Chapter 26: In the Dark

Hours since Team Traveller had shaken their pursuit at Boisocéan, Pleo's flight over the sea remained a long and circuitous ordeal.

If the team followed the the Spiral Stream's light-colored water below, the current would eventually bring them past Kenobi after four beacons. Whenever one of those beacons was spotted, Elty instructed Pleo to swim close to the surface and take a detouring arc around to reduce the likelihood of a spotter seeing them in the air.

Much to their astonishment, the journey had gone largely without incident. The high sea was supposed to be riddled with aggressive ferals, and pirates prowling on ships who didn't broadcast their true colors until it was too late. While the team had glimpsed ships here and there (which were likely not pirates, but it was better to err on the side of caution) and the backs of passing Pokémon below, they had seen far more emptiness…

Their only companions for those empty stretches were the waves and the current below, along with the sun and clouds above. Soon, even the sun began to leave them: after the fourth beacon, its last rays were slipping perilously low to the horizon as a sea fog began to roll in.

"Eh?! It's supposed to be right here!"

And much to Nida's squeaking concern, they had still not caught sight of Kenobi, even as the visibility continued to wane.

"I don't understand," the Nidoran murmured. "We followed the current and counted the beacons just like we were supposed to…"

"We must've veered off course earlier," Elty grumbled, the Growlithe peering out into the foggy distance with a scowl. "It's not like it would've been hard to mix things up out here."

Just then, the Growlithe felt Pleo's wings wobble unsteadily. The dog hunkered down and latched onto some feathers, expecting Pleo to suddenly fall towards the sea. Mercifully, the little Protector's flight path evened out, if betraying tired and sluggish motions with his wings.

"N-Nida? E-Elty?" he asked. "How much further do we have to go?"

"We should almost be there Pleo," Nida quickly answered. "Just hang in there a little longer!"

"But my wings hurt, and I haven't eaten anything since that Sitrus Berry," Pleo whined. And indeed, Pleo's healing aside, the three hadn't had a proper meal in over a day now. Nida and Elty's stomachs softly growled, joining in quiet protest with their carrier's.

"Can't we rest somewhere? Just for a little?"

"Pleo. We're out in the middle of the ocean!" Elty snapped. "Unless you happen to be able to dive all of us down into the Subway, there is nowhere to rest-!"

Just then, a fleeting, murky shape caught the eyes of Team Traveller, partly enshrouded by the rolling fog. It was the shape of a two-masted ship, but something seemed amiss about it…

Where were its sails?

On closer inspection, the three noticed that one of its masts was tilting precariously at an angle, and its timbers were rotted with gaping holes in the hull and deck. Not only that, the vessel appeared to be stranded on a small collection of sea rocks. This was…

"A shipwreck?"

"Looks like it. It must've been pushed up onto those rocks during a storm…" Elty murmured. "Either that, or its captain must've drinking something really strong to get it wrecked like that."

"Wait a minute, why don't we rest there?" Nida asked. "It can't be too much worse than hunkering down in a stable zone… And it's not as if we'd be able to see much from the air to keep us from getting lost with this fog."

Pleo turned towards the ship and circled about it, as he and Elty cast glances at the decay.

"Eh? We're going to rest there, Nida?" Pleo hesitated. "But it looks- well…"

"Scary."

Elty also seemed unenthused by the idea of overnighting in the ratty-looking wreck, casting a glance at where Kenobi ought to be. They couldn't possibly get that lost, could they?

"Well, let's decide. Are we going to risk fumbling around a little so we can get food and an actual place to stay? Or are we going to spend the night hungry in that pile of driftwood there?


Five minutes later, Team Traveller sat in the pile of driftwood, hungry. An irked Growlithe fumed as the three searched the worn and battered deck for places to spend the night.

"This was not what you two were supposed to choose!" Elty huffed. His protests only drew a tired head turn from Pleo and an unamused head shake from Nida.

"Come on, Elty," she replied. "Between 'spending a night hungry and trying again tomorrow' and 'getting lost at sea in the fog', which is the safer bet?"

As the fog-shrouded moon and stars continued to grow dimmer and dimmer, the team came across some overturned crates in the battered remains of the stern. While there were Pokémon scents around, their staleness suggested there'd likely not be any company for the night. It wasn't the lodging of the guild back home, but it was an unclaimed space, and the crates formed the best roof they could hope for right now.

"Whelp, at least it won't be another night sleeping under the stars," Elty murmured to himself as he pawed at a tilted crate. He hopped inside, circled a few times, then settled down and rested his head. Nida yawned at the sight and shepherded Pleo in under the timbers of another crate.

"Let's wind down and try again tomorrow, then," she said, groggily eyeing a crate atop Pleo and Elty's. The Nidoran hopped up, shook her spikes out, and settled down for the night with heavy eyes...

"Nida?"

only for Pleo's voice from below to interrupt her.

"Hrm?" she yawned back.

"Are- Are we doing the right thing?"

"Huh?" she asked. "What do you mean by that, Pleo?"

Pleo shuffled out of his box and beat his wings, turning back to face the Nidoran. The young Protector drew a wing to his beak, clearly troubled and unsure.

"Well, Margi said that this next island had a bunch of Company Pokémon on it… I mean, Elty says we can hide there… but-," he muttered, his words starting to trail off. "What if I wind up bringing trouble again?"

"Pleo, even if trouble has been following us, what's been happening isn't your fault," Nida reassured.

The little spike ball rose from the timbers under her feet and poked her head out, coming face to face with the waiting Protector. She looked off into the foggy distance, hoping to catch a glimpse of the island, but saw nothing. Perhaps then, the best thing to do would be to try and somehow make the hurdles before them seem a little less insurmountable to the young bird.

"That's why we're even going there," she continued "To try to see if we can find anything that will help you draw out your power better, and figure out how to keep this trouble from following us so we can all go home. I mean if Elty could figure something about how to stay out of trouble there…"

"Eh? How do you figure that?" Elty's voice called off from below. "I've mostly been getting by with dumb lu-"

"Shh!" Nida hissed, shaking her head before turning her attention back to the little Lugia. The Nidoran folded her ears back, and leaned in to Pleo's snout to nuzzle it, hoping that the gesture would calm her partner. "Don't worry about it, Pleo. We made a promise, remember?"

"Whatever happens, we'll be together?" he chirped back. Elty's voice grunted dismissively from his resting place, but just looking back into Nida's red eyes, Pleo already knew her answer before she spoke it.

"That's right," she replied. And that was enough. No matter how scary things were, they would be there for each other, and they would fight tooth and claw to stay together…

But… those eyes… They looked…

Yaaaaaaaah

Tired.

"Let's get some sleep for now, though," Nida prodded. "Okay?"

"Okay… good night, Nida."

The little Protector shuffled back into his crate, where he curled up tightly. He heard Nida settle down above him, and turned to watch the fog-shrouded stars in the sky. As the waves rolled in the background, his eyes started feeling heavier and heavier, until sleep finally claimed him.


The next morning, while snores still drifted about below the deck of the Siglo Swellow, Crom had awoken bright and early to help his father with his customary work.

"Remember, pull the gummis out of the dip sooner this time… You want the coating to be uniform, but not too thick as it hardens…"

Namely to help prepare breakfast for the crew in the steerage space that doubled as the galley on the small and cramped vessel. It was an exercise that was new to Crom, stirring the mix along with little dashes of flavoring, heating the concoction with embers of dragonfire… And yes, as his father had mentioned: dipping the morsels into hot berry syrup with a fine mesh to form a sugary coating as the bean-like clumps cooled. Every step of gummi-making needed to be timed just right with the aid of a small pair of glass bulbs filled with sand. If not, they would turn out to be deformed or ill-tasting as they had after the young Druddigon's last attempt. This time, Crom dutifully watched the hourglass and after pulling out the current batch of dipped gummis, deposited them on a sheet of wax paper. Once the Dragon-Type did that, he grabbed little clumps of mix from a bowl and formed them into small, bean-like pieces on a clay tray for the next batch.

"Whew, gummis are sure an awful lot harder to make than bread…" Crom muttered. The Druddigon shook his head, why even without all the mistakes he'd made, he'd spent over an hour just getting breakfast thrown together! "You really do this three times a day, dad?"

"Yep!" Pladur replied, the Fraxure nodding his head proudly. "In between deck work with the rest of the Pokémon aboard!"

Crom continued to place clumps on the tray as his mind drifted off. His expression started to take a turn for the downcast as he began to murmur to himself.

"So… that's how you became so strong, huh?"

Pladur blinked, and watched as his son slowly became more and more preoccupied, while his gummi-making slowed down.

"What do you mean?" the Fraxure prodded.

"Always getting up early, always pushing yourself," Crom said, his claws now drifting over the mix bowl listless. "If only I had done a little more of that, then-"

"Mijo, take it easy. Getting stronger takes time, and it's not something you can do on your own… And… well," the Fraxure sighed reluctantly, before shaking his head and turning his head to the young Druddigon. "A little father-son secret here, but… I honestly wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as you think I am if it weren't for my friends aboard this ship."

"Huh?!" the Druddigon cried, almost pulling the bowl off the shelf out of surprise. Dad not being strong? But… how would that even-? "What do you mean?!"

"It's hard to stand and face down things that are bigger and scarier than you, to not turn tail and hide," the Fraxure explained. "But when you have other Pokémon alongside you… they protect you. They help you fight, and give you the strength to stand your ground."

"It's something that I've always envied about your mother, her ability to stand firm even when alone. Especially with that Cazadragones!" the Fraxure interjected, a faint shiver creeping up his spine. "And… well, I don't think you'd have been able to sneak into a crate full of stinking berries to try and get the Protector back if you didn't have some of her nature in you."

Crom looked downward, drifting in his thoughts. He supposed that going after his friends was something, but… Before the Druddigon could continue, he felt a tug, and turned to see his father's claw reassuringly on his shoulder.

"But I think you've made enough gummis for a day, and they're not bad for a beginner's effort," the elder dragon cheered. "Why don't you head up and take a break on deck for a bit, it should only take half an hour before the rest of breakfast is ready."

"Mmph. Right!"

Crom scampered off from the galley, and down a tight, tunnel-like passage over to a set of stairs. After a quick clamber up, he found himself up on the deck, the warm rays of a still-rising sun flitting down on his wings through thinning sea fog.

"Eh?! Crom?" a voice suddenly buzzed from the side. "What are you doing up so early? Kiran's still asleep, isn't he? Aren't you two working together?"

The young dragon jump with a start at the voice, and after looking over in its direction, his suspicions of its source were confirmed. Perched on a barrel by the front mast, a Scyther with a five-tailed blotch on his head was flitting his wings in the rising sun.

"Ack! Ander?!" Crom cried. "What are you doing up?!"

"I normally get up early," the Bug-Type explained. "It's part of my job back home."

That… seemed to make sense. And with blades that could be set to work cutting and filing down wood and rope, it probably made sense that Captain Beatrix would want Ander's help on deck bright and early in the morning.

"Er… right," Crom replied, the Druddigon returning to a state of uneasy calm as the two awkwardly dodged glances at each other.

"So… uh… you came to see Boisocéan come over the horizon, I take it?" Ander offered, as he fluttered off the barrel and over to the railing.

"Huh?"

"The island our mission is taking us to?" he asked, as he pointed a scythe out over the railing. There, off in the distance, was a lush, verdant island with a low and worn-down peak. On the eastern side of it, a thick shroud of fog hugged its shoreline.

"It's really much prettier than I expected," the Bug-Type murmured. "Why I've only read about it, and heard of it from the sailors down at the docks… It's really quite different once you see it for yourself."

"B-But we aren't going here just to see the island!" Crom protested. "We're going to get Pleo and everyone else back!"

"Yes, that's… true…" Ander responded hesitantly, which made the Druddigon cast a suspicious glance at the bladed mantis.

"Ander, do you even really want them to return?" he mumbled. "I mean, back when we came to your house-"

"Whether or not I want them to return is irrelevant," Ander interrupted. "What matters is that the truth comes out of this for the whole town to know. That's why I agreed to come along in the first place."

"E-Eh?! That doesn't sound like you want Pleo to come back at all!" Crom cried. "And he's really been a nice Pokémon! How could he be anything but our Protector?!"

There was a long, overwhelming silence as the two locked eyes with each other. Each waiting for the other to say something. Finally, the mantis shook his head and began to speak.

"I'm sorry… I… I just can't accept that," Ander replied. "Not with everything that has been written and passed down through all these years. And sure, he's acted nice so far… but what do we about what he'll do? Especially when he's off on his own?"


"Nida! Nida!"

The sound of Pleo's chirping pricked the ears of Elty and Nida. Pleo's cries pierced the two's slumber as their other senses began to awake with their bodies. The two noticing the rough wood under their bodies, the warmth of the sun outside, and the soft noise of waves breaking in the distance.

"Nngh," Nida muttered, pawing at the side of her box blindly. "Five more minutes, Mami…"

"Urgh… not right now," Elty grumbled. "It's too early for this…"

"There's an island close to us!" Pleo's voice cried. The mention of 'island' made Nida and Elty spring up to their feet in an instant with a mutual cry.

"Huh?! Where?!"

The two looked up and saw Pleo perched atop a railing and batting out a wing, gesturing excitedly off into the distance past the remains of the bow. Sure enough, the two saw an island up over the horizon. On it were two sets of peaks with scraggly trees and thick fog between them, the closer chain appearing far more lushly vegetated than the other, much more arid and tawny-looking chain.

Around the island, there was a ringing atoll formed of narrow, spindly reefs poking up above the water. On one of the atoll's islands, there was a complex of buildings and docks built around a sturdy-looking stone fort at one end, carefully guarding the direct entrance to a town built along a seaside bluff.

The settlement was on the more vegetated side of the island, filled with colorful, tightly spaced wooden shacks. There were two sets of docks and some assorted buildings below them that were separated by a great, stone barrier that ran to the top of the bluff between the upper and the lower parts. She could barely make out the lower part, but its tents and shacks seemed even gaudier than the ones on the upper side. The wall and the faces of the bluff surrounded the district on three sides.

"Why, that place in between the wall and bluffs looks almost as colorful as home during New Year's!" Nida cried, before tilting her head curiously at the hazy district. "But… why's it so hemmed in?"

"I told you we could have found it last night!" Elty grumbled as Pleo waddled off to go and inspect the remains of a tiller further down the deck. "You stiffed us out of dinner!"

"Well, it's here, at least," Nida sighed. "So where are we going on Kenobi anyways?"

"Mossaisle Town, but everyone I know usually just calls it Aisle Town. The town on the island past the long ones that form the ring," Elty replied. "That place you were looking at is the Andaku Docks. It's a district where I'd lie low in with the rest of the crew when we'd fence stuff. The locals have an understanding with Pokémon like us, and we can stay there for a little bit without getting into trouble."

"Eh?!" Pleo cried. "You mean we're going to a place full of pirates?!"

"Yes, along with bandits, smugglers, and sknerzy that gouge you for crummy merchandise," the Growlithe answered. "What's your point?"

"Elty, we can't just go to a place like that!" Nida spluttered. Just then, a grumbling sound reverberated and both the Nidoran and the Lugia looked down at their bellies. Yes… that was the sound of their stomachs revolting. There were a handful of berries in the bag… but those berries were better used for healing than casual consumption. If they just gobbled them up, they'd be as unprepared for Mystery Dungeons as when they left Lyn's ship!

"Do you have any alternatives?" Elty grumbled. "If you know someone around here, then by all means, tell me."

Nida traded an uneasy look with Pleo, and then shifted her gaze back at the island. She paused and then shook her head before turning back to the Growlithe.

"So… we just fly in?"

"Sure, if you want to be seen by a bunch of Company Pokémon," Elty scoffed, batting a paw dismissively in the air. "Look, just follow my lead and we'll get there fine."

The Nidoran stared back out at the town in the distance, finally flattening her ears dubiously and shaking her head with a sigh.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Elty."


It took a while for the three to get their blood flowing again, but before they knew it, Nida and Elty were riding on the young Guardian's back high above the sea. The final stretch between the derelict and the island slipping by with Pleo's wingbeats.

Per Elty's instructions, the young Lugia took a long route, cutting across the atoll in a place far away from the sea fort and approaching the hilltop overlooking the settlement from behind. Pleo settled in the shade of an elm tree that seemed sufficiently far enough to not attract any attention. After a few false starts, he and his partners snuck along into the side of a Leppa field that stirred up a few memories of Marley and Teja's field. From there, the group cut through it, and then through a Figy field, and an Aspear field, and…

"Gah… okay, so I wasn't expecting Razz Berries to be growing this season," Elty groaned. "But it's alright. We've made it to the outskirts."

Through a prickly field of Razz Berry plants, leaving behind a small collection of scrapes on Team Traveller. Much like the crops of the prior fields, the berries were still green, hard, and unripened, little comfort to their injuries or rumbling stomachs. Fortunately, for the sake of everyone's scuffed and scraped pelts and plumage, it looked like it was the last. There were no more mats or fields ahead to be seen, and directly in front of them were the outskirts of a cluster of mostly-wooden structures which stretched down to the bluffs the team had spotted earlier.

"So what do we do now?" Pleo chirped.

As Elty looked around for a way to sneak in, his eyes settled on a shaded, narrow passageway lined with broken-down jars and crates.

"Okay, so admittedly this is my first time going this way down it, but… see that alley there?" he asked, gesturing at the lane with a paw. "It leads down to a bunch of other ones just like it that'll take us straight to the Andaku Docks. Just move quickly and carefully, and we'll be there soon enou-"

The Growlithe's words died in his mouth as he saw Pleo planting his feet into the ground and preparing to spring up.

"Oi!" he barked, drawing a startled squawk from the white bird.

"H-Huh?!"

"Move in a way that won't get you spotted!"

"But I was just going to fly-!"

"No flying!" Elty insisted, narrowing his eyes impatiently. Nida shook her head and turned to Pleo, attempting to explain Elty's hesitance in more honeyed words.

"Pleo, remember that we're trying to not get seen while going in," she reminded. "If we walk along alleys like this, we'll be less likely to get spotted."

"Oh!" Pleo chirped. "I guess that makes sense…"

"Heh… it'll be just like when you came to Bluewhorl," she chuckled, which drew a smile from the white bird. But as Elty led them off, things weren't fully like they were back on Bluewhorl…

For one, the paths were much steeper, enough so that some of the sections the team went down had stone steps placed into the path to help Pokémon up and down the lane. There was also a surprising lack of open space. Back in Bluewhorl, most of the huts outside the harbor area had gaps or even empty fields between them. They provided enough space for Pokémon to meet and greet one's neighbors. The huts back home were also made out of wood, and had earthy or no paint at all. However, in this town, the huts were as colorful as a spread of gummis back at the mess hall. Verdant greens… fiery reds… sea and sky blues… sunny yellows… The shacks would usually be built up to the edge of the lane. Every third or so had a second floor, and a few larger ones possessed three or even four. Their roofs were usually made of wooden shingles or thatch, and every so often, from dark-colored clay tiles.

As the team ducked from this alley to that, they passed a Kecleon arguing with a sleepy-looking Noibat over misplaced stock. Further ahead they noticed a small group of strange black Pokémon with big solitary eyes that floated around a game of monster cards. They even saw a group of young Pokémon in front of a mural with lines of glyphs composed of dots, depicting a white, eyeless Pokémon dragging an island through a seascape. The group seemed to be in the middle of an outing, and the three overheard snippets of a lecture about Anyilla's founder and the legendary adventurers he travelled with in the time of the Sigillating Wars… Fortunately, the only Pokémon in lavender scarves the team encountered were a Boldore and Palpitoad that were distracted enough to slip past thanks to some chatter over some actors of a local play troupe 'needing more stage time!'

"There it is!"

Until at last, they came to an alley that opened up at a kitty corner to a tile-roofed gate built into a series of wooden palisades, its sturdy wooden doors ajar and begging to be snuck through. All along the wall and gate Nida's nose caught hints of vile smells not wholly unlike those in the alley behind Miria's bar on more neglected days, with similarly uninviting scrawls of graffiti all along their surfaces.

"'Abandon all hope ye who enter'… What a dump!" Nida exclaimed. "The Company really just lets pirates hang around there?"

The mention of pirates made Pleo grow nervous. Weren't these the same Pokémon that caused all that trouble back in Bluewhorl? And now they were just going to go in among them?

"N-Nida?" Pleo stammered, the young Protector inching back into the alley uneasily. "Are the Pokémon in there going to be mean to us?"

"Relax, you two will be fine," Elty chided. "Last time I was here, we could only stay a few days. And that was as long as we didn't cause trouble. But hey, I never made any of these town rules, I just broke them."

"That's not really assuring, Elty-" Nida began, only to be cut off with a sudden yip.

"Ah, there's an opening!" Elty cried. "Let's move already!"

The three bolted from the alley, and dashed for the gate. Just a few more leaps forward, and they'd finally be in the clear!

"Hold it right there!"

Much to the three's alarm, they found themselves bounding straight into a Yanmega, a Manectric, and a Marowak in Company scarves, who ducked out from an alley up ahead. The team turned to try and run, only to find themselves swiftly ringed by the strangers and their predatory gazes.

"Ulp."

"Where do you think you're off to so fast?" the Yanmega sneered.

"Yeah, you think that you can just waltz in past the gate without someone noticing?" the Manectric snickered. "Especially with a big, ugly mug like the one your bird friend's got?"

Nida, Elty, and Pleo went wide-eyed at the sight of the scowling guards. They were all so big and tough-looking… Nida's barbs raised and Elty's fur bristled as their hearts pounded against their chest. The three hastily dug in their feet, and braced themselves for a fierce and tough battle.

"Well, if you want that, you've gotta give us something first!"

Or maybe it wouldn't. The three broke their braced poses and blinked uneasily. Wait, so this meant that…

"Eh?" Pleo stammered. "G-Give you something?"

"You three are new, aren't ya?" Marowak chided. "Well, out here in Mossaisle Town, we have an understanding with the likes of you…"

"You all behave and bring in your loot here to fence, we let you carry out business as long as you stay out of the locals' fur and get out after three days," the Manectric said.

"And part of that business is helping out a few Pokémon who've been up your alley, don't you think?" the Yanmega demanded.

"Huh?!" Nida cried. "You're also pirates?!"

"Former. Our hull got shot out from under us and our captain's taking up space in a nut, so we're just Company conscripts," the Marowak answered. "For now, we're working at the atoll while waiting for the right time to get back into the swing of things."

"A time that you can help speed along with a little contribution," the Yanmega pressed, motioning at the bag slung along Nida's back.

"Wait… the Company makes captured pirates work for them?" the Nidoran asked. "How on earth is that a punishment?"

"There was some stupid name for it," the Manectric scoffed. "'Community Service' or something like that."

"Why are you complaining anyways?" the Marowak growled. "You probably stole whatever was in that bag anyways, so hurry up and do the right thing and give some of it to someone who deserves it more!"

"Huh?! But why would we do that?!" Pleo cried. "You used to be mean, you're mean now, and we're supposed to want to help you be mean in a different way again? Why would anyone want that-?"

"Or we could clear three extra spots at work for new conscripts over an unfortunate incident," the Yanmega chittered, before gesturing with a leg at his Manectric partner. "Alvise here needs some help loading crates. And lavender wouldn't look so bad on you!"

"Psst!" Elty whispered. "Give them something already!"

Nida quickly fumbled through the bag, and after carefully patting down the berries, reluctantly handed over the Chesto, the Rawst, and one of the Oran Berries that Daraen had given them. The three fruits seemed to satisfy the guards, who tore into them in front of Team Traveller.

"See, now that wasn't so hard," the Manectric said. "Who knows? Maybe we'll be on the same side of the law together before too long."

"Tennobi-shima e yōkoso!" the Marowak snickered, giving a mocking bow. The three carried on down a hilly path towards some wooden docks in the distance where the visible forms of ferrying Pokémon were waiting to take them to the compound further off on the atoll. Their voices gave way to grumbling about "shoving crates around for that slave driver" and "let's get this over with already".

As the three slipped away and the sting of losing half of their hard-earned reward from Boisocéan lingered, Nida whirled back to Elty, her voice thick with dismay.

"Elty! They thought that we were all a bunch of pirates!" she cried. "This is terrible!"

"What, are you kidding?" he replied. "This is great!"

Nida flattened out her ears and screwed her eyes shut in frustration. Did… Elty just say that? Really?

"What?! Elty, we just had half our berries taken!" she hissed "How on earth could this be a good thing?!"

"Yeah!" Pleo added. "They think we're bad Pokémon!"

"Well, think of it this way," he offered. "Would you rather those three to think that we're 'criminal scum'? Or for them to know about what happened back at the last two islands?"

Nida and Pleo traded blank looks with each other. It was disheartening that they would be 'pirates' here, but with that alternative…

"Er…"

"Point taken," Nida sighed.

"Let's hurry in before we run into another bunch of guards," Elty instructed, pointing at the gate. "We'll find a way back to your island soon enough."


The voyage back along the Spiral-beaconed route to Kenobi was a tiring and arduous one for everyone. There were two ships that needed to be pushed and steered along with drafts in the water and gusts from the air, Lyn's leading the way ahead of Ellsberg's. A number of crew members from both ships were in the sick bay for wounds, including three of Lyn's strongest fliers (not to mention the two infiltrators that had to be left behind lest they fall even further behind their target). The clear and balmy weather was of little comfort, as there were two captains to poison the atmosphere all the way back with sour and quarrelsome moods.

As the two ships limped the last stretch into the Company port on the atoll ringing Kenobi, there were some quiet exhalations of relief. Once Lyn and Ellsberg's crafts were in their spots along the docks, they would be repaired, and there would be downtime for a brief shore leave away from the duo as the stricken ships were repaired.

Except on this occasion, the crew aboard and accompanying Lyn's ship discovered that day…

"Who stole my place at the docks?!"

That at Lyn's place at the Kenobi shipyards had been occupied, much to the Samurott's bellowing displeasure. It would certainly be an unpleasant day for whoever was the captain of that- Wait…

After a closer observation, it became immediately apparent that the ship was noticeably bigger, with a fourth mast attached to it. Along the sides and base of its bow were iron plates, fastened tightly in place with metal nails. With the sheer expense that protective layer would've incurred, it was clear that this was no run-of-the-mill vessel, even before Lyn's first mate caught sight of the four-layered design on the sails.

"It seems to be an Administrator's ship," the Weavile sighed. "Farn must have moved it out of her normal place."

Ah yes, Kenobi's Administrator. The one that Ellsberg had been sent back to with that report… It was only logical that she would have been less than pleased with the turn of events that transpired while trying to capture the Guardian. With no recourse left for the sullen Commissioner, he turned disgustedly from the occupied space and began to scan the docks for any open ones.

"Wait, but Captain," a Cacnea protested. "Couldn't you just take Farn's normal- YEOW!"

The Grass-Type was answered with a swift-moving orb of water from the Samurott mouth that sent it pinwheeling into one of the masts. That was as clear a 'no' as one needed to hear. After staggering back up to its feet, the Pokémon quickly darted off further down the deck, leaving Lyn to return his attention to finding a place to dock.

"Grr. We'll use an alternate spot," Lyn spat. After glancing to and fro along the docks, the Samurott's eyes settled upon a vacant spot by some warehouses along the water. "Pull us in into that space over there."

The cry went up, and the Pokémon on the deck and in the water and skies around immediately set to work pushing Lyn's ship into place. The Samurott leapt from the railing and into the water, tearing his way through the harbor to a pier with a Misdreavus and Shuppet trading idle gossip.

The Samurott sprang up and leapt onto the dock, sending the hapless Ghost-Types diving out of the way. The Misdreavus among them quickly floated back up, and glared at the Samurott.

"Hey! Who do you think you-?!" only for his words to trail off with the sight of the Samurott's scarf and piercing glare.

"A-Ack! Sorry! Sorry! I didn't know you wer- A-Aah!"

The Ghost-Type blanched and fled along with his companion. With the pier now vacated, the otter shook off some seawater from his pelt, took out a blade from one of his sheaths, and began to toy with it in his usual fashion. As his ship neared the chosen space at the docks, he chanced to hear a Mothim flutter up to him from the side in a hurry.

"Uhm… Lyn," Ellsberg buzzed. "I think there must be a misunderstanding… This is my ship's spot."

"And? Your ship isn't the only one that needs maintenance, Ellsberg!" the Samurott grumbled, bringing his blade to a stop in his paw. The Water-Type nonchalantly pointed at a spot in a distant corner. "Besides, there's plenty of room in the overflow docks!"

"Lyn, my ship can't steer without my escorts' help!" the Bug-Type protested. "That's something that needs to be fixed right away!"

"Yes, and mine can't move forward without outside help!" Lyn growled. "Between that and me outranking you, I think that's grounds for priority, yes?"

"But-!" the moth began, only for a voice to interrupt from behind.

"You two over there!"

At the end of the docks, a Braixen with a First-Rank scarf scampered up, and gestured at the Samurott and the Mothim with a paw.

"Administrator Farn needs you two to meet her at her office," the fox announced.

"Can she wait just a moment?" Lyn growled, irritated at the Braixen's bluntness. "We just got back with damaged ships!"

"She did say it was really important," the Fire-Type insisted adamantly. "And Administrator Elilan is here, too."

"Wait, Elilan?" Lyn asked. "But that's impossible! The only Administrator's ship is-!

Lyn gestured over to his normal spot, where sure enough, there was the iron-clad behemoth that Administrators were assigned as part of their duties. Except, now that he looked further back along the docks closer to the training grounds, he saw that there was a second such ship… in Farn's normal spot.

While this meant that Farn hadn't been so petty to deny Lyn his normal spot at the docks, this was hardly any cause for relief. For now there would be two Administrators to get an earful from.

"This is really not what I needed first thing onshore," Ellsberg muttered, putting his tarsus up to his forehead.

"A warm welcome back, I'm sure," Lyn grumbled. The Samurott sheathed his blade and shook his head before turning to the Mothim. "Come on, let's get this over with…"


Beyond the gate, Nida, Pleo, and Elty made their way down a short path that lead to a set of stone stairs winding down the sharp seaside bluff in between two barriers. One was a stone ledge that ran up to the edge of the sea. The other was a stone blockhouse perched atop a tall, thick wall on one end that cut off what would've otherwise been an uninterrupted stretch of beach. A short ways offshore, an additional (if seemingly redundant) breakwater further hemmed in the district by closing off the approach from the sea.

As the team made its way down, the sight of a compact district came into view, composed of the same gaudy collection of buildings that the team had seen from the derelict.

There were shops, docks, and Pokémon milling about to and fro while chattering with each other. After taking a moment to sniff the air and peek down a few paths from the end of the stairs, Elty pointed out a path that went past the docks. All in all, the place didn't feel too out of place for a seaside square… of sorts.

After all, in the seaside squares the team had seen, the sailors near the docks didn't have squabbles over "fair shares of the loot" or discussions of "black spots" received from rivals (suddenly the extra breakwater didn't seem so redundant). The shacks and tents were also less colorful, and the signage was more subdued instead of the gaudy balloons and the minor sculptural feats here in the Andaku Docks. They also didn't have a veritable layer of graffiti on their walls, the team chancing to sight a bipedal cream dog with a tail dribbling colored fluid nonchalantly leaving a splattered scrawl on the side wall to an uncharacteristically busy Juice Bar. And there certainly weren't any bands of shifty-looking Pokémon idling asking each other if they spotted any "promising marks" to go after (Pleo's curiosity on this matter being swiftly overruled as Nida and Elty quickly hushed him along down a detouring alley).

The shops similarly veered from past norms. Some, like an eatery with a Pangoro distributing leaflets advertising something called 'sushi' seemed innocuous enough. Others would have surely been normal establishments were they under more respectable ownership, such as the dingy junk shop owned by a Farfetch'd who was discussing "fenced goods" with a shifty-looking Floette that smelled of seawater.

"Nida, what is that Juice Bar over there?"

And then there were places like the syrup hut. It was a modest little shack, with a roof covered in bright red shingles and signage in bold green runes. Behind the counter with the Ciccino server was a clay pot with a spout at one end, a bowl under a cover with a clay juicing wedge with slits to let fluid through, and bunches of reddish-orange spiky berries hanging from the rafters behind. On the other side of the counter, a few simple, rough-hewn stools were spread out and a gruff-looking Sawk watched over dutifully over a small group of Pokémon.

"Dude… have you ever thought about why they call these berries 'Lansats'?" a Watchog slurred. "Like, I get the 'sat' part, since we sat before drinking… but what's a 'lan'?"

"Maybe it's- like… a metaphor," a similarly slurring Chatot answered. "Makes more sense than Sang, though… I haven't heard the berries say a peep!"

On closer examination, the Watchog, Chatot, and several of the other Pokémon seemed to have glazed-over eyes. The team chanced to see a more lucid Bastiodon request "syrup". At once, the Cinccino grabbed a couple of the red berries. After pressing them against the clay wedge, their juice settled into the bowl below, before being transferred to the pot with the spout and placed over a strong fire. A few minutes, and a cloud of fruity-smelling steam later, this "syrup" was poured out into a rough bowl for the client.

The Steel-Type lapped up the thick, reddish glop. The contents of the bowl dropped, along with the Bastiodon's lucidity as it too began to babble giddy, incoherent nonsense with the others. Well, that would explain why they'd never seen a shop like that before!

"Yeah, we're moving on," Elty harrumphed.

"Huh?" Pleo asked. "Why? What's wrong with-?"

"Uhm… let's not worry about it, Pleo," Nida muttered. The Nidoran hopped along the path, shaking her head as they left the sordid hut behind. "You said the town's guild was here, Elty?"

"One of two, yeah," he replied. The response made Nida stop in her tracks and whirl around in surprise.

"One of two?!" she cried, pressing her nose up against Elty's muzzle indignantly. "You mean there's one that isn't in this cuchitril?!"

"E-Eh?!" Pleo squawked. "Why aren't we going to that one, then?!"

The Fire-Type for his part was remarkably unmoved by the Nidoran's exclamations, and after rolling his eyes, answered her question with one of his own.

"Tell me, you two. Between a guild in a district full of Pokémon on the wrong side of the law, and a normal one, which one do you think is not going to be telling the Company who's been doing jobs here?"

Nida and Pleo blinked and looked at each other uneasily as they mulled over Elty's words.

"Er…"

"The one with all the mean Pokémon in it?"

"Exactly," Elty scoffed. "Now quit your whining and let's keep moving, the guild's just up ahead anyways."

The "guild" was a hodgepodge of Gummi-colored wooden shacks along the shoreline, the only real indication that it was a guild at all being the shallow-angled canvas roof perched popping over their rooflines. Upon slipping through the entrance in between two of the shanties, the team saw that the canvas roof shaded a spacious wooden pier inside that served as a main area. The basic amenities seemed to be present… There were some boards filled with listings, there was a metal gong which seemed to serve the role of the this guild's customary noisemaker that was used to summon nearby teams, and of course, the normal Pokémon drifting around looking for work.

"Hey, so we were going to hit up something tonight right? What's the plan?"

Well, 'normal' for a certain definition of the term. As Team Traveller passed a Drilbur, a Dewgong, and a Koffing, their musings of "throwing Shorty there, to drill his way through their hull" and "if we found the help, I could try out a noxious gas combo" pricked Nida and Pleo's ears. It was quickly apparent that these Pokémon, much like the ones on the docks outside, were a colorful crowd, to say the least.

In less generous terms, they were exactly the sorts of Pokémon that Team Traveller didn't need to have any business with beyond getting a mission to restock the contents of their bag. And the sooner they got away from them, the better.

"So… what do we do now?" Nida asked.

"Well, you need supplies, don't you? Different Pokémon or not, this is a guild," Elty answered. "There's a mission board over there that'll have a few postings for jobs in the local Mystery Dungeon, just pick the easiest-looking one out of them, and we'll grab everything we can on the way."

"Eh?" Pleo chirped. "But don't we need to get our badges checked first-?"

"I'll do it," the Fire-Type volunteered "We only have three days to spend here, right? We might as well make the most of our time while we're at it."

Nida and Pleo both traded distrustful looks with each other, before turning back to the Growlithe, eyelids lowered.

"Er… Elty?"

"Just why are we supposed to trust you on your own again?"

"Oi, what's that look for? Just where am I going to run to? You still have my bag," Elty snorted. "Besides, Growlithe can't exactly fly or swim and this is the part of town where I'm least likely to get in trouble."

Nida paused, before flicking her ears and shaking her head with a reluctant sigh.

"Fine. We'll see what's there for missions."

Elty watched the pair head over to the mission board and darted off. Contrary to his word, as the Growlithe wandered about the main hall, he wasn't in any particular rush to find a teleporter. Rather, he kept his eyes peeled for golden scarves with a gray Aggron head design on them, and his ears for any word that seemed to provide a clue for the whereabouts of one 'Iron Fleet'…

"Oof!"

"Hey, watch it!"

Perhaps a little too much attention, as Elty looked up to see the irked form of a Drowzee looking down at him.

"If you need me to check a badge, you don't have to run into me, you know!" the psychic chided. The Psychic-Type flicked a paw as its eyes glowed and Elty felt his badge and scarf tug against his neck before falling back to rest.

"That wasn't exactly what I was trying to do," the dog sighed. Whelp, the spike lump would be happy about this, at least, but that was cold comfort for a place where he should've been able to get some word of the old crew! As Elty screwed his eyes up in frustration, he heard the tapir muse to himself.

"Hey wait a minute… I think I've seen you before. Weren't you with that crew that called themselves the 'Iron Fleet' just before Sang season started?" it asked. "How come I didn't see you with the bug that came in from them earlier?"

Hold on a minute… someone from the crew came in earlier?

"Wait, 'bug'?" Elty cried, his ears perking up. "What are you-?"

"Eltenios?" a voice suddenly buzzed. "Is that you?"

The Growlithe whirled around and saw a Ledian flitting up in stupefied surprise. Sure enough, the beetle was wearing the familiar gold and gray patterned scarf of the Iron Fleet. Wait a minute! This was one of the crew's fliers...

"Ah! Kichiro!"

"Keiichiro," the Ledian corrected. "But what are you doing here? We thought you got captured back at Tromba!"

"Heh, well, what can I say?" Elty beamed. "I don't ever give up, not even at getting back on the job!"

"I can see that, and here I was just on my way back out!" Kichiro said. "Any of the others make it out with you?"

"No, unfortunately," the Growlithe sighed. "I'm all on my own out here."

"So then," the Ledian began. "They're…?"

"Oh, they're alive," Elty interrupted. "But they're kinda stuck with Community Service right now."

"Huh? But that can't be right," the Drowzee insisted. "You came in with two extra Pokémon. Weren't those crewmates of yours?"

Elty cast a glance back over in the direction of the mission board. Those two couldn't have that much trouble getting back to Tromba from here if they really wanted to. Besides, it wasn't his job to babysit that mewa anyways.

"Uh… no," the Growlithe grunted. "But don't worry about them, the only thing I need from them before getting back on the crew is my bag."

"Right! I'll be sure to let the Captain know that you're here!" Kichiro replied. "Just hold tight for a few hours, we'll be here at sundown!"

"Hrmph. I'll be there!" Elty answered. The Growlithe then turned his head back in the direction of the mission board. "I don't think it'll be a problem. Tell him I'll be at the crew's normal hangout at 'bokuya!"

The orange and cream dog turned and darted through the crowd of shifty Pokémon at the guild, as he could just barely make out a fading, buzzing voice over the din…

"It's Ryūbokuya, Eltenios!"

But there would be plenty of time to argue about bar names later. Before that, there were two loose ends to be tied down first…


"How about this one, Nida?"

Nida looked up at the crowded and poster-plastered mission board and saw that Pleo had spotted a scruffy-looking mission listing. After looking a bit closer at the slip, she noticed that it was for a "quest for running booty past the walls"… Hardly the sort of thing that either of the two needed to get into.

"I… don't think that we should get into that one either, Pleo," she sighed, giving a frowning shake of her head. "It doesn't look like there's an awful lot of honest work we can do in these listings."

When Nida first saw the mission board, she thought that surely with its larger size and plentiful listings at this hour, that there would be something for them to do. Well… from a certain point of view, there were things to do. There was the request for deckhands that could 'give an aggressive welcome' for a merchant ship headed off along the Diamond Beacons, a request for making a scammer 'sleep with the fishes'… and the invitation to check out a secret base, preferably 'alone, and with lots of items to play with'. Even if it wasn't posted in a dodgy guild, it would hardly be worth bothering with when there wasn't even a floor listed on the request!

Pleo's lack of literacy shielded him from most of the details, even if he could now discern a couple of runes such as the one for 'reward' and the Poké sign thanks to seeing them before in Bluewhorl and Seahive. But there was still something about what Nida said that made the little bird curious.

"Huh?" the young Protector wondered. "What's 'honest work,' Nida?"

"It's being able to do things that help out another Pokémon with a problem they have without hurting another Pokémon for no reason," she explained. The Nidoran folded her ears back and looked back up at the mass of papers on the board. "There just aren't any listings that I've seen in this bunch that seem to do th-"

Before Nida could finish her train of thought, she was cut off by a cry from behind.

"Hey!"

The two whirled around and saw Elty's pudgy form bounding towards them, the dog came to a trotting stop as he neared, sat down and scratched at an ear before turning back to the two.

"Got a mission yet?" the Fire-Type asked. While his cheery demeanor was probably a good sign that he had gotten the team's badges checked, it still wasn't that comforting.

"Elty, most of these missions would get us kicked out of the Guild back at home if we took them!" Nida cried.

"You know, you could just not tell them that you did them," the Growlithe scoffed, rolling his eyes. "But worry about that later. It's getting late, and you're hungry, right? I got us a place to eat!"

The Growlithe's words instantly made the young Lugia perk up and his eyes brighten. Elty had found them food?

"Oh! Is it nearby?"

"Yep!" the dog barked. "It's just a short walk from here!"

Nida's ears drooped. Yes, the idea of getting food sounded awfully enticing at the moment, but… something wasn't adding up here.

"Wait a minute. Elty, how on earth are we supposed to pay for this?" she questioned. "We don't have a single Poké to our names right now."

"We can take a tab!" he replied.

"A tab?" Pleo asked.

"It means you can get stuff now, and pay for it later," Elty explained. "Standard practice, really."

"Eh?" Nida murmured, raising an ear in puzzlement. "But back home, tabs weren't just given out like that-"

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Pleo cried. "Come on, Nida, let's eat!"

And with that, Pleo darted off and took wing out of the guild's main hall. Nida turned and glared at the Growlithe, before she felt a rumble in her stomach…

It had been a while since she last ate…

"You'd have better have thought this through, Elty," she grumbled.

"Relax, I've been here before," he reassured the Nidoran. "I've thought through everything. Just kick back, eat up, and take it easy for a few hours."

It would have to do for now, Nida darted off after Pleo with a cry of "wait up!", leaving Elty to follow after her as a small smirk spread over his muzzle.


Author's Notes:

- sknerzy - Polish: "misers", "scrooges"
- Tennobi-shima e yōkoso! (テッノビ島へようこそ!) - Japanese: "Welcome to Tennobi Island!" (In reference to local name referenced in passing in Chapter 12.) (Hepburn Romanization)
- Sang (no Mi) (サンのみ) - Japanese: "Sang (Fruit/Berry)". Language version name for "Lansat Berry". (Official Romanization)
- cuchitril - Spanish (Chilean, Peruvian): "hovel", "hive"
- Ryūbokuya (流木屋) - Japanese: lit. "Driftwood House/Shop". Style of place name is sometimes used in names for shops or dining establishments. e.g. "Harukiya (春木屋)". (Hepburn Romanization)