"What do you mean, you don't have any Water Stones?"

"Kid," said the shopkeeper, "Water Stones don't grow on trees. Plus, the Stone Emporium in Lumiose has a monopoly; even if I got one, I'd basically be required to send it to them. You want a Water Stone? Either go back to Lumiose, or find one yourself."

Marcus allowed himself a defeated sigh as he turned and strode out of the shop. "Sorry, Shellder," he said. "Guess we'll have to find another way to Coumarine City."

From his perch on Marcus's shoulder, Shellder nodded. "That's okay."

Marcus let out a slight chuckle. "You're not good at hiding your disappointment," he said. "It's all right, Shellder. I'll get you that Water Stone, one way or another."

"Thank you!" Shellder stopped himself from wriggling. It would not do wonders for Marcus's shoulder.

"Hey, kid?"

Marcus turned, carrying Shellder with him, to look at the shopkeeper. "What?" he asked.

"You trying to evolve that Shellder so you can Surf down Route 12?"
"How'd you guess?" Marcus asked.

"Seemed likely," said the shopkeeper. "There's an alternative path to Coumarine. It's a forested area; bit of a longer route, but you should be at Coumarine within a day. Just head out the Route 12 gate and hang a right immediately; you can't miss it."

"Thanks," said Marcus.

"Don't mention it," the shopkeeper said, already striding back inside his shop.

And so it was that, ten minutes later, Marcus and his team were walking down a narrow path closely surrounded by thick forest.

The wind was blowing briskly today, setting the treetops to shivering, and from far away Shellder could hear the lapping of waves against sandy shores. The midmorning sun was currently hiding, its light blocked by the masses of trees, but in a couple hours it would begin hitting the path. Shellder remained perched on Marcus's shoulder, while Kriesh flew overhead, Medicham walked behind, and Skorupi scuttled in between Marcus and Medicham.

Marcus had declared that they all needed to stretch their legs, or wings in Kriesh's case, and get some fresh air. Shellder knew the true reason they were out; the Trainers at the gate had warned them that along this route, Wild Pokemon were commonly known to attack Trainers and their Pokemon.

Not with intent to kill, but Marcus wanted to keep injuries to a minimum.

A thought crossed Shellder's mind, a thought that he could not resist blurting out. He turned to Medicham. "Is evolving painful?"

Medicham pursed her lips in thought. "Not really," she said. "Then again, I really couldn't tell, because I was in a lot of pain from Lucario's attacks."

"Okay," said Shellder. "I really hope it's not actually painful. Because I'm gonna evolve soon, and I don't want it to hurt."

"You're going to evolve?" Medicham asked.

"See, apparently my species evolves artificially using something called a Water Stone," said Shellder. "They're found commonly on the ocean floor, but are rare up here. But once Marcus gets a Water Stone, I'm going to evolve."

Shellder could not help but notice that Skorupi was looking away from him as he spoke, his expression unreadable.

"Skorupi?" Shellder asked. "Something on your mind?"

Skorupi twisted to face Shellder. "Nothin's on mah mind," the Bug-type defended. "Ah guess ah'm just-"

"Kriesh?" Medicham asked. "What's wrong?"

Shellder and Skorupi looked up to see Kriesh had stopped moving forwards. "Listen," she hissed.

The dead seriousness of her tone made it clear that they should obey. Even Marcus, alerted by the lack of movement from his Pokemon, stopped.

The sound was unmistakable; a human child crying, the tearful wails streaming directly from the woods on their left.

"Come on!" Marcus practically lunged into the woods, Shellder hanging on tightly to his shoulder. The others followed, Kriesh swooping above the trees while Skorupi and Medicham scrambled through the undergrowth.

The heartrending cries grew louder and louder as Marcus surged through the tangle of branches and shrubs. "Hang on!" he cried. "I'm coming!"

Medicham was faster than Marcus; she drew even with him as they burst into a clearing, Kriesh hovering above them. The Fearow had slowed to a stop, and it was at once clear why.

In the center of the clearing hovered a small figure, brown and black with hints of green, from which were emanating the child's cries. It turned upon Marcus's approach to reveal big black eyes with pink pupils. Its body seemed to be made up of black wispy tendrils running from both ends of its tree trunk-shaped face.

"Hi!" it said, waving one of its tiny stubby black hands.

"...a Phantump." Skorupi spoke first, his voice a low, sullen growl. "We got lured by a Phantump."

"Lured?" Medicham asked slowly. "Lured into what?"

"A trap. That's what."

The team dropped into combat positions as a large group of Skorupi emerged from the surrounding undergrowth. There had to have been at least twenty, their vicious spiked forms glowing with Bug and Poison energy.

"Good work, ghost," the biggest one growled. "You can leave now."

"But I wanna stay and watch!" the Phantump protested. However, it began to levitate upwards, ghostly body flickering as it rose into the sky.

The lead Skorupi looked back at the team. "Huh," he growled as his eyes locked on Skorupi. "Didn't expect to see one of our kind."

"An' just what do ya plan on doin'?" Skorupi asked his counterpart.

"Nothing life-threatening," the opposing Skorupi replied. "Just teaching a lesson. We'll be knocking all of you out. That'll teach you Trainers not to mess with us. Of course," his eyes locked on Skorupi again, "you're one of us. So we'll give you a pass. Stand aside."

Kriesh rose from her position in the center of the clearing, spreading her wings to their full size. "You bugs are messing with the wrong Trainer," she growled.

"Are we?" the enemy Skorupi retorted. "Guess we're doing this the hard way."

Skorupi stepped forwards. "Guess we are. No Escape."

Two rays of Dark energy shot from his maw. Before anyone could react, one of the enemy Skorupi was thrown backwards, body crackling with Dark energy, out cold.

Shellder definitely hadn't expected every single one of the enemy Skorupi to suddenly pale.

"The Marked One?" The lead Skorupi's eyes flashed with sudden hatred. "How dare you show your face here?"

Skorupi let out a furious growl. "Ah got tired of hidin'."

"You should have stayed dead, you insignificant weakling!" the lead Skorupi snarled.

An enraged hiss came from Kriesh, accompanied by much more furious glares from the rest of the team. "The only insignificant weakling I see here is you. Beam Impact!"

"Gah!" The lead Skorupi abandoned his position and leaped to the side. Three other Skorupi were not so lucky; they screamed in pain as their bodies flew end over end into the forest.

"Psychic Blast!" Medicham followed up with a wave of Psychic energy that sent two more Skorupi to the ground, clutching their heads in pain.

"Ice Flurry!" Shellder, seeing his teammates were opening fire, did the same. Chunks of Ice energy flew from his shell, downing a Skorupi and sending three others staggering.

"Fire!" the lead Skorupi snarled. In answer, the standing Skorupi opened fire with a barrage of Pin Missiles, a storm of spikes laced with Bug energy ready to lacerate anyone or anything in their way.

"Impenetrable Shell!"

Each and every one of the Pin Missiles bounced off of Shellder's Impenetrable Shell, clattering to the ground uselessly. Then he withdrew it, and as one, the team launched another barrage of their own attacks.

"Psychic Blast!" "Flurry Impact!" "Water Blast!" "Pierce."

Seven more Skorupi fell under the barrage, while another two let out snarls of pain at various injuries. The lead Skorupi glared at the team, his mouth opening to order another attack, but then he stopped. His eyes flitted around the clearing; though every movement he made gave off a strong message of hatred, as he looked around he clearly realized that with more than half of his allies already unconscious and most of the rest injured, this fight wasn't going to go in his favor.

"Retreat!" he snarled. The remaining Skorupi turned and scuttled back into the undergrowth, abandoning their fallen compatriots. The lead Skorupi let out a last growl before following suit.

Almost the instant the last Skorupi disappeared, Kriesh's eyes turned to Skorupi. "'The Marked One'? How'd you get that epithet?"

Instead of an answer, Skorupi let out a wordless snarl, then turned and stalked into the bushes back the way they'd come.

Kriesh, instantly realizing the effect her words had had on Skorupi, sighed sadly. "Damn it."

"It's not your fault," Medicham comforted. "He…he probably doesn't like the name."

"You think?" Kriesh snorted. "We'd best go after him. He's not doing himself any favors wandering about in the forest by himself."

Marcus straightened up. "Well, uh, that was a…good job, all of you." He was clearly somewhat rattled; even if he didn't understand what the Skorupi had been threatening, seeing twenty Skorupi gathered in front of him with clear ill intentions, not to mention the crying Phantump, was clearly not doing wonders for his enjoyment of the situation.

"Whooo! That was amazing!"

Speaking of the Phantump…Shellder looked up to see the ghostly Pokemon clapping wildly, somehow grinning despite not having a mouth. "The way you beat up so many of them in so little time…that was really, really cool!"

Medicham glared up at the Phantump. "You led us to them."

The Phantump shrugged. "Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?" With a swift movement, the Phantump shot down from the sky, coming to a halt right in front of Medicham in a split second. "Do you have a problem with that?" it snarled.

Medicham stepped backwards faster than Shellder had ever seen her move, shooting into a defensive stance.

"And besides," said the Phantump cheerfully, "they told me to."

"Come on, guys," said Marcus. "We're getting out of here before any more of those Skorupi show up."

The Trainer had definitely gotten over much of his nervousness, what with the swift defeat of the Skorupi herd, but there was still a quiver in his voice as he spoke, and he stepped back into the trees a little bit too quickly. His Pokemon followed; Shellder watched as Kriesh, Medicham, and Phantump fell in behind him quickly.

Wait a second.

Medicham followed Shellder's widening eyes to see Phantump floating along merrily behind them. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Following you," Phantump said with a grin. "Duh."

"And why are you following us?" Medicham asked.

"Because I want to," Phantump answered.

Medicham rounded on Phantump. "Look, Phantump," she growled. "You intentionally led us into a trap with the clear goal of getting us all beaten and knocked out. What makes you think we want you to follow us?"

Phantump's lip quivered at that last statement. Then that bawling began emanating from him again, causing Marcus to jump and Shellder to very nearly fall off his shoulder.

"And will you please cut that out?" Medicham nearly shouted.

"What in Distortion was that noise?"

The gruff human voice overwhelmed even Medicham's furious words. Instantly, every single one of them stopped dead, even Phantump. It was the next words that galvanized them.

"Go investigate. I'll finish securing these Skorupi. The boss will be so pleased."

The thought shot through Shellder's head at the same time as it did everyone else's. Team Flare, he mouthed, and the last vestiges of his good mood shriveled at Medicham's reluctant nod of confirmation.

Medicham, along with the rest of the team, turned to look at Marcus. Even Kriesh landed on a nearby sturdy branch to stare at the Trainer. Shellder swallowed at the sudden fear in his Trainer's eyes. Skorupi was still unaccounted for, and at least two members of Team Flare, possibly more, were in that clearing.

Marcus's fists clenched. "All right," he said. "This is what we've been training for. We're gonna take this slowly, scout our options, and-"

His voice trailed off as the sound of heavy thudding boots, the sound growing louder and louder. Before Shellder's eyes, a thick tree branch was shoved aside to reveal a red-garbed Team Flare grunt. "What is going on?" His eyes widened upon seeing the Pokemon and Trainer arrayed in front of him. "What the-"

Then Phantump (who, come to think of it, had completely disappeared the instant the boots started thumping) suddenly was there, floating right in front of the Grunt's face. "Boo."

"Yaaaaaahhhh!" The Grunt stumbled backwards, tripping over a root and falling on his back.

Phantump turned to face Medicham, grinning wickedly. "Now can I follow you?"

"Not the time!" Medicham snapped as the Team Flare Grunt struggled to his feet. He fumbled at his waist, releasing half a dozen Pokemon onto the forest floor. "There's a Trainer here!" he cried.

"Take them down!" Marcus ordered, galvanized into action, his 'take it slowly' plan clearly worthless. Shellder instantly leaped down from his perch and opened fire with a Water Blast at a Litwick in front of him. At the same time, Kriesh fired off a Flurry Impact at the Litwick, along with an Electrike and a Gulpin that the Grunt had also released. The Litwick fell from the two attacks, its flame quenched by the Water Blast.

The Grunt's team were quick on the uptake, though; the Electrike fired a burst of Electric energy at Kriesh, forcing her to leap from her perch lest she get struck. The Gulpin spat a glob of sludge at Shellder, while the Grunt's Croagunk charged him with one arm glistening with Poison energy and the other with Fighting energy. The remaining two Pokemon, a Sneasel and a powerful-looking Scrafty, lunged for Medicham even as she charged them with a Fighting Trip primed.

"Defensive Shell Impact!" Shellder lunged, closing his shell around him. He felt the sludge splatter all over his shell, and to his surprise and horror he heard a loud hissing as it stuck and began to eat away at the hard material. Then a second, much rougher strike slammed into his shell, sending him flying into a tree.

Fortunately, his shell had negated most of the damage, but a foul smell reminded Shellder even as he opened his shell back up that the sludge was still there. The lack of hissing indicated that, fortunately, it had stopped eating at his shell, though it still felt sticky and disgusting as it sat there.

The Croagunk grinned nastily. "That's what you get for messing with Team Flare."

"Wow, you really do love throwing your name around, don't you?" Shellder retorted.

In the meantime, Marcus and the Team Flare Grunt were standing back and watching as their Pokemon tore up the forest. Kriesh was engaging in a running battle with the Electrike, pelting the Electric-type with Flurry Impacts, but the thick forest surrounding her was impacting her dodging ability, and the Electrike was taking full advantage to nail her with its attacks and was also proving surprisingly resilient. The Sneasel was slumped against another tree, unconscious, but the Scrafty was fighting Medicham evenly, clashing with brutal Dark and Fighting energy-enhanced strikes against Medicham's defense. As Shellder watched, the Scrafty fired off some kind of Dark attack that didn't seem to hurt Medicham, but staggered her anyway. She retaliated with an uncharacteristically wild kick that completely missed, opening her up to a punch from the Scrafty that sent her stumbling again, this time in pain.

Shellder tore his gaze away from that battle to focus on the Croagunk, who was rushing him, obviously seeking a repeat of last time. But Shellder had just barely begun to ready his body for an Ice Flurry when that accursed Phantump popped in right next to the Croagunk. "Excuse me?"

The Croagunk stumbled in startled fright. Phantump giggled. "Hold this, please." Three leaves flew from Phantump's trunk-like body and onto the Croagunk's face, sticking like glue.

"What the-" That was all the Croagunk got out before the leaves sprouted, wrapping around the Croagunk's face. Cackling, Phantump dove onto the Croagunk, latching onto the sprouts with a ghostly hand that had suddenly gained a disturbing amount of length. The Croagunk howled in pain and thrashed around blindly, waving wild attacks which Phantump easily dodged.

Which side was Phantump on? Shellder forced that question out of his mind and glanced over in time to see Kriesh finally nail the Electrike with a Flurry Impact, sending the electric dog Pokemon reeling. Medicham, swiping wildly, finally managed to nail the Scrafty across the face with a punch and knocked him to the ground. And whatever the Phantump was doing to the Croagunk finished taking effect, as the Croagunk stopped wailing and toppled over, unconscious himself. Suddenly, the Gulpin was the only one standing, and it was clear judging by how it lived up to its namesake that it realized that.

Its Trainer stared slack-jawed for a moment. Then he recalled his Gulpin and ran, abandoning the rest of his team. "Assistance! Assistance is required!"

"After him!" Marcus ordered. Kriesh lunged upwards, above the treetops. "Two more Trainers!" she cried, her eyes fixated on what Shellder instantly knew was the clearing. Then her voice caught.

"They've got Skorupi!" At those words Medicham positively flew into the bushes, leaving Shellder and Marcus to scramble after her. A cackle sounded from behind Shellder as Phantump joined the chase, looking as if it was having the time of its life.

They'd handle that later.

Medicham dashed into the clearing, with Marcus, Shellder, and Phantump trailing in her wake. Kriesh landed beside her as she skidded to a halt. All five of them glared at the pair of Team Flare trainers, one of which was carrying a decidedly unconscious Skorupi in a small net. The third, the one who had escaped, was cowering behind them.

"Let him go," Marcus said coldly.

"Is this your Skorupi?" one of the Team Flare Grunts asked. "Then what was it doing so far from its Trainer? Clearly, you're not a very good Trainer if you're letting your Pokemon wander about so far away. It seems we'll have to give this Skorupi a better home!"

"Along with all these others, of course," said the other Team Flare Grunt. He glared at the Grunt who had run from the earlier fight. "You. Pick those up. We'll deal with this annoyance."

A dozen Pokemon sprang onto the field from the two Team Flare members. Most of them were the usual fare of small Fire, Dark, and Poison-types (plus another Electrike), but dominating the enemy line were a Houndoom and a Swalot.

"Beam Impact!" Now that they were out in the open, Kriesh wasted no time in going for her strongest technique. Two of the Team Flare Pokemon were thrown backwards, though Shellder winced at seeing them stir, not out of the fight yet.

These Team Flare Pokemon were definitely hardier than the ones they'd faced earlier.

"You good to go, Medicham?" Shellder asked the Fighting-type.

"That Scrafty did something to my eyes," Medicham growled. "But I'm all good now."

With that, she sprang forward, throwing a Psychic Blast at the Swalot, though the Swalot gurgled and summoned a Protect to block it. The Houndoom sent a blast of Fire energy at Kriesh, though Shellder could have sworn it hesitated for a moment before doing so. Shellder sent a Slugma to the ground with a single Water Blast. Phantump, constantly cackling, sent a spurt of Ghost energy at the Electrike that was readying to launch an Electric attack at Shellder; in an instant the Electrike spun and fired the attack at the Houndour right next to it, eliciting a shocked, pained yelp.

Shellder lunged to Medicham's side. "Impenetrable Shell!" he cried, throwing up the barrier to deflect several blasts of Fire, Dark, and Poison energy that came at Medicham from the Team Flare Pokemon. The Swalot gulped again; the instant Shellder dropped the barrier it shot forwards, seeming to curve around the punch that Medicham threw its way, and pounced on Shellder.

"Defensive Shell!" Shellder curled up tightly; at once he could feel the Swalot's presence around him, warm and suffocating.

"Yes…stay just like that and it'll all be over soon," the Swalot murmured. Indeed, Shellder could feel himself becoming short on breath as the Swalot engulfed him. His shell was holding it back, giving Shellder a little more time than he otherwise would have, but no air was coming in.

"Get off him!"

A squelch sounded, and Swalot's presence disappeared. Quickly, Shellder scrambled out of his shell, gasping for air. Medicham crouched in front of him, staring down the Team Flare Pokemon.

The Swalot was lying some distance away, rising once again. Shellder could see Phantump fluttering around, gleefully firing jets of Ghost energy and more of those sprouting leaves at any Team Flare Pokemon he saw, and Kriesh, who was in the midst of a brawl with the Houndoom.

The Houndoom was missing an awful lot, though Shellder could account that to Kriesh having the freedom to stretch her wings. However, he was doing a good job of avoiding Kriesh's own strikes with nothing but pure speed, darting away from the Earth Impacts and Sky Impacts the enraged Flying-type aimed to strike him with.

Three of the Team Flare Pokemon were engaged in a brawl with each other for seemingly no reason, while two more were howling in pain as vines sprouted around their bodies. This, however, left five facing down Medicham, all of whom were in the process of charging forwards. "For Team Flare!"

"Cover your ears!" Shellder warned. Medicham clapped her hands to her ears as Shellder opened up his shell and screeched out a Sonic Blast, sending all five of the Team Flare Pokemon reeling. The instant he stopped, Meditite lunged, sending two of those Pokemon flying with brutal punches and kicks before they could recover.

"You should have stayed down." Shellder turned as the Swalot oozed towards him. He didn't normally feel angry, but this Swalot had tried to suffocate him. And so anger filled him at the sight of the gooey Pokemon rising towards him like a purple tidal wave.

"Same goes for you," Shellder opined. "Water Blast!"

The Swalot twisted out of the way with surprising agility for a lump of poison, and retaliated with a blast of Poison energy that Shellder barely deflected with an Impenetrable Shell.

"Hey!"

Phantump appeared in front of the Swalot, tossing another spurt of Ghost energy at it. At once, the Swalot's eyes darkened. "DIE!" it thundered.

"Whoops." Phantump rose into the air, barely avoiding a furious swipe from the Swalot. For whatever reason, it seemed remarkably focused on bringing him down.

"What did you just do?" Shellder asked, raising his voice in a not insignificant amount of fear.

"I think this guy might just have an irrational and insatiable hatred of Wingulls!" Phantump yelled.

"That…that doesn't even make any sense!" Shellder retorted.

"It's a Swalot!" Phantump cried. "Of course it makes scents, very smelly ones too - gah!"

The Swalot had finally managed to morph a poisonous arm in such a way as to snatch Phantump out of the air. "I'LL CRUSH YOU!" it bellowed.

Whatever his opinion of Phantump, Shellder knew he had to do something. He lunged forward, firing a Water Blast and striking the Swalot directly in the face.

The Swalot spluttered, releasing Phantump, and hurled itself right at Shellder. "Water Blast!" Shellder cried again, but even though the Swalot was struck, its momentum was just too great.

That awful suffocating sensation struck Shellder again, and even worse, this time he felt poison seeping into his body even as the Swalot covered his mouth and nose. He couldn't hear anything anymore, just the slurping as Swalot filled his shell with its own body, engulfing him.

Was this it? Was this how Shellder's journey was going to end?

It would be a stupid ending.

"GYAHH!" The Swalot suddenly jerked away. Shellder gasped, coughing as he inhaled lungfuls of air, barely registering the Swalot rolling around, howling in pain as Ghost energy wracked its body.

"Are you all right?" Phantump, his eyes glowing with honest concern and, equally surprisingly, pain, hovered in front of Shellder. "That didn't look fun."

"What did you just do to it?" Shellder asked.

"I told it to stop," Phantump answered. "It didn't want to. So I made it."

Another scream from the Swalot pierced the air.

Shellder looked around once more, watching as Medicham finished off the last of the small fry, as the Houndoom fell to the ground under a well-aimed Hyper Beam, and as Swalot's struggles slowly faded as whatever Phantump had done to it drained its energy.

"So," said Marcus, "about my Skorupi." His eyes were narrowed in a furious glare.

"Take it!" The Team Flare Grunt that was holding the Skorupi-occupied net threw it at Marcus's face. "Run!" he cried. The trio of Grunts turned and ran, once again leaving their unconscious Pokemon behind; any thought Marcus would have had of pursuit was quelled by him getting the net off his head.

Shellder's throat thickened at the sight of the unconscious Swalot. He swallowed, but the thickness remained.

"Thanks for the save, by the way," said Phantump.

"Same," Shellder responded.

Phantump's expression suddenly split into a grin. "So, can I follow you guys now?"

"Why?" Shellder allowed a small bit of his normal self to return. "I mean, Marcus'll probably say yes, but what do you actually want from us?"

Phantump shrugged. "Well...when those Skorupi drove my family out of the forest, they kept me around, and they said I had to work for them because they were stronger. So now that you drove them away, I'm working for you because you're stronger!"

"Look," said Shellder, "I'm not the leader here. Marcus is the real leader. He's our Trainer, that's kinda how it works."

"Don't care," said Phantump. "You saved my life! That means I'm gonna follow you."

Shellder looked helplessly at Medicham. "Um, Medicham? A little help over here?"

Medicham was at Shellder's side with surprising speed considering how exhausted she looked. "What is it?"

"Shellder and I work really well together," Phantump explained, "so I'm going to follow him around and do what he tells me to do!"

Medicham heaved a sigh. "Oh, Arceus, it's another Shellder…"

"What do you mean?" Shellder demanded. "I sound nothing like Phantump!"

"What do you mean?" Phantump echoed. "I sound nothing like Phantump! Wait a minute."

"How's Skorupi?" Medicham shouted to Kriesh.

"He's fine!" Kriesh responded. "Marcus has him."

Medicham's next words caught momentarily on the way out. "I - I think Phantump wants to join our team."

"Good for him." Kriesh fluttered down next to Medicham.

"He tried to lead us into a trap!" Medicham protested. "It's not-"

"Medicham." Kriesh's voice lowered by two octaves. "What those Skorupi did to our Skorupi is not his fault."

Medicham froze. "How…"

"You let me on after what I did," Kriesh responded. "It's obvious what's clouding your emotions."

"Excuse me?" Phantump raised a stubby hand. "I'm a her. Not a him."

Medicham's face fell. "I'm sorry, Phantump."

"It's okay, I don't care!" Phantump responded. "I'm not working with you anyway. I'm working with Shellder!"

"Phantump," Medicham explained, "it's…it's not like that. Being on the team means you work with all of us, and in return we all work with you. And you do what Marcus tells you."

"But I want to do what Shellder tells me!" Phantump protested.

"Shellder does what Marcus tells him," Kriesh broke in. "So if you're doing what Marcus tells you, then you're basically doing what Shellder tells you."

"Oh!" Phantump realized. "Okay! Got it! So…how do I sign up?"

"I'll handle it," said Medicham. "Come with me, and I'll let Marcus know you want to join."

After that, things moved quickly. The unconscious Pokemon, Skorupi and Team Flare alike, were dealt with via a swift meeting between Marcus and the first Ace Trainer he found. He spun a story about simply finding them unconscious, and the Ace Trainer promptly made a call and told Marcus that the situation would be dealt with and good luck with the Coumarine Gym.

Marcus, who had apparently seen Phantump's actions during the battle, seemed quite pleased about formally catching Phantump. And Shellder couldn't deny that Phantump was eager, both to please her new Trainer and to make friends with the rest of them.

That left just one loose end; Skorupi.

The Bug-type had remained silent since his rescue, aside from a few affirmative and negative grunts. It was Medicham that finally approached him.

"Skorupi?"

"Yeah, ah know," Skorupi growled. "Ya wanna know why ah'm called 'The Marked One', don't ya?"

"I think that would be good to know," said Medicham.

Skorupi heaved a sigh. "A day before ah hatched," he said, sounding like he was forcing each word out, "an Absol came ta mah community. They were all terrified, but he didn't stop. Didn't even slow. Just walked righ' up ta mah egg, bent down, an' etched a little mark on it, in the shape of his horn."

Skorupi took a deep breath, and then continued. "Skorupi start fightin' as soon as we're outta the shell," he said. "An' when ah started fightin', ah was usin' Dark energy, an' all the others were usin' Bug an' Poison energy like normal Skorupi. No one thought it was a coincidence. An' so they started callin' me The Marked One. After a while...ah just left. Struck out on mah own. They thought ah was dead. Ah decided it was better ta keep it that way."

"That's why you hate Absol so much," Medicham realized.

"That Absol ruined mah life," said Skorupi. "Made me an outcast in mah own swarm fer no reason ah can tell. So, yeah. That's the story."

Medicham felt a pang of piteous sorrow as Skorupi turned back to the berry he was eating. Slowly, she turned to her own meal and began to eat, repeating the story in her own mind over and over again.

It was mid-afternoon by the time the group finally stumbled into Coumarine City. Fortunately, Marcus's stock of medicine meant that no Pokemon Center visit was necessary; it helped that the Team Flare Pokemon, while dangerous, hadn't inflicted any real physical injury onto Marcus's team.

He'd released Kriesh to stretch her wings and Phantump to let her see the town. Phantump took to that task with gusto, oohing and aahing at everything in sight, from the buildings to the garbage receptacles.

Kriesh could not help but remember her own flock. Phantump was similar enough that she knew how to talk to her; her grasp of the world around her was massively limited by her fairly young age. Training her would be difficult.

Then again, she noted sardonically, it was pretty hard for him to train me as well.

"That's a strong-looking Fearow you've got there."

Kriesh looked down to see a dark-haired male Trainer wearing blue clothes and a red cap leaning against the edge of the nearest building, looking up at her with startling gray eyes.

"Calem," Marcus greeted, sounding surprised.

"Marcus," Calem responded. "I heard you defeated Serena."

"Yeah," said Marcus. "I did."

"I want to battle you," said Calem. "You have four Pokemon…no, five, because of the Phantump."

"The Phantump's a new catch," said Marcus.

For whatever reason, Calem's expression shifted into one of mild disappointment at that. "All right. Four on four, then. You in?"

Marcus grinned, an expression that Kriesh knew signified an upcoming battle.

"Of course I'm in."