Team Hero stared at the board lined with papers top to bottom. Each paper had a name, a star ranking, and a request followed by the location. Chester couldn't resist looking at the higher star ones, reading requests like taking down a troublesome Garchomp, rescuing Pokemon from the depths of a place called 'Boiling Caves', and retrieving priceless family heirlooms. The intimidating nature of them only served to make him excited. Row meanwhile was staring at the requests that they were actually allowed to take, which were mainly in the Old Forest.

"Up to three..." Row muttered, grabbing three ones about finding lost items within the forest. All of them would be simple start for their first outing. A thought came to Row, "It's been... a week yes? It actually feels so long ago we first entered that forest."

"For you." Chester corrected, "Been in there multiple times remember?"

"Oh yeah." He paused, "So... it really was just an empty forest until now?"

Chester nodded, "Like, barren outside of the trees. I went there whenever I needed wood. So weird that's its all dangerous now."

"Yeah, seems like there might be some crazy things going on we don't know about." Row reasoned, "Plus, there's that 'Strange Ones' business. Really hope we don't have to worry about that."

Chester coughed, "True... Better ramp up my training too..." His tone turned a lot more serious, but then he turned to Row and went back to his usual cheerful self, "Hey uh, weird question? Can you make a tiny fire with your fist?"

Row shrugged, then raised up a fist. With some effort, a small plume of flame appeared and quickly disappeared. "Yes!" Chester grinned, "We're gonna be having marshmallows tonight!" With a grin on his face, the Chespin made his way to the door with his Ralts friend following him as they both headed out. However, their leaving was watched by Team Buster, who were watching from a minor distance away from the board.

Fernand grinned, "Wow, they're really something huh Sam?" He waited for a reply, only to get a hum from his friend, "Sam?"

"First ice, now fire? Ralts don't learn these moves." He whispered to himself.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, you haven't picked up on it yet?" Sam grunted, crossing his arms. "This Ralts appears suddenly, claims to have no memories, and somehow has all these moves? Something is up."

"...Now that you mention it." Fernand hummed along, "But... do you really care that much? He seems perfectly normal and good. Or are you jealous they seem to be catching up to you?"

"No! ...Maybe." He admitted, "You know what, let's forget about it for now. We have other things to worry about." His eyes narrowed, "But soon, answers will appear... I just know it."

THE OLD FOREST

2F

"So like, are explorer and rescuer interchangeable?" Row asked.

"I mean, maybe?" Chester replied. "I know some regions just have guilds that don't even bother with the terms and just call them teams. It's weird. Anyways," Chester focused down a dirt hall, "call it a hunch, but I think we're close to one of the items."

The two walked down the hall, knocking out some angry Caterpies who decided to jump out at them. At this point they posed absolutely no threat whatsoever, and each one went down swiftly and effortlessly. Row honestly felt bad for the mad Pokemon, given how they seemed to not care one bit about their own safety. "You ever think things might go back to normal?" He asked.

"I hope. I really liked how quiet this place was..." Chester then gasped, "Oh hey, there's one! It's..." He pulled out a notebook from his bag, "An apple for a Snorlax?" He walked into one of the grassy clearings and stared at the apple. Row placed his hands on his hips, "Must be a special apple then."

The Chespin picked it up and pocketed it, "One down." He quickly peered down a grassy path, "And I thiiiiink the stairs are right down here...

THE OLD FOREST

3F

Row placed a hand on his chin in thought. Chester, looking back as he walked and swatted away a few more bug-types, raised a brow. "Got a question?" He asked. Row looked a bit sheepish, "I'm just curious as to... why you want to help everyone."

Chester paused his steps. "Oh. Well uh..." Chester rubbed the back of his head, "I just... feel like it's the right thing to do you know?" He sighed, "But... there is a more selfish reason why. I'm just... not comfortable sharing that right now."

"S-Sorry." Row apologized, awkwardly looking off to the side. Chester was quick to walk back and wrap his arm around his friend, "Aww don't be like that. We should be getting to know each other better!" Chester then awkwardly stared off too, "O-Oh wait uh... memory problems kinda make that hard for you huh?"

Row stared at him from behind his green bangs, a slight silence in the air.

"Uuuhhhhhhhhh... So what do you like to eat?" Chester asked.

"Anything sweet." Row's face suddenly turned a lot brighter, with a big dumb smile on his face that covered the length of his cheeks, "I-I really like sweet things a lot!"

"Liiiiiike?" Chester leaned in closer with a grin.

"Cake, uh vanilla ice cream too!" The Ralts began to drool, "Oh, there's also lollipops, and bread-"

"Bread can be sweet?"

"I remember some being sweet." Row froze up, "I-I think I do anyways."

"Ha! See we maybe might possibly be getting somewhere!" Chester raised up a yo-yo, "Second item by the way."

Row shook his head, but still retained a positive expression. Everything was feeling right to him at that moment. Or maybe that was just Chester's emotions affecting him as what has become usual. Regardless, they still had work to do which necessitated another descent.

THE OLD FOREST

4F

"...You're kidding." Chester spoke in disbelief, "It's right here." He took two steps and picked up a small wooden box. "Well that's that then!" He grinned, placing the box into his pouch.

"So what happens now?" Row asked.

"If I'm not wrong, we just tap the badges and we'll be warped back to HQ." Chester reached for his badge, and did exactly that. With a flash of light, Team Hero disappeared.

And just as suddenly as the light came, they arrived right in the lobby of the HQ.

Row's eyes were wide. He blinked, then reached down to touch the floor. "How?" He whispered, sending a question out to the air.

"I read about it in a book once." Chester said, almost proud of his literary skills. "Now... how do we report these?"

"Here!" Miss Daisy spoke up, waving over at the billboard. The two walked over, and Chester quickly dumped out all the items he had collected. The Leavanny took a good look at all of them as a big smile grew on her face. "Nicely done!" She cheered, pocketing them all. "And here's your reward!" She suddenly plopped a nice sack of cash onto Chester's awaiting hands.

"So... that's all?" Row asked.

Both grass-types nodded.

"Huh. Expected a lot more... action I guess." Row awkwardly rubbed his cheek.

"Oh, don't worry, once you start ranking up you're going to be seeing far more action than you can handle!" Miss Daisy sighed, both in a sense of nostalgia and complete exhaustion.

"Well there's only one thing left to do today." Chester slung the money sack over his shoulder, "Time for marshmallows!" He directed his friend to follow as he proudly walked away. Row let out a small chuckle as he too walked with a sense of pride.

The small pit filled up quickly with dry logs as Chester dumped them in. He brought an arm to his forehead to wipe away the nonexistent sweat. "Whew, good think I stockpiled some of these. Would stink trying to carry them out of the forest with all those bug Pokemon bugging me."

"Heh, bugging..." Row let out a tiny chuckle as he set up the chairs and placing the bags of soft white sweets next to them.

"You know... you really have been changing. I think in a few more days you're gonna be looking at me with a big smile and doing dances." Chester grinned as he hopped up onto his chair, "Just remember that I'm supposed to be the silly one in this relationship."

"You can be whatever you want. And I guess I'll be along for the ride. Seems to be working so far." He gently cracked his knuckles as he walked up to the logs. "Now lets see if this works..." Steadily, he reeled his fist backwards as he warmed it up. A fire formed around it, and he delivered it with a straightforward punch to the wood in front of him. With a crackle, the logs burst into flames as Row pulled his arm back.

Chester clapped, "Amazing!"

Row, soaking in the moment, did a graceful bow before getting onto his own chair. Chester pulled out his skewer and took a second to look it over. "Now lemme try my own trick!" He reached into the marshmallow bag and pulled out a couple. Row stared at him as he tossed them up into the air. With one careful thrust, he managed to get exactly two before the rest fell onto his chair. Chester pouted, "Dang it, I was hoping I could do it this time..."

Row grabbed the remaining sweets off of Chester's chair. But before he could put them on his skewer, a thought crossed his mind. Without a word, he tossed them all up in to the air. He watched carefully as each one flew in the air, and with perfect precision he stabbed his skewer though each one before any could land back down. He stared blankly at his skewer, now adorned with a half a dozen marshmallows. Chester meanwhile had a look of pure bewilderment, "H-How did you do that?"

"Chester..." Row looked over at his friend, "I have no idea." He jabbed his skewer forwards like a sword, "Maybe I'm just that nimble and never knew it?"

"Add that to the list of things you don't know about yourself." Chester reached into his bag and skewered some mallows onto his skewer. He held the now mallow-covered skewer over the fire, letting the Row-created fires roast them. Row grinned and did the same.

"...You know something else?" Chester said, "Now that the excitement wore off... I'm wondering about the guild. I've been planning to join them for years and now that I'm finally in it feels... weird." He rested a hand on his cheek, "Like a part of me never expected to actually join. I was just gonna train until..." His voice trailed off.

Row shrugged, "At least you had plans. Without you I'd probably be wandering around the region all alone."

"And without you..." Chester suddenly grinned, "I'd be without a friend."

Row grinned right back, "I couldn't ask for better."

The two pulled their skewers out and crossed them together as if they were swords. The small lingering flames on some of the mallows casting a shadow over both of them.

"So after this... can you show me some of your books?" Row asked.

Chester's eyes glowed, "Can I?! I'm gonna read you all my favorites!"