"Those Pokémon were so cool!" a Deerling said, staring after the Incineroar and Lycanroc who'd just left Crossroad Town.

"They're a high ranking Rescue Team," the Gimmighoul at the bank said, leaning back and resting his elbow on the side wall of his chest. "That's what high ranking Rescue Teams are like."

"What's a Rescue Team?" Ash asked. "Pikachu, have you ever heard of those?"

"I turned up here the same as you, Ash," Pikachu pointed out.

Ash shrugged, unconcerned. "Yeah, but I thought maybe you'd heard of them before we ended up here. It's so cool being able to ask you questions and understand them properly now, huh?"

"That is true," Pikachu agreed. "We did pretty well for ourselves, but it's nice to not have to try."

Eevee was looking between the two of them in shock.

"You can't mean neither of you have even heard of a Rescue Team, right?" she asked, in a strangled voice. "Next you'll be saying you don't know what a Mystery Dungeon is!"

Ash sat back on his haunches.

"Uh…" he began, thinking hard. "A place where it's easy to get lost?"

"You really are from somewhere completely different, aren't you?" Eevee asked, shaking her head. "A Mystery Dungeon is, well… actually I suppose it is somewhere it's easy to get lost, but that's not the only thing about it. Mystery Dungeons are places which are… strange. They're different every time a Pokémon enters it, and most of the Pokémon they meet there are – hostile. Ready for a battle at any time, and they can't be talked out of it."

"That sounds like a great place to train, huh, Pikachu?" Ash asked, glancing at his partner.

"Yeah!" Pikachu agreed. "You've got a lot of catching up to do, Ash!"

Eevee blinked a few times.

"That's… not the reaction I was expecting, but I forgot about what you said about gyms and trainers and so on," she admitted. "But, what I was saying… right, Rescue Teams. Rescue Teams are teams of Pokémon who go into Mystery Dungeons to help – well, rescue Pokémon who are stuck in there! Or bring them things, or, well, just generally make sure everything's safe."

She waved towards the building in the middle of town. "Actually, because Crossroads Town is where it is, a lot of the businesses here in town are about supporting Rescue Teams or making sure it's safe for people to travel…"

Ash looked at Pikachu, and Pikachu looked back.

"I know what you're thinking, and I agree," Pikachu declared.

"All right!" Ash said. "How do we form a Rescue Team?"

"What?" Eevee asked, boggling slightly. "You didn't know about them a minute ago and now you want to become one? You don't know anything about the world – Ash, you keep tripping over when you think about how to walk!"

"Hey, I'm getting better," Ash protested, demonstrating, and tripped over when he thought about how to walk.

Pikachu sniggered.

"There's no way this can end well," Eevee said. "Pikachu, you seem like the more sensible one, right? Can you get him to think again?"

"I might be able to, but I'm not going to," Pikachu replied, as Ash picked himself up and shook himself out. "Because I've been Ash's best friend for years, and I've seen what he's like. I've seen how he does things, and he's a great trainer, but that's not what he's best at."

"It's not?" Ash asked. "Really?"

Pikachu sniggered.

"Ash, we won the Masters Eight after going through several regions," he said. "But we were helping humans and Pokémon out before we'd finished collecting our first set of gym badges, and I actually can't count exactly how many times we saved the world. And I know that I was there – but you're the one who actually did so much of it. What you're best at is helping people."

Ash looked touched.

"...thanks, Pikachu," he said, smiling. "It's great to hear that."

"And that is why I'm not going to stop Ash," Pikachu resumed, turning back to Eevee. "Because he'd end up doing the same thing anyway. And I'm going to be behind him all the way."

He shrugged. "Besides, we're looking for Hoopa, right? Can you honestly tell me that it's not going to be easier for a Rescue Team to do that?"

"It's going to be almost impossible, but…" Eevee said, then stopped, torn.

Frowned.

"I guess if you're that confident," she said. "But you're really going to need someone along who actually knows how things work here! So count me in!"

"Great!" Ash beamed. "Though, uh… have you ever heard of Contests?"

Eevee tilted her head, her ears flicking in confusion.

"I guess not," Ash decided. "I was wondering, half the time the girls I'm travelling with end up being into that kind of thing…"

AN:

A part 2 to that PMD original concept.