, before speaking in a low growl. "Fine! Whatever! Let's just get this over with."

"Very good. Come," Tab instructed, turning his back to walk away.

A loud chime from the door brought the attention of everyone in the cafeteria.

Vanilluxe had just finished rounding up various pokémon into three groups. One to round up the missing pokémon, one to track down the Draco-shredder, and one to assist Tab with medical work.

Everyone stiffened at the blatant sign of someone being outside.

Vanilluxe raised their APER Gear, pointing it toward the door and navigating to the pager application. With a press of a button labeled 'local', a few displays popped up on his screen. He tapped on the one in the top left, corresponding to the APER Gear closest to the line of sight he'd been pointing the device in.

The faces of Inu and Kysen appeared on the screen. The latter was the first to speak.

"It's just us. Let us in."

Lefty nodded to the door.

"Let them in."

Obediently, numerous pokémon moved aside, with the ampharos and lopunny remaining removing the furniture barricading it. With a click, the door unlocked. Sure enough, the absol and meowth expected walked in shortly after. Kysen stood straight and tall, whereas Inu looked to have seen better days.

A raichu rushed over to join Vanilluxe as the two approached the guildmaster.

"The Draco-shredder was here," the absol stated.

Lefty gave a gasp, as Righty nodded solemnly. The raichu covered its mouth, before speaking.

"Y-you saw him?"

Inu nodded.

"They got the drop on me," the meowth admitted. "Cut up my back real good. Newbie ain't lookin' so hot, either."

"They fled when Tab and I arrived," Kysen continued. "Inu and I attempted to pursue, and they kept up, but they made it out through the main entrance."

Lefty gave a sad frown.

"Why, that's no good! They'll be waiting to hurt someone again another day..."

Righty's gaze turned steely. Vanilluxe raised their APER Gear, speaking into it to project their voice across the room.

"Listen up, explorers!" boomed the ice-type's voice. Everyone stood at attention. "Raichu, lead the medical team, and get Inu to the medical bay! Kaley, lead the rescue team as planned; leave no one unaccounted for! Kysen, lead our pursuit team; scour the city high and low in search of that murderer! Everyone else, help out where you can! Do I make myself clear?!"

The cafeteria hall filled with a cacophony of noise as one unified response was shouted by all in attendance.

"Yes, sir!"

The pokémon each bolted in different directions to perform their instructed tasks. Both heads of Vanilluxe gave satisfied nods.