That night, I had a dream again, this one being about me at my house, playing a weird game on a screen of sorts called a TV. And it apparently required plastic dolls in order to play it, the series being called Skylanders. And I was going into a boss fight with my favorite boss in the game. Why was that? The music in the game got creepy as the boss appeared and then, after, the boss turned out to be a giant drill machine with a face. And it then started to do something shocking.
"~It's the end of the track, Skylander!
This drill bot is on the scene!
I'll knock ya forward and back!
With a robo-attack!
Cause you're messin' with the wrong machiiiiiinnnneeee!~" the drill character SUNG! And his voice sounded so cool! I knew I'd have to use that in the future, but it'd have to be for the perfect reason! And after seeing the first attack in the form of a giant drill attack that sent tons of debris everywhere, I heard Loudred speak.
"UP AND AT 'EM MORNING TIME!" he shouted, me and Kiba getting up after while Diancie looked super tired.
"Ow... my head's ringing now..." she groaned at it after.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it, Diancie. All of us have to get woken up that way," I smiled at her. We then got out to the main hall and we did the rule 3 rollcall, Diancie needing to learn it in the process and for Chatot to then give some announcements.
"Well, everyone, I wanted to let you know a couple of things before we get started. First off, give a warm welcome to the newest member of Team Rainbow Illusion, Queen Diancie," Chatot said, which made the group look at her in surprise.
"Wow, a queen?! So COOL!" Loudred said with excitement.
"You didn't mention that you were a queen, hey-hey!" Corphish smirked.
"Oh my gosh, are you rich?" Sunflora asked.
"Yes, I didn't think it was important to spread word of, and no, I am not," Diancie smiled to each question, staying quite calm, probably because she was still quite tired.
"At ease, everyone, the best news is yet to come," Chatot chuckled. "Anyways, the next news is this. We're actually planning on going on an expedition as a group," Chatot smirked, which made the group super excited. "As usual with the expeditions, we will have some stay behind while others will join us on the way, but only Guild Members will be along for the ride. So make sure you work your tails off so you get the chance to get picked!" Chatot smiled happily. "Okay, everyone, let's get to work!"
"HOORAY! WOOHOO!" everyone shouted, with me and Kiba doing the woohoo at the end, which Wigglytuff giggled at as our group then went up the stairs into the job room and spoke to each other.
"Man, I can't wait! We have to do as many jobs as possible to get picked, so let's do it!" Kiba smirked as we then went to the job board on the left... only to see two different Pokemon that i recognized instantly. It was Koffing and Zubat from when I first met Kiba!
"What. Are you punks. Doing here?" I asked them angrily, which made the duo surprised as they looked at us.
"I remember, you tried to steal my Relic Fragment! What business do you have here, thieves?!" Kiba growled.
"Whoa-ho-ho! What's so weird about a rescue team looking for work?" Koffing asked, which made all of us shocked.
"Thieves are a part of rescue teams? Since when?" Diancie asked.
"Hehe, the way we operate isn't always by the book. So, what are you lot doin' here?" Zubat asked.
"We're going to be a TRUE rescue team, one that does good, unlike you two," I said, which made the duo then single out Kiba and take him to the side, me looking at how they were trying to scare him, talking about being a chicken and stuff, but Kiba rushed past them and joined back up with me and Diancie.
"I-It's true that I can be timid, but that's why I'm working here, to get better! Even now we're trying to get a part in the upcoming Guild Expedition!" Kiba smirked.
"Whoa-ho-ho! An expedition, you say? Just give it up! A couple wimps like you will never get in," Koffing smirked slyly.
"Big talk, no bite! You two were taken out so quickly by me that it wasn't even funny! What makes you have any say in how wimpy we are when it took one hit from me for each of you to knock you out?" I asked them.
"Hehe, that's cause we didn't have the chief with us,"Zubat snickered.
"Um... chief?" Diancie asked.
"He's the leader of our rescue team, Team Skull. He's insanely tough! If the chief were around, we'd snap ya like twigs... ooh, speaking of the chief, I can smell him coming right now," Koffing smirked, me then seeing what he meant... wait... no, I didn't. I couldn't... I couldn't smell anything? How odd.
"Here's the chief!" Zubat smirked as the chief in question came down the ladder and I saw what he meant by stink. It was a Skuntank, one of the stinkiest Pokemon of all time. "Move it, yer in my spot!" he growled before sending a flume of stink towards me and Diancie! Diancie ended up getting knocked out from how bad it stunk, me gawking before then looking at Skuntank in anger, which he frowned at.
"I'd recommend you get going right now, you big bully! Or else I'm going to make you pay for hurting an innocent bystander!" I growled at him.
"Chaw-haw-haw, yeah, right. You wouldn't last a single second," he said, me then resorting to using Wide Slash against him, Zubat, and Koffing all at once, knocking his lackeys for a loop and for Skuntank to look at me in anger.
"ACK! You little bitch!" he growled as Kiba then got the strength to attack the Skuntank with a Fairy Wind attack that sent him back slightly, which by this point had gotten the notice of a couple other Guild members in Corphish, Chimecho, and Bidoof. "You'll learn your place eventually," Skuntank growled as he then got an oran berry for both his lackeys and both of them got up after. "Come on, boyos, time to do some plotting," he growled as the trio then left the place after and I looked at Diancie and Kiba after, the former having since gotten up and smelling REALLY bad, at least according to Kiba.
"Are you okay, Diancie?! I had no idea they had such a rotten boss!" Kiba said in concern.
"I-I'm fine... I didn't know that a Pokemon could be so cruel..." she admitted.
"We need to teach you a lot, for sure... that's a lesson right there, do not trust everyone you meet based on first impressions... but sometimes, first impressions can give you an idea of asshole or good guy. And those three are definite assholes," I growled.
"Yeah... hey, how come you didn't fall over from that rancid odor? It's so smelly, we could get a whiff over here, hey-hey," Corphish asked.
"I don't know why, but... I can't smell a thing," I admitted.
"You can't smell? Why?" Diancie asked.
"I don't really remember... I got thrown for a loop in a thunderstorm in the ocean, and during that, I lost a lot of thoughts and memories afterwards. All I can tell you is that I used to be something that wasn't a Pokemon and I was from a different universe. Other than that, the other things I'll mention on the job," I explained.
"Thanks, Liz... I didn't want to admit it, but I was frozen stiff when that big guy came in. I'm a loser, aren't I?" Kiba asked, me frowning as I turned my head hair into hands again to give both him and Diancie a needed hug, them smiling after.
"You're not a loser at all, Kiba. Remember yesterday? We faced danger when running through that waterfall and we wouldn't have found all that stuff. Not to mention your nifty new hat," I smiled at her.
"R-Right... well, I am kinda weak. You're strong, though, and I know that working together is required for a Rescue Team, but I just wish I could do something good without any help, y'know?" he asked, me smiling at that and giving him a poke in the nose.
"Boop," I smirked at him, which made him giggle after. "You'll have your chance to shine one day, Kiba, just keep believing and keep up with the training and we'll get there one day, but for now, we need to choose some jobs," I smiled, us then going through the listings and seeing that the one area we could go to for the most bang for buck would be Waterfall Cave, which, after having been explored, now had jobs available for it from Pokemon that had gotten in over their heads.
"We're gonna go after two outlaws and rescue three Pokemon that are in trouble. In the meantime, let's go prepare in town, drop off some money at the bank, gloat to your mom, and then go see if there are any other jobs at Waterfall Cave at the cafe," I smirked, which Kiba smiled at the third thing I said.
"Oh, I can't wait to see the look on her face, haha!" Kiba smiled, coming back around after me mentioning the part about his new hat, us then going down the road and entering town, us going straight to Twilight and her looking at Kiba in confusion.
"U-Um... may I ask what that is on your head, Kiba?" she asked.
"Just something you've wanted since you were my level," Kiba giggled.
"Oh. My. GOD! You found a Mystical Hat?! Wherever did you get it?! I must know!" she asked in absolute shock.
"We found it in a hidden cave that was behind a waterfall. Only our Guildmaster had ever been there before and we found this hat, Ghostinium Z, and a big pink diamond that has Diancite in it," I smirked.
"I.. I'm in disbelief! C-Could I ask if I could have it, just for today? Pretty please, Kiba? I want to feel like royalty, too," Twilight asked very politely.
"Of course, mom, I was actually thinking we could switch roles every other day of being royals," Kiba smirked as he then used his psychic powers to give the hat to his mom and she looked at it with a big smile and then looked at herself in a mirror that was in the stall, most likely to spot thieves.
"I... I love it! I'm so happy, I could burst!" she smiled happily.
"When tomorrow comes, we'll switch out again, and so on and so forth. Oh, and the best part is that this cap raises your speed to it's next degree permanently! You'll be twice as fast as any other Pokemon, allowing you to stop any thieves or bad guys!" Kiba smirked.
"It'll certainly help, then! I'll be sure not to lose it, and thanks again, darlings," Twilight giggled as Diancie smiled at that.
"That was so nice and sweet of you, heehee," the queen of Carbink giggled at us. We then proceeded to get some stuff in storage, buy a few supplies in Oran Berries and apples, and we then went back to Flutter's Cafe and went to the big board that Brutis Bonnet was stationed at.
"Hey, you want the rundown of how this board works?" he asked, me nodding at that. "These rescue jobs are similar to the ones at the Guild, but they are much harder than other ones. And much like at the Guild, we have it divided into requests and outlaws. These rescues will absolutely require assistance from other Rescue Teams to complete, so we recommend you work together with one other Rescue Team to complete them. Each job we will offer you will have a Rescue Team that is hoping to assist, and there are also others that have no other teams helping that you can sign up for in advance. You understand the rules?" he asked, me nodding at him. "Very well, then decide the jobs," he said, me then looking at the job listings and seeing that only one was available for Waterfall Cave, and it was a rank S job that required our group and a different Rescue Team (Team Storm) to join up and defeat a particularly nasty outlaw, it being a Cofagrigus and a duo of Yamask that were kidnapping travelers in order to turn them into mummified trophies. Obviously we'd need to find them and defeat them quickly.
We took the job and immediately were contacted by Team Storm via a special bell that Brutis rung, which got a duo of Pokemon to travel over to us in the form of a Castform and an... Alolan Raichu? (what was Alolan?) And they smirked at us afterwards.
"Okay, we're going to have to work hard to defeat them. They usually turn their opponents into a mummy every five minutes of incantation, so we need to knock them out fast. And only after Cofagrigus falls will all of his victims be freed," Castform said with a smile.
"Got it, let's go!" I smirked, us then heading out to the Waterfall Cave to complete our new tasks.
The jobs were quite easy to accomplish, especially when I defeated the Cofagrigus after learning a new move in Shadow Sneak, which not only hit Cofagrigus from afar, but I also used Hone Claws on myself to raise my attack to the point it dealt much more damage, which got Cofagrigus the KO before 5 minutes passed by, which we then got his bounty (and his Yamask lackeys) as well as all the other jobs completed much easier. And as for the Cofagrigus job, we soon discovered that, as the job was offered by Spinda's cafe, we were able to keep much more of the money, about half of the earnings! Why half? Because the other half went to Team Storm. So that meant that we ended up with 1750 dollars total, as well as a TR for Dark Pulse, not TM as TRs were the things that could only be used once. We also got some other rewards from the jobs we did that day, including a Fuschia Gummi for Diancie (it was specifically loved by Fairy Types) and a Gold Band that, according to Kiba, we could sell for a LOT of money!
Anyways, once this was done, all of our group had a hearty dinner and then proceeded to go to bed, but not before learning from Chimecho that our Rescue Team was now able to recruit any Pokemon we found in Dungeons that wanted to join our Rescue Team, and that all 13 of the Carbink that were found with Diancie were added to the list. And she'd even found them a nice place to live alongside the crossroads of town in a small cave, one that wasn't a Mystery Dungeon.
"Thank you so much, friend Chimecho! I'll be sure to pay them a visit on our way to work tomorrow," Diancie smiled happily as we then finally went to bed and this time, I dreamed something... something very VERY important.
Remember when I said that I didn't remember much of my life when I was a human? Well this memory put all the others to shame. It was me in a place full of other humans wearing the same outfit, me now seeing it was the FBI. And I was only 12 years old, this being right after I'd run away from my parents and went straight to the police station and told them everything, bringing a photo of my parents standing over my dead brother's body, a bloody axe in hand. Why did I feel the need to give evidence? Because apparently the police would've just sent me back to them if I hadn't!
"Okay, Marilyn Ngyugen," said one of the men, me being intimidated by his voice and his size... so my original name was Marilyn, huh? I'd have to tell that to my partners when I woke up. "We sent a slew of officers to your residence and found the body and the weapon, but your parents were long gone... but they did leave a message saying that, if you had gone to the police, you'd be next," he said, me gasping and feeling sick to my stomach at that. "As such, we are going to ask you to listen to what we say, otherwise, they will find you and they will kill you," he said, me sniffing in a big booger.
"W-What do I have to do?... I-I'm so scared..." I cried.
"I know you are... we are going to place you in protective custody of two FBI agents. They will act as your new parental guardians and they will protect you from all harm. But you'll also need to change your appearance and your namesake, otherwise your parents will find out where you are. Your new name is this, and your new location will be in Afton, New York... we will provide you with everything you'll need, as well as a bit of recompense for not believing you at first," he said as he then proceeded to show me something that made my tears dry up slightly. It was a box that contained a PS3 as well as another box that contianed a bunch of figurines on bases, a strange cylinder with a cord in it, and a whole mess of games that all were named as Skylanders.
"M-My collection... you saved it, and got me more?" I asked with a sniffle.
"Again, we apologize. You will be with Agents Hailey and Jacob Funk. And this is your new name," he said as he then showed me my new name. Lisette Aria Funk. And that made me smile.
"LAF... I want to laugh again someday... I really want to," I smirked as the agent then spoke again.
"One more thing before you get ready," he said, me wondering what he would say...
"UP AND AT 'EM! WAKE UP TIME!"