Act accordingly

“So that happened, huh?” Simon said, still staring at Rachel until she got out of sight. “Why do I have the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?”

“Because I don’t know if that something is true yet. I have the feeling I’ve met her before, or that I know her from something. But I draw blanks if I try to remember the source.”

At that point Verm was approaching. Looking around himself after seeing the expressions the other two had. “Morning? Did something happen?”

“We may have found someone to join our team, but we’re not sure if we made the right choice.”

“Oh, you mean that Excadrill that just passed me?”

Mark looked at Simon for help. “Right, species, yeah, she’s an Excadrill. We’re gonna have to get you a book or something for you to learn the names.” He turned to Verm. “Have you seen her before?”

“Not really, no. I’ve only seen her when she was with you in this area.”

“Am I interrupting something?” Charlie had gotten close after hearing all the conversations.

“Hey, Charlie, what can you tell us about Rachel?”

“Her? She got here a few days ago. We got her some food and a place to sleep. She said she wanted to join the guild but had no team, but she denied all the available teams Gren showed her.”

“So she’s choosing us in particular? That is just making me more suspicious of her.”

“Do you know anything about her from before she arrived?”

“Nope. She didn’t tell us much about herself, so your guess is as good as mine.”

“Hm…”

Mark kept going through his memories as much as he could, trying to find anything about a ‘Rachel’ that he could remember. But as he expected, nothing came up.

“Uh, not to be rude, but Siobhan and Dot are waiting for us, Mark. I came here to search for you, actually.”

“Oh, right, sorry. I’ll see you soon, Simon.”

“Before you go, one more thing.” Charlie interrupted. “Unless something happens today, I think Simon will be free to go tomorrow morning. He’s still not 100% recovered, but his wounds are mostly superficial now. So as long as he doesn’t put in much effort, he should be able to go home.”

“Wait, for real?” Apparently not even Simon knew about this. “Thank Arceus, I was gonna go crazy if I stayed here for longer. No offense, Charlie.”

“None taken. You can do missions if you want, just make sure to take it slow and take care of yourself.”

“You got it.” He turned to the other two. “I’ll see you two later. Good luck on your mission.”

And with a wave they left.

---

Today’s mission was very simple, apparently. Rescuing a lost Pancham from the depths of Poison Garden. Granted, Mark wasn’t that happy to hear about that place since it still reminded him of his first mission, but he decided to deal with it and go. The way there was used for Mark and Verm to update on the other two members about the whole situation with Rachel and Simon’s discharge.

“I mean, she sounds weird, but is there any specific reason you’re suspicious of her? Or is it just the familiarity?” Siobhan asked. They were always the analytical one, so it made sense for them to be interested in this.

“It’s not just that, it’s… I guess it feels too convenient? She gets there, denies every other team, and suddenly she has a change of heart and chooses to join specifically the team of two humans?”

“You think she knew you two were humans before you said it?”

“I don’t know… Maybe she knew about Simon.” He then had a different thought. “Does every town have their own guild?”

“Uh… Not every town, no. But most of them do. Why?”

“If she’s staying in the medical area, that means she doesn’t have a home in town. And that means she has to come from somewhere else, where there’s more than probably another guild.” He looked at the others. “So why come specifically to the Supernova guild? The only reason I can think of is that she knew about Simon being human and came here because of it. And I really don’t trust her if that’s the case.”

“Well, we’ll be watching her, just in case she tries anything. But for now, we really should get going and do the mission.”

Dot was right. He shook his head a bit and focused on what he had to do. But it didn’t last long.

That guilty feeling of not helping enough he had last time vanished quickly, being replaced with this confusion and concern that Rachel got into him. His mind wasn’t concentrated in the dungeon, sometimes getting lost in his own thoughts and running into ferals by accident, completely ignoring the warnings of Team Acolyte.

The mission was a success, but definitely not thanks to him. Verm was going to complain, but Simon was going to be ready the next day, so it wasn’t like it would make a difference.

Once they got out of Poison Garden, the Pancham paid them and ran off to wherever they had to be. That left the group going back to the guild alone. However, something was… off. That feeling Mark had last time was back, it seemed like he was being watched. But this time, it wasn’t a feeling, he could literally see a few of the townsfolk staring at him as he walked.

He was going to say something to the team, but before he could do that, he heard a yell.

“YOU!” He didn’t get a chance to look at the source before being tackled into the ground. The gray dinosaur on him was about to attack before Dot pushed them out of the way.

The commotion was enough for a lot of Pokémon to be around, all staring. Most of them seemed confused or scared by the sudden attack… but a few wore looks of disgust, specifically to Mark.

“Get off me! Can’t you see he’s the problem here?!” The dinosaur struggled as Dot pinned them. “We need to get rid of him! He’s human!”

Verm helped him up, but the words he just heard scared him. They… they knew. The town knew. How?

“Guys, get out of here, I’ll deal with the Rampardos.” Dot said to the team. With a nod, Siobhan flew over the crowd while Verm grabbed Mark by the paw and pushed themselves between the crowd until getting out. It didn’t take long for them to rush into the guild.

“Whoa, what’s wrong? What happened?” The Breloom asked, stepping out of his desk to help. 

Mark was panting. Not only because of the sprint he had to do, but because of the stress that this situation was giving him.

“The cover is out, the town knows about Mark.” Siobhan said. “Can you go tell Gren?” With a nod, the Breloom left.

“B-but who…” That was all Mark could muster before it dawned on him. “Rachel… Of course…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Rachel! She has to be the one that spread the news. Almost nobody else in the guild knows about me being human except the staff, and her. And your team couldn’t have done it since I’ve been with you.”

“Okay, relax. You’re jumping into conclusions here and-”

“Shut up, Verm.” He didn’t say that with rage or anything similar, but rather like he was very close to breaking. “I… I need to talk to her.” So he rushed upstairs.

Only Simon was there, though, talking with Charlie about something.

“Where is Rachel?” He asked, interrupting their conversation.

Charlie looked at him for a second, recovering from the flinch the sudden entrance gave him. “She hasn’t returned since this morning. Why?”

“Mark, are you okay?” Seeing the Squirtle so worried about him made him relax a bit. Enough for Verm to catch up.

“I… Charlie, do you mind if I sleep here tonight?”

“Oh, no, of course not. It seems like today’s a quiet day so I’m not expecting many Pokémon around.”

Verm sighed. “So are you gonna tell them, or should I?”

Mark answered by sitting on the empty beds next to Simon’s and staring at the ground, pensive.

He heard Verm describing what happened, as well as Mark’s suspicions, but he tuned out the conversation rather quickly. He kept trying to figure out what the hell all of this meant. Why did Rachel do that? Did she blame him for something just like the ones attacking Simon all the time? Did she have any other motives to make this so much harder than it needed to be?

Eventually, he laid on the bed properly, trying to rest. Nobody really talked to him, understanding that he had a lot to think about already. And think is exactly what he did.

‘Rachel, I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what the hell is your goal here, and I don’t know why you’re so fixated on us. But I swear to god, I’m going to get to the bottom of this.’