Chapter 7 – Apprentice

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Moonturn Square, 19. Herbstmond, 1027 n. d. B.

Lacan,

Ich hatte nicht erwartet, Ihnen so bald nach Ihrer Entsendung zu schreiben, um mich mit den Gendarmen vom Münsterplatz zu koordinieren, aber aufgrund meiner Erkenntnisse glaube ich, dass unsere derzeitige Vorgehensweise unsere Mission gefährden könnte. Ich habe Grund zur Annahme, dass sich die Dyade möglicherweise nicht im Hinterland der Gegend versteckt, wie Sie es ursprünglich vermutet haben, sondern Zuflucht in einem weiter entfernten Teil des Königreichs sucht.

Nicht lange nachdem ich die örtliche Garnison über die Dyade und den Ganoven informiert hatte, mit denen sie zuletzt gesehen wurde, hörte ich zufällig einen Bericht über eine Gruppe, die nach Treueplatz suchte. Eine Partei, deren Spezies denen der Raufbolde entspricht, die uns letzte Nacht entwischt ist. Ich habe nach weiteren Informationen über diese Partei und ihren Träger gesucht, obwohl ich zu diesem Zeitpunkt keine Erkenntnisse zu berichten habe. Mir ist durchaus bewusst, dass dies eine weitere Finte der Dyade sein könnte, aber nach dem letzten Jahr, das wir damit verbracht haben, sie zu verfolgen, wäre es nachlässig von mir als Ihrem Oberstleutnant, diese Möglichkeit nicht zur Sprache zu bringen.

Ich werde mein Möglichstes tun, um mehr über die gesichtete Partei herauszufinden, aber es könnte für Sie relevant sein, in der Zwischenzeit mögliche Routen von Norden und Osten zum Treueplatz zu überprüfen. Und wenn ich den Standort der Dyade bis heute Abend nicht bestimmen kann, erwäge ich, einen Teil der Stärke unseres Fähnleins zu entsenden, um einen Abfang entlang einer dieser Routen durchzuführen. Vorausgesetzt, wir haben die Kapazität dazu.

Ich verstehe immer noch nicht ganz, wie die Dyade in der ‘Operation Zündfunke’ eingesetzt werden soll. Aber wenn sie wirklich das Potenzial hat, diesen Krieg so entscheidend zu beenden, könnte eine solche Präsenz weiter südwestlich von uns den Unterschied zwischen ihrer Bergung und dem wochenlangen Verlieren ihrer Spur ausmachen.

Wochen, die wir vielleicht nicht haben. Und wenn unsere schlimmsten Befürchtungen über die Dyade zutreffen, könnten jene Wochen den Unterschied ausmachen, ob die Operation Zündfunke wie geplant fortgesetzt werden kann, oder das Königreich dieselbe Spirale aus Zerstörung und Elend wiederholen, die es in den Anfangsjahren dieses Krieges durchgemacht hat.

– Dringende Depesche von Ritterin von Herbergau, Sophia Krarmorstochter an Graf von Wellenhafen, Lacan Dragoransohn

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A little over half an hour later, Irune found herself just outside of the hustle and bustle of Moonturn Square’s central marketplace alongside the newly-named ‘Team Forager’. There, the Outlaws peered out from an alleyway towards a small collection of stalls just north of its outer wall, keenly eyeing passers-by who drifted to and fro between them. All the while, Irune kept fidgeting and giving nervous gapes about her surroundings, before she turned back to her three teammates with an exasperated hiss. After all the trouble they’d gone through just to get into Moonturn Square, their plan for making up the ten thousand Poké they needed was…

“We’re seriously stealing again after we just went through the trouble of getting new scarves?” she demanded.

… not at all what she’d been hoping to hear. The Dragon-type watched as her Outlaw companions traded glances with one another before collectively shrugging back in reply.

“Hey, when you’ve got a skill, you might as well use it,” Kate said. “How else did you think we were going to get that much Poké in a day?”

Irune narrowed her eyes, and frowned sharply back at the Sneasel. Sure that sort of money was a tall lift, but they hadn’t even tried to think of alternatives!

She turned her head as she heard faint clattering, turning to see Dalton grabbing an empty coinpurse made of brown cloth, probably one he’d snatched from last night’s raid, as he carefully slipped a few rocks from the ground into it. The Axew cocked her head and wondered to herself what the Heliolisk was up to, watching as he felt the bag’s weight for a moment, before he tugged its drawstrings shut and looked down at her, bobbing the purse up and down in his right hand.

“Calm down, we’re in a well-trafficked place, so we can afford to be a bit picky about our marks,” he insisted. “Besides, we’re not going to be doing anything crazy here. Just a bit of simple opportunism.”

Irune frowned and tilted her head back at the Heliolisk with a dubious raise of her brow.

“What do you mean ‘opportunism’?” she demanded.

Dalton said nothing back before he stepped out into the crowd, watching the passers-by as his eyes fell on a blue Meowstic stopping to inspect a bolt of silk at a tailor’s stall. Irune followed the Heliolisk’s gaze and noticed the cat had a purse of similar coloration. Before she could ask, the lizard lowered his head and slipped forward into the crowd. Dalton lingered as the Meowstic set the silk down and unwittingly approached him, when just as the Psychic-type passed by, Dalton batted his tail out in front of the Meowstic, who pitched forward and fell to the ground with a yelp.

“Ow!”

Dalton stooped down, forcing an alarmed look over his face as he held out his left hand to help the Meowstic up, all while keenly eyeing the Meowstic’s coin purse that had flopped onto the ground and quickly switching it with his.

“I’m so sorry!” Dalton insisted. “I’d just been distracted by the rest of the market for a couple moments, and-“

“So pay less attention to it and learn to watch where you’re going, jerk!” the Psychic-type snapped.

The Meowstic scooped up the bag on the ground and stomped off hissing under his breath. After seeing the cat vanish off into the crowds of the outer market, Dalton quickly scurried back to the mouth of the alleyway, as Irune stared at him with her mouth hanging agape.

Why, the ‘mon had nicked that Meowstic’s money almost as naturally as a Magikarp would take to swimming in a river! Irune stared at Dalton as he retreated back into the alleyway’s shade, watching as he opened the mouth of the bag in his hands in front of her and her fellow Outlaws. At once, Irune stiffened up and gaped down in astonishment, as she saw from top to bottom, the purse filled with metal coins of varying colors.

“I’d say a bag of stones is a pretty good trade for this one, don’t you think?” he asked. “It’s not all in Poké, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find a merchant willing to make a trade for the rest.”

Irune stepped forward and gave a mesmerized paw at the coins in the bag. Why some of them were even in good enough condition to visibly gleam under the light! She… didn’t know what to make of the Heliolisk’s gambit at first, but as she looked down at the purse’s contents, she couldn’t help but feel a quiet awe at how effortlessly Dalton had purloined it.

“I… I suppose that is kinda impressive…” she murmured.

Lyle and Kate raised their brows back at the Axew’s remark, prompting her to bite her tongue. Was… Dalton’s snatching not as impressive as she’d thought? After all, the two were looking at her as if she’d just said something strange and unexpected.

“Huh? There’s no need to flatter him like that over some simple pickpocketing,” Lyle insisted. “The bag’s probably not even worth a thousand Poké all together.”

Irune blinked with a start as the Quilava took a tarnished, silvery coin from the bag and immediately noticed the coin’s edges seemed unusually smooth, before flipping it over to reveal a worn, hollow triangle with circles on each tip. A Schild der Wirklichkeit, as most Carolin coins of its sort had. Except the circles weren’t supposed to be abruptly cut off like they were on this one.

“… Probably less if there’s coins clipped this badly in it,” he remarked. “But pickpocketing like that’s a fairly simple two-step. Even little runts who’ve never set foot into a Mystery Dungeon can get pretty good at it.”

“Yeah, it’s just simple situational awareness and having quick paws,” Kate chimed in. “Why don’t you go ahead and show us what your old crew taught you?”

Irune felt the color drain from her face and her jaw hung open briefly at the Sneasel’s challenge. … She knew that this moment was going to come, but even then, she hadn’t worked out how she’d get around it. The Axew hemmed and hawed for a moment, before clearing her throat and trying to suppress a nervous titter in reply.

“Er… I- I never did get the hang of doing things in and around towns,” she said. “I kinda stuck to sneaking around in more backwoods areas.”

The Axew forced an awkward smile over her face back at her fellow Outlaws, and at once saw the others leveling unamused frowns back at her. Lyle turned his head up suspiciously for a moment, before having his eyes notice something in the market and pointing at it.

“Then we’ll keep things simple for you,” the Quilava said. “I… personally wouldn’t have picked the mark myself, but there’s a ‘mon shopping over there with a hole in her purse, you shouldn’t have any trouble with her.”

Irune turned and followed Lyle’s forepaw, and immediately froze after noticing that he was pointing off at a Kangaskhan looking over a stand selling sundry pieces of cloth for patchwork. The Axew froze, as she noticed with a joey dozing in the pouch, and a small golden glint coming from the fabric of a small bag about her waist. Irune blanched. Whatever her thoughts of the idea of stealing from a mother, they paled in comparison to the idea of stealing from a ‘mon that had to be at least ten times her size. The Dragon-type stammered in place briefly, before whirling back to Lyle with a startled squeak.

“Y-You can’t seriously expect me to try and fight her!” she protested, making the Quilava raise a brow back skeptically.

“No? I’m expecting you to just snatch her purse while she’s not looking and leg it,” he insisted. “It should be right up your alley.”

Kate sized up the Axew as she visibly shuffled her feet and squirmed, the Sneasel flattening her ears out with an unimpressed frown at the Dragon-type’s visible reluctance.

“You did actually help these ‘Balance Bandits’ you used to be part of, didn’t you?”

“O-Of course I helped them!” Irune spat. “Just give me a moment!”

Irune stomped out of the alley and made her way darting past the legs of passing Pokémon over towards the Kangaskhan. As she neared, the Axew hesitated and slowed her pace, looking up at the distracted Kangaskhan with a quiet gulp.

Irune’s eyes turned towards the metallic glint coming from the Kangaskhan’s purse as she stopped and breathed in. She lingered a moment and closed her eyes with a small shiver.

Here went nothing…

Irune threw her claws forward at the purse, and felt the strap give way with the sound of jingling metal.

“Hey!”

Irune flinched from the shout and lost her grip on the purse, which fell to the ground with an audible clatter. Her eyes immediately shot wide, and she looked up to see the purse’s owner snatching it off the ground and leveling a piercing glare down at her.

The Dragon-type paled and reflexively turned to bolt and run, when she felt a sharp, stomping pain shoot through her tail and pitched face first into the earthen lane. The Axew groaned and spat some dirt out of her mouth, when she heard a low growl and looked up to see the Kangaskhan hovering over her.

Just the sight that she needed to upend her nerves and make her to let out a sharp scream.

“A-Aah!”

“What is your problem, you little brat?!” the Kangaskhan snapped. “Is trying to steal from a working mother your idea of a fun time?!”

Irune sucked in sharp, panicked breaths and froze up. A quick glance about her revealed that other passers-by in the market were starting to stop and stare at her. Irune yelped as a sharp pain shot through her tail as she felt the Kangaskhan grind it harder into the dirt.

Why had she ever agreed to this? She’d surely be beaten to an inch of her life, and then Lacan would catch up with her, and-

“Answer me already!”

Irune flinched and let out a low whine, looking back up to see that the angry Kangaskhan hadn’t gone anywhere. The Axew trembled, and she was pretty sure that her scales weren’t supposed to look this pale, as she gaped up and stammered nervously at the glowering Normal-type.

“I… I…”

The joey in the Kangaskhan’s pouch began to cry from the racket, the Normal-type flinching and hesitating as she reflexively lifted up her child and attempted to soothe her with a cooing reassurance.

“W-Weine nicht, Liebling.₁ It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Irune drew panting, frightened breaths as the Kangaskhan seemed to loosen her grip on her tail and have her attention diverted. Now was her chance! If she could just sneak away, she could run off back to safety!

Irune desperately tried to pull herself free, only for the Kangaskhan to push her foot back down again. The Axew tried to blink back a few tears of pain, looking up to see the Normal-type glaring down at her from past her still-sniffling joey.

“If I didn’t have a baby to calm down right now, I’d break your tusks, you little thief!” the Kangaskhan snarled. “Get out of my sight before I change my mind about it!”

Irune felt the Kangaskhan let go, and scrabbled forward onto her feet with a frightened yelp. She didn’t dare try the ‘mon’s patience any further and took off as fast as her legs could carry her. On her way off, she could just barely overhear the shopkeeper attempting to calm the Kangaskhan with a wary ‘easy there, Oulen, she’s gone’, before the sounds of confused onlookers rang out about her. The Axew ran back to the alleyway for dear life, running clear to the other end of it where she stopped and gasped for breath. She could still feel her tail smart from being stomped on earlier, and nursed it with a low whine, when a sharp scoff filled the air behind her.

“… What exactly was the last thing you stole as part of your old crew?”

Irune turned back to see Kate stepping forward from behind the cover of a small stack of broken-up crates with Lyle and Dalton flanking her. Based on the Sneasel’s furrowed brow, the Dark-type was thoroughly unimpressed with her performance. From a quick glance at the way Lyle’s flames were kindling in visible irritation from his vents, and the way Dalton was folding his arms, those two didn’t think much of it either.

Honestly, it was kinda hard to fault them. After all, she knew the answer to Kate’s question, and she had a pretty good idea of how her teammates would react to finding out.

Perhaps she ought to have tried to make an excuse, but from past experience, Irune doubted she’d be able to lie about what happened back there even if her life depended on it. She’d always had much better luck just keeping quiet about things she didn’t want others to know about.

And besides, she was counting on these three to bring her to the Divine Roost. If they were just going to figure out the truth eventually, perhaps it was best to just be out with it.

“I… uh… technically was still going through initiation?” Irune replied, nervously shuffling her feet. “So nothing yet?”

The Axew watched as Lyle threw a paw over his face, with Dalton screwing his eyes shut in frustration at her reply, and Kate rolling her eyes at the answer. Yeah, she figured that was about how they’d react.

Irune thought to cut in and try to offer some sort of explanation of how she got to her present state, only for Kate to make the matter moot by shaking her head with a low sigh and leveling a sharp frown down at her.

“Look, if you expect this partnership to work out, let alone actually get you to the Divine Roost, you’re going to need to brush up on some skills first!” she exclaimed.

Irune said nothing for a long while afterwards, before awkwardly pawing at the back of her head. As embarrassing as her debacle with the Kangaskhan had been, it was hard to admit the others didn’t have a point… After all, the four of them were going to the Divine Roost as Outlaws, and just what sort of Outlaw couldn’t steal something to get by?

“I… suppose that’s fair?” she murmured. “But… where do I even start?”

---

The marketplace was unusually trafficked by Grünhäuter after Irune’s bungled attempt at pickpocketing. Lyle wouldn’t have thought that that would’ve caused so much trouble, but he guessed that Moonturn Square was just full of surprises. Per his insistence, the four loitered about a quieter residential neighborhood to pass the time, and drilled in a few primers into Irune’s head about the importance of staying alert and to keep her wits about her.

A little over an hour later, after a moment to test the waters to ensure that they hadn’t stirred up enough trouble to be summarily run off, Team Forager slipped back into the central bowl of the main marketplace and found that it had largely simmered down. It was time for Irune to put her lessons into practice, and a crowded marketplace was as good a place as any to find easy marks suitable for a novice like her.

There, Lyle and his companions made their way down a line of colorful stalls hawking odds and ends. Some offered produce or street food, others sold small knick-knacks such as books or decorations to place in and around Pokémon’s houses, burrows, and other places they called home. There was even one stall that hawked cards with pictures of Pokémon on them which turned Kate’s head briefly…

Right next to one staffed by a Sableye hawking colorful and supposedly protective charms, which was being perused by a visibly antsy-looking Quilladin in army plates. Thankfully the ‘mon didn’t seem to have any buddies with him, and whatever had gotten the guards so worked up earlier had passed. After giving the apparent soldier a suitable berth, Lyle nudged at Irune for attention.

“The first thing to know about stealing from a mark is being aware of your surroundings,” the Quilava explained. “Fighting draws attention, and as such, you need to have a nose for situations where you can get what you want without picking one.”

The Fire-type reared up onto his hind legs and walked forward down the path. Up ahead to the right was a Slurpuff chattering with a Appletun behind the counter of a stand serving donuts. The stoat eyed the pair closely before looking around, casually darting up and snatching one of the donuts off the counter, then walking on.

He probably should’ve been a bit more worried about how naturally swiping the donut came to him given that it was Kate who had ‘Quickpaw’ as her Beiname. But Irune needed a primer, and besides, it was just a donut.

Lyle carried along with his teammates, greedily tearing into his ill-gotten snack as he glanced back at Irune with his mouth still full of sweet bread.

“Working on building up a sticky paw is an easy way to practice that,” he explained. “All you need is to find the right shop and the right moment, and you’ll be rewarded handsomely for it.”

The Quilava watched as Irune looked about the surrounding stalls and their attending riot of colors, sounds, and smells, before she turned back and stared at him blankly. Lyle tilted an ear back puzzledly and raised a brow.

“Something the matter?” he asked.

The Axew looked around and pawed nervously at the back of her head. Was Irune still shaken-up from her encounter with the Kangaskhan? It was hard to understand why she’d be this nervous over a little shoplifting…

“How… am I supposed to figure out what that ‘right shop’ is?” she asked. “With all these stalls around us, where would I even start looking for it?”

Unless of course, it was something like that.

Lyle flared up and threw a paw over his face with an exasperated sigh, before shaking his head and curling his muzzle into a sharp frown.

“It’s not that hard, kid,” he scoffed. “You had to have nicked something as part of that collection of shiny junk in your bag, right?”

Irune fumbled with her words for a moment, making the Quilava blink briefly. He looked over just in time to spot Kate and Dalton making their way back from a round of picking over the crowd when they stopped. They’d apparently overheard his line of conversation, and seemed to think about as much of it as he did. Kate was visibly flabbergasted with the Dragon-type’s lack of response, while the latter pinched his brow, before stepping forward with a low sigh.

“Look, the point of this is for you to practice your skills,” the Heliolisk insisted. “This is around the time when most towns are preparing for the Autumn Festival, so you’re not exactly wanting for opportunities here.”

“Yeah, just nick a glass bead for that collection of yours or something,” Kate chimed in. “It’s small and shiny. You probably wouldn’t need any more motivation than that to nick it.”

Lyle looked down at the Axew as she continued to waver and narrowed his eyes. He could already tell that this journey to the Divine Roost was going to be quite the ordeal even if they survived it.

“Look, you learn by making mistakes sometimes, and this is about as safe an opportunity you’ll get to make some while being an Outlaw. Just go around and look for a stall that looks nice with an absentminded shopkeep, then just take it and get out before someone spots you,” the Quilava insisted. “It could be an Apple for all I care, the point is for you to just take something. With how much trouble you’ve already gotten yourself in, are you really dragging your feet this much over something where you could just pretend you forgot to pay if you get caught?”

Irune gulped and glanced around her surroundings, before taking a sharp breath and steeling herself.

“O… kay?” she replied. “Absentminded shopkeep. I can do this…”

Lyle watched as the Axew set off into the crowd and Dalton and Kate peered after her for a moment, the Dragon-type slipping away amid the sea of Pokémon and vanishing from their line of sight after about a dozen paces. Dalton turned and gave a wary side-eye back at his Quilava partner, giving an uneasy tug at his frill.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t be assisting her, Lyle?” he asked. “She did manage to fumble a simple pickpocketing earlier…”

“Oh c’mon, it’s shoplifting,” Kate scoffed. “Worst case scenario, we just play ‘er off as a newly-recruited Wilder who doesn’t understand the concept of personal property yet. Sure we’ll get an earful from it, but hey. Could be worse.”

“Hey! Get back here!”

Team Forager’s members flinched at the sound of a harsh, barking voice calling through the crowd. The three looked up just in time to see Pokémon darting out of the way of an approaching figure, and saw Irune run up panting and wide-eyed holding an Apple. Lyle flattened his ears out at the sound of shouts from further down the street, before narrowing his eyes at the Axew with an exasperated frown

“Irune, what did you do?!” he exclaimed. “How’d you manage to stir up this much trouble over an Apple?!“

“I-I tried that ‘sticky paw’ thing on a shop where the shopkeeper was asleep!” the Dragon-type protested. “You didn’t say anything about these shops being watched by guards!“

Dalton and Kate blanched at the Axew’s explanation, as Lyle caught himself and found himself starting to get worried. Sure, shops usually weren’t one-mon affairs, but they usually didn’t have the resources to hire standing guards like Irune was saying…

“Wait a minute, just where did you try and shoplift that was watched in such a fashion?” Dalton asked.

The Pokémon ahead in the crowd shuffled aside, and the color quickly drained from Lyle and his teammates’ faces as a trio of glaring Kecleon stomped forward donning red scarves that each had a golden circle and four arcing lines surrounding it. Lyle’s eyes shrank to pins, the stoat rearing up as his body’s fire came alight with a start. The Quilava felt his heart race in a panic and began to feel lightheaded as he stared at the approaching lizards.

“Y-You took something from a Consortium shop?!” he squeaked. “Wh-Why would you even-?!”

Before Lyle could finish pressing Irune about what in the gods’ names made her think it was a good idea to steal from the most dreaded marks in all of Varhyde- no, of all of Wander, the leader of the Kecleon trio held out a claw pointing at the Axew in front of Team Forager’s members.

“You there! With the Apple!”

Lyle stood there dumbly for a moment, his breaths coming out shallow and panicked as Kate pinned her tail feathers tightly against her body and forced an uneven, stammering grin over her face.

“Er, s-sorry about that!” the Sneasel insisted. “She’s a new teammate of ours we recruited from the hinterlands and-“

“Oh gods, just take it!” the Quilava cried.

Lyle snatched the Apple out of Irune’s hands and threw it back at the Kecleon, turning and bolting for dear life along with his teammates down a back alley. The four carried on as they heard shouts coming from behind, ducking down twists and turns before they realized that they no longer heard anything other than their own tense breaths coming in and out of their lungs. Lyle slowed to a stop and shivered a little from the encounter, when he felt a sharp prod at his shoulder and heard Dalton speak up.

“Lyle?”

Lyle blinked and glanced over his shoulder towards Dalton’s voice, where Kate was folding her arms with her ears pinned back looking much as if she’d just been soaked in the face. Dalton entered his field of view right afterwards, Lyle spotting him just in time to see him shoot a sideways glance at a visibly sheepish-looking Irune, before narrowing his eyes back at him with a sharp glare.

“I think you should let me take over the teaching duties here.”

---

Half an hour after Irune’s bungled attempt at shoplifting, Team Forager opted to move deeper into Moonturn Square. They’d need to let things simmer down in the marketplace again, after all. The four ultimately found themselves in an alleyway overlooking the town’s Great Spire—an ancient human ruin consisting of a tapered tower that had been built on three giant legs, that broke off abruptly at its top.

Its surface was gray with mottled stains from the elements over the years since the Great Flash, with a few missing chunks that revealed a hollow within. According to Lyle, he’d heard while growing up that it was the last, lingering reminder of a still-taller portion of the tower that used to be there. One that had collapsed long, long ago and was vaguely remembered as having once been a popular haunt for flying Pokémon in the town. The towering structure bathed a square built underneath its three legs in shade from the sun, where stone steps into the ancient structure had been built along them and were trafficked by a steady stream of Pokémon that followed them up and down.

All things considered, Irune would’ve seen how it’d have been a decent place to look for a mark, except for one problem…

“Um… Dalton?” she began. “This- This is where the town’s Exploration Guild is.”

And one that a casual glance revealed was staffed by no shortage of Hunters. Enemies to Outlaws that could get every bit as fearsome for an one as a Grünhäuter. Hell, there was even supposed to be a decent amount of overlap at times. The Army apparently had a long history of drawing off such types as to become rangers in hinterland areas, and of course as Jäger₂, skirmishers and patrollers that exploited their knowledge of how to move about the land to chip away at enemy fighters in small groups.

… Maybe that had something to do with why they came to be known as ‘Hunters’ among Pokémon like them in the first place… even if one never would’ve guessed from looking at the bored-looking Torterra and Exploud in green plates at the plaza’s northern approach halfheartedly attempting to draw recruits. From how the pair gathered less attention than the beggars they spotted near the outskirts of the marketplace, there evidently wasn’t much appetite among Hunters for willful stints in the army these days.

“Scales, why the hell are we here?” Kate asked, shooting a sharp frown over at her Heliolisk teammate. “This is a guild for Hunters. How on earth is this going to be any easier than starting Irune off with shoplifting?”

So it wasn’t just her who had misgivings about coming here. Irune watched as Lyle and Kate turned their attention to the steps that led into the lower levels of the spire’s hollow that the Hunters at this Guild occupied with their meeting halls, dorms, and… whatever else it was that they needed with that sort of space. In his chatter about the town, Lyle hadn’t said anything about having ever gotten a good look inside of it… or another Guild of its sort for that matter. And if any of them did so now as Outlaws, it might very well be the last thing they ever tried.

“Remember that we’re assuming the identity of a team of Hunters,” Dalton reminded. “Everyone’s guards will be down here, and if Irune does get into trouble, we can get her out of it with about the same excuse had she shoplifted from a normal shop in the marketplace.”

Irune blushed a bit and screwed her eyes shut at the Heliolisk’s comment. Was her mistake really that clumsy of her? She heard the lizard tap his foot briefly and glanced back to see the Electric-type fold his arms and click his tongue.

“Besides, the practice I wanted to put you up to doesn’t involve doing anything too risky like going into the Guild’s building itself…”

The Heliolisk pointed at the square, where much like the central marketplace, it was packed with Pokémon milling to and fro.

“Squares like these next to Guilds tend to be popular places where you can get lost in a crowd easily,” he explained. “As long as everyone thinks you belong here, you’d be able to find a mark without having to set foot into the Guild itself.”

Irune blinked and watched the crowds go by for a brief moment, and just from a cursory glance, it was hard to argue Dalton’s point. There, Pokémon in matching scarves moved about in groups, some congregating in front of a bulletin board with posted missions by the northmost leg. The place also looked like it was also a popular gathering spot for Pokémon who passed through town, as a few Pokémon tending to carts and bags on their person stopped to ask for directions or chat with locals from the area. After sizing up the crowd, Dalton ducked back into the shade of their alley between the back of a Storage Shop styled after a Swalot’s head and a strip of timbered shacks, looking down at Irune with a stern gaze.

“While being aware of your surroundings is important, something every bit as much as that is being able to coordinate with your teammates,” he explained. “After all, they’ll be there to help correct you if you’re slipping up or getting into trouble. As such, you need to be able to pick up on subtle cues in the heat of the moment that will tell you if it’s safe or not to make your move.”

Irune blinked and gave a puzzled tilt of her head back in reply. Hadn’t she already fought alongside these three? Even if she wasn’t exactly a professional thief, she didn’t think that her ability to work with others was that bad.

“… What does that have to do with me here?” Irune asked. “I wasn’t exactly dead weight in the battles we got into, was I?”

“You weren’t, but now you need to apply those skills in some other circumstances.”

Dalton shook his head and pointed off beside one of the steps leading to one of the stairways into the Guild’s entrance. There, next to the leg of the ancient tower and the steps beside it, were an Arcanine and Rapidash in olive-colored scarves laden with bags that hung at rest along their flanks, who were visibly resting and loudly trading banter.

“Tch, you so did not make the run between Errberk Village and Port Velhen in a day!” the Arcanine scoffed.

“My timesheet speaks for itself, doesn’t it?” the Rapidash shot back. “If you’re having so much trouble believing it, perhaps that’s a sign you need to get into shape and slim down a bit!”

Irune blinked a bit as the Arcanine shot back with a huffing insistence that his bulk was fur and not fat. Given how unstable food prices were, the courier was probably being earnest… even if he did look a bit more rounded than she would’ve expected an Arcanine to be. Irune turned up with a puzzled frown at the Heliolisk, as he stared off at the pair and spoke up.

“Those two couriers have been running their mouths off at each other since we came here, and they haven’t been paying much attention to their surroundings either,” the Electric-type explained. “While they’re distracted, you should be able to help yourself to some of the money and parcels they keep on those bags on their flanks.”

Irune’s jaw flopped open at the sight of the two Fire-types at by the steps. After the trouble she’d gotten into with the Kangaskhan, and then the shop in the marketplace that turned out to be run by Colorswap Consortium, she’d have thought Dalton would pick an easy mark for her. Did he seriously expect her to steal from those two?“

“Th-They look even stronger than that Kangaskhan that stomped my tail earlier!” Irune squeaked. “How on earth is this supposed to end well?!”

“Because, this time you won’t be attempting to steal from them on your own. I’ll tell you when you should make your move by signaling you,” Dalton insisted. “Just make your way over to them and keep an eye on me. I’ll give you a sign when it looks like the coast is clear.”

Irune stared up at the Heliolisk and attempted to duck back into the alleyway only for Lyle and Kate to cut her off and shove her out. Some teammates they were! The Axew shot a dirty glare back at the pair, before audibly gulping. Here went nothing…

The Dragon-type shuffled over on pins and needles, creeping up towards the Arcanine and Rapidash. Fortunately for her, much as Dalton had said, the pair really were distracted by bickering with one another, which from brief eavesdropping seemed to be about their past performances as couriers.

“Pah, straightaways don’t really count anyways,” the Arcanine scoffed. “I seem to remember beating you easily going across Newangle City from the western gate to the eastern one just last month!”

“I got caught up in traffic for that run and you didn’t!” the Rapidash exclaimed. “How is that a fair comparison?!”

Irune crept up next to the Arcanine’s side, where sure enough, he had bags on him that seemed bulky enough to be filled with mail and small parcels, with the faint sound of jingling coins coming from somewhere inside of it. The Axew paused, and looked back at the mouth of the alley, where she saw Dalton motioning with his paws to his right. The Axew blinked puzzledly, unsure if the Heliolisk meant it was safe for her to start sifting through the dog’s bag or to stop and wait, when he stared blankly and motioned again. Irune cocked her head puzzledly for a moment as she noticed the Arcanine’s body shift, and her attention darted back up to the Fire-types’ bickering.

“Nice excuse there. Do I detect a hint of jealousy that you’re getting shown up by a big old Arcanine on twisty and winding streets?” the Arcanine said, shooting a smug smirk back. “Why, they were even cobbled. That was as perfect a layup for you as you could get and I still beat you on that run!”

The Rapidash let out an unimpressed huff, and stomped at the ground as he snorted out a few stray embers.

“Don’t go imagining things there,” the horse shot back. “You got lucky there and you know it.”

Irune looked back at the Arcanine’s bag, and then back at Dalton, who was now jerking his head along with his paw’s movements, and apparently beginning to spark out of frustration. Irune quirked a brow back and gave a puzzled shrug in reply, watching as Dalton buried his face in an open palm as the Rapidash began to speak again.

“And another thing-“

The Rapidash trailed off mid-sentence as his eyes happened to drift towards the other end of the square. Irune followed after the Fire-type’s head where she noticed Dalton at the mouth of the alleyway behind the Storage Shop flaring his frill and pulling it back in in a repeating cycle. A quick glance back up revealed the horse was blinking puzzledly and staring at Dalton with a flabbergasted murmur.

“… What on earth is that Heliolisk doing?“

Irune shrank back as the Arcanine shifted and turned to follow his rival’s gaze and similarly spotted the Heliolisk, who saw the pair staring at him and froze, flattening his frill with an embarrassed cringe. The hound squinted at the sight with a befuddled frown, before he glanced over his shoulder and spotted Irune standing by his bags, the Dragon-type squeaking as the Arcanine courier got up and turned to face her with a wary scowl.

“Wait a minute, who are you and when did you get here?” the Arcanine asked.

Irune shrank back, tripping over her words as she backpedaled. She tried to calm herself and suck in deep breaths. She was pretending to be a member of an Exploration Team, so it shouldn’t be that hard to give them a reason other than that she had been trying to rob them.

… Except she kept coming up blank for excuses to offer. How on earth did other Pokémon manage to tell convincing lies on the spot?! The Dragon-type increasingly lost her nerve as she watched the much stronger and larger Fire-types staring down at her.

“I- I- Uh… A-Aah!”

The Axew took off running and fled from the couriers, bolting for the safety of the alleyway where the rest of Team Forager had shrunk further back along its length to avoid being seen. Irune ran past them into the safety of the shadows and hung her head panting, when she glanced up and spotted the three staring down incredulously at her.

Why on earth were they so upset with her? Irune scowled back up, narrowing her eyes with a frustrated wave of her arms.

“I kept waiting for Dalton to tell me if it was safe or not!” she fumed. “How come he didn’t say anything?!”

Lyle just stood there with his mouth hanging open for a moment, as he flattened his ears and threw a paw over his face.

“Blauflamme,” he groaned. “Seriously?“

Dalton’s mood was little better, as the Heliolisk screwed his eyes shut and sported a frustrated scowl that looked much as if a Mud Shot had just splattered over him. From the back of the group, Kate stepped forward and gave a wave of her claws as she made her way to the front of the group, giving a disapproving click of her tongue to her teammates.

“Tch, you two are going about this all wrong!” she exclaimed. “If you’re going to show Irune the ropes at being an Outlaw from scratch, you’ve got to start her off simple. With something not even a hatchling could mess up.”

---

About an hour later, Kate had led the rest of Team Forager to a sleepy corner of Moonturn Square away from the bustle of the crowds, where simple timbered and earthened huts were set back from each other with small yards that had berry bushes and other garden crops planted. Probably for their owners if they found themselves coming up short for their food budgets.

After nicking a few berries and fruits from the yards, and giving Dalton and Irune a much-delayed meal for the day, Irune followed after Kate to what she insisted would be a great chance to put her skills into practice. The four came across a tree with red autumn leaves that drifted off with the wind, which stood outside a small complex of low wooden shacks with stump desks arranged in neat grids in front of simple blackboards.

Irune recognized the place as a school. It probably wasn’t the most impressive one Varhyde had to offer, but it looked more impressive than the one she remembered her home village having before Lacan started chasing after her. And it was surely a sufficient place for little tykes to be taught their runes, along with enough Hightongue to flatter their elders and authority figures. Except… Irune wasn’t sure how this was supposed to help her.

“Kate, how is going to school supposed to help me become an Outlaw?” she asked.

“By giving you an easy mark to practice on,” the Sneasel insisted.

Irune cocked a brow dubiously as Kate raised a claw and pointed off at the tree. Irune looked along, wondering just what the Sneasel could’ve seen when the street sounded deathly quiet. Between the lack of noise and the westward position of the sun in the sky, she was sure that school had let out for the day already. After training her gaze towards the base of the trunk, she saw him.,

A lonely Shinx who sat against the base of the tree. One of the few youngsters who normally buzzed about the complex with their teachers who was still around. The young Electric-type pawed at some paper set on a tatty green notebook in the shade, unaware that the whole time, he was being watched. Irune at once realized what the Sneasel was getting at, and shot a worried look back at her.

“You… You want me to rob him?” she asked.

“No, I want you to go up to him and give him a smooch,” Kate scoffed. “Of course I want you to rob him!”

From further in the alley, Lyle and Dalton both grimaced briefly, before the two shot uncomfortable glances at their Sneasel teammate, with the Heliolisk of the pair narrowing his eyes with a judging scowl.

“Is this really necessary, Kate?” Dalton whispered.

“Well, you’re the ones who think she needs a mark that’s easy to practice with!” she shot back. “After how well your attempts have been going, it’s only logical to start her off with baby steps!”

Irune watched as Lyle pawed at his shoulder. She hadn’t expected it, but even he looked genuinely uneasy about the Sneasel’s proposal.

“Yeah, but taking some ankle-biter’s milk money?” Lyle murmured. “The ‘mon looks like he’s barely left a Day Care!”

“Which is exactly the best place to start!” Kate insisted. “All she needs to do is walk up, get his guard down, and then that milk money’s hers for the taking!”

Irune grimaced and turned up to the Sneasel, poking her fingers together with a nervous murmur.

“Um… Kate? Isn’t there someone else I could practice on?” she asked.

“Look, do you want a mark that can’t beat you up if you get caught, or not?” the Sneasel shot back, giving an impatient snort. “Just hurry up and get out there!”

Irune paused as her thoughts turned back to Kangaskhan stomping her tail, and then running for dear life from the Kecleon guards from the Consortium shop in the marketplace. Even the two couriers she failed to rob earlier would’ve been… painful to fight with if they’d realized what she was up to. In light of all that, it was hard to argue the truth of Kate’s point that she was better off picking a weaker mark to practice on.

Why did it have to be one that made her feel this guilty, though?

The Axew sucked in a sharp breath and shook her head before exiting the alleyway and walking over towards the Shinx. As she neared, he flattened his ears, his attention fixed on his notebook as he pulled a paw back from his paper, shaking his head with a low growl.

“No, no, no. That doesn’t work either…” he murmured to himself. Irune narrowed her eyes and cupped her claws, calling out to the Electric-type as she neared.

“Hey!”

“Huh?” the Shinx asked, looking over with a puzzled blink. “Is something the matter?”

“Those papers by your feet,” Irune began. “What are they and what are you doing with them?”

Irune noted that the Shinx had a bag sitting at his side to the left, whose contents had all but spilling out as he’d grown immersed in what was probably just some schoolwork. If she could just distract him for long enough, she could go through his belongings, take any coins he might have had, and then get out and leave this whole sorry business behind her.

The Dragon-type began to make her way towards the satchel, when the Shinx turned to her and piped up in reply.

“Oh these? I’m trying to write a story to impress my teacher,” he explained. “But I keep getting stuck with it.”

Irune abruptly froze and stared back at the Shinx, quietly setting her teeth on edge before steeling herself and shaking her head.

“A… story?”

“Yeah, it’s about this Luxio and her sister that are growing up as Wilders on some plains in the wilderness,” the Shinx explained. “And in the story, their pride is in a big fight with a pack of Manectric that neither side can seem to find a way to end.”

The Electric-type sighed, crumpling up his piece of paper and batting it away with his forepaws. Irune watched as the Electric-type grew distracted with his lack of progress, and drug his bag over.

… Of course she wasn’t be able to just get away with stealing from him while his back was turned.

Irune braced herself and narrowed her eyes, readying her tusks to strike. The Shinx didn’t seem to pick up on her intent, so if she could just stall him a little longer, she’d surely be able to get his bag and let him off with just a little nick.

“Uh huh…” the Axew said. “Tell me a bit more about it.”

“Well, I wanted the Luxio to leave her pride and get some ideas of how to end it by meeting other Pokémon in a nearby town that would help her,” the cub explained. “But I can’t settle on who from there could give those ideas to her or how she’d learn anything for how to bring peace. After all, the town’s soldiers would be going off to a fight they can’t seem to end either… that’s what they do, right?”

Irune froze and squirmed as soon as the Shinx’s words left his mouth. Gods, of all the Pokémon in this town she had to rob, why did it have to be one that would make her feel this guilty? As the Axew wavered, the Shinx shook his head, and turned his eyes to look square into hers with a bashful rub of his forepaws together.

“Do you have any ideas, Fräulein Milza?” he asked. “You look a bit older than me, so maybe you’ve heard a story that got around this problem before.”

Irune froze and bit her tongue, remaining deathly silent as the Shinx tilted his head back puzzledly. The Axew turned around, avoiding eye contact as she croaked out an audibly guilty-sounding reply.

“I- I need to go,” she said.

Irune lowered her head and much as she had earlier in the day, ran back for the alleyway where the rest of Team Forager was lurking. Lyle and Dalton were there, and closed their eyes with defeated sighs, as Kate stepped forward with her eye twitching in exasperation.

“What the hell was that?!” she exclaimed. “You had him dead to rights and then you just let him go!”

“Oh come on, Kate,” Lyle scoffed. “If I felt iffy about it, how do you expect someone who’s as much of a rookie at thieving as she is would feel?”

Dalton shook his head and pinched his brow at the turn of events. Irune noted that he looked almost happy about how things had ended. Part of him must’ve been glad she didn’t have the heart to mug the little cub. But with nothing but a few stray berries to her name as a thief thus far, how were they supposed to get the Poké they needed this late into the day?

“I suppose we’ll just have to go back to the drawing board-“

“Fräulein Milza?“

Irune and her fellows on Team Forager stiffened up, turning to see that there at the mouth of the alley was the Shinx from under the tree. The lion cub gave a puzzled tilt of his head at the sight of the other three Pokémon and shied away for a moment, before shaking his head and speaking up.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “You were behaving really strange earlier.”

Lyle, Kate, and Dalton shifted back and quietly tugged at Irune to follow, only for the Axew to linger and look back at the Shinx. The Dragon-type pawed at her shoulder briefly, before speaking up in a halting tone.

“I’m… surviving, I guess,” she said. “I’ve just been going through a lot recently.”

The Shinx hemmed and hawed for a brief moment, before raising a forepaw and pointing off behind Irune.

“I… was just going to say that if you weren’t feeling well, maybe you should ask your teammates for help,” he suggested.

The four Outlaws blinked puzzledly for a moment, as the young Electric-type carried on.

“I mean, my mom says that’s what teammates on an Exploration Team like yours are for. That they’re friends who are there to look out for you when you’re having trouble,” he explained. “Maybe I was reading into things a bit much, but you just seemed like there was something that was bothering you a lot.”

The Shinx brought his forepaw back to his side with a wordless blink. After an awkward silence, the lion cub lowered his head, rubbing his forepaws against each other with an uneasy glance back.

“Sorry if that didn’t help much. Though, I guess maybe I should ask my mom for help myself,” he said. “I mean, she’s kinda my teammate…”

Dalton sighed and hastily piped up in reply.

“That would probably be wise, Herrlein₃ Sheinux₄. You probably shouldn’t be lingering off on your own like this,” the Heliolisk said. “If you got back home too late, you’d worry your mother sick. Even if the war’s far away right now, there’s a lot of Pokémon causing trouble around these days.”

Kate quietly shot an annoyed frown up at the Heliolisk as the Shinx nodded back and began to shuffle off.

“Right, I guess that makes sense,” he remarked. “And I guess it is getting kinda late…”

As the lion cub paced forward, he looked back over his shoulder, and shot a small smile towards Irune.

“Thanks for trying to help me, though, Fräulein Milza!” he insisted. “If we meet again, I’ll let you know how my story’s going!”

The Shinx darted off down the lane, quickly slipping from view as Team Forager’s members stared after him wordlessly. Kate was the first to break the silence, blowing her ear feather back with a puff of icy breath as she blew an annoyed raspberry.

“Pfft, well that was a waste of time,” the Sneasel grumbled. “Was that comment at the end really necessary though, Dalton?”

“Actually… maybe that Shinx was onto something,” Irune said.

The Axew’s insistence made the rest of her teammates look back down at her. It’d taken her a while, but at last, she thought that she understood what her teammates had been getting at with their lessons. She watched as they stared at her, with Dalton blinking a moment, before giving a puzzled tilt of his head down in reply.

“Hm? Just what do you mean by that?”

---

As the sun began to drift over the horizon in the west and the skies flushed with the burnt orange tones of the early evening, Team Forager found themselves once again skulking the alleys about Moonturn Square’s central marketplace.

They needed the better part of ten thousand Poké before sunrise, and thanks to Irune’s struggles with the basics of thieving, they’d be lucky to get two or three from what little they’d pulled in. There, the three more senior members peered down at their Axew junior, with Lyle flaring up and shooting a skeptical frown at the young Dragon-type.

“Remind me why we’re humoring this again when you’ve made complete hash of every practice run we’ve given you so far?” he demanded. “And wasted time we could’ve spent actually getting the Poké we need?”

“Because the best way to learn is from experience!” Irune insisted. “If we all work together, I’m sure that I’ll learn what I need to about being a thief faster than trying to flail around from scratch!”

Kate rolled her eyes, folding her arms over each other before she tersely scoffed back at the Axew’s reply.

“So in other words, you need us to do all the actual work for you,” she harrumphed. Irune stomped her foot in reply, and screwed her eyes shut with an indignant cry of protest.

“I didn’t say that!” she piped. “Look, we’ve only got this evening to get that Poké, so let’s just take it from the top… What do you all look out for in a mark aside from him looking weak?”

Lyle pinned his ears back and spotted Kate and Dalton trading dubious looks with one another. He couldn’t fault a ‘mon for wanting others at one’s back, but this was a bit much coming from Irune. A ‘mon that had been struggling at basic thieving as much as this little pipsqueak worrying about what mark to pick out was by definition getting ahead of herself.

… On the other paw, it was already sunset, and they weren’t exactly close to filling the gap with Hermes’ money. Answering an idle question like this surely couldn’t hurt, at least…

“Tch, opportunity, of course,” Kate spoke up. “There’s no sense holding up a ‘mon if she doesn’t have anything but her scarf to her name.”

“I would think that where your mark’s headed off to is a bit more important. It’s easier to go after a mark if you know where he’ll be instead of having to constantly shadow him,” Dalton countered. “Why if it wasn’t for those Grünhäuter, our best bet would’ve been putting up a mission up at the local guild to try and lure someone into Waterhead Cave or some other Mystery Dungeon to ambush them.”

Lyle sighed and rolled his eyes in reply. Were there really Hunters dumb enough to fall for setups like that who had more than a thousand Poké or some equivalent to their name? What, was Dalton expecting that they’d find some bulliable rookie like a Bidoof just strutting around with anywhere close to seven or eight thousand Poké? One that’d both be gullible enough to take the bait on such a mission and dumb enough to bring that sort of money along into a Mystery Dungeon? What were the odds of that ever happening? Especially with the way things were in Varhyde these days?

But all of that was irrelevant when he couldn’t even take it for granted that Irune wouldn’t struggle with an ideal layup like that. Just what was he supposed to say as advice to a ‘mon that failed at mugging a schoolkid for his spare change?

If they just sat around waiting for a mark that fit both molds and wouldn’t be overly challenging for Irune to handle, they’d likely be sitting about Moonturn Square for a full month! Unless Lacan was magically hit by a bout of amnesia sometime over the past day, they certainly didn’t have that sort of time to work with, so perhaps it was best to remind her to be realistic…

“Look, just… use a bit of common sense, alright? It’s not often that you’ll get a mark that’ll check off all the boxes,” the Quilava said. “With all the Pokémon around here, we’ll probably be here well into the evening just trying to figure out which tree we’re best barking up.”

Lyle shook his head before lowering himself to all fours with a low grumble, and made his way out of the alley and into the marketplace. Gottverdammt, at this rate they would need to start asking other Carriers for prices, since they sure as hell weren’t going to make up the rest of that money Hermes demanded in an evening like this.

“Just look around a bit. It’s a big marketplace, so I’m sure you can find someone who looks-“

“… And you haven’t seen anyone at all matching that description?”

Lyle trailed off after hearing a cawing voice, and looked ahead to see a Floatzel in green armor plates standing ahead in the marketplace. The voice from the Water-type’s hem and haw in reply quickly made it apparent that it was none other than… Nils. Because of course that blighter would also be here!

He’d evidently been running late for his evening assignment in the hinterlands, and was impatiently eyeing the gate, as he shook his head back and shuffled aside to reveal a sight that made Lyle and his companions’ blood run cold.

There, in front of him, was the same Corvisquire from Lacan’s Fähnlein. The same one who’d wounded Alvin and held him back long enough to be picked off while retreating. Whatever doubts he had of her identity were settled by him seeing Irune suddenly turning stiff as a board and watching the color drain from her face.

“I mean, I know a Quilava, but he doesn’t have any friends like those. And he doesn’t normally come around these parts,” Nils explained. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for you to ask around the garrison or something, but why would you expect Pokémon who’ve gotten into as much trouble as what you’re saying to come here, Frau₅ Kranoviz₆? Wouldn’t they have been more likely to try and hide in the woods?”

For a moment, Lyle wondered why Nils was sucking up so hard to the crow when he saw the reason: her white army scarf had a gray chevron merged with a diamond enclosing a patch of Stabsoffizier blue on her scarf. He didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed that the night before, but the Corvisquire clearly wasn’t some common grunt.

Lyle snapped back to attention at the sound of running footsteps and saw Irune and the others bolting down a nearby alleyway going up the bowl-like incline. He quickly followed suit, sprinting for dear life until they reached a shaded intersection between alleyways where they stopped to catch their breath.

“Götterblut,” Kate wheezed. “That was way too close.”

Lyle sucked in sharp breaths as he tried to calm himself and tamp down startled fire pouring out his vents as a sinking feeling settled in his stomach. So the marketplace hadn’t been crawling with Grünhäuter earlier over the trouble Irune had gotten into. Someone must’ve tipped off that damn Graf off that they were here!

Then that meant they really didn’t have any other options than Hermes at this point. It’d already be risky just to wait until the morning to leave Moonturn Square behind. And with Lacan’s underlings asking around the town, it was too dangerous to ask more Carriers for offers when that Corvisquire would surely get the idea to question them.

Lyle hung his head blankly, and for a moment, he wished there was a Latios shrine nearby so that way he could plead with their ghosts or however that was supposed to work for good fortune. Just then, the sound of clattering from around the bend pricked the four’s ears, making them freeze as a voice called out from further down it.

“Gah! Why does Scrafty insist on meeting in a dingy alley like this?!” a squeaking voice complained. “Dabohru almost stub toe on trash heap!”

Team Forager’s members warily poked their heads around the intersection and past an upended and battered crate with a cloth draped over it and froze. There, they spotted the same Togedemaru who’d fought alongside the Roly-Poly Caravan’s Aerodactyl the other night entering the intersecting alleyway. The Electric-type brushed past some rubbish that had piled up—the same old dregs that had already been picked through for anything worth eating or salvaging. Behind him was a tall, gangly lizard with an orange hide, a rounded head with a red crest, and shed skin that hung about his lower body almost like a pair of pants. The Pokémon was visibly agitated, gritting his teeth and shaking a fist at the Togedemaru with a low, threatening growl.

“Listen, you stupid furry volleyball,” the Scrafty snarled. “Me and my associates paid good money for those Lansat Berries, and our business is on the line without them!”

The four quickly ducked behind the corner, panting as for a moment, worried that those two might have seen them. After a moment’s quiet, Lyle crept forward and noticed that the cloth over the crate covered an entire side that had been largely missing, with a broken board on the other end providing a peephole. Lyle and Irune slunk in while Dalton and Kate opted to crouch and listen, as the Quilava and Axew watched the Togedemaru fan his spikes out and wave his nubby arms with an indignant squeak.

“Look, Dabohru and rest of Roly-Poly Caravan try to ensure customers happy, but sometimes incidents happen,” the Electric-type spat. “Dabohru sure clever ‘mon like Scrafty insured shipment. So Scrafty either wait for the next caravan to come in, or Scrafty pay for it to be expedited and pass costs onto customers.”

The Scrafty grew visibly angered by the rodent’s reply, and cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward and attempted to loom threateningly over the Electric-type.

“It’s ‘Iro‘. And you’ve got some nerve to think that you’re in any position to give me the run-around, you damn rat!” the Dark-type snarled. “I’ll knock you into next-!”

A weak jolt of electricity suddenly jumped from the Togedemaru’s barbs and struck the Scrafty in his stomach. The Dark-type let out a sharp yelp as his body went numb and his limbs locked up, before the Togedemaru knocked him over onto his back and hopped onto his stomach visibly sparking in anger.

“Dabohru and Roly-Poly Caravan don’t care what customers do with the wares they ship with us. Not mean all Pokémon feel same way,” the Togedemaru piped. “If Scrafty have such an issue with Caravan employees having run of bad luck from attack by Outlaws, Scrafty more than welcome to get Sheriff and guards involved. Dabohru sure that Scrafty have perfectly innocent reason for needing forty Scheffel of Lansat Berries all at once, right?”

The Scrafty blanched and his earlier belligerence quickly departed him. The Dark-type stiffly raised his arms, struggling against the effects of his paralysis to wave for calm.

“H-Hey, no need to get hasty there!” the Scrafty stammered. “We’re not thrilled about it, but I’m sure that we can work around a one-time expense.”

“Hrmph, it will take Dabohru time to see whether Caravan have any quicker Pullers who can move that sort of volume. Much of talent from last caravan is sleeping off wounds,” the spike ball said. “Advance is 15,000 Poké, bring to Restful Square at midnight on the dot.”

Irune blinked from her party’s hiding place, the Axew murmuring to herself as she repeated the Togedemaru’s words under her breath.

“15,000 Poké…?”

Lyle’s eyes widened and he stifled a startled yelp at the amount of money involved. The guy wasn’t exactly a Bidoof that’d just joined the local Guild, but 15,000 Poké was more than enough to make up the difference they needed to cover their flight. Why it would even give him, Kate, and Dalton back a chunk of the money they’d started off with!

Further down the alley, the Togedemaru hopped off his uncooperative customer, the Scrafty rolling over and hesitantly getting back onto his feet. The Dark-type gave the rodent a healthy berth, as he attempted to summon a brave face and snap back at the surprisingly strong pipsqueak.

“… Fine. But you’d better be able to-“

“Oh, Dabohru have one more condition,” the mouse insisted. “Scrafty come to meeting alone.”

Lyle watched as the Dark-type blinked for a moment, before getting back up and shaking some feelings into his limbs with a sharp glare.

“That wasn’t part of the deal,” the Scrafty huffed. “I’m not handing over that sort of money without some associates at my side.”

“Well then Scrafty can go and find some other caravan to get those Lansat Berries!” the Electric-type piped. “After how rude welcome was earlier, dealing with just Scrafty enough of a headache! So come alone, or else Dabohru see to it that Scrafty and associates never get so much as Plain Seed delivered through Roly-Poly Caravan again!”

Dabohru turned his snout up and waddled out of the alleyway. The Scrafty glared after the Electric-type for a moment, before also taking his leave, visibly limping from the lingering effects of the Togedemaru’s earlier Thunder Wave and growling muffled invectives under his breath. After the pair slipped off, Team Forager’s members crept back out, Lyle, Kate, and Dalton breathing quiet sighs of relief as Irune stared off at the other end of the alleyway for a moment and shook her head.

“I think that we just found our mark,” she said.

Lyle let his mouth flop open in reply, as Kate and Dalton stiffened up in response. For all of a moment, the three of them stood there stunned, before the Heliolisk piped up with a sparking huff.

“Did you hit your head earlier today?” Dalton scoffed. “That was a ‘mon from the Roly-Poly Caravan.”

“Tch, first you’re too good for snagging a kid’s milk money and now you want a grudge match with those Togedemaru?” Kate grumbled. “Seriously, get your priorities in order!”

“Irune, we’re not getting involved with those furballs again. We don’t even know how many friends that rat’s going to show up with!” Lyle growled. “In case you forgot, but we didn’t turn out too good from the last job we had involving them!”

The Axew turned back and gave a puzzled tilt of her head back at her fellow Outlaws.

“Eh? I didn’t say anything about getting involved with the Caravan again. We’d be getting involved with the Scrafty,” she insisted. “Didn’t you hear the deal he just made? The deal that he’s going alone for? It’s the kind of mark we’ve been praying for!”

The three blinked a moment at the Dragon-type’s reply, as Lyle turned his head to the side and warily glanced back at the thief-in-training.

“… Keep going with that thought a bit,” he said, prompting Irune to paw idly at her left tusk in thought.

“Well, if we can run into the Scrafty on his own before he meets the Togedemaru, there’ll be four of us and one of him,” the Axew explained. “If those Togedemaru are really all that, he wouldn’t dare try to double cross them and he’d have more than enough money to pay off Hermes. Isn’t that already everything that you all said an ideal mark ought to have?”

Dalton and Kate stopped and visibly pondered Irune’s suggestion. For a ‘mon who wasn’t any good at robbing Pokémon herself, it was hard to argue that she had a nose for promising marks…

“Yeah, and I doubt he’s going to be reporting anything to the Gendarmen either if he gets ripped off,” Kate mused. “The only ‘mons that deal with that many Lansat Berries at once are farmers and ‘mons pushing syrup to get others high. And since when did farmers have ‘associates’?”

“So we’ve got a time, a place, and a Pokémon,” Dalton said to himself. “The only thing we don’t have is familiarity with the surroundings.”

Kate and Irune fell silent at Dalton’s words. Yes, that… would admittedly be an issue. Why if they didn’t know the first thing about where the Scrafty was going to close his deal, then he could just take advantage of his surroundings to slip away, or worse, turn the tables on them. The Outlaws hung their head, when they noticed Lyle remained pensive and was pawing at his chin in thought.

“Lyle?” Irune asked. “Is something wrong?”

“No, not at all. It’s just that I realized that Scrafty said he was going to meet that Togedemaru at ‘Restful Square‘, right?” Lyle mused to himself, before shaking his head and glancing back with a small nod.

“Well if it’s the same ‘Restful Square’ I know of here in this town, it’s a little park out in a residential neighborhood on the east side of town. One that gets really quiet after dusk,” Lyle explained. “We’ll need to figure out a way of how to get those Togedemaru out of the picture first, but I think that I might know a couple areas around there to hide out.”