"I've taken a fly around town, Guildmaster."
"Oh? How come?"
"Just curious about our new arrival to town."
"He was very thin."
"Indeed. I have learned that he was first spotted with Young Shinx coming from the direction of his dwelling. Loudred and Diglett confirmed he came to the guild initially but left after someone, assumed to be Shinx. They emerged again at the end of the day appearing rather dishevelled and walked to Shinx's abode."
"I am glad Shinx has made a friendly friend!"
"Yes…."
"Do you not think so, Chatot?"
"I admit I hold some concerns. Where Meowth has come from and why he so swiftly struck up a friendship with Shinx."
"Friends appear in mysterious places, Chatot! Lala, like in cupboards and under sinks! Just because they're a little different doesn't mean they are bad!"
"I trust your judgment, Rhythm."
"I trust yours, Trill. Let's support them both! Shinx struggles with confidence, if Meowth is helping him with that then that's great! They might both need help though, and Shinx was never one to ask."
"Like his sister."
"Yeah. Was that all?"
"That was all."
"Sing me my bedtime song, please."
"Of course. Ahem."
"h… y… ...k… u…"
Sean breathed in and out. He was skirting wakefulness but was dozing just enough to know he was enjoying laying in one place, completely calm and comfortable.
"Hey… w…k… up…"
Rai smiled in his sleep. Enjoying a wonderful dream that he had finally gathered the nerve and joined the Wigglytuff Guild.
"Hey-HEY!"
Sean and Rai yelped as their noses were pinched by something very hard. "Wake. UP."
With the claws coming out and electricity crackling to ward him off, Corphish stepped back to let Rai shock only himself and Sean.
"Ugh…" Sean twitched, tasting copper from biting his tongue. "That was worse than the electric fence I accidentally touched."
"What was that for?" Rai demanded, rubbing his nose and blinking the tears away.
"It's time for the morning briefing," Corphish explained, scuttling back and further away from the danger zone. "You don't want to be late. Chatot will lose his feathers. I'm doing you a favour, hey-hey."
Sean stopped growling and Rai stopped blinking. They glanced to each other before yelping again.
"Hey-woah!" Corphish was bowled over by the pair scrambling to the assembly. They refused to make fools of themselves so early.
"How did we sleep in so long?" Rai asked as they jogged. The distance wasn't far, and Corphish was gaining on them quickly.
"You call that sleeping in?" Sean replied as they exited the corridor and were stared at by the entire guild minus Wigglytuff and Corphish.
"It is for me," Rai muttered as they took places at the edge of the assembly, feeling awfully exposed. "I never sleep in that long."
"Almost late, young apprentices," Chatot chided, looking them up and down.
"You can thank me later," Corphish grumbled from behind them, before taking his place between Dugtrio and Loudred.
"Alright," Chatot called over the soft rumbling of the talking pokémon and quieting them. "Has everyone met our pair of new arrivals?" He received a positive response from everyone.
"Slept the day away I heard." Dugtrio turned to face them, three sets of eyes boring into them.
Sean averted his eyes, uncomfortable at the sight of something brown and cylindrical popping out of the ground and speaking with three faces. He wanted to ask some questions but dared not to learn such forbidden knowledge. It hadn't bothered him yesterday, but yesterday he hadn't been pinched and then shocked awake.
"Sorry," Rai giggled, nose going red. "We only meant to lie down for a moment. Guess our days before really weighed us down."
"Hmm," was all Dugtrio said before Chatot cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Either way, welcome to Young Shinx and Meowth. You are ALL expected to treat them well. You are all apprentices, you are all on the same footing even if some have more experience than others. Be polite and helpful if one comes to you for advice. Understood?" He was giving Loudred and Dugtrio a few pointed looks as he spoke, and both did their best not to roll their eyes at him.
"Sure, whatever." Loudred shrugged. "I'm cool with them."
"There were no issues yesterday, I imagine I will have no problem with them," Dugtrio said, bobbing briefly in place.
"Good, good. Now." Chatot flourished his wing at the door he stood before. "Presenting our most illustrious Guildmaster."
The doors opened and Wigglytuff strolled out. He had a smile, however vacant, plastered on his face.
"Guildmaster?" Chatot puffed up grandly. "Do you have words of wisdom to share with us this morning?"
Sean smiled happily, seeing the great Guildmaster Wigglytuff with his own two eyes beaming out at them tickled something young and innocent within him. He felt a grin pulling at his face, thinking of how amusing it was for Wigglytuff to stand around asleep with his eyes wide open.
"Sure do!" Wigglytuff said, completely throwing Sean's expectations out the window and into the sea below. "Don't shirk work! Run away and… uhh…" he leaned over and whispered. "Line?"
"Pay?" Chatot hissed back.
"Right!" Wigglytuff beamed before continuing as brightly as he was before. "Run away and far away!"
Sean found himself struggling to keep himself from laughing.
He kept himself under control, however. Chatot was staring at everyone with an intense enough glare that any amusement would not be taken well.
There was a tiny snort or titter than ran through the group, but everyone held flat enough expressions that Chatot couldn't determine which one, or ones, expressed such merriment.
"Is that all, Guildmaster?" Chatot asked, pausing his suspicious scanning of the crowd.
"Yup!" Wigglytuff turned to glide right back into his room but paused halfway, his back facing the crowd. "Oh wait! I thought of another one!"
"Yes, Guildmaster?" Chatot asked. Wigglytuff stood there in silence. "We are… uh… awaiting your words of wisdom." Wigglytuff remained motionless, causing Chatot to hop to his side. "G-Guildmaster?"
Wigglytuff spun back on the assembled apprentices, causing everyone to jump. "And three! Smiles go for miles!" With that he did a little dance, sang a little song, and twirled his way back into his room.
After closing his doors, he quickly opened them again. "That has GOT TO be our new motto. Remember that everyone." He slammed his doors shut again but was heard singing again so no one was concerned.
Chatot stood in silence, staring at the door, for a long moment before giving an imperceptible sigh and turning on the guild with a smile. "Let us all take our Guildmaster's wise wisdom to heart. So then… you heard the Guildmaster. On three! Smi… everyone. NOW!"
"Smiles go for miles!" Everyone parroted back and Chatot nodded.
"Could use some work," he mumbled before waving his wings at everyone. "Go. Do your duties for the day." The apprentices disassembled, besides Sean and Rai who remained where they were, exchanging looks.
"Ah yes, you two." Chatot hopped to their side. "If you'll follow me." He began hopping to the ramp that led to the next floor and the pair quickly joined him.
Chatot took them to their right and over to the job notice board. "As you were both fast asleep yesterday I doubt you were shown the notice boards, correct?"
Rai nodded, but Sean raised a paw.
"Yes?"
"Is the board listed with tasks pokémon in the area want us to do?" he asked, hoping to sound informed.
Chatot nodded. "Correct. If somewhat of a simple understanding." Turning he gestured over the board. "It is part of Chimecho's duties to receive job notices from farther away through the Psychic Network and she and I scribe them. Dugtrio is then to update these requests. On this board you'll find pokémon who need something done, be it finding something or escorting someone. This is your job for today, I'll just select one of these…"
He hummed and hawed for a moment before plucking one off the board. "For a beginner team like the pair of you… THIS is the job the guild will have you do today." He handed it to Sean, as he was the one with the paws to handle it.
As Chatot had been deciding, Sean's heart pumped hard in his chest. His mind swirled with what was supposed to happen, but that supposedly happened yesterday while they were sound asleep. He didn't know what to expect, how literal the days in the game were, how likely cosmic chance was or if he'd already screwed everything up ever.
He glanced down at it fearfully and his heart did a strange jolt. His paws felt numb and Rai was the one who ended up reading it, looking down as Sean's paws were not that far from eye-level for him.
"Help! My best friend in the world has gone missing! I am such an idiot, we had a fight over the stupidest thing and now she's gone into a dungeon without me! My friend, Psyduck, said if I wouldn't go with her, she'd go herself! I haven't seen her in two days! She said she was going to the Drenched Bluff! Please! Someone find her! I can't go myself, I'm too weak! Signed, Clefairy."
Sean glanced down as Rai was reading, it wasn't english, but it certainly copied the exclamation point which was dotted all over the request. It bothered him that he could still read it, however.
"The Drenched Bluff…" Rai tasted the word on his tongue again. "That's not far from here… maybe two hours?" He glanced down at the request again, a small frown starting on his face. "But this is just a finding mission. I thought we'd be doing exploration."
"Hush please," Chatot said, giving them both a stern expression. "This is your first job. You cannot expect as difficult as a mission as that just yet. Exploring to discover or determine the limits of a new finding can be very dangerous even to prepared teams."
He softened his tone slightly as the two looked scared of him. "After each mission you will debrief with either myself or the Guildmaster about your efforts. There you will receive feedback. Understood?"
Rai swallowed, nodded, and smiled. "Then we'll prove ourselves like no one else! Right, Meowth?" He turned to Sean with resolute expectation on his face.
"For sure," Sean agreed. "We'll find Psyduck and get her back here in no time."
"Hmm," Chatot hummed and hopped to the side. "Well that is your task for the day. You best get to it, chop-chop."
With the mission in hand, or rather paw, they leapt into action. Rai did at least.
"Alright, let's go to the Drenched Bluff right now!" He was getting fired up, sparks were popping off him, and was running towards the ramp leading up already.
"Wait, we need the Treasure Bag," Sean called, causing Rai to slide to a stop. "And our map… AND our badges."
"Right." Rai nodded. "We left those in our room. Alright, I'll be back before you can say-" And he was gone, zipping down with speed Sean could only call unnatural.
"Adventure." Rai finished, zipping back into place after a few seconds.
"How did you go so fast?" Sean asked, blinking at the shinx with the Treasure Bag looped around him.
"Easy." Rai grinned, turning to aim to the upwards ramp. "Quick Attack."
He zipped up that as well, leaving Sean to try and run up as fast as he could. He had no Quick Attack. He was also clumsy and trying to sprint on two feet was decidedly harder than it used to be.
Rai was waiting for him. Perhaps because the guilds gate was closed. He was tapping a paw and staring at a crank. Upon Sean joining him, he gestured. "We need to turn that to raise the gate. I, uh… might have trouble."
They both looked down at Rai's paws and then to Sean's. Sean waggled his nubs and gave a grin. "Leave it to me!" he said grandly. With a flourish he strolled over and grabbed onto the crank.
He was relieved to find it easy to turn, lifting the heavy metal gate with ease.
"Okay!" Rai shouted, blasting into a sprint that kicked up a plume of dust. "Drenched Bluff, THAT WAY." He ran down the stairs before ending his Quick Attack, staring up at Sean who was taking his time with the stairs. "Come on. Adventure awaits!"
"These stairs have a much worse drop for me now," Sean replied. He could say that being a little over a foot tall, and rather scrawny at that, was rather disconcerting to someone who had been quite tall a few days ago.
"Plus," he panted as he reached the bottom. "Shouldn't we go into Treasure Town to get supplies?" The idea of rushing off into a dungeon with nothing but a bowtie was not something Sean wanted to do.
He was also feeling new waves of panicked nausea at the idea of what they might miss if they didn't. Or maybe it was just hunger, he could see his ribs poking out through his chest.
"Right… good point!" Rai ran at a normal pace towards Treasure Town, but Sean continued to have trouble keeping up with the shinx's pace. He hadn't focused on it the other day because of how much was going on, but he really could see his ribs if he bent the right way and pulled his skin taut.
Previously he wouldn't mind being thinner. But this was a bit much. "How much didn't I eat in the future?" he wondered to himself before frowning. "…Yeah. Yeah that's right. Lost local memories but kept real-world memories? Is that how this works. Gotta be, I don't have any first-hand memories despite travelling back in time. Hmm. This is really weird, for entirely new reasons."
Shaking the thoughts off, he focused on keeping pace with Rai. The shinx stopped for the minimum amount he could at Duskull's Bank before moving on. That, at least, Sean could approve of. His mind was elsewhere, thinking of the game. It was the next day, so Drowzee was around now wasn't he? Or was the day after? He couldn't remember for sure.
Puffing slightly, feeling hungry, and wondering why the marketplace was as far from the guild as it could be, Sean was left in Rai's dust. He was relieved the shinx wasn't still using Quick Attack to move faster, but he was still too fast.
"So, it's illegal to use moves in town," Rai mentioned just as a warning. "Even as a joke. It can cause someone to panic and attack back and then you've got a riot on your hands. Easier to just agree to not do it and then Team Magnezone doesn't get mad."
He kept his newly-keen eyes as vigilant as he could. Scanning the place for any flash of blue or yellow. He saw a few, the town was a bit livelier this morning, but nothing that stuck out to him. He did spot a spoink however, bouncing around merrily with a pearl on its head. That was a relief of sorts.
Wrapped up in his own thoughts, trying to remember painfully specific details of the game he knew, Sean almost walked straight into Rai when he stopped.
"Sorry," he said on reflex, "almost bumped into you."
"No problem," Rai replied before stepping to the side to reveal why he had stopped. "This is Team Razor Wind!"
Sean looked up, and up, and further up still. A zangoose, scyther and sandslash all stood before them, all with natural sharp implements of pain and death glinting in the sunlight.
"So, you're the freshy who's paired up with Shinx here," Zangoose said, smirking. "Well good luck. You're going to need it if you want to make it as an explorer."
Rolling his eyes at his thorny leader, Scyther nodded down at them. "Make sure you stock up on seeds and berries," Scyther advised, exceptionally more pleasant than his leader in just nine words.
"Always hang on to any reviver seeds you get too," Sandslash added. "Those things can and will give you the boost you need to keep going. Can be the thing that saves you in a long dungeon."
"And no mercy." Zangoose sneered, but he seemed to have advice like his teammates. "The ferals won't give you any. Nothin' but merciless monsters out there."
"Thanks, fellas." Rai smiled, somewhat dourly. "We appreciate the advice from experiences explorers like yourselves."
Zangoose gave a scoff but gave Rai a friendly pat on the head. "One last thing. Keep some apples on you, always." He glanced at Sean with clear judgement of his bony frame. "You don't want to be stuck in OR out of a dungeon with no food."
"Hey, guys!" someone called and Sean turned to spot the tall, and surprisingly buff, Vigoroth charging down at them. For a moment he thought he was being charged, but then he saw the expression on Team Razor Winds faces.
"Hey... Vigoroth," Sandslash said awkwardly.
"Hey, Shinx! Who's your friend? What's been up guys? Anything AWESOME!?" Vigoroth spoke to five people at once and then just kept on talking. Rai shot Sean a smile and gestured for him to join him.
Sean glanced to Rai who was smiling and asked. "Is that normal" Sean thought it seemed quite condescending to pat another pokémon like that. Without asking or anything.
"Zangoose is always like that." Rai shrugged. "Vigoroth too. Zangoose is nicer to me though."
"That was nice?" Sean thought before asking. "How'd you meet Team Razor Wind?"
"They're an Exploration Team! I just HAD to talk to them. Only took me three tries to get my nerve to approach them." Rai stuck his tongue out a winked before trotting forward again. "They're pretty awesome adventurers. Go for the tough stuff they do. Mostly rough dungeons. I think they're pretty cool."
Sean nodded. He could understand that. "If that was how Zangoose is nice…" He didn't want to see Zangoose not-so-nice.
Rai seemed to sense his misgivings and gave him an understanding smile as they reached a short line. They had reached the brothers Kecleon's shop and were waiting behind a marill and azurill.
"Ah that's right." Sean smiled as it clicked into place. "This is where we first see them. Dimensional Scream too. That's going to be weird."
"Thank you, Mr Kecleon," Marill said, young and boyish.
"Yeah, thanks a heap Mr Kecleon and Mr Kecleon," Azurill squeaked, much younger and higher voice, but still unmistakably male.
"You're welcome," the Kecleon Brothers said in chorus. The other pair of brothers smiles and went on their way, Marill holding a basket and Azurill a single apple. Azurill tripping right as he passed Sean, and the meowth bent to pick it up.
"Here you go." He smiled kindly and got a shy one in return.
"Thank you," Azurill said, grabbing the apple, before hurrying to join his brother. Sean waited. Nothing happened.
"Sweet pair," Rai said as they stepped up into the shopkeeper's space of business.
"Indeed," the green kecleon said.
"Hardworking and honest," The purple one added.
"Do you know if their mother is doing any better?" Rai asked as he glanced around the wares for the day. He received a pair of headshakes in response.
"No better." Purple shook his head.
"And to top it off, the family's treasure has disappeared." Green frowned, anger biting into his voice. Rai's face flashed with pain, although that might have been for the nasty reminder of his own misfortune.
"Oh, Mr's Kecleon's!" The pair of blue brothers reappeared suddenly, rushing to the market stall. "You gave us an extra apple," Marill finished.
"We didn't pay for this many," Azurill said.
Green smiled. "That's our gift to you," he said, receiving starry-eyed thanks in return. A lot of them.
Once the pair had left again, the two kecleon sighed in unison. "Do hope things look up for them soon."
"They deserve it," Rai agreed before pointing out what he had chosen to buy, four apples and a Sleep Seed. Sean stood in silence the whole time, feeling somewhat out of place. Rai was clearly well-known and friendly with them already. It seemed unnecessary to try and inject himself into the conversation, and he had no money to buy anything with.
What was bothering him more, however, was the lack of dizzy spells. He was almost certain the first Dimensional Scream happened after touching the apple. But not even a slight twitch of vertigo. He was feeling fine, fantastic even and he didn't like that.
He felt even better after Rai gave him another of those delicious apples, and he hated every moment of it.
"What's going on?" he repeated in his head. "Why isn't it happening? What do I do when…?" That's when he saw it.
"Oh no," he said, accidentally out loud. A small part of Sean felt relieved, then he shut that feeling away under bars of shame and self-loathing. He shouldn't feel happy or relieved for what was happening.
Drowzee was there. Drowzee was there. Drowzee was THERE.
"Wow you've really seen our Water Float?" Azurill cheered, rolling a happy twirl around the predatory Psychic-type.
"Indeed," Drowzee's oily voice reached their ears as Rai and Sean approached. He saw them and corrected his tone. "Certainly. I had no idea what it was, but thought it seemed unwise and potentially selfish to take it for myself. I left it where it was."
"This is so amazing!" Marill grinned, he had set the apples down and shook Drowzee's paw. "Thank you. We've been searching for weeks now. It's very important to our family, it only works for us as well!"
"Truly fantastic," Drowzee agreed, a glint entering his eye. "If you'd like, I could bring you there. For safety purposes, I am an experienced adventurer after all. None could guide you as safely as I could."
"That'd be great!" Marill smiled, but then frowned. "Oh, but… I'm sorry, we really don't have the money to pay for your services. That's why we haven't gone to the guild or anything."
"Think nothing of payment." Drowzee waved them off. "Helping you is all the reward I need."
"Really, Mr Drowzee?" Azurill gasped, pure joy filling his voice, and Sean thought he spotted something resembling not-evil enter Drowzee's eye before he blinked, and it was gone.
"Certainly. I was just up there, I know it'd be no trouble for me."
"So, what's going on here?" Sean had enough. He moved closer and said his words very loudly. All three pokémon blinked at him before the brothers spotted Rai stepping up next to him.
Rai glanced at Sean in confusion, he had been passively silent throughout the town. Now he was approaching someone? "Sounds like great news." Rai smiled and Marill and Azurill beamed back.
"Yep. Looks like we've finally found our Water Float," Azurill explained before turning back to Drowzee again. "Thanks to Mr Drowzee here. He's the nicest, kindest, coolest ever! Except for my brother."
Both Marill and Drowzee chuckled at that. "I don't think I'm that good," Marill started.
"Your brother is definitely," Drowzee began.
"Mr Drowzee is much better than me."
"The greatest to you. Your own personal hero."
Marill gave a chuckle and smiled at Drowzee. Drowzee smiled down at Azurill, but Sean saw only a leer.
"Well, we had best be off if we wish to get back soon," Drowzee said, stepping past Azurill on one side and Marill on the next. He bumped into Sean and he felt the bump as something harder than necessary. "My apologies." Drowzee smiled and continued.
Marill and Azurill waved their goodbyes and Sean waited. And waited. He wasn't sure about earlier, but he knew for certain that Drowzee triggered a Dimensional Scream.
There was nothing.
And that was a problem. Drowzee was going to take them to the mountain and scare them both really badly and they were meant to chase after them, but Azurill was so young and it reminded him of-
A sudden wave of panic gripped him hard enough that it almost felt like vertigo, and he shouted out, "STOP!" He was loud enough that everyone on the street heard him. There weren't many about, the spoink was still here, a few shopkeepers and teams were there.
Marill, Azurill and Drowzee did stop and turned with varying mixtures of concern, curiosity, and thinly veiled irritation. "Yes?" Drowzee snapped. "We are in a hurry if you don't mind."
Sean swallowed nervously. He hated this. "Why did I yell out?" he asked himself. But he knew the answer. He could let this play out right and pretend he had a vision until they saw the poster at the guild. Or he could stop the boys from getting hurt in the first place.
"I saw a Drowzee with a wanted poster," Sean declared, loudly, to the whole street. "So, I don't think it's okay for you to take those two without any questions." He hated talking without having any time to think about what he was saying, it made his heart pound and legs shake.
Sean nodded to himself, feeling quite accomplished in how coherent he managed to be. Rai gave him a horrified glance and said. "A wanted poster? An outlaw!?"
Marill glanced to Azurill worriedly but Drowzee kept his cool. "That is awful," he cried. "I understand your concern, applaud it actually, it is terrible when pokémon of your own kind act in such a manner to disparage their whole species. I know you understand as a meowth."
Sean frowned, thinking. Drowzee had not reacted how he had thought. He scarcely even seemed bothered by the sudden and loud accusation and Sean couldn't help but doubt himself.
"You won't forgive yourself if they're hurt," Sean reminded himself. Standing firm, he pointed the claw at Drowzee. "Prove it then."
Rai was glancing between Sean and Drowzee quickly with concern. Drowzee was hesitating but found his words soon enough. "Very well. How may I prove I am as innocent as you?"
The way he said that left a bad feeling in Sean's mouth and he pointed to where the guild could be seen. "Come with us to the guild and we'll check."
"Oh please," Drowzee scoffed, loudly and louder still. "You wish to waste the guilds time with this? Marill and Azurill have a sick mother and I don't have all the time in the world. They need their item, this could take hours for you to be certain."
"The wanted poster is up there," Sean insisted, lying through his teeth. "Won't take more than ten minutes."
Drowzee hesitated again and received a glance from Marill. "I don't mean to be rude, but… I have to think about my brother. Let's just go to the guild."
Drowzee stared at him blankly for a moment before looking up at Sean and Rai and nodding. "Very well. I have nothing to fear."
The crowd glanced away, deciding the matter resolved and most of everyone relaxed. Sean didn't. Neither did Drowzee. They were staring at each other, tensed and ready.
Right as Rai and Sean reached the trio, Drowzee moved. "YA!" Drowzee shouted, shoving Marill and Azurill into Team Ion's way with a hard shove and began sprinting away.
Sean reacted almost as quickly as Drowzee did and was in pursuit. He tripped over Marill but landed on his feet and kept running.
"Hold on!" Rai yelled, but Sean didn't listen. His heart was pumping hard, he wasn't thinking things anymore, Drowzee was quick but not as quick as a meowth. As if by themselves Sean's claws extended and then, as he fell further into the depths of righteousness, his claws began glowing white.
He reached within scratching distance of Drowzee and went to slash with Power-infused claws. Sean used Scratch.
It missed.
Right as he went to cut, Sean was tackled to the side. He rolled in a furry-feline-fracas before being pinned.
"Are you out of your mind?" Rai hissed, he had been the one to tackle and pin Sean. "I said you cannot use a move in town. You'll get arrested or be labelled an outlaw. NEVER do that!"
He had spoken low, under his breath, so no one else heard. Sean distantly noticed Drowzee disappearing, no one else reacting fast enough to even begin the chase.
"He's getting away!" Sean protested, Rai pushed himself off him and they both looked to see Drowzee disappear.
"S-sorry," Rai whispered, Sean still just taking in what just happened. "But you really can't use a move here. The last pokémon to do so, well… it caused a terrible fight and the town was badly damaged."
"But he… he… got away." Sean knew he was repeating himself now, but Drowzee was getting away. No. He HAD gotten away.
Flushing with a mixture of anger, frustration, and nerves, Sean glanced down.
Now that the adrenaline was wearing off he noticed he could feel something he had never felt before. It almost felt like blood flowing back into his arm after something had been cutting off his circulation, letting unrestricted blood flow to his arm again. It was like feeling the coolness of blood rushing to the tips of his fingers again, but somehow flowing even further than that.
Frowning, he looked over his paw. It didn't feel like he had bled but summoning that Power and the feeling surrounding it; that was the closest description he could give. His claws were completely white, and almost flickering like mist.
"M-Mr Meowth?" Sean started and felt himself return fully to the present when Marill's shaky voice reached him. The feeling faded and his claws returned to normal. Beside him, Rai sighed in relief. He had been blocking the view from anyone seeing the meowth's paw.
"Uh… yes?" Sean asked.
"Was Mr Drowzee really an outlaw?"
"Yes." Sean nodded, trying to reorder his thoughts. "He was."
Azurill popped up next to his brother and leaned against him, shaking slightly. "Does that mean he lied about finding our treasure?"
"Y-yeah. I'd say so."
The brothers shared a look and Marill gathered up the apples that had spilled when Drowzee had shoved them. "Th-thanks for stopping him. I don't know what might have happened if you didn't. We… we better get home. Thanks."
Pressed together, they walked out of the town, towards home, together. Sean wanted to stop them, say Drowzee could be out there waiting, but he doubted it strongly.
"Good work," Rai said, giving him a paw-pat on the shoulder. "You stopped an outlaw from taking them!"
Sean tried to smile but could barely manage it. "He got away though." It was all he could think about.
Rai nodded guiltily. "There wasn't much you could do. You put him in a situation where he had to run or else get arrested. He didn't take anything or anyone so it's a good thing!" He bumped his rump against Sean and knocked him over. "Oh, oops. I guess you're not used to that kind of thing?
"No… no not really."
"Come on then, if that wasn't too much excitement." Rai's lips twitched with a grin. "We've still got a Drenched Bluff to go through!"
"Yeah." Sean agreed, falling into step with Rai. It stunned him how normal Rai was acting, how no one else batted much of an eye after the situation went down. A few pokémon had come forward, but Drowzee disappeared too quickly.
"Shouldn't we mention this happened?" he asked as they passed by the guild.
"When we get back, I think, we explain everything that went down on the day."
"I suppose… someone could go looking for him."
"It's too late now," Rai answered, he gave a sigh and they came to a stop. "Look you, uh… you did a good thing stopping him there but by the time we tell Chatot what happened he'll be too far away, and he might get mad at us for, uh, 'shirking work'."
"That doesn't make sense," Sean said, crossing his arms grumpily.
Rai cocked his head cutely. "That's how it is here."
Knowing he wasn't winning this argument, Sean dropped it and they left town in a somewhat tense silence.
Hoping to break it, Sean asked. "How come moves aren't allowed in town?" Sean asked. He wondered what other rules and social niceties he didn't know because this was certainly going to be different than what he was prepared for.
"It's a peace thing really," Rai answered as they passed many trees. "Towns and civilisations seem to have that rule in common. If you have a disagreement, take it out of town or to a dojo."
Sean's mind immediately went to Marowak's Dojo. He had spotted it, he was pretty sure, but hadn't gone anywhere near it.
"Using Moves in town can upset the balance or something," Rai continued. "I think it's more to do with the fact that some predatory pokémon are, well, feared for what they could do. None of them eat anyone who's not a feral pokémon!" Rai insisted suddenly. "Well… not if they don't want to be an outlaw… um… but well, peace."
"Peace?" Sean asked. "You mentioned a fight happened once or something?"
"Yeah… Treasure Town was nearly destroyed by a fight that escalated from one pokémon attacking another, that led to someone trying to stop them, then a stray attack hit someone else and it all just went downhill from there."
"I understand," Sean said. He was still shaking everything that had happened off. Still trying to understand why Rai was unfazed by it. He found the words.
"You seem alright with it?" He looked right at the top of Rai's head. "Like that." He gave a twirly gesture, trying to show the befuddlement he felt. "Didn't just happen."
"Well." Rai shrugged. "Not much did happen. No one was hurt. No one was taken. The outlaw ran away. You seem a bit frazzled though?"
"It's not what I'm used to," Sean admitted, crossing his arms in a comfortable position. "I guess I'm still getting used to the fact I'm not in…" he trailed off. It felt almost taboo to acknowledge his beginnings, his world or the Dark Future. He could be confident it wasn't like this in that frozen hellscape.
"Well if it helps, you act pretty okay so far," Rai said cheerfully. He chuckled when Sean gave him a disbelieving look. "You need a bit of work, yes, but so far you are handling this all pretty well."
"So are you," Sean replied as they stepped past a trail leading to the left and further into an area Sean had never actually seen. He'd never seen the journey to a dungeon, the expedition didn't count.
An hour later he decided it wasn't all that great. He and Rai chatted intermittently as they walked, trying to get to know each other a bit better.
They started off with safe questions.
"What's your favourite colour?" Sean asked. "Mine's yellow. Black too, but that doesn't really count as a colour."
"Green," Rai answered. "What do you like to do to have fun? My eyes are yellow."
"Well my eyes are green." They shared a smile. "Read I guess." Sean doubted any of his other interests would make sense to Rai. Games was assuredly off the table. "What do you do when you're feeling bored?"
As they were nearing the Drenched Bluff, he had learned that Rai was excellent at reading the Wonder Map, they had moved onto slightly more personal questions.
"Even without touching them at all," Sean finished. "I guess it's not very notable here." He wiggled his ears for proof and Rai wiggled them back. "But humans usually can't move their ears much without touching them."
"That's odd to imagine," Rai laughed. "Hey, when did you- oh. I think we're here."
The entrance of the Drenched Bluff was not particularly inviting. Drenched was an apt word to use when looking at it. As were other unflattering terms like moist, soggy and squelchy. The sounds their paws made of the ground and having to deal with the feeling oozing between his claws, haunted Sean as they walked forward.
"Urgh, here's another fun fact about me," Sean groaned as they entered. "I cannot stand slimy things touching me."
"It's not great," Rai agreed, grimacing. "Hopefully the dungeon itself will be more manageable."
It was. To a degree.
The Drenched Bluff was wet and slippery. Similar to the Beach Cave there were deeper pools of water where terrible things lurked, they made sure to avoid those areas.
The walls were of a different stone, much greener and slimier than Beach Cave, but the ground was a mixture of the same green and a lot of moss and even more slime. There were many lileep around, but they seemed content to stay in one place and ignore them.
"This dungeon's a bit older than Beach Cave," Rai said as they slipped around. "So, it'll probably be deeper."
Sean tapped his explorer badge and realised no one had said anything about it having magical teleportation powers. "I guess we'll need to bring the psyduck with us as well."
"She's probably scared to," Rai added. "And hopefully not injured. This place shouldn't be TOO big though. Let's take our time and get this done right."
"You seemed like you were in a, wah!" Sean slipped over. Huffing he pulled himself up, ignored Rai's snickers, and said. "Hurry earlier."
"We didn't run to the dungeon," Rai pointed out, he frowned and grew very still. "Careful. Anorith." Sean froze as well before glancing around discretely. A horrifying fossil pokémon, all legs and natural grossness, peered out from a corner. It warbled at them before turning and leaving.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Sean made his way quickly to Rai's side, the ooze on the floor being used to slide himself all the quicker.
"You're safer," he said when Rai chuckled at him. "Shush. I'm still learning. Teach me wise master."
"Okay." Rai grinned back before going completely serious. "First things first. The lesson of how to not freak out over goo-" Whatever he was to say next was lost as Rai was launched back from a sudden hit.
"RAI!" Sean shouted and tried to run to his side, slipped instead, and nearly did a backflip. He grunted in pain when he landed and groaned when he realised the goop was getting into everywhere.
"Damnit," he grunted and tried to sit up. Before he could, a chingling floated to his side. "H-hello."
"Don't say hello," Rai groaned, shaking his head. "It hit me. Attack it!"
Chingling frowned and Sean's claws extended on instinct. It didn't like that and screeched at him, blowing him back as its eyes lit up with Psychic power. The Treasure Bag was separated from him and the chingling grabbed it gleefully.
"Chin~ling," it sang mockingly at him, and Sean stared in pain. This one was much more coherent than some of the pokémon he had seen in Beach Cave, its eyes were less blank, but it still seemed incapable of talking to him.
As he tried to stand, the chingling floated away, bobbing in the air mockingly as it went, a chime ringing from it.
"Hey!" Rai shouted, firing a bolt of electricity, but he missed when the chingling swerved around it. "No! The Treasure Bag!"
"I will get it!" Sean said grandly as he managed to stand and not fall over. He was able to use the slippery floor to his advantage and slide right across the room. "Get back here!" he snarled, claws out and ready for blood.
"Wait, don't go on without me!" Rai said, but it was too late. He was hit harder by the Confusion attack the chingling had sucker-punched him with and was having trouble walking in a straight enough line to pursue.
Rai groaned when he realised multiple pokémon had entered the room, emerging from the pools of water. However slow and ponderous, the shellos were coming for him.
"Get. Back. Here," Sean demanded as he ran after the chingling. It was digging through his bag, stealing things and remaining out of reach. He was navigating the floor surprisingly well, but he couldn't change direction as easily as the horrible yellow bell and the chingling kept swerving whenever he got close.
Leading him in a circle around one room, Sean was far to fixated on regaining his belongings that he failed to notice newcomers entering the room.
The chingling laughed one more time before a Water Gun his Sean in the back of the head. The sudden thwack knocked Sean to the ground, water stinging and running rivets into his fur.
"Chihihi." The chingling found the seed in their bag and immediately popped it into its mouth. It giggled for half a second more before dropping.
"Oww," Sean moaned, rolling onto his back. "Oh no," he gasped as he realised two anorith and a shellos had appeared out of nowhere and were surrounding him.
The one positive thing was at least the chingling was out, it had eaten the Sleep Seed that Rai had bought earlier.
"Okay, BACK OFF!" Sean hissed, extending his claws. He felt his fur puff up slightly and the fluffiness helped make him look bigger.
The shellos hesitated but both anorith were unperturbed by his threatening display. One clicked and the shellos fired another Water Gun, this one Sean ducked around. Taking a chance at his distraction, both anorith scuttled towards him, clicking and screeching.
Sean was tackled by one and had the lovely sight of an anorith's mouth close up. With its eight feathery legs flexing and twitching and pair of mandibles dripping saliva, Sean had the delightful vision of being pinned by a gigantic ancient spider.
He shrieked and threw the anorith off him with a burst of strength, it hit the roof with how hard he had thrown it. The other one came at him, mandibles glowing as it prepared an attack, but Sean lashed out blinding with his claws and hit it in the eye.
Blood sprayed and the anorith screamed, jerking back and rolling over before righting itself and scuttling away. The shellos lost its nerve and slipped back into the water. The first anorith was not so cowardly.
"HA!"
A bolt of electricity made it rethink its bravery and a second direct hit sent the anorith fleeing for the corridors.
Sean spun on the newcomer, instinct telling him to hiss and defend. Rai came trotting over, covered in slime, and beaming brightly. "Good work," he chirped as Sean remembered who he was. "Your claws are a bit… icky though."
Sean glanced down and found he had remnants of eyeball on his paw. Shivering in disgust, he retracted the claws and dunked his paw in the slime, exchanging one gooey feeling for another.
"That was NOT fun," Sean said as Rai reached their Treasure Bag.
"You did pretty well though," Rai assured him. "Knocked out the chingling and scared two others off."
"It ate the Sleep Seed," Sean muttered, coming to Rai's side and lifting the Treasure Bag off the snoozing chingling.
"Oh… well all the better. Less trouble, that thing was annoying."
Sean frowned slightly, it was a little jarring to hear Rai refer to another pokémon as a thing, but he shrugged it off. "Let's just find Psyduck and through here."
He was suppressing more shivers and trying to forget the scream of the anorith. He also ignored the dots of blood that were mixing in with the slimy floor. Denial was nice and safe.
Rai sensed Sean's discomfort and bumped him gently. He smiled at Sean's curious glance and Sean felt just the tiniest bit better. Rai seemed to be the physical sort, brushing up against him frequently as they had walked to the dungeon.
In a far more comfortable silence than before, they continued wandering the dungeon. With Sean sticking right next to Rai, mentally replaying the fight he had, he felt better. The shinx was quite adept at shocking their attackers and making them flee.
Very few creatures seemed to enjoy the feeling of voltage running through their bodies and few monsters bothered to try anything further after the first shock.
Soon enough, however, the floor began to change.
"Hold up," Rai said, coming to a stop. Sean stopped with him and gave him a questioning look. "We're nearly at the end of the dungeon. This looks like we're about to enter the last room, if we go too much further, leaving will take us right to the beginning."
Sean sighed. "Where's Psyduck?" he asked, not expecting Rai to suddenly know.
"We must have missed her," Rai guessed and turned back. "Looks like we're going for a trip."
Frowning at the end, Sean followed Rai back into the slimy depths of the Drenched Bluff.
An hour later, they were stumped. "I swear we've walked every step of this place," Rai groaned.
Sean nodded in agreement. "I swear I've seen that lump of goop before."
"They all look the same."
"Exactly! We've crossed this place so many times I'm recognising the slime. Soon I'll be giving them names. Like George, and Larry. Lenny. Carl. That one can be Carl."
"Don't let the dungeon get to you," Rai said worriedly, and Sean realised the shinx was actually concerned.
"Haha, don't worry. I'm just kidding. I haven't gone far enough that I'm naming slime."
"But you just…" Rai trailed off before shaking his head. More behaviour he didn't quite understand from the amnesiac human. "We're obviously doing something wrong. Even if Psyduck is constantly moving we should be finding her eventually."
"Well," Sean began, not sure if he should speak his mind or not. "I mean. What if she got attacked and wasn't able to get away?"
Rai's frown deepened, and he glanced away. "…Yeah," he said after a moment. "I'm trying to not imagine that could be the case."
"Sorry," Sean said. "But she could be. Or she might have escaped the dungeon herself! Positive thinking!"
"I know. I really hope not though. Yeah, positive thinking." He shook his head and stood firm again. "No! I refuse to let our first job be a failed one. There must be something we're missing. Maybe there's a passageway we've missed, or something we need to do to open one up."
"Or," Sean said, heart soaring as he realised something they had missed. "She's not on the dungeon FLOOR!"
"Huh?" Rai cocked his head, rather cutely Sean thought.
"Psyduck are Water-type pokémon!" Sean said excitedly, and he pointed to the deepened water ways they glanced at the make sure nothing was emerging to attack from. But had ignored otherwise. "She might have gone into the water! There could even be more dungeon past those."
Rai followed his paw and brightened. "Hey! That must be it." Rai immediately trotted to the water's edge and called out loudly. "PSYDUCK? PSYDUCK? IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, I AM SHINX. I AM AN EXPLORER FROM THE GUILD! YOU'RE FRIEND ASKED MY PARTNER AND I TO FIND YOU. IF YOU CAN HEAR US, COME THIS WAY. WE'LL GET YOU OUT OF HERE!"
He stepped away from that water and crossed the room to the second channel to call the same thing out.
"Come on," Rai said, jerking his head to the corridor. "We've got to do that in every room." Sean nodded, and they ran to the next one, taking a place in each water way to call Rai's message out.
They attracted a fair bit of undesirable attention, largely shellos popping out to spray water at them, but nothing Rai couldn't handle. Even Sean was warding them off with a few warning slashes with his claws.
"Is this going to work?" Sean asked after they exited their tenth room. "I mean. Should we maybe try and swim? She might be stuck or lost."
"I can't really swim," Rai admitted. "Can you?"
Sean hesitated. He could swim, or at least he was able to previously. But even if he still could, entering the water and exploring without Rai to back him up was not an idea he enjoyed.
"Help."
Until he heard a cry. Both meowth and shinx spun in the direction of the previous room, exchanged a glance, before rushing to it.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Rai yelled and soon enough.
"Yes. I'm over here," a feminine voice with a hint of a lisp, coming from one of the waterways.
"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" Sean yelled out, feeling a wave of caution hit him at just trusting a voice in a dungeon. They do anything to lure you in. He shook his head, feeling a little strange for a moment. He wasn't sure where that thought had come from.
"I'm Psyduck," the voice called back. "I've been stuck here for ages now. I've hurt my arm and leg, and I can't swim. Please help me."
They could hear her much clearer now, with that last comment they shared another look.
"I can't swim," Rai said under his breath. Sean nodded, swallowed, and gathered his nerve.
"I can." He peered over the depths of the water, noted any possible dangers, and took a breath. "Shock the water if you think you have to," he said, before not letting himself overthink any further and leaping in.
The water was freezing. Drenched Bluff itself was pretty cold but the real chill was in the water. Sean gasped as his head broke the top of the water, taking in a lung of air. His body felt strange, clunky, like he was trying to steer something he had only watched other people control.
He flailed all five limbs, tail flicking and curling as he tried to figure out how to swim as a meowth. "Are you okay?" Rai called, concern painting his voice bleak. Sean knew Rai must be seeing him struggle and he called back.
He tried to put forth confidence. "Just a bit cold." He forced his feet to paddle, arms to wade and tail to just keep doing what it was doing.
Eventually he got himself back under control and Sean made his way slowly across the water. It got into his mouth and nose and soon all he could taste was salt, not a pleasant taste when it was all one could taste.
He reached a bend and glanced back to Rai, already seeming so far away. He knew once he passed this, Rai would no longer be able to physically help him. He was pretty sure salty water was more conductive of electricity, however.
He passed the bend and found himself staring at more dungeon, and a psyduck.
"Hello," he called, trying to smile and he slowly paddled towards her. Psyduck brightened greatly when she saw him approaching.
"You've come to rescue me?" she asked, voice shaking.
"Me and my partner, who's waiting on the other side," Sean answered, reaching the edge. He pulled himself out of the water, making sure he didn't gasp or otherwise imply weakness. He felt oddly tense, he couldn't place why but he didn't want to drop his focus on Psyduck.
Psyduck was scared, likely hungry, thirst, and clearly injured. One of her legs was covered in dried blood and was already showing signs of infection. The sloughy skin was not looking particularly pretty.
"How capable are you at swimming normally?" he asked as he laid a paw on Psyduck's shoulder.
She started shaking and crying. "I-I-I. Oh gosh, I'm so stupid." She lunged and buried her bill into his chest, gripping his shoulders and sobbing. Sean awkwardly patted her on the back while trying to imagine how he was going to do this.
He knew it wasn't going to be easy. But he had a bad feeling he was going to do exactly what he shouldn't and put himself at risk here.
"Okay, okay," he said, voice low and soothing. "You are safe now. R-Shinx and I are going to get you out of here. But the hardest part is going to be getting across this channel of water. It's not very long, but if you can't swim then it's going to be a lot harder on both of us."
"I-I can do a little," she whispered through tears. "I just can't keep myself above water. The blood too, the pokémon that live in the water attacked me because of it, I think."
That was another issue. Sean hadn't been bothered on his way in, but he knew there was no guarantee on the way back. Still, confidence, or at least the appearance of confidence, was key.
"Don't worry. You've got a Wigglytuff Apprentice with you. I'll keep you safe as we get across. Then there will be two!"
Psyduck nodded and he supported her as they walked to the edge. "Here's what we'll do," he explained stepping a foot into the water. "I'll go in first and support you until you're in. Then I'll keep a hold of you on your bad side, and the two of us will use one arm and one leg to paddle. We'll be across in no time, especially with your flippers!"
Psyduck choked out a laugh and nodded. Sean dipped into the water and didn't go under, paddling securely and waiting for her. Psyduck took a breath and let herself drop. She was much heavier than Sean was. At least five times as much, probably more.
Still, water was a strong equaliser, and Sean was able to pull her up, going down underwater in the process. He had his breath and pushed off from the edge, giving them a boost in speed to begin with. She was heavier than he had anticipated, so he change his plan slightly.
The air in his lungs began to burn and Sean loosened his grip on Psyduck slightly to allow himself to pull up to air without pulling her down. He took a breath and dunked his head again. Effectively pushing her along.
He relied on her to guide them as he couldn't open his eyes underwater, popping his head up only briefly to breathe and not opening his eyes as they were wet.
He could feel her flinch on occasion, pain from her leg as she instinctively tried to paddle with her injured foot. Something slimy touched Sean's foot, but he ignored it. It happened again, and he hoped they'd get out of the water soon. The fact that he was so light was actually helping him, allowing him to rise up and take a breath without plunging Psyduck down.
Then something bit his foot and pulled, dragging Sean and Psyduck down with barely a cry. Rai was in sight when this happened, and he shouted out in horror as he saw Psyduck simply disappear into the water. The shinx breathed quickly, then quicker, when no one resurfaced.
"Okay… okay!" He crackled with electricity but wasn't sure what to do. Sean had told him to shock if something happened, but Psyduck was there too now. He began pacing on the spot, debating whether he should try and jump in himself.
Underwater, Sean writhed, letting go of Psyduck, extending all four sets of claws and slashing out wildly. He was in water though, so his movements where slow and clumsy. He felt the feeling of blood rushing again and felt it go to the foot that was dragging him down. He pushed on reflex and the claws in that foot shone briefly with Power. He kicked out and something gave.
A warbling sound echoed through the water, but he was released. Eyes burning as he opened them, he grabbed the flailing Psyduck and hauled them both through the water up to air.
Rai gasped in relief when Sean and Psyduck broke through the water again and he stopped pacing. Both of them coughed for breath, but they were mere meters away and Rai held a paw out. Psyduck gripped it in a flipper and tugged, easily pulling Rai into the water.
Sean pushed, hoping the Psyduck would grab the edge, and thankfully she did so. He coughed and wiped an eye, spotting no Rai. His foot hit something, and he looked down into the clear water, heart jolting as he saw Rai going down, flailing as he tried to swim.
He didn't pause to even take an extra breath before he went down and grabbed the shinx by the scruff of his neck. He exchanged places with him, forcing Rai up at the cost of pushing himself down.
Things were dark down there, but nothing was stopping him from swimming. Sean swan up and headbutted Rai before breaking above.
The shinx scrambled out of the water and Sean joined him, lungs and eyes burning. The three of them gasped for breath for several moments as they dragged themselves away from the water's edge.
"See," Sean found his words first, coughing for another twelve seconds after speaking, "piece of cake."
"I'm so sorry," Psyduck cried, covering her face. "I dragged you into the water."
Rai made a strange bleating noise before pulling himself to all fours. "It's fine. L-let's just get out of here."
Sean came to Psyduck's side as Rai came to her other and they helped hoist her up. The effort of that horrible experience combined with her exhaustion, injury, and hunger left her barely able to stand.
Sean kept supporting her when Rai had to shock something. The salt clinging to his fur interfering slightly with his electrical attacks. But there was no further catastrophe that happened.
"This is the end of the Drenched Bluff," Rai said as they reached a beautiful, oasis. All three of them were unimpressed, the beauty was not quite worth the near-drowning. "Let's go home."
They gave Psyduck the third apple Rai had bought, that the chingling thankfully failed to steal, and she was able to walk mostly by herself as they made the journey back to Treasure Town.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" After arriving back at the guild, they found Clefairy hanging around nervously. She spotted them as soon as they descended and nearly flew over to them. "Psyduck. I'm so, so, so sorry."
With tears in her eyes, Clefairy held Psyduck by the flippers as the duck pokémon also began to cry. "No, I'm sorry. What were we even arguing about? It doesn't matter. I never should have gone, and I almost died because of it." Psyduck's voice broke very quickly and soon both pokémon were crying and apologising in each other's arms.
Sean and Rai stepped back from the pair, smiling slightly as the reunion made everything more than worth it. Sean staggered his way over to Chimecho to speak with her.
"Well done," Chimecho said immediately upon seeing he was coming her way.
"Thank you." Sean smiled. "But I was just wanting to ask. Psyduck has a nasty wound on her leg, I think it's infected. Are you able to do anything about that?"
"Oh, certainly!" Chimecho responded and floated over to the pair and began speaking to them, being shown Psyduck's injury quickly. Clefairy's gasp was audible from the floor below and she devolved into tears again. Chimecho quickly took them away to somewhere private.
Rai stepped into place with Sean and they just sighed in relief. "Never thought about what happens after the adventure," Rai admitted, receiving a non-committal hum from Sean. They sat down and leaned on each other, enjoying a moment of peace and quiet.
They weren't in peace or quiet for long. Chatot came hopping up from below and spotted them immediately. "Ah, just the pair I wished to see," he said primly, ruffling his feathers.
"What can we do for you?" Sean asked, hoping Chatot didn't actually have something for them to do. Unless it was sleep.
"I saw you completed your job and on the way to the medical wing, Clefairy stopped me to hand you the reward for rescuing Psyduck."
At the talk of rewards, both pokémon brightened. Saving Psyduck was certainly its own reward, but something more was always appreciated. Chatot swung a small pouch into view and opened.
"Here we have, oh very lucky you two." He pulled out three items and another, smaller, pouch that jingled. "A Blast Seed. A Reviver Seed and a Sitrus Berry. All very useful items for apprentices such as yourselves." He handed them to Sean, because he had the bag, and opened the smaller pouch.
"A generous monetary reward also, very good." Chatot's feathers were puffing up quite a lot and Sean couldn't help but smile, knowing what was coming.
"It seems," Chatot said as he counted the money. "Clefairy has given you two thousand Poké!"
Rai beamed. "Two THOUSAND!?" He received more than a single glance at that. Chuckling embarrassedly, he said quieter. "Two thousand? Just for us?"
"Well," Chatot said, and Sean's grin became rueful. "After taking in account guild training, guild meals, guild accommodation, guild exclusiveness and the Guildmaster own cut of the profits. You're sum comes out to, this much."
He handed Sean two hundred Poké and Rai fluffed up. "Two hundred?" he only mostly whined. Chatot gave him a look that simply screamed him to dare and Rai sighed. "Fair's fair."
"Very good," Chatot said brightly, all smiles again. "You keep all item rewards. So, make sure you make good use of them. With this completed, your job for the day is done. You may relax or do whatever you like. As long as it doesn't embarrass the guild. After dinner you'll come to the Guildmaster's Chambers for debrief, okay?"
He began hopping away but paused to glance back. "Oh, and since you weren't awake for it at the time, dinner is served at the ring of Chimecho's bell. Listen for it as she won't ring more than twice." He continued hopping but right as he reached the ramp he paused again. "Also… good work today. ALL of it. I assure you the Guildmaster is very impressed."
At that he did leave, and Rai smiled somewhat goofily. "The Guildmaster is proud of US!" He whooped and ran circles around Sean, making him dizzy. "Oof. I shouldn't do that again," Rai groaned, lying down. "Let's just relax until dinner."
"Oh my gosh! I heard what happened it town today!" Sunflora came over to them, swirling in a giggly pile of plant and excitement.
"Yup-yup, you scared a felon off," Bidoof said, coming to Sean's side. "I can't imagine doing that! You must have been real scary."
"Hey-hey, I gotta say, that's not too bad new guys." Corphish also scuttled up to give his congratulations.
Sean waved them off, feeling embarrassed as well as ashamed. "I didn't catch him," he muttered. "Who knows where he is now?"
"Still a felon on your first real day, by golly. Not even in a dungeon, that's some spooky stuff yes-siree." Bidoof shivered. "Could be anywhere."
"We wanted to check to see if you were okay," Sunflora added, and Sean smiled.
"We're pretty good actually," he said, looking to Rai who smiled at him as well. "Bit salty. Literally I mean."
"What kind of salty would you be otherwise?" Corphish asked and Sean glanced around for a moment. This was still weird for him.
"In other news," he said, moving past the questions, "we DID complete our first real job," Sean nudged Rai and was bumped back. "RrrrShinx carried the whole thing."
"No, I didn't!" Rai shot back, with surprise passion. "You saved Psyduck. And me from drowning. It was even your great idea that figured out where she was."
"We wouldn't have gotten there if you didn't do basically all of the work," Sean replied. "I have to be useful sometimes or else people will wonder why you've got me on your team."
"Team Ion is as just as much your team as it is mine," Rai said, giving him a challenging look.
"Yeah," Sean agreed, stretching the word out as he tried to think of something to say. "I'm just saying that there was no way I could have even gotten through the dungeon without you." He left it unsaid that Rai could get through without him.
"I wouldn't have found Psyduck if it wasn't for you," Rai insisted and they both nodded at the same time.
"We're a team…?" Sean half-asked.
"We'll be the best team!" Rai nodded back.
It was after dinner and Wigglytuff had stopped dancing with his apple to eat it, and wasn't that the biggest, juiciest, looking thing Sean wasn't surprised he was obsessed with them. Just looking at the perfect apple made him want to leap across the table.
After dinner they followed Chatot and Wigglytuff to Wigglytuff's chambers. There was a draft coming through the broken window and Sean noticed behind one of the drapes was another door that led further. He wondered where? It had to be down as they were right on the cliffs edge.
"So, tell me! Tell me!" Wigglytuff beamed at them. "Tell me how it went, friendly friends!"
They had prepared for this, chatting with each other and were ready. Rai stood a little stiffly, but Wigglytuff's earnest cheer relaxed him.
"We had some trouble at first," Rai started, scuffing his paw slightly. "A chingling got a sneak attack on me and…."
"I'm not the best fighter," Sean admitted. "Still getting used to it." With Chatot behind him, he missed the important look he gave to Wigglytuff. Wigglytuff gave no indication of anything behind him, smiling approvingly.
"Understanding ones limits is the first step!" he said positively. "Continue, continue!"
"So, we made our way to the end of the dungeon," Rai explained. "Without finding Psyduck. We discussed what we might have missed and turned around before we got to the end."
Chatot nodded fluttering up next to Wigglytuff. "A smart choice," he said seriously.
Rai smiled at the praise. "And so we went around again."
This time Sean spoke up, "And still found nothing. We got worried she might have… been killed, or hoped she might have gotten out, but we had an idea."
"Meowth had an idea," Rai corrected smoothly. "To go from room to room calling her name."
"It wasn't just my idea," Sean said weakly.
Chatot cleared his throat curtly. "Did you consider that calling out might attract more ferals?"
Rai nodded. "We did, but at that point it was more important we find Psyduck. Meowth reasoned that since she could swim, she might be in a part of the dungeon we couldn't find, and trying to swim every channel would be more dangerous." Chatot nodded approvingly.
"Eventually she called out," Sean continued. "And I was able to swim over and find her."
"Chimecho mentioned she had a wounded leg," Wigglytuff said sadly. "How did you get her through?"
"I swam us through."
Chatot frowned. "That must have been risky, you are rather light for a meowth, and your species is not known to be avid swimmers."
"I didn't have much of a choice," Sean said. "Being as light as I am I was able to surface for breaths every few seconds while pushing her."
"Did anything attack you underwater?" Wigglytuff asked. Sean nodded. "I see. You did a valiant thing, but it's not right to risk yourself to that level, Meowth."
Feeling abashed, and from Wigglytuff of all people, he glanced down.
"Tell us how you resolved the attack?" Chatot asked gently.
"I scratched it with my lower legs and kept swimming."
"And I made a mistake myself," Rai said, ears tilting but he was ready to be in trouble with Sean and not the only one with a spotless record. "I reached out for Psyduck, but she ended up pulling me in. I can't exactly swim and so Meowth got her out and then went back for me."
"He was just trying to help," Sean added, he shuffled closer to Meowth.
Sensing perhaps their worries Wigglytuff smiled cheerfully. "It sounds like your first mission was a rousing success!" he beamed. They both blinked up at him, not expecting that.
Even Chatot nodded. "Quite so. It is good to go in with a plan of attack, but matters always change in the moment. Neither of you two would be expected to swim, and so developing a way to solve the problem and rescue someone in great need is very admirable. There are things to learn from this endeavour, perhaps arm yourself with a rope in your common supplies?"
"Ooh!" Wigglytuff bounced. "Or quick seeds! Go so fast you can run over water! Shinx can use Quick Attack, that plus a Quick Seed could totally be fast enough! And that'd be so cool! Swim really fast too."
"Quite. You enjoy the beach, do you not?" Chatot asked Rai, who nodded. "I would advise taking some time to learn to swim. Meowth could even assist since he has the skill!"
Team Ion smiled at each other, relieved they weren't in trouble and grateful for some tips of advice. Sean was glad they were taking the time to do this, it had never happened in the games, so he wasn't sure what to expect, but this was nice. It made him feel supported and Rai was silently agreeing on that.
"One more matter," Chatot said, growing serious again. "The tussle in town with Drowzee. Are you both okay?"
They nodded, Sean a little slower to do so. They noticed that and Wigglytuff hummed. "You can speak if there is anything you want to say."
"I, uh… I probably acted too fast," Sean said ruefully. "Since he got away."
"Not in the least!" Chatot barked, sounding angry but his words didn't seem so. "Preventing an outlaw from taking those young boys. That is far more important than capturing one."
"He… but he could do it again to someone else!"
"Perhaps he could," Wigglytuff said. "But he would have done it to them. You did a good thing, and a brave thing as well. We are both very impressed. You have a good heart, Meowth."
Blushing under the praise, Sean didn't know what to say and so just managed a, "Thank you."
"That is all," Chatot said. "Now," he added sternly. "It is expected you get a good rest and be up bright and active tomorrow. You cannot rely on your fellow apprentices to wake you in time, understood?"
"Yes, sir," they chorused.
"Sleep well," Wigglytuff hummed, doing a spin. "And dream good! Nighty night."
Excused, they went to their room in comfortable silence.
"Hey Sean," Rai asked, later that night as they lay in their straw beds.
"Yeah?" Sean answered, after thinking for a while.
"Why were you so sure Drowzee was a wanted pokémon?"
"I saw the wanted poster." It was technically true when looked at it from his perspective. The game had shown Drowzee's wanted poster. "I wanted those two to be safe, so if it was rude to call Drowzee out like that, well… I'd prefer to look like a jerk than feel like an idiot for letting two kids get kidnapped or something."
"That makes sense. I saw the poster too, later." Rai shifted, rolling over into a new position. "That was really brave of you, I couldn't imagine doing something like that. I'm glad the brothers weren't hurt. And thanks for saving me when I nearly drowned."
"Thanks for saving me all those other times. Too many to count really."
"Heh. Goodnight, Sean."
Rai couldn't sleep. He didn't want to doubt his partner, but he had checked the outlaw notice board. The Drowzee was there for sure, but upon seeing him looking at it, Dugtrio had mentioned he'd only just put it up. How had Sean seen it?
"Goodnight, Rai."
Sean couldn't sleep. He couldn't help but replay the events that led to Drowzee fleeing. No Dimensional Scream, acting as rashly as he did. He didn't regret saving Azurill from a traumatic event, but Drowzee had a role to play later. Sean couldn't help but worry, what he was changing with his presence, why it was changing, and what the consequences it would cause.
He believed in Rai. He wasn't so sure about himself though.
I think it's right for the guild to actually be shown doing some sort of training. Thus, debrief with Chatot and Wigglytuff. Seems responsible of them.
I also must thank Viroro for looking over this chapter and giving me some beta help!