Author's Note:

So, Brandon has psychic powers, just breezed through a dungeon, has proven himself one of the cleverest pokemon in the guild, and his only "weaknesses" are that he can't read and speaks a dead language? Yeah, it's definitely time to knock him down a few pegs. He's only level nine, it doesn't take much to give him trouble.

"Don't underestimate water just because you're a Grass type." That was the advice Spiral gave me yesterday, and now it was easy to see why. I woke up in the morning somehow both wide awake and completely exhausted at the same time. My entire body was sore from the adventure in Waterfall Cave, but there was little I could do about that. At least I still woke up before Loudred got here.

'It's going to be a long day,' I thought, putting on the treasure bag. Hopefully today's mission would be an easy one.

I woke Crest up and we took our spots in the meeting room. Just like last time, we were a bit early. That left me some time to contemplate why I was so much more tired after a simple exploration mission than after nearly losing our battle against Drowzee. Maybe it had something to do with the healing I received after each mission. Crest and I both got treatment from Chimecho's Heal Pulse after fighting Drowzee, but yesterday we returned to the guild without any injuries. If simple healing was the only difference, maybe an oran berry would be enough to make me feel better.

"Guildmaster, the guild is in full attendance," I heard Chatot say from the front of the room. I was so tired that I hadn't even noticed that everyone was here. Upon closer inspection, Wigglytuff was already in the meeting area, so Chatot's statement was only meant to formally start the morning briefing.

Wigglytuff took over the meeting from there. "Thank you, Chatot. Before we get to the morning cheers, I have an announcement to make. Our guild will be going on an expedition soon!"

The moment Wigglytuff said "expedition" the guild members began to chatter amongst themselves. Sure, Crest and I already knew about the expedition, but it was news to everyone else. Looking forward I saw that Chatot was a bit flustered by everyone's less-than-professional reactions to the announcement. Normally I'd try to gauge Wigglytuff's thoughts as well, but I was too tired to care right now. Besides, I was already pretty sure I had him figured out.

When Chatot recovered from his initial disappointment, he refocused the meeting. "Everyone, please, quiet down! You can talk freely after the briefing is over. Until then, you are all expected to give the Guildmaster your undivided attention." That seemed to shut everyone up.

"Of course, not everyone will get to go on the expedition," Wigglytuff continued as though nothing had happened. "In fact, we haven't decided who will be part of the exploration party yet. But don't let that get you down! Instead, think of it as a reason to work extra hard!"

"We will make more announcements regarding the expedition over the next few days," Chatot explained. "Like the Guildmaster said, you should all work hard to be picked for the expedition."

The meeting finished with the usual cheers, and everyone dispersed to their daily tasks. Crest and I approached Chatot for our assignment.

"Ah, you two," he said, "your task today is to train at Marowak's Dojo in Treasure Town."

"The dojo?" Crest responded. "Does that mean we don't have a specific mission today?"

"Correct. I will not be reviewing your performance today, so you are free to use your time at the dojo however you see fit. How long you train is also your own decision, but remember that the Guildmaster is monitoring your progress," Chatot explained.

"In that case we'll head there now," Crest said. "Come on Brandon, let's go."

Of course, I didn't say anything in response; the less I spoke in front of Chatot the better. Instead I followed Crest up the ladder, silently thanking whoever designed it to spiral like a staircase. I couldn't imagine trying to climb a normal ladder, especially with how sore I was from yesterday.

We reached the upper floor and were about to climb the second ladder when Crest noticed something. Or rather, someone. "Hey, Brandon?" he asked me, "do those two look familiar to you?"

I looked where he was pointing to find a Zubat and Koffing in front of the job board. "It's those thieves from the beach, right?" I answered quietly.

"That's what I thought," Crest replied, "What are they doing here?"

I didn't have an answer, but Koffing noticed us before I could say anything anyway. "Whoa-ho-ho! Look who it is, Zubat. The wimp from the beach!"

"What's a wimp like you doing in a guild?" Zubat cackled.

"We're training to be a professional exploration team," Crest answered, barely containing his anger.

"We?" Koffing questioned before noticing me. "Oh, that weakling Chikorita is still with you. Pretty foolish, if you ask me."

The two Poison types dragged Crest away from the ladder and cornered him in front of the job board. Suddenly very worried, I looked around the room for anyone who could help us. To my surprise, I saw Sunflora leading everyone else down the ladder to the lower floor. That was strange; even if they didn't want to get involved, I was sure Chimecho worked on this floor and Sunflora did field missions. They shouldn't have any reason to go to the bottom floor. Something was wrong, I could feel it in my… leaf? Since when could I do that?

While I was looking for potential help, Crest was still cornered. "Listen here, Piplup," Zubat began, "You have no guts and your friend has no skill. What makes you think you could possibly make a good team?"

"Yeah, from the looks of it a shopkeeper would make a better explorer than you," Koffing added, referring to the stone Crest wore around his neck.

By now Crest was starting to panic. He darted past his assailants and rejoined me by the ladder. Actually, he stood slightly in front of me, probably because he knew I wouldn't be able to defend myself if a battle broke out. "I-It doesn't matter that we're weak, w-we're training here to get stronger," he said, attempting to dismiss what Koffing and Zubat had said. "Even now we're working hard to be p-picked for the guild's expedition!"

"An expedition? How interesting," Koffing responded.

Meanwhile, that feeling in my leaf kept getting stronger and stronger. I knew that if we didn't leave soon, something bad was going to happen. I just had to convince Crest that we needed to leave-

"Hey you! Out of the way!" Before I could react I was hit by an attack, and everything went black.

I watched helplessly as my partner tumbled across the floor, coming to a stop near the center of the room. That combination of Night Slash and Poison Gas looked like it hurt, and I desperately wanted to make sure Brandon was okay, but I couldn't. I was too scared to move.

"Hey!" the attacker, a Skuntank, shouted at me, "Move it. Or do you want to end up like that wimp over there?"

I took a few terrified steps backward, not wanting to do anything that would anger someone that powerful. Zubat and Koffing didn't have any problems with him though.

"Keh-heh-heh, you got him good, boss!" Zubat said.

"Yeah, you really showed them," Koffing added.

"Yeah, whatever. Find any good jobs on the board?" Skuntank asked his underlings.

"Nothing on the boards…" Koffing answered.

"…But we did find something that has the potential to be big," Zubat finished. "We'll tell you about it outside."

Skuntank was apparently happy with that report. "In that case, let's go. No point wasting time here."

The three of them quickly left up the ladder, and I fell to the floor, exhausted from how scared I was. I didn't stay down long though; looking to the center of the room I saw that Brandon hadn't moved since he was attacked. I ran over to make sure he was okay.

"Brandon? Hey, Brandon, come on, wake up!" I said as I tried to shake him awake. It didn't work though; he was out cold.

I was trying to figure out what to do when I heard someone coming up the ladder. "Are you sure they're gone?" a voice asked.

"I'm sure," someone else answered, "My leaves are sensitive to poisons like that. I know when they are and aren't here."

By now I determined the voices to be Chimecho and Sunflora. They reached the top of the ladder, and upon seeing Brandon unconscious, rushed over to us before I could ask them for help.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" Sunflora asked me.

"He was attacked by a Skuntank," I answered. "And I can't wake him up."

"Let me see him," Chimecho said. I thought she was going to use Heal Pulse, but instead she levitated Brandon in front of her to examine his wounds. It was then that I noticed a bit of red on the side of Brandon's face. "Well, he should recover just fine. That cut might need some attention, but the rest can be fixed with a few berries. I'm going to bring him to the kitchen, it has everything we need to patch him up. Sunflora, do you mind helping me? You're much more familiar with how poison affects Grass types than I am."

"Of course I'll help! What kind of explorer would I be if I didn't help injured pokemon?" Sunflora answered.

Chimecho continued, "I'll need your help too, Crest, though I'm sure I don't have to ask for it."

"It would be harder to convince me to not help," I replied.

With Chimecho levitating Brandon, we made our way to the lower floor. Chimecho then led us past the dining hall and into the kitchen, where I saw shelves covered in various berries, seeds, apples, and gummis. Placing Brandon on the ground, Chimecho hovered to a few of the shelves and retrieved a seed and some oran berries.

"Wait, is that a reviver seed? Why do you have those in the kitchen?" I asked.

"Since most of the foods we eat have healing properties, the guild keeps most of its supplies here. This is as much a medical room as it is a kitchen," Chimecho answered.

"We're going to need pecha berries," Sunflora said, taking the reviver seed from Chimecho. "Status effects tend to linger when they infect a Grass type's leaf."

As Chimecho returned to the shelves Sunflora fed the reviver seed to Brandon. The seed worked almost instantly, and Brandon began to wake up.

"Uhg… What happened?" he asked, wincing slightly as a wave of purple sparks washed over him. I handed Brandon an oran berry, and he eagerly accepted it.

"You were attacked by a Skuntank," I answered. "A combination of Night Slash and Poison Gas. Apparently he works with Zubat and Koffing."

"I'm so sorry," Sunflora said, "I wanted to warn you about him, but you and Crest were already caught up in the trouble his team causes."

"Wait, you knew he was coming?" I asked.

Sunflora nodded. "Grass types are very sensitive to their environments. I could feel his poisons in my leaves."

"I guess that explains the odd feeling I had before I was attacked," Brandon cut in. "Wish I knew that sooner though." He stopped talking as another wave of purple sparks hit him.

Chimecho levitated a pecha berry to Brandon. "Here, eat this. It will help with the poison," she said before once again returning to the shelves.

While Brandon ate the berry, I continued to ask questions. "If Skuntank is always causing trouble, why is he allowed in the guild? I thought Diglett and Loudred kept pokemon like him out."

Sunflora answered my question, "As much as everyone hates them, those three are still an exploration team. They usually come in, grab a few high-paying missions, and leave, so we had no grounds to kick them out. This was the first time they ever attacked someone directly."

"Unfortunately, the work they do is also profitable for the guild," Chimecho continued. "Chatot is convinced they have good intentions. He wouldn't believe us if we told him they attacked you." She gave Brandon another oran berry and held up some sort of cloth.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A plain ribbon. I want you to use Bubble on it," Chimecho answered.

Attack a ribbon? That didn't make much sense to me, but I was sure there was a good reason for it. I shot a few bubbles at the ribbon, but nothing seemed to happen.

"Good, thank you Crest," Chimecho said, leaving me even more confused. She then turned to Brandon. "Now, hold still, I'm going to clean that cut on your cheek. It might sting a bit."

I suddenly understood why Chimecho asked me to use Bubble; she just needed the ribbon to be wet. Brandon flinched slightly when the cloth reached him, but that was it. When Chimecho removed the ribbon, I saw that the cut actually quite small and had already stopped bleeding.

"Looks like that should do it," Chimecho said. "Unless there's something about Grass types I don't know about. Sunflora?"

"No, he should be fine," Sunflora answered, "Just take a few extra oran and pecha berries in case the poison is still lingering."

Chimecho levitated two oran and three pecha berries into our treasure bag. "Alright then. All of you should be careful on your missions today, I'm going back to my job at team assembly."

"Team assembly?" Brandon asked.

Chimecho looked surprised for a moment before chuckling to herself. "That's right, I forgot you two are a new team. You see, it's my job to keep track of the members of all the teams that take jobs from our guild's job boards. Using team assembly, or as most pokemon call it 'Chimecho Assembly,' you can designate a team leader, both generally and for individual explorations. You can also recruit new team members. Come by my desk later if you want to know more, right now we need to get to our jobs for the day."

"Yeah, I really don't want Chatot to think we're slacking off," I agreed, "but we will come by when we have time."

"Okay, see you later then," Chimecho said as she left.

Sunflora also got up to leave. "I better get going too, I have a rescue mission in Oran Forest and really shouldn't keep my client waiting. What are you doing today?"

"We're just going to train at Marowak's Dojo, so we aren't in too much of a hurry," Brandon answered.

"Well, good luck anyway," she said, leaving just me and Brandon in the kitchen.

"We might not be in a hurry, but we also aren't getting anything done by just waiting around in the guild," I said. "Let's head to Treasure Town before Chatot sees we're still here."