Rain started falling as we scrambled to the docks. I took a few sips of my coffee as Ficus loudly argued with the man taking tickets. Louise seemed unbothered by her shouting trainer, telling me that Ficus must be known for her boisterous voice around here.

For what seemed like hours, Ficus 'talked' to the man behind the ticket booth before she stomped back to us.

"Great news, your plan is stupid." She said, crossing her arms

"Wow, you shouting at them didn't make the rain stop? Who would have thunk it."

"Do you want my help?"

"Can we ask your sister to help us?"

"Stop it with Madison!" She threw her arms up, "My sister is a selfish brat who refuses to help anyone ever!"

"Oh, so you're the nice sister?"

"I'm a fucking delight!"

"Eevee," Louise interrupted, hopping up and down to get our attention. We both turned to shush her only to spot a couple of police officers walking into the area.

I felt my feathers quiver, "Let me guess," Ficus whispered, "Cop's are looking for you?"

"How'd you guess?"

"Why am I helping you again?" She asked as the three of us bound past the police and back into the city.

The rain started to fall faster and harder as the storm above let out a soft rumble of thunder.

"Okay, no biggie," I said as we made our way back to Ficus' place.

"Just - go back to your place, wait a few days, and head out after the storm passes." I said.

"Hey, hold on." We all froze at the voice, I side eyed Ficus, who tightened the grip on her small backpack. You'd think Ficus wouldn't have any loyalty to me, right? That as the police officer came walking up to us, she'd throw me under the bus and split.

That's what I was expecting. Maybe the thought of that crossed her mind, probably multiple times, as three large men with Rockruffs started towards us.

"We got word that a shiny Decidueye had escaped from a lab," The biggest one said, "He has a tag on his wing, we were wondering if you'd let us check."

She caught my eye.

I'm dead. This is it. I was an idiot to trust some random stranger. A stranger who, from what I could gather, wasn't even a Pokémon trainer. Ficus is just a random, scared–

"Bite me. This is my Decidueye." She snapped, I blinked in surprise. Louise's fur fluffed up, she glared daggers at the rockruffs who growled beside their trainers.

"That's not any way to talk to us, we're just trying to find an escaped Pokémon, it will only take a couple of minutes." The officer said, holding out a hand towards Ficus.

"Oh, you want to check? Fine. Check this!" She ripped off her backpack and tossed it at him. He shouted in confused as she turned and raced away from the group.

"Come on, feather face!" She yelled back at me, Louise pelting behind her. The other two officers looked too shocked to react, I turned and ran like my life depended on it. My mind flashed back to the Houndooms that hunted me down just a day ago. As we ran, I couldn't help but wonder, why?

Ficus didn't know me. She, in fact, seemed to hate me! Yet she just threw her only bag at a police officer to help me. Why?! The cold rain soaked us as we started walking on the path towards her house.

"Ficus," I gasped, "That-" I started only for her to interrupt me

"Was stupid? Probably, I hate cops."

"Stupid? That was awesome!" I laughed, her face lit up.

"Really? You didn't think that was an overdramatic reaction?"

"Overdramatic? Psst, that was really brave."

"Yeah? I can be pretty brave, can't I?" she was beaming now, puffing out her chest as she walked.

We stopped to take in a few quick gulps of air, something suddenly dawned on me.

"Question, did you just throw the bag that has all our supplies, your ID, and money?"

She stared at me, then the floor, back to me, then to Louise before putting her face in her hands.

"Why am I like this?"