Chapter 34: Setting Up

"What did you just say?!"

A startled roar filled the stone chamber that served as Administrator Zorn's office. There, the Gyarados and the visiting Dragonite stared wide-eyed and shocked at an anxiously flitting Mothim.

"The Lugia the Board sent Lyn after!" Ellsberg buzzed. "I spotted him in the middle of the square by the guild earlier!"

A dead silence filled the room as both Administrators in the room struggled to process the Bug-Type's words. Zorn attempted to coil his way out of a stunned, upright posture, the Water-Type's words coming hesitantly through gritted teeth.

"This… is… unexpected," the Gyarados finally managed. He shook his head and after regaining a bit of his composure, turned to address the Dragonite in his presence.

"Darzin, leave your records at the door, I'll look at them later," the Water-Type said. "It seems something more pressing has come up."

The Dragonite beat his wings and jerked his head towards the sea serpent with a start. Was Zorn dismissing him?

"What do you mean something more pressing?! This is potentially the most significant event of my career!" the Dragon-Type bellowed, his sentence punctuated by bouts of exasperated panting. "You can't just expect me to sit out of it!"

"Yes, and this is a private matter," the Gyarados answered, a glare settling on his face as his tone became increasingly growling and serious. "So I would like to have a chat with this notary, in private."

Darzin hopped back reflexively and felt the blood drain from his face at the sight of a growling maw full of razor-sharp fangs hovering directly in front of his face. After faltering a moment, the full weight of Zorn's attempt to be rid of him weighed on his mind, followed by his pride. Before he knew it, his burning indignation returned, and his feet were dug firmly into the stone islet underfoot.

"N-Now you listen here, you overgrown eel!" Darzin snarled back, flashing his claws at the Gyarados. "I'm an Administrator too, and I won't let you shut me out of-!"

Zorn thrashed forward and cut Darzin off with a roar, the tumult kicking up a spray of water that drenched the islet and sent Ellsberg flitting up with a start. A dull crunch reverberated in the room, followed by a pained howl that became increasingly muffled and joined by the sound of faint crackling.

When Ellsberg turned his head back at Darzin, he saw that the bulk of his body had been encased in a layer of ice still spreading from a bite at his left shoulder. The immobilized dragon was able to do little more than twitch the unfrozen tip of his tail and digits of his right claw. Zorn pulled his head back and spat up a few scales as the ice block began to give some stifled, angry growls of protest in the background.

"Well, that went better than expected," the Gyarados harrumphed. "Guards!"

At once, the doors flew open and the guards outside rushed into the room and up the wooden bridges. One after the other, a Gourgeist and a Breloom followed closely after a flustered-looking Ariados. The lot slowed their pace and came to a stop on the islet, sizing up the now-frozen Dragonite.

"Yes, Administrator!" the Ariados swiftly answered.

"Kindly leave Administrator Darzin's records by the door and escort him out of my office before he thaws out," Zorn instructed. "I will need to have a word with Commander Briggs and Elmer here."

A summary "Aye" came in response, and after a moment of uneasy hesitation from the spider, the three set off shoving the hefty Dragonite for the door in fits and spurts and complaints of "could he get any fatter?" Halfway to the door, Darzin melted a hole around his mouth with a gout of fire and was able to manage a "can't do this to me!" before being shut up by a clod of golden-brown Stun Spores from the Breloom.

After the three finally pulled the frozen dragon through the doors, they were slammed shut, leaving Zorn and Ellsberg behind as the pre-existing quiet slowly returned...

… only to be broken by the sound of a dissatisfied buzz.

"Uhm… sir... I believe you're mistaken," the Mothim notary corrected. "My name's Ellsberg."

"Let's not get too hung up on details," Zorn answered back dismissively. The creature circled around and craned his head and neck to accommodate the Bug-Type in his customary way for visitors...

Namely, to loom over them, with eyes trained fixedly on the Pokémon in his presence.

"First off, what is Tromba's Protector doing on my island?" the Gyarados demanded. "I was under the impression that Lyn had been sent there to handle the matter of extraction."

"Erm, well," Ellsberg began. "Commissioner Lyn underestimated said Protector's abilities a bit, and underestimated the degree and tenacity of the support that he'd have."

"What exactly are you trying to imply there?"

"I'm implying that he has help," he answered. The Bug-Type rifled through his bag and pulled out a small stack of bounties, arraying the sheets of paper along the ground for the Administrator to see.

"I found the Guardian's feathers in the square! Freshly molted, even!" Ellsberg explained. "It means that he and the party he's been traveling with must be in this village!"

Zorn scanned the papers in front of him and saw that they were a set of four, depicting a Nidoran, a Growlithe, a Nidorina, and a Hydreigon. The Gyarados peered at the listings for a moment, before giving a skeptical frown and looking back at the Mothim.

"Eh? Whose fin are you trying to pull here, Elmer?" the Water-Type pressed. "These bounties were issued by the Kenobi branch!"

"Ellsb-!" the moth reflexively retorted, only to notice that the much larger fish with a much higher rank and much bigger teeth was glaring at him. Ellsberg hastily caught his tongue, gulped down his pride, and amended his words to be more palatable to the Administrator.

"Er… it's because at the time, we had reason to believe Lugia and his companions were on Kenobi."

Zorn shook his head and gave an exasperated scoff, muttering quiet frustrations under his breath.

"Just what sort of extraction is Lyn running?" the Water-Type growled. "Losing his target first at Tromba, and then within spitting distance of one of our shipyards?"

A deafening silence filled the room as Ellsberg stared blankly back at the Gyarados. The Mothim screwed his eyes shut and shook his head with a grunt.

"I... don't have an answer to that-"

"Administrator Zorn!"

The sound of the doors being thrown open filled the room, revealing an Armaldo with a Third-Rank Company scarf hurrying in. As the Plate Pokémon came to a rest at the islet, Zorn turned, and addressed him with a tone of voice that approximated amity.

"Ah, Briggs… Just in time."

"I heard that you needed my presence immediately," the Armaldo answered back. "Just what is going on here?"

"The gods tread among us on this island," the Gyarados replied.

At once, the Rock-Type hopped back with a start. Zorn didn't honestly mean…?

"W-What?! But how can that be?!" he cried. "The Protector here on Mengir got shipped off-island before the Petrification of Conntow! And the only one you've told me of is that sea fairy that drifts among the ocean clans and hasn't come ashore in years!"

"It's an unrelated specimen this time," Ellsberg explained. "The Guardian of the Seas."

"I'll brief you on the details in a bit," Zorn added. "But my understanding is that it should look something akin to a long-necked Wingull."

Ellsberg passed the four bounties over to the Fossil Pokémon, setting them down beside the anomalocaris' feet. The Armaldo simply stood there for a minute scanning the papers, blinking at the odd description of their quarry before finally clearing his throat to speak.

"I see," Briggs grunted back. "I'll send word to Captain Hertsog to seize them at o-"

"Actually, Commander," Zorn interrupted. "I need you to arrange for something a bit different this time…"

The two bugs whipped around to stare at the Gyarados puzzledly. It wasn't like him to suddenly meddle in open-and-shut operations...

"Administrator Zorn? What are you going on about?" Ellsberg asked. "The Protector is here now, we should grab him before he can get away!"

"Well now, that strategy's been working out rather well for Commissioner Lyn, hasn't it?" the Administrator scoffed. "Chase around the Protector while he's healthy and capable, only for him to slip from your grasp again. No, I think that it's nigh time for a change of strategy."

The Water-Type twitched his barbels and mulled for a moment, before turning a wary eye towards the Mothim notary in the room.

"First off, have there been any particular habits this group has been getting into in each of their stops?" the Gyarados demanded.

"Er… well, my understanding is that they were found near a guild the first time they slipped our grasp, so I presume they've done a mission or two while we've been chasing them?" Ellsberg replied.

"Oh really now?" Zorn asked. "I think that I have a proposal for how to handle them in that case."

"You… do?" the Mothim buzzed.

"This island's ferals, particularly the ones in our Mystery Dungeon, have been unsettled ever since the local Protector's egg was transported all those years ago," the Water-Type said. "As you may already know, they have a habit of ambushing villagers travelling alone in the island's interior at night."

"Not to mention the occasional team that gets forced into an early retirement by those ferals for straying into one of the more sensitive stable zones..." Briggs added, his words quickly drawing a grunt of affirmation from the Administrator.

"That's right, and I think it's something we can use," Zorn remarked. "I suggest that we let Commander Briggs have a few of his subordinates lead these 'pirates' of yours into one of those less… accommodating stable zones through a bait mission."

The Gyarados eased into the water, evidently content with the direction his thoughts were going in. After all, a weakened Guardian would be a much simpler target to deal with...

"Then, when the Protector limps back with whatever's left of his team, we pounce and hold them until Commissioner Lyn can come to transport the Guardian."

"I think that I can arrange for that, sir," Briggs replied, before pausing as a troubled thought flickered over his mind. "But... are you sure Director Inler will-?"

"What Director Inler doesn't know won't harm him," Zorn quickly answered back. "And if anything goes amiss, I will ensure that you don't bear the brunt of responsibility."

Ellsberg began to sputter with a start at Zorn's words, twitching his antennae anxiously. This plan was much riskier than anything he had been expecting!

"B-B-But this is madness!" the Mothim blurted out "What if the Protector gets hurt?! Or-?!"

"Need I remind you, Elmer," the Gyarados interrupted, "that all this time, this wild-goose chase has been going on precisely because the Company has been underestimating this Protector?"

The sea serpent paused and mulled, flopping his tail back and forth against the surface of the water as he waited intently for an answer from the still-stunned moth. After a few flops, the Gyarados grew impatient, and decided to humor the insect's reservations.

"Look, I'm not pushing for any special favors or concessions here," the Water-Type said. "And for my own reasons, I am more than ready to sign off on Commissioner Lyn to fill Darzin's spot as an Administrator... even if my department has to do most of the work for him."

Zorn dipped his head down, coming to eye level with the Mothim as he narrowed his glare with determination.

"All I ask in return is that we follow my plan here."


Later that night, the Grovyle Team Traveller encountered outside the Cromlech Inn made her way through the bowels of the fort on the outskirts of Fensedge Village. The palisades and the bulk of its structures were composed of roughly-hewn logs and timbers, with a few exceptions having sturdier stone walls. One of those exceptions was the central complex where Zorn's chamber lay, along with her destination in it- the central blockhouse which loomed over the entire fort.

The Grovyle entered and paced up the winding, torchlit passages of the upper floors of the fort's central blockhouse. The gecko came across a waiting Ariados and Leafeon with a five-tailed blotch on her head waiting patiently outside the Captain of the Guard's offices. From beyond the firmly-barred door, muffled voices filtered out, leaving the three to try and puzzle out their meaning.

"Oh, hey, Salvini," the Ariados said. "Captain Hertsog wanted you to come too, huh?"

"Yeah, I just got the summons, Payak," the gecko answered back. "Do you have any idea what's going on, though? Sure seems like a late hour to talk about something."

"Well, at first I thought it was about what happened with Administrator Darzin earlier today," the spider chittered. "Though you're right, it wouldn't have been worth putting off to this hour."

"Do you two think it has anything to do with that fuklyo going around who's been claiming to be an Immortal?" the Marked Leafeon asked.

"The Skarmory? I haven't really heard of him doing anything strange," the Ariados, evidently Payak, began, only to find himself facing a pair of unamused stares from his counterparts.

"Strange in a bad way," the spider hastily corrected. "You know what I meant, Phyllis. It's hard to really find fault with a weirdo when he's actually helping Pokémon around town."

"Well, it wouldn't matter," Salvini grunted. "Not like any of us would be able to tell an Immortal from an imposter with just a glance-"

Clunk

Just then, the sound of the door being unbarred from within resounded. The three whirled around towards the office's entrance, coming face to face with a Mienshao with a Second-Rank scarf.

"Sorry for keeping you three so long," the weasel said. "Come on in, Commander Briggs is here to see us."

The three grunts stopped and blinked uncertainly as soon as their Captain's words left his mouth.

"Commander Briggs?" Payak asked. As the three poked their heads in, they saw that sure enough, there was a waiting Armaldo, Administrator Zorn's second-in-command. The trio made their way in, and took seats on simple cushions on stools about a low table opposite the Commander. One after the other, the three grunts straightened their scarves as the Plate Pokémon sized them up, clearly agitated about something.

"The Commander informed me that there was an important mission involving some Pokémon that were seen in the square by the guild earlier today," the Mienshaoe explained, turning his head towards his subordinates. "He asked me to pick a team of Pokémon that were around the area, and of the options, you three seemed to be the candidates for the job."

"Now hold on here, Hertsog! The candidates that are best for the job aren't necessarily the ones you think are best for it!" the Armaldo interrupted, his gaze settling on Phyllis. "And offhand, I can see one that isn't suited to this mission at all."

The other Pokémon cast glances over at the Leafeon with the blotched head, who had frozen and started to grow flustered as she realized that the fossil bug was referring to none other than...

"Wh-Wha-?! M-Me?!" Phyllis exclaimed. "Wh-Why wouldn't I be suited for it?!"

"What's the deal?!" Salvini interjected. "She works as hard as the rest of us!"

"With all due respect, what's so wrong about letting a Marked do this assignment-?" Payak began, only to be silenced by his Captain whipping a furry sleeve out to motion for silence. The Mienshao also appeared to be taken aback by his superior's objections and quickly turned his attention back to the Armaldo.

"Commander, you asked me to pick from my subordinates that were around the square earlier today," the Fighting-Type reminded. "From a purely technical perspective, Phyllis is by far one of the most qualified choices I could have made!"

In response, the Mienshao got an icy glare from the Armaldo across the table, who leaned in before snapping back in an agitated tone.

"Don't get cocky just because you evolved early, Hertsog! There are some things that skulking about a Distortion longer than normal won't just give you, like operational experience," Briggs hissed. "I'm your superior in that department, and I say that fox isn't well-suited to this mission!"

"B-But- I've worked as hard as anyone else on the force! A-And I care just about as much as Mengir and the Company as anyone else!" Phyllis protested. The Leafeon's voice carried a betrayed and helpless tone, clearly upset by Briggs' insistence on being rid of her. "Are the Pokémon Marked or something? You don't have to worry about me sticking up for them if they've been causing trouble!"

"Commander, if Phyllis isn't suited for this mission, I think that I as her superior have a right to know why she's not suitable, no?" Hertsog pressed. "Give me an explanation for your reservations, and I'll concede the point."

Briggs turned and sized up the Leafeon with a frown. If a Marked was tasked to pursue a sea god, what could keep her from causing a panic among her peers on the island? If that happened it would surely defeat the secrecy that Zorn demanded!

… on the other hand, there wasn't really an excuse he could give. He couldn't claim that terrain was an issue, as any team fielded by Hertsog would focus on the land anyways. And if he said that this quarry would frighten the blotch-head, what would keep that Mienshao from just going along and telling her?

Bah… perhaps the best that could be done would be to play along, and make sure that that fox stayed out of the way.

"I... was skeptical of potential conflicts of interest," the Armaldo reluctantly growled back, eying the Leafeon. "But I think that things can work out if her loyalty is as solid as she lets on."

Phyllis bristled and growled at Briggs' accusatory tone, only for Salvini to up beside her and pat at her shoulder.

"Don't let it get to you," she whispered. "After all, you're still on the case right?"

"… Right," the fellow Grass-Type answered, giving a glowering sigh as the Ariados of the group cleared his throat to attempt to steer the conversation in a less confrontational direction.

"So then what's the assignment?" Payak asked.

"Well, leadership has had a bit of a pirate problem lately," Briggs answered as he moved a claw through some papers at his end of the table. "Do any of these Pokémon seem familiar?"

The Commander pushed a set of pirate bounties out into the middle of a table. There was one for a Nidoran, another for a Growlithe, and another pair for a Nidorina and Hydreigon. One by one, the three First-Ranks began to inspect the notices.

"Uhm… I can't say that I've seen any of them during my rounds today," Phyllis murmured to herself. "Payak? Salvini? What about you?"

"Can't say that I've seen any of them myself," the Ariados began. "But-"

There was a loud clatter as a chair was thrown back by an excited Grovyle springing up from her seat. The gathered Pokémon turned in surprise as their teammate suddenly sprung up from her seat, mystified at what had caused her outburst.

"Salvini? Kavko ima?" Payak exclaimed.

"These pirates of yours! I ran into them earlier today!" the gecko cried, eliciting a chorus of startled exclamations from her peers. "I thought something seemed fishy about them even though they looked a little young, so I steered them to the Cromlech Inn!"

"That settles it then," Hertsog declared. "I'll organize a raid on the place right away-!"

"Not so fast, Captain," Briggs interrupted. "While these are obviously very serious characters, we can't afford to just barge in right away!"

"What are you talking about, Commander?" the Mienshao protested. "We know where they are, why wouldn't we spring on them now?"

"They really didn't seem that tough when I ran into them, Commander," Salvini insisted. "And we could grill them for information about where their tougher friends are!"

Briggs shook his head in response, before looking back at his underlings and carrying on with his explanation.

"Bear me out... This group is much stronger than their rag-tag appearance would let on," the Armaldo said. "And I believe you should know a thing or two about appearances being deceiving, Hertsog."

"I'll concede your point…" the Mienshao grumbled, shaking his head. "But where are you going with this?"

"What I'm getting at is that this lot has already fought their way out of the Company's grasp three times already," Briggs answered. "So you'd be wise not to blindly rush your subordinates off to a stay with the medics."

"Eh?!" Payak exclaimed. "But how are we supposed to wrangle them down if they're that dangerous?!"

"You aren't," the Fossil Pokémon corrected.

"Come… again?" Phyllis asked, giving a puzzled frown. Payak and Salvini similarly thought the anomalocaris' words to be strange and traded curious looks with each other.

"Why not?" Salvini wondered.

"Yeah, you're not suggesting we just let them slip away, are you?" Payak added.

"From the information I received, every place this group has gone to has reported that they front as a travelling team," Briggs explained. "Most likely to scout hiding places in the interior and local Mystery Dungeon for future raids."

The Armaldo paused for a second, his tail swishing as he processed the account.

"Naturally, our local circumstances make things a bit more… treacherous," he continued. "Which we can use to get this band of brigands in over their heads, and pounce on them while they're weak and wounded."

"You mean what's left of them," Payak corrected.

"Well, I wouldn't be so quick to assume, but a loss or two wouldn't be unexpected, no," Briggs answered as a small smirk spread over his mouth. "But does that clear things up, Hertsog?"

The Mienshao moved a fur-sleeved arm to his muzzle and pondered a moment. The mustelid glanced over the bounties once more before returning his gaze to his superior.

"It does, yes… And offhand, I see a few things that need to be done to get these pirates into that trap," the Fighting-Type answered back. "We'll need to work with the guild and medics to help set up a snare for these brigands without sucking any civilians in. We'll need to keep an eye for any potential contacts they might have from the docks or on the fringes, and of course, we'll need to actually reel them in."

Hertsog looked down and pawed at his whiskers in thought for a moment, before looking back up and addressing his subordinates.

"Payak, I want you to handle the guild details," the weasel instructed, casting a glance over to the Ariados. "Dangerous criminals or not, this will require bending the guild's rules a little, and it would be best if there were no discrepancies to show for it."

"Consider it done," the Bug-Type grunted.

"Oh? Not giving the duty to Phyllis there?" Briggs asked. "After all, it does seem like a simple enough task compared to the alternatives, especially that dock work..."

Phyllis hissed in indignation, arching her back as she launched into a heated protest.

"Captain, if I may, I'd like to receive the assignment for the docks," the Marked Leafeon replied adamantly. "I'm confident that I can handle it."

A wicked smirk cracked across Briggs' face. Work at the docks would certainly do as a distraction for her...

"It's yours, and I'll work with the Rangers to handle those fringes from my end," Hertsog said. "Salvini…"

"Yes?" the Grass-Type asked.

"You seem to have had the most contact with these scoundrels already," the Mienshao Captain instructed. "I think you're the most natural candidate for steering them towards the dummy mission."

"Hrmph, got it."

"I think that should be all then, get some rest," the Fighting-Type said. "We'll all need to be up in time to beat these scoundrels to the morning crush tomorrow."

The three First-Ranks were dismissed and made their way to the door. Salvini and her companions traced their way down the halls, en route for the courtyard, where the three would go their separate ways for the night based on the lodgings the Company had assigned them.

All the while, something about the whole exchange couldn't help but strike the lizard as strangely amiss...

"Why was Briggs so hesitant to let Captain Hertsog bring Phyllis along for a simple pirate bust?"

The Grovyle mulled the matter, but after thinking and not being able to come to any satisfactory explanation, she brushed it aside.

"Eh, there's probably a good enough reason for it."

Salvini shook her head and continued on as her mind drifted off to the instructions she had been given. If she wanted to give those ne'er-do-wells that mission all she had to do was wait outside the inn the next morning and follow them to the guild.


Unbeknownst to the three, on the roof above the Captain's office, a Dragonite had been perched on the awning, fluttering up just high enough to keep his full weight from weighing down the shingled roof. From his position, Darzin had gathered the whole of the conversation that transpired in the office beneath him.

"So, Zorn plans on making the Protector into a sitting Ducklett," he muttered. "Well that simplifies the matter greatly."

The Dragonite turned over to Zorn's stone-walled chamber and glared. It was all that Gyarados' fault that he had to take matters into his own claws to get restitution… Him and the rest of those ingrates on the Board!

But that was no matter, the opportunity was here, and with his time as an Administrator drawing to a close, one could be forgiven for resorting to desperate measures.

"You won't be rid of me so easily, Zorn," Darzin growled. "I will get back what the Board and the Company took from me all those years ago, and if I have to get blunt about it, so be- a-ah-ACHOO!"

The Dragon-Type sneezed, as a gout of dragonfire sailed off and into the side of a nearby barracks. As the Dragonite raised his head and inhaled some snot starting to dribble out his nose, he noticed the barracks now had a blackened scorch mark on the wall and the roof eave was smoldering, with startled cries coming from nearby.

"A-Aaah! What was that?!"

"I think it came from the Captain's office!"

Darzin froze, his antennae drooping and eyes slowly widening in spite of his shrinking pupils as the sound of guards moving around reached his ears.

"Urgh… lousy cold... Time to make myself scarce."

The Dragonite flew off as fast as his tiny wings could carry him. A quick look back past his now tense and rigid tail revealed several guards approaching the blockhouse he was perched on just seconds ago.

Now that he knew what Zorn's plan was all he had to do was wait for the team to come back from the bait mission, and snatch them away before his goons had a chance to capture them.


"Crom! Ojo!"

The Druddigon whirled about and froze as he saw a Vigoroth with a Company scarf charging him under the morning's light, his claws bared and swinging towards him. Crom attempted to bolt to the side, but it was too late to avoid a painful glance from the Slash on his arm.

"Eyaaaah!"

The ruddy dragon tumbled and fell along the dirt ground, panting. This fight was going much worse than planned. His foe was tougher, more experienced, and as the sound of rapidly approaching footfalls indicated, swifter.

"Ha!" the Normal-Type taunted. "Nice try, kid!"

Crom hastily dragged himself upright, anticipating another blow at any moment. Except, now the taunting voice and the footsteps were growing fainter and falling away. As the Druddigon looked back, he saw the reason why.

"Your Substitute's mine!"

The sloth was beelining straight for the form of a misshapen Nidorina slouched over, the helpless form of his now undefended Substitute!

"Gaah!"

The Vigoroth's momentum was arrested by a swift chop from a Fraxure's tusk, which was quickly followed by a second. The dragon's strike sent the grunt tumbling back along the ground with a yelp, a pair of raw, red marks forming along his side.

The Nidorina Substitute was safe for now, and the axe-headed Dragon-Type called out an exhortation to try and invigorate his son.

"Don't worry, Crom! I've got it!" Pladur cried. "I've got i-!"

The Fraxure's eyes widened as a screeching Staraptor swooped at him with cutting, white bands of air tracing his body. The dragon dove down and covered his head, feeling whooshing air brush his scales as the hawk harmlessly flew past him.

SPLUTCH!

Any relief was abruptly squelched as he and Crom turned around and saw that their Substitute's flank had been torn open. The fake Nidorina was now melting into a bluish mist, starting around the wound.

"Er," Pladur murmured. "Well, I had it…"

"Gotta pay closer attention to your surroundings, Onondo!"

The culprit of the Aerial Ace, a Staraptor, fluttered down and hopped over to offer a congratulations on a match well-fought.

"That said, it was a decent attempt for a bunch of rookies," the hawk said. "Your kid's quite the scrapper!"

"Yeah, and you're no slouch, either," the Vigoroth winced. "Why, with how you constantly duck and weave around like that, you're a real pain to nail!"

Pladur shook his head flusteredly as he began to protest that he didn't "run away that much", only to notice that Crom was rubbing at his right arm. The Fraxure moved closer to inspect the arm and saw that there was a ruddy scrape on it. Nothing that couldn't be patched up, but even so...

"Uhm… Crom?" the Fraxure prodded. "Maybe you should heal yourself a bit right now. You look a bit roughed up."

"E-Eh?!" the Druddigon protested. "But dad, it's not that-!"

Crom chanced to brush his scrape, which sent a sharp pain through his body and made him wince aloud. The Vigoroth had a flicker of worry pass over his eyes for a moment, only to dismiss his concern with a grunting shake of his head as Pladur drew near to his child.

"Better safe than sorry, right?" the Fraxure insisted, pawing at Crom's arm. "There should be some Oran Berries in my bag. I'll ask some questions while you're getting patched up."

Crom looked back at the scrape on his arm, and in between the sight of the reddish streak on it and the lingering pain it left... those Oran Berries didn't sound so bad.

"I… guess that's a fair point," he replied. The Druddigon lumbered off towards the sidelines as curious prodding over "what sort of questions have you got?" distantly reached his ears from the background. All around him, the local grunts eagerly traded gossip with one another, just as Marley and Osmund had predicted. The young Dragon-Type picked up conversations about friends, family, tips for how to court a crush… along with chatter about a suspicious ship that pulled in overnight with "white sails with red saltires" from some passing grunts.

Crom came to the retaining wall of the battlefield, where a number of bags from the Siglo Swellow's crewmates who had come to poke around for information at the fort were piled up against each other. After rooting around a little, the Druddigon came across his father's bag, and fished out an Oran Berry from inside. The fruit was peeled, pressed against his fresh scrape with a wince, and its pulp popped into the Druddigon's mouth and gulped down. Everything felt alright, except…

It felt like there was less juice in the berry than normal that time. Crom initially thought nothing of it, until he saw that half the juice from the Oran Berry had dripped all over a bulky, coal-gray bag in front of him.

"Ack! Oh no!"

Crom hastily tried to brush the juice off the fabric with his claws, with little success. The Druddigon then hastily looked around, and after seeing that no one seemed to be looking, fished out a piece of paper from the bag and folded it up. The young Druddigon scraped the folded up paper against the fabric and was able to get the bulk of the juice off but for some faint bluish stains. Perhaps the best that could be hoped for on such short notice. The Druddigon sighed, and began to pick the bag up to hide it at the back of the pile…

"Huh?"

… only to realize that the bag felt like there was something strangely bulky and heavy inside. From the side, Crom could see a boxy shape through a gap in the cover. The dragon nosed at the cover, and after letting his curiosity get the better of him, moved a claw for the bag's opening.

"Ack! What are you doing?! That's my bag!"

Crom yelped and dropped the bag as he heard a startled buzz from behind. It was Ander, who had returned from target practice with Watmel-headed training Substitutes the next battlefield over. Almost as soon as the satchel hit the ground, a scythe slipped past the straps and pulled it back.

"Er…"

The Scyther brushed his bag with a blade, and drew it back with a disgusted grimace. Much to his unpleasant surprise, he discovered that it now had some fresh blue stains and leftover Oran juice on it. The Bug-Type shot an exasperated look at Crom, waiting for an explanation.

"A-Aaaah! Sorry! Sorry! I accidentally got it dirty and I was trying to clean it-" the young dragon stammered. "I-I just thought that it seemed a little heavy! And-!"

"What's going on?!"

Pladur had scampered over in a hurry at the sound of the outburst, leaving Ander to shift his glance from the startled-looking Druddigon to the worried-looking Fraxure. After noticing that the bag didn't seem to have been opened, the Scyther began to grow calmer, if still unhappy about the new fluids on it.

"It's fine. Just…" Ander sighed. "Let me worry about my bag the next time something happens to it. Alright, Crom?"

Crom gave an overhasty affirmation, though even so, his mind couldn't help but wonder… Why had Ander gotten so startled about him peeking into his bag? And what was the bulky object inside of it?

"Hey guys!"

The Druddigon's curiosity was quickly displaced as all eyes were drawn to a rapidly approaching party consisting of a Swellow, a Servine, and a Raichu. The lot of them came down a flight of steps along the retaining wall in a hurry, concern etched on their faces.

"Uhm, we kinda found out something about the kids," Philips said. "And, well... it's not looking good at all."

The Electric-Type passed a small tube of rolled-up papers to Crom's group. As Pladur unfurled the papers along the ground, their contents became clear and made the three go wide-eyed as they realized...

These were bounty notices, with Nida and Elty on two of them, described as traveling with a "unnaturally gigantic Wingull".

"Ack!" Crom yelped. "They have bounties on them?!"

"That's not all!" Kiran squawked. "Look!"

After looking through the collection of papers, the group noticed that one of them was for Margi. The group had barely been in port and Lyn had already gotten her in trouble! As for the other…

"Wait a minute, Marley got a bounty too?" Pladur murmured, raising a skeptical brow.

Sure enough, the remaining bounty was a listing for none other than 'la Cazadragones de Tromba', under pretenses of piracy.

"Is that supposed to be a bounty? Or a way to get rid of Pokémon the Company doesn't like?" he asked. "Why, I'd almost feel sorry for anyone who tried to go after her!"

"That does seem strange… Even if he obviously didn't like them, would Lyn lie about Pokémon being 'partners' with the kids?" Ander buzzed. "It's almost as if he added them to deliberately make them seem more danger-"

"Hey! Fancy seeing you here!"

The six Pokémon looked up and saw a cheerful-looking Aerodactyl with Company garb standing over the group. Kiran, Ander, Natrix, and Philips blanched and paled at the sight of the Company grunt beelining for them. To their surprise however, Crom and Pladur seemed to be unperturbed by the stranger approaching them.

"Oh! Kellner!" Crom cried. "What are you doing here?"

"Came here to hone my skills a bit," the Fossil Pokémon said. "So what do you think? I mean, we're not exactly Canalhouse City here, but pretty sweet digs, huh?"

"It's… a bit unexpected," Pladur answered, rubbing a claw sheepishly against the back of his head.

"Eh?" Philips asked, raising a brow skeptically. "You know him?"

"Yeah, I thought you said you never really got around here, Pladur," Natrix interjected.

"We met him yesterday, he was the Pokémon who showed us how to get here!" Crom explained. The conversation quickly turned to a congenial exchange of introductions, and the ice between the Aerodactyl and these 'strangers from the Capital' quickly began to thaw. The chatter among the lavender-scarved Pokémon carried on amiably, until Ander chanced to bring up a question...

"Oh, out of curiosity, Kellner…" the Scyther began. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about these pirate bounties here, would you?"

The look in the Aerodactyl's eyes grew cold and a sour expression spread over his maw, suffocating the Fossil Pokémon's prior congeniality.

"Oh, so you're also getting in on this nonsense," he grunted.

"Eh?" Pladur murmured. "Why are you looking at us like that?"

"Yeah!" Crom interjected. "You were friendly with us just a bit earlier!"

"... Sorry. I suppose it's not really your fault," Kellner sighed. "It's just that ever since those bounties went up, all of the skeevier Pokémon in the ranks have been getting worked up about them and prowling around Mossaisle."

"Mossaisle?" Crom wondered. "You mean the town on the island?"

"That's right. I don't know what's gotten into leadership since a lot of those Pokémon are trouble waiting to happen without tight leashes on them…" Kellner trailed off with a disappointed sigh.

"But I guess that's not for me to decide right now," he answered. "Anyhow, luck with the training."

The Aerodactyl paced off and gave his head a disheartened shake before hopping up and flying off past a retaining wall. After Kellner's sudden departure, Crom and Pladur looked off after him, wondering just what the Rock-Type meant by his parting words.

"I think we should try our hand at looking around the town," Philips said.

"Eh?" Ander asked. "Why's that?"

"Yeah, we've barely looked around this place at all!" Crom interjected.

"Well, think about it," Natrix added. "If these bounties are up, and the grunts are still looking for Elty and Nida, then they haven't found them already."

Pladur paused and moved a claw under his chin thoughtfully. While it wasn't a good idea to underestimate the likes of the Company… he had to admit that it would be strange to keep up outdated bounties.

"I suppose that's a fair point," Pladur murmured to himself.

"And it would be more likely that they'd be in the town," Kiran added.

"We should take teams," the Servine said, shaking his head. "With bounties like these, I don't think that those other grunts will be giving us any time to spare."

"Oh?" Ander buzzed, flitting his wings anxiously. "How do we do this?"

"Natrix and I got off a bit easier from training," Philips offered. "We'll grab some help from the Siglo Swellow and look around. The rest of you get ready to take over for us if we haven't found anything by evening."

"Mrph. Right!" Crom grunted back.

"I think that sounds fair," Pladur answered.

The Raichu and Servine hastily snatched up their bags from the pile against the wall, darting off deeper into the complex. Kiran made his way over to the bags to similarly pack up, only for a sudden worry to make him shake out his feathers and look off at the passing clouds in the sky.

"I just hope he's doing alright out there…" he muttered.


Across the stream in Fensedge Village, Team Traveller slept soundly at the 'Cromlech Inn' after a hasty supper the night before. The hostel's rooms were spread out on the second floor, the cheap communal halls positioned closer to the stairs while the more private rooms were further towards the back.

Flush with these silvery 'Thalers' from Valatos and his friends, Nida and the others decided to book one of the private rooms. The room was similar to Taxonomy's in its design, with straw bedding and a simple table, but this time of a squarish instead of rounded design. There was a crude cloth drape for the window, and little holes in the shingled roof that let in light from above. Each of the holes served as an unintended skylight, letting sunlight filter down on a room filled with nothing but the sounds of silent snoring...

"Aaaaaah! We overslept!"

Until the startled squeaks of a Nidoran who had roused herself and saw that the light from the gaps in the ceiling were coming down vertically... The way the sunlight did at high noon.

The little Poison-Type quickly flew into a tizzy as she darted in front of the straw beds her teammates still laid upon, and loudly thumped her feet against the floor.

"Come on you guys! Levántense!" Nida cried. "It's noon already!"

"Wuzzat?!"

Guardia was the first up, leaping up from her bed wide-eyed and with a claw tightly clamped on her bony club which she reflexively swung out, nearly conking Nida on her head. After looking around anxiously about the room, the Cubone saw that her only companions were a wide-eyed Nidoran and a groaning Growlithe and Lugia who were still struggling to raise themselves from their beds.

"What's the big idea?" she huffed. "With the way you were running your yap off, you made me think we got ambushed!"

Nida flicked her ears irkedly back at the bone lizard, just as her other teammates finally managed to drag themselves up to their feet and get their blood flowing with wingbeats and morning stretches.

"Nrgh… 'afternoon'?" Pleo yawned. "But I thought we woke up in the 'morning', Nida…"

"Urgh… couldn't this have waited five minutes?" Elty grumbled, before gesturing with his paw off the room's window. "If you didn't want us sleeping in, why'd you close the drapes?"

"Huh?!" Nida shot back. "No I didn't-!"

As the Nidoran turned to the window, she saw that sure enough, there was a pair of ratty green cloth curtains pulled down over the windows. So that was why the room was so dark! But... she couldn't remember when she pulled it down last night!

"Oh, those things? That hole there was keeping me up when the sky started to become light hours ago," the Cubone answered proudly. "I found you could pull those cloth things down while trying to cover up that skylight in the wall."

A wave of paws and wings quickly found themselves over the faces of Team Traveller's other members. Nida scrunched her brow and shook out her barbs, mumbling exasperated "why me"s under her breath.

"We need that to wake up in the morning!" the Nidoran hissed. "That's when missions get listed!"

"Wait, what?" Guardia asked. "You mean you don't have anyone come by to poke you awake for the start of the day?"

"That's why Pokémon put windows in their walls," Nida grumbled. "So the sun can do that for you!"

The Cubone paused and adjusted her helmet flusteredly as she noticed that the rest of her teammates were giving unamused scowls at her.

"Uh… well it's certainly new lore to be mindful of," she replied, giving a mollifying wave with both her claws. "I mean, how was I supposed to know that skylight would be so important?"

"Ugh… why did we take her along again?" Elty grumbled to himself.

Nida groaned and shook her barbs, muttering under her breath about this rather… rocky start of the day. After picking up on his teammates' increasingly crabby demeanor, Pleo beat out his wings and tried to motion for calm.

"It's alright," the little Lugia offered. "There should still be some missions for us on the board, right?"


"How is there nothing left for us?"

Elty scowled and shook his head as the team sized up the mission board for Mengir's guild. It had only taken a few minutes to pick up Guardia's new scarf from the receptionist and make it to the mission board underneath the guild buildings' central teal-roofed dome. And here they were, in a teeming guild hall, without a single mission they could take…

Or at least that's what Elty said. Something seemed amiss about the Growlithe's description, and drew puzzled stares from the Cubone and the Lugia on the team.

"What are you talking about? There's a bunch of papers still on the board!" Guardia protested, pointing at one of the board's listings with her club. "These are missions, aren't they? Why don't you just take one of them?"

"Yeah!" Pleo chimed in. "What about this one with the picture of the swimming Pokémon there?"

Pleo went over and pulled down a paper with a doodle of a Lapras with cargo on its shell off the board with his beak, setting the pamphlet down on the ground. Nida quickly darted up, and began to look over the contents of the listing...

"It says that they're looking for a team to bring some berries down to the Subway on the bottom of the ocean…" she mumbled.

Pleo's eyes brightened up and he bobbed his head excitedly. A mission with swimming?

"Oh! We can do that!" he chirped. "I'm great at swim-"

Before Pleo could finish his words, he heard a low growl and turned to see Elty bristling and glaring.

"NO."

"But-!"

"NO," an equally unamused Cubone's voice shot in. Between the harsh glares from Elty and Guardia, and the head-shaking from Nida… much to Pleo's disappointment, it seemed like they wouldn't be taking a swimming mission today.

"This is a clutter mission anyways, Pleo," she explained, sighing. "And this one and the remaining missions would be too tough for us."

"Eh?" Guardia murmured. "How can you tell?"

"Because the only shapes next to the rune that says 'Rank' are triangles, snake-curves, and stars?" Elty answered. After looking over the pieces of paper, the Cubone saw that sure enough, there were triangle-like, snake-like, and star runes on the places the Fire-Type pointed out. So even if there were missions available, there weren't any that would be reasonable to do!

"I guess that's a reason for waking up on time," Nida sighed. "They say 'a quien madruga, los dioses se ayudan' for a reason back home…"

"What does that mean?" Guardia asked.

"It's a saying that more or less means that 'the gods help the early,'" the Nidoran explained. "Basically, if you're early, you'll get more advantages. If you're late… well, just look at ourselves."

"But we have to do something, Nida!" Pleo squawked. "Don't we have to do a mission before the guild lets us eat here?"

"We should have enough to get by another day, but… maybe it couldn't hurt to prepare a little."

"Prepare how?" Guardia prodded.

"Well, we need to pick up an Escape Orb before we hit that dungeon anyways since we can't risk getting our badges checked..." Nida answered. "We could always come by afterwards to see if any more missions got listed today."

Grumble

Team Traveller's four members looked down at their stomachs, and realized that they hadn't eaten since their small meal before heading to bed the evening before.

"Getting something to eat is part of that getting by, right?" Elty asked.

"Oh? How do Town Pokémon get food? Don't you all not hunt thanks to the Pact?" Guardia wondered. The question made Nida lower her ears and fidget uncomfortably, before shaking her head.

"Uhm… I'll explain on the way, but we don't, and won't need to do that here for food," she said. "Come on, I'm starved already!"

The Nidoran darted off, her teammates quickly following after her as they slipped off into the crowded hall. The four passed by a Kabutops hoping aloud that 'that berry mission to the Subway's still up' and disappeared amidst the mass of milling Pokémon just as some hurried footsteps rang out and came to an uneasy stop.

"Shoot, I lost them!"

Their owner, a Grovyle darting from hall to hall, looked around before pressing on through the crowd. Salvini ducked and weaved around passerbys, drawing cries of protest and surprise, only to find that neither hair nor hide of her targets was to be found there or down the nearby hallways.

The Grass-Type blanched and shook her head to try and collect her thoughts. Perhaps it was best to take a step back here, after all it wasn't a particularly big town to hide in, so...

"Hmm… let's think. Where would I go if I was a pirate stocking up for heading out into the interior?"

With all the facilities around the square it would be the most logical place. If not there, they surely would have gone back to the inn to meet up with their other teammates. Salvini made one final sweep around the crowd and peered down the hallways, just in case her quarry was still around. After coming up empty, she gave a quick nod and turned to make her way out of the guild.


About half an hour after she lost sight of Team Traveller at the guild, the lavender-scarved Grovyle continued her fruitless search for the team. She looked through the square, then to the inn that she had steered the group to the day before, only to find that her targets were nowhere to be found. After a similarly unfruitful attempt checking a few local eateries, Salvini then doubled back to re-check the shop-lined square near the guild.

"I only lost sight of them for a second!" she exclaimed, scanning the crowds in the bustling plaza. "Where could they ha- Well how about that…?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the forms of a Nidoran, a Growlithe, a Cubone and a large white bird at the Kecleon shop. They seemed to be... haggling?

"But this apple is perfectly fresh!" Elty insisted. "It's certainly worth more than ten Poké."

"You mean it was fresh," the Kecleon scoffed. "Just look at the color of that thing!"

The chameleon pointed a claw unamusedly at the apple's skin, which had turned a dull shade since the team first picked it up, and grown flecked with specks of dirt. After a moment of uneasy blinking at the 'fresh' fruit, Guardia cleared her throat and hastily butted in.

"It's just a little dust! It'll come off fine!" the Cubone interjected. "It's still good!"

"Look, if my partner here says it's worth ten Poké, it's worth ten Poké," the Pumpkaboo at the counter grunted. "We didn't get into business yesterday, you know!"

"But you're charging 150 Poké for that Escape Orb!" Pleo cried.

"Guess you'd better sell a little extra, huh?" the Kecleon pressed, pointing at the bag on Nida's shoulder.

Nida's ears fell at the chameleon's stubborn insistence and the Poison-Type put a paw to her face with a sigh. Perhaps this wasn't a battle they could win.

"Ugh, fine," Nida muttered. "Let's see what we can do."

After conceding that the Apple would not be fresh enough to pass muster, Team Traveler turned away from the stand to sort their sadly lighter bag for goods to cover the difference. As they fished out their Cleanse Orb and the paltry few Poké left in Valatos' assortment of coins, they traded them over the counter for a dark, black orb with a light faintly glowing at its center. The group's wariness slipped as they were engrossed with their lost negotiation with the Kecleon and Pumpkaboo pair. Deciding to act before they could give her the slip again, Salvini walked over to accost the group of brigands as they pocketed their sphere. The gecko quickly dusted herself and mustered the cheeriest demeanor she could summon, before sidling up to the group.

"Oh, it's you again! Just got through picking a mission, I take it?" she asked.

The Pokémon turned out of surprise at the sudden voice beside them, but sighed out of relief as they saw it was none other than the Grovyle who had steered them to the hostel the night before. The tension in their faces fading, Nida eased into answering the gecko's inquiry.

"Uh... not quite," the Poison-Type replied, sheepishly folding her ears back.

"Hrm?" the Grass-Type wondered. "Something go wrong?"

"We slept in," Pleo chirped back. "And by the time we got to the board, all the missions we could take were picked already!"

Elty, Nida, and Guardia cringed a little. Pleo's admission was rather mortifying for the rest of them... but fortunately for their pride, the Grovyle declined to pry.

"Ah, so basically just treading water until you get something up your alley?" she pressed.

"Oi! We're not treading water, we're right here on land!" Guardia interjected. "And if we were able to get one of those missions, we wouldn't be treading anything around here!"

So the team was actively looking for a mission... steering them to Hertsog's dummy mission might actually be easier than expected, Salvini mused.

"Hrm… Well, it might be a little on the tough side," the Grass-Type offered. "But I was actually running over to re-list a request for a friend of mine…"

The Grovyle dug through a satchel slung across her shoulder and pulled out the fake listing that Hertsog had prepared. As soon as she set the paper on the ground, the members of Team Traveller crowded around, eagerly scanning its details.

"You need us to draw pictures for this village's shrine…?" Nida asked.

"That's right. They're references for the shrine and the paintings have gotten a bit worse for wear," Salvini replied. "It's in a stable zone that was last sighted between the seventh and ninth floor."

Guardia squinted carefully at the paper on the ground, eagerly examining every little scribble on it. She could only recognize a few scattered hut-dweller characters on the paper, the fruit of her studies under Tetsuzui. On the top of the paper was a doodle of what looked like a crude blue drawing of a Stantler on it… the local god, perhaps?

Even so, there was one matter that troubled the Ground-Type...

"Not that I'd be one to turn down a mission dealing with lore gathering about the gods," the Cubone murmured. "But how exactly are we supposed to know if we've found this chamber?"

"Oh, that's easy," the gecko reassured. "There's murals on the passage leading into it from the Mystery Dungeon! If you find it, you'll know as soon as you make it through the thick of the fog!"

Nida looked back down at the listing, and then back up at the Grass-Type. It was a bit of a peculiar request, but...

Pleo needed a chance to practice… and who knows, perhaps the drawings might even have some sort of tip for how Protectors drew out their power!

"Hrm… well, the description doesn't sound like anything we couldn't handle," the Poison-Type mused.

As Nida mulled, Elty twitched his ears and glanced at the paper the spike ball was prodding at. The little dog gave it a skeptical sniff before casting a wary glance up at Salvini.

"Eh, nie wiem," Elty mumbled. "Even if it was posted once before, it's technically unlisted now…"

"I was actually in the middle of running a copy over to the guild myself," Salvini explained. The Grass-Type pulled a second sheet of paper, and dangled it in front of Team Traveller, prepared for this exact purpose to mollify her pirate quarry. The gecko put the second sheet back into her bag, and began to bend down to pick up the one she set on the ground. "I mean, it should be up on the board in just a couple hours if you'd rather wait…"

"No, no, that's alright!" Nida interjected, quickly pulling away the listing. "We'll take it! We could use the mission!"

The Grovyle cracked a satisfied smile as the Nidoran eagerly snatched up Hertsog's listing. While the spike ball stuffed it into her bag, the Grass-Type gave a few more words to attempt to pry into her targets' next move.

"Well… glad we could both work something out with each other," Salvini chuckled. "So you'll be getting right to it, then?"

"That's right!" Guardia grunted. "We'll be heading straight for-!"

"Wait!" Pleo squawked.

Elty and Nida folded their ears back at Pleo's outburst, taken aback by the sudden volume. The three turned with skeptical looks to see what the Lugia's issue was.

"We've been running here and there for the last couple of days already!" the little Protector cried. "Before we go back into a dungeon, can't we play a little?"

Nida paused and twitched her whiskers uncertainly, they had been through a lot… and…

"A break would be nice after the past few days," she murmured. Elty and Guardia similarly paused, and much to Salvini's astonishment, the longer the two mulled, the more they seemed to agree with the little spike ball! Just what sort of criminals were these?!

"W-Wait a minute!" Salvini interjected. "You're going off on a break now?!"

"Er… this mission of your friend's," Nida said, drooping her ears sheepishly. "Does it have to be done today?"

"I- I mean, it would be preferred," Salvini stammered. "But it would be understandable if-"

"Then let's play first!" Pleo insisted. "Let's go to the beach!"

The Nidoran looked at her Lugia companion, and then turned her head back at the Grovyle with a wavering glance.

"We wouldn't be holding you up, would we?" the Nidoran asked. "Er…"

"It's 'Salvini,' and…" the Grass-Type said before trailing off. She hesitated, then gave her head a dismissive shake.

"Nah, forget it," she replied. "Go ahead, sometime's a 'mon's got to unwind a bit."

"Woo hoo! Let's go! Let's go!" Pleo cheered. "Come on, let's go build a sand castle!"

The four Pokémon ran off chattering and calling after one another, as they slipped away in the morning crowds. Salvini stared off after this band of most peculiar criminals, still blinking and blankly trying to make sense of the fact they were excited about a...

"Sand... castle?"

These were either, without a doubt, the worst pirates she had ever heard of, or Commander Briggs or someone further up the chain of command had made a mistake.

Unless this was their cover…

Or maybe they were some hooligans who needed to be scared straight…

Or the Commander left out some details about their mission during their debrief... Could that be it?

Well, Briggs would sort it out. He couldn't possibly go that hard on a bunch of kids, right?

With that, the Grovyle shuffled off, tracking the path Team Traveller took off for the beaches west of the town.


After making their way back on the route past the juice bar and medic's hut that they took on their first day in Fensedge, Team Traveller carried along to the shoreline and off to a green-sanded beach just outside of town. There, in the backdrop of Fensedge's stone spires, the team wiled away their time, dutifully scooping up handfuls of sand up from the wet band above the surf and carrying them up towards the high tide mark.

"That's it," Nida called. "Just keep moving the sand over!"

"You know," Elty grumbled. "This would go faster if we just kicked up the sand into a pile and shaped it there."

The young Lugia squawked out of protest at the Growlithe's suggestion and beat his wings emphatically. They couldn't just kick up the sand like that! After all...

"There'd be a big hole right in front of the sand castle then!" Pleo cried. "And you wouldn't ever get the waves to come up to you!"

As the team continued their talk about how to make the sand castle, the little Protector noticed that one member seemed to be missing from the conversation.

"Guardia? What's the matter?" Pleo wondered "Why aren't you playing along?"

The Cubone all this time had been watching her teammates play with the sandcastle, doing nothing other than to occasionally poke at it with her club while lost in thought. The Ground-Type tilted her head skeptically at the little Guardian, before deciding that it was best to clear up the matter troubling her.

"Well, something bothered me about earlier… why were you acting so strange during that storm?" Guardia asked. "We were all in danger, but you weren't bothered at all while you were in the middle of it!"

"Now that the bonehead mentions it, that was kinda strange," Elty murmured. "What is it with you and storms?"

Pleo paused and tilted his head puzzledly, giving a bat to his tail. The little Protector brought a wing to his beak and mulled a moment, before finally offering up what little of an answer he could think of.

"I don't know, it just made me less tired…" he replied. "And I thought it felt really soothing."

"Huh? But you're supposed to be the Guardian of the Seas!" Nida cried. "Why would a storm feel soothing to you?"

The team traded blank looks with each other, as no simple answers seemed to come to mind to Nida's question. After scratching at her chin under her skull helmet, the Cubone in the group suddenly raised a proposal.

"Well… it's said that Protectors are supposed to have 'domains'," Guardia said. "What if Pleo's 'domain' is storms?"

Nida flinched at her teammate's words and hopped back with a start, twitching her whiskers uncomfortably. Guardia couldn't possibly be suggesting that Pleo had anything to do with it, could she?

"Wh-Wha-?! That's preposterous!" the Poison-Type spluttered.

"Not that I'd be one to look forward to getting stuck with more rain, but…" Elty mused. "I think she might have a point."

"She does?" Pleo asked, tilting his head.

"Think about the times when your power came out before," Elty explained. "The day you blew Captain Hess across the island was just a few days after a storm. That night we crawled through Lyn's ship was the night of a storm…"

Pleo fidgeted uncomfortably at the mention of Lyn's ship. The Growlithe's words rustled unwelcome memories of being taken away from home and chained up in that dark room below deck, which made the young Lugia rustle his feathers uneasily.

"Then… if this island here gets a bunch of storms," Guardia mulled. "Maybe this is the right place for figuring out how to draw out your god's power."

Nida lowered her ears and shook her spikes, unnerved at the Cubone's words. Pleo? A god of storms? The scary winds and rains that brought trouble to shore and to ships at sea? The spike ball turned, hoping her partner's normal cheer could help dispel some of the anxiety, only that Pleo still looked downcast.

The little bird had lowered his head and pulled it in close to his body, uncomfortably shuffling his feet in the sand. The three wondered what could be troubling the young Protector until a simple pair of questions made his troubles known…

"Nida…?" Pleo murmured. "When can we go back home?"

The Nidoran blanched and looked down at the ground, the young Protector's words catching her off-guard. After a hasty shake of her head, a forced smile spread over her muzzle as she attempted to soothe the little Lugia with some encouraging words.

"Don't worry Pleo," Nida reassured "We'll go home soon."

"When is soon?" Pleo asked.

Nida froze. When was soon? Every path home she could think of had a Samurott sitting in its way. Her family, her friends beyond her teammates, the rest of the town she took for granted just up until a few weeks ago… The more she thought of them, the more impossibly far they seemed, causing the poison-rabbit's ears to droop lower and lower.

"I… don't know," she mumbled, shaking her head glumly. "If we could only draw out your power we could fight back against the Company…"

Pleo's neck drooped ever so slightly, but Nida caught the signal. Think positive, think positive, find something for Pleo's sake... he liked the storms, right?

"Though... if Guardia is right, then being someplace near storms might help," she said. "If there's any place where we can draw out your power, we sure can do it here!"

The Nidoran noticed that the mention didn't seem to be very effective at cheering up her teammate. Perhaps it was best to set aside the worries of drawing out Pleo's power for now, and focus on something a bit more relaxed...

"But… why don't we get back to that sand castle for now?" Nida asked, nosing at the team's still nascent sand castle. "We've only got one day off, so let's make the most of it!"

The suggestion seemed to cheer the little Lugia up, as his spirits and energy quickly returned at the prospect of finishing the team's sand castle...

"Sure!" he chirped, much to Guardia's long-faced displeasure.

"Are we seriously putting off learning more about the lore of a god for sand castles?" she grumbled.

"Aw, come on!" Pleo chirped. "You can learn this 'lore' thingy about sand castles!"

The Ground-Type paused and blinked incredulously, tilting her head puzzledly at the white bird. Were the gods supposed to be this way? The Cubone felt a paw at her shoulder, and turned to see a bemused-looking Growlithe.

"He's got you there, bonehead," Elty chuckled. "I mean, when was the last time you got to make one of these in that stuffy cave of yours?"

The bone lizard turned to the pudgy Fire-Type, and then to her companions gathered around their sand heap. It wasn't lore about the Protectors, but…

"Yokarō," she grunted. "This sand castle thing is more fun than I thought it would be anyways."

With that, the former feral joined her peers, continuing the process of lugging up wet sand and molding it into a fort that with enough time and a little imagination, would outshine even the one looming over the town to the east. And so it was that the team whiled away their day, laughing and playing with each other with Fensedge Village off in the distance…

Rustle

And under the watch of a pair of sharp, yellow eyes of one of its guards lurking unseen in the nearby undergrowth.


Author's Notes:

- fuklyo (фукльо) - Bulgarian: "Show-off" (BGN/PCGN 2013 Romanization)
- Kavko ima? (Какво има?) - Bulgarian: "What's the matter?" (BGN/PCGN 2013 Romanization)
- Onondo (オノンド) - Japanese: "Fraxure" (Official Romanization)
- (¡)Levántense! - Spanish: "Wake up!"
- nie wiem - Polish: "I don't know"
- Yokarō (良かろう) - Japanese: "Very well" (Hepburn Romanization)