Chapter Five: Errand Day

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Hope, Klaw, and Dewey jumped apart at the loud knocking. Klaw and Dewey immediately began to scramble, desperately trying to shove their rescue team encyclopedia underneath the mountain of stuffed toys they had been hiding it under.

“Hope!” Klaw called out. “Mind helping us out here?”

Hope immediately sprang into action, rushing over and helping Klaw and Dewey pile stuffed toy after stuffed toy onto the forbidden book.

“Boys!” a sickly smooth voice called out. “I know you’re awake!”

“That’s right!” a gruff, deep voice rang. “We both know that you’re awake, so why have you boys not opened the door yet?”

Klaw and Dewey looked at each other with alarm. “I-it’s P-papa and D-daddy!” Dewey exclaimed. “W-we g-gotta h-hurry up!”

The knocking continued, this time even louder.

“Come on, you guys! We gotta go faster!” Hope yelled.

“We’re trying! Can’t you see that?” Klaw snapped back

“We’re going to count to ten, and if this door isn’t opened by then, you’re going to get the special treatment ” the smooth voice crooned. “Got it?”

Klaw and Dewey looked at each other, their bodies trembling. “Not the special treatment” they whispered in unison.

Hope didn’t know what exactly they meant by the “special treatment”, but from the looks in Klaw and Dewey’s eyes and the trembling of their voices made it sound terrible.

“Ten…”

The trio glanced at each other quickly before springing into action, each grabbing two or three stuffed toys at once and throwing them on top of the pile.

“Nine… Eight…”

“J-just a f-few m-more to g-go!” Dewey called, struggling to carry two stuffed toys over to the pile.

“Seven… six…”

Hope grabbed the final stuffed toy in her mouth.”Almost there!” she called out, her voice muffled.

“Five… four…”

With all of her remaining strength, Hope threw the last stuffed toy on top of the pile.

Klaw and Dewey looked at Hope gratefully. “T-thanks…” Dewey said, still heavily panting.

“You… really saved… our butts… there” Klaw said, also still heavily panting.

“Three… two…”

The three friends instantly jumped at the continued countdown. Hope immediately ran to the door and flung it open.

Sure enough, Scorch and Riptide were standing on the other side of the door. They looked down at her, their creepy smirks sending chills down Hope’s spine.

“About time you opened the door, honey” Riptide murmured.

“Indeed” Scorch chuckled. “The boys would not have had a lot of fun today if you hadn’t opened the door when you did”

Klaw and Dewey flattened their bodies to the ground.

“Anyways, boys,” Scorch said. “Do you remember what day it is today?”

Klaw and Dewey blinked. A few seconds of silence passed. Then, in unison, both boys let out a loud groan.

“Oh no…” Klaw mumbled. “It’s Errand Day, isn’t it?”

Scorch and Riptide’s smiles grew wider. “That’s our boy!” Riptide cooed. “Come now. You boys have to leave right now if we’re going to get the supplies on time.”

“C-can we t-take H-hope w-with us?” Dewey asked.

Scorch and Riptide looked at each other with surprise. They turned to each other and began whispering.

Klaw looked at Dewey with surprise. “Why did you ask that?” he hissed. “Now we’re all going to get the special treatment !”

“S-sorry…” Dewey whispered. “I j-just t-thought E-errand D-day w-would be a l-lot l-less b-boring if we t-took H-hope with u-us.” Dewey whispered

Klaw softened noticeably. “You do make a very good point…” he mumbled, staring at his paws. “Errand Day would be more fun if we brought Hope with us. I’m just worried since it’s the first time that we’ve asked to take another person with us and Hope is a… you know.”

Just as Hope was about to ask Klaw what he meant, Scorch and Riptide turned back to the trio. “Why not?” Scorch said. “At least it will allow our little guest to stretch her paws for a bit.”

“Just make sure she doesn’t get a scratch on her, OK?” Riptide chimed in.

Klaw, Dewey, and Hope stared at each other, eyes widened. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Klaw and Dewey turned towards Scorch and Riptide. “Thank you, Papa and Daddy!” they said together in unison. Though there was a tinge of excitement in their voices, Hope could easily tell that it was somewhat forced. They were excited to have her along, but they didn’t feel comfortable enough to express the full extent of their passion, like how they reacted when Norman allowed them to share their dream with her.

“Well now,” Scorch said, jolting Hope out of her thoughts. “You three better get going if you want to be back by sundown. Because if you don’t get back by sundown, the special treatment is still on the table.”

The two adults began to crack up, their horrible laughs echoing throughout the room. Hope simply stood there, her mouth agape with horror. Scorch and Riptide noticed her terrified expression and stopped laughing. “Honey, don’t get your tail in a twist. It was just a joke.” Riptide sneered. “Now run along, you three.”

And with that, the trio started to head on their way. Before they walked out of the room, Dewey came up next to Hope and leaned into her ear. “T-that w-wasn’t a j-joke.” he whispered.

The trio headed towards the front gate of the AZS, where they were greeted by Norman, who was holding a small piece of paper in his hand. When he saw Hope, he smiled softly. “Ah, Hope! Are you joining Klaw and Dewey on Errand Day?”

“She is!” Klaw answered.

Norman clapped his hands together. “Very good! I am quite surprised that Scorch and Riptide were willing to let you two take Hope along, but it is a welcome surprise indeed.”

“Y-yeah, we w-were s-surprised that P-papa and D-daddy a-agreed as well.” Dewey said.

Norman let out a small chuckle and handed Dewey the small piece of paper. “Here’s the list of objects that you’re going to get today.” he said. “Now have fun!”

“We’ll try,” Klaw responded, rolling his eyes. “It’s gonna be really hard, though.”

Norman let out another small chuckle before opening the door and gestured to the open world. “Run along now, you three!”

“Yes, sir!” all three kids answered in unison. And with that, the trio was on the road.

Once they were far enough from the AZS, Hope turned to Klaw and Dewey. “So, what exactly is ‘Errand Day’?” she asked.

“Errand Day is when we go to Dead Space and pick up the necessary supplies for the month.” Klaw answered. “It’s basically just a grocery run. And it’s really  boring!”

Hope tilted her head. “Dead Space? What’s that?” she inquired.

“Oh! My bad!” Klaw exclaimed. “Dead Space is the local black market.”

Hope’s ears shot up. “A black market ?!” she exclaimed. “How can that be boring?!”

“T-trust us, H-hope. I-it’s r-really n-nothing s-special;” Dewey sighed.

“Yeah, it really isn’t.” Klaw said. “Maybe it’s just because we’ve been there so many times, but it’s really just like your average store. Just a little more… secluded.”

“Yeah, it’s probably because you’ve been there so many times.” Hope replied. She was quickly becoming more excited about this trip. Not only would she be seeing what a black market looked like in the pokemon world, she would be going to a black market for the first time ever ! She wasn’t sure how she knew exactly, but she had a very strong feeling that going to a black market was not something she would be inclined to do as a human. Then again, she wouldn’t be inclined to be a guest in the continent’s largest crime syndicate as a human, too. But here she was.

Speaking of that…

Hope turned towards Klaw and Dewey. “While we’re walking, let’s start planning our escape method.”

Klaw and Dewey immediately lit up. “Now we’re getting to something that’s actually fun!” Klaw cheered.

“So, do you guys know of any secret exits within the building or something?” Hope asked.

Klaw and Dewey immediately became a bit crestfallen. “We’ve looked everywhere.” Klaw said. “There’s absolutely nothing that could even be turned into an exit. It’s crazy.”

I kind of already expected that, but it didn’t hurt to ask . Hope thought to herself. “What about the main door? Is it usually guarded at night? Is it locked?”

“T-they a-always have at l-least two p-pokemon g-guarding the m-main d-door at n-night.” Dewey answered. “W-we’ve n-never been a-able to get c-close e-enough to the d-door to s-see if it’s l-locked or n-not.”

“Well, that’s a bummer.” Hope said. An idea suddenly popped into her head. “What if, instead of coming back to the guild, we just take the supplies and head straight to the Ironheart Guild?”

Klaw and Dewey looked at each other uneasily. “Well… we did try that already… Not after Errand Day, but after a mission…”

“Yes?” Hope asked. Then it dawned on her. “But you ended up finding me and had to bring me back, right?”

“Yeah…” Klaw and Dewey said in unison, hanging their heads down.

Hope stopped walking and stared at the ground. “I’m really sorry about that…”

Klaw and Dewey immediately perked their heads back up. “No, it’s not your fault!” Klaw exclaimed.

“Y-yeah!” Dewey said. “I-it w-wasn’t your f-fault at a-all. A-and b-besides, w-we w-would have h-had to h-have g-gone p-past the AZS to g-get f-from the G-great Tre H-hollow to the I-ironheart G-guild. S-so we w-would have b-been c-caught a-anyways.”

At this point, the trio was no longer walking on the dusty, light tan dirt roads that they walked to to get Hope to the AZS for the first time. The roads were now made of a dark purple mud-like substance, sticky and damp like it had just been raining, even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was sticking to Hope’s paws, leaving small bits of it clumped on to her fur. There were trees now, too, but not normal trees. Both the bark and the leaves of these trees were as black as a starless night. An odd smell, somewhere between oil and rotten eggs, wafted from them, causing a slight burning sensation within Hope’s nose.

Hope looked at Klaw and Dewey. “Are those trees OK?” she asked.

“Dead Space has a lot of pollution.” Klaw answered. “It’s gotten better in recent times, but back in the day, it was so bad that the pollution spread to the nearby roads and the trees. They neutralized the roads, but they’ve never been able to neutralize the trees. It’s best if you stay away from them.”

Hope was now starting to feel very uneasy. “But you said that Dead Space is a black market, right?” she asked. “That must mean other pokemon live there. How can they put up with so much pollution?”

“L-like K-klaw said, the p-pollution l-levels in D-dead S-space i-itself have b-been g-greatly r-reduced” Dewey said. “B-but t-those who w-work t-there t-tend to i-ignore it. F-for s-some of these p-pokemon, i-it’s their o-only s-source of l-livelihood.”

By now an extremely thick fog was settling in over the path that the trio was walking on. It was so thick that it was touching Hope’s paws, slightly misting them. After walking through the sticky neutralized sludge for a while, the mist from the fog felt very refreshing.

“W-we s-should be t-there in a-about t-thirty m-minutes.” Dewey said. “T-this fog o-only o-occurs r-really close to D-dead S-space.”

“It feels like we’ve been walking for forever.” Hope groaned.

The long walk continued. All the while, Hope was still trying to come up with a way that her, Klaw, and Dewey could escape. All of a sudden, a thought came to her. She turned towards Klaw and Dewey. “Can I ask you two a weird question?”

“G-go a-ahead.” Dewey responded.

“Reproduction between pokemon can only occur between a male and a female, right?”

Klaw and Dewey nearly tripped over each other’s feet.

‘Why would you ask something like that?!” Klaw exclaimed. “I mean, yes, of course… but why ?!”

“I warned you that it was going to be a weird question.” Hope chuckled. “Anyways, that means that you guys have mothers out there somewhere, right? Maybe we could try and ask them for help escaping? Possibly even go stay with them after we’ve escaped?”

Klaw and Dewey came to a screeching halt. They both tried to say something, but no words were coming out of their agape mouths.

“…Is there anything wrong?” Hope asked.

There was what felt like an extremely long period of silence, The fog seemed to be pressing down on Klaw and Dewey. Finally, Klaw opened his mouth. “Papa and Daddy never told us who our mother was. We know that we share the same mother, but that’s all Papa and Daddy have ever let out about her. And that was by accident. Every other time we asked about her, they would immediately give us the special treatment .”

“Oh…” Hope tried to find something else to say, but she couldn’t.

“O-oh! W-we’re h-here” Dewey said suddenly.

They had come in front of an extremely large fence made of very rusted metal. The bars of the fence were wide, so Hope could already see the rows and rows of stalls hawking merchandise that lay beyond it.

Klaw gently pushed the bottom of the fence with his paw.

CREEEEEEEAAAAAK!

The fence swung wide open, unwrapping the world of Dead Space for everyone to see.

The first thing that registered in Hope’s mind was the smell. It was the same oil/rotten eggs scent from the trees, but it was at least four times stronger. Klaw and Dewey definitely weren’t kidding when they said this place had a pollution problem , she thought to herself.

The dark purple muck from the road had been turned into semi-solid bricks, which made walking on the roads a little more comfortable. As she, Klaw, and Dewey started walking down the long pathway, she looked around in awe at just how many stalls were there. There were stalls selling paw-crafted bowls, carved wooden toys, various party favors… There seems to be just about everything here!

Though the items that were in stock were radically different, the one thing that was the same was the looks on the faces of these pokemon. Many of them were extremely dirty, with the brown from the dirt covering up the natural body color on some of them. Their eyes all had giant bags underneath them, and their faces were completely expressionless. The looks on their faces were the same as those pokemon that had lived hundreds of years, even if they were relatively younger on average.

“Momma, Momma, look! It’s Klaw and Dewey!”

Hope was jolted out of her thoughts by an incredibly cheery, high-pitched voice. Turning around, she saw a small purple and white cat pokemon walking on two legs towards her. A larger purple and yellow cat pokemon, whom Hope assumed was the smaller pokemon’s mother, was following closer behind. The smaller one wore two bracelets with purple flowers on them, while the mother wore a large necklace with white flowers on them.

“Oh, it’s Violet and Daisy.” Klaw murmured. “Hello, guys.”

“Hi Klaw! Hi Dewey!” the younger pokemon, whom Hope assumed to be Violet, chirped excitedly. Then she turned towards Hope. “I’ve never seen you around here! What’s your name? Where did you come from? Are you a friend of Klaw and Dewey?”

“Now, now, Violet. Don’t bother the poor girl.” her mother, whom Hope assumed was Daisy, scolded.

“Don’t worry. It’s fine.” Hope smiled. “My name is Hope”

“Hope…” Violet murmured, staring at Hope with extremely wise eyes. “That’s such a pretty name! I wish my name was as pretty as yours!”

Hope let out a small chuckle. “Nonsense! Your name is really pretty!” She didn’t know why, but talking to this young girl made her feel incredibly relaxed. It felt almost natural to her.

“Yes, Violet, Hope is right. Your name is very pretty.” Daisy mused. “But your name is also very pretty. Reminds me of a specific piece of amethyst jewelry I have in my collection. Would you like to come and look at it?”

Hope was about to agree when Klaw grabbed her by the cuff of her neck. “We would love to see this piece of jewelry, Daisy, but we have to get the order in.” he said hurriedly. “So I guess we’ll be seeing you soon.” And with that, he was dragging Hope off, with Dewey closely behind.

“Bye Klaw! Bye Dewey! Bye Hope!” Violet called cheerily.

Hope struggled to get free of Klaw’s sharp talons. Turning slightly, she hissed “What did you do that for?!”

“Daisy sells fake jewelry.” Klaw hissed back. “And she sells it for a very high price, too. We wouldn’t have enough money to pay for the order if you had stopped by her stall.”

“Fake jewelry?” Hope stopped struggling and stared at Klaw with confusion. “But she seems so nice! Why would she do that?”

“S-she is v-very n-nice” Dewey answered. “B-but s-she’s a-also a s-single m-mother with a s-small c-child. S-she has to p-put f-food on the t-table s-somehow.”

Klaw finally released Hope, who got to her feet and shook the pollution brick dust off of herself. “I guess that makes sense…” Hope mumbled softly.

“Sorry for grabbing you like that, Hope. But this is a black market. You always have to stay vigilant in a place like this.” Klaw said.

“And you were the one who said that this place was super boring.” Hope said, rolling her eyes.

“Shut up.” Klaw said, batting Hope lightly with his paw. “Let’s keep going. We’re almost at the shop we need to be at.”

A few more minutes of walking later and they arrived at the stall in question. It was probably the largest stall in the entire market, loaded from one end to another with an extreme variety of items. One end had normal items like berries, vegetables, and other foodstuffs, while the other end had what looked to be weapons. There were some brass knuckles, some small clubs, and Hope could even swear she could make out what looked to be tiny switchblades.

Behind the stall, wiping down a worn out crate, was a large lavender dog pokemon. It had two gigantic teeth jutting out from its lower jaw, which Hope could see clearly even with its back turned to them. A pipe loosely hung from the right side of its mouth. It had a black collar-like pattern on its neck, and its back appeared to be covered with scars. The most jarring thing about this particular pokemon, though, was its right arm, or lack thereof. Where the arm should have been was instead a small stump, coated with an entangled mass of dried blood.

Klaw got on his hind legs and tapped the rim of the stall. “Hello there, Spike.” he said.

Spike turned around to look at the trio. His lower jaw teeth looked even more massive when he was facing forward. He was wearing an eyepatch over his left eye, which was encrusted with a rim of more dried blood. He glowered down at them, his eyes filled with hatred.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the little AZS goons.” Spike snarled. “Your daddies sent you out to do their dirty work for them again?”

“Y-yes s-sir” Dewey said sheepishly, handing over the receipt in the process.

Spike ripped the receipt out of Dewey’s hand. After glancing at it for a few seconds, he looked back down at them. “I see that you two have a little guest with you this time.” he growled. “A new recruit to get dragged into the depths of the crime world underbelly to never return, huh?”

“No, sir! I’m just a friend!” Hope exclaimed.

Spike squinted his eyes at her. “Yeah, right. As if career criminals like them would be able to make friends.” With that, he turned his backs on them once again, placing the list on the table behind him.

Hope blinked slowly. “What’s his problem?” she whispered to Klaw and Dewey.

“H-he j-just hates e-everyone f-from the c-crime s-syndicates. H-hates us e-especially hard b-because we w-were b-born in the b-biggest c-crime s-syndicate.” Dewey whispered back. “D-doesn’t h-help that he h-has to s-sell s-stuff to c-crime s-syndicates to k-keep h-himself from s-starving to d-death.”

Hope didn’t really know how to respond to that, so she just glanced around the surrounding area. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she noticed something peering at them from around the corner of the pollution-brick wall. It looked like a face, but it didn’t appear to be a real one. It had black eyes, red cheeks, and a squiggly line for a mouth. Two long “ears” with black tips hung from its “head”, and a small red beanie hung from the end of the right ear.

Hope softly nudged Klaw and Dewey. “I think that something’s staring at us.” she whispered very softly, gesturing towards the face.

Klaw and Dewey turned in the direction Hope was gesturing in. When they saw what she had noticed, their faces instantly lit up.

“Hey, Spike,” Klaw called out. “We’re going to step away for a little bit, OK?”

Spike simply grunted.

“Alright! See you later!” Klaw called out. And with that, he and Dewey scurried away, with Hope following behind closely.

They walked up to the corner of the wall where the face was. As they got closer and closer, it was revealed that the face was attached to a body- the body of a pokemon. The pokemon’s body was almost completely obscured by a tan rag. The “face” had been haphazardly scribbled on the top of the rag. Its real eyes, which darted around quickly and nervously, appeared to actually be on the bottom half of the rag, visible through small, cut-out holes on the center. A small stick that looked somewhat like a lightning bolt hung out from the bottom of the rag.

“Sneaks!” Klaw greeted the odd pokemon. “We thought you wouldn’t be showing up until next month!”

“Yeah… usually not… but I got some extra money…. so I was able to get my hands on the goods a bit early..” Sneaks’s beady black eyes kept darting around as they spoke. “Come on… get them quick before Spike finishes up…” A black arm extended from the bottom of the rag, gesturing around the corner of the wall.

Hope’s stomach was starting to turn a little. “Are you sure this guy isn’t going to do anything to us?” she whispered very quietly to Klaw and Dewey.

“N-no! S-sneaks is v-very n-nice! T-they s-sell us c-candy and c-chips and all s-sorts of y-yummy s-snacks!” Dewey whispered back.

“Candy? Chips?” Hope stared at Dewey incredulously. “Are you sure that those aren’t slang words?”

“P-positively s-sure.” Dewey responded.

Hope shook her head with exasperation as they rounded the corner.

“By the way… I don’t think I’ve seen that eevee with you before… New friend of yours?” Sneaks asked as they started slinking down the alleyway.

“Yup! This is Hope!” Klaw responded, a wide grin on his face.

“Hope… nice to meet you…” Sneaks murmured. “Good to see that your dads are finally letting you meet other kids…”

Eventually they reached a large, slightly damp cardboard box leaning up against the middle of the wall. A large stack of plastic bags were next to it. Sneaks went over to the cardboard box and tipped it over. A large number of freshly sealed foil bags came tumbling out. They came in an assortment of neon colors and showed the same green character that Klaw and Dewey’s stuffed toys were of, along with pictures of various candies, chocolates, chips, and corn puffs.

“Take however much you want… and put them in the bags… be careful not to tear them though… don’t want your dads catching you…” Sneaks said.

Klaw and Dewey immediately changed to the pile of goodies and began shoving them into the plastic bags. Hope followed them closely, her cheeks a little flushed with embarrassment. I guess I shouldn’t have been so distrustful of them , she thought to herself. She began pawing through the pile, picking out one of each kind of treat before putting them into her own bag.

“So…Have you told Hope about your plans to join the Ironheart Guild?” Sneaks asked.

Hope looked over at Sneaks with surprise. “They did.” she answered.

“I suppose they did… After all, you are their friend…” Sneaks sighed. “I guess I can tell you about the incident on Power Pass, then…”

Klaw and Dewey’s heads perked up. “W-what h-happened at P-power P-pass?” Dewey asked.

“From what I heard… a pokemon suddenly grew gigantic and started rampaging when exploring Power Pass with its friends… the guild members had to come and take it down together…”

The three friends’ heads immediately turned to Sneaks. “Get real, Sneaks!” Klaw chuckled. “I know you tell some wild stories, but this one is far from reasonable. Pokemon growing gigantic? How does that even happen?”

“I know it sounds crazy… but I’m friends with some of the witnesses… they swear that this happened.” Sneaks shook their fake head.

“Y-you c-can’t be s-serious.” Dewey snorted. “T-the I-ironheart G-guild are e-extremely cool, they r-rescue p-pokemon all the t-time, but a p-pokemon g-growing g-gigantic is j-just too a-absurd.”

“I have a newspaper article of the situation in my base… I can get it for you right now if you really don’t believe me…”

“Go ahead,” Klaw said, flicking his tail. “At least if it’s real, we’ll have a pretty good headline to add to our encyclopedia.”

Sneaks nodded their head and turned to head back to their base. But before they could move a step, a loud cry rang out throughout the area.

“ HELLLLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!”

Hope, Klaw, Dewey, and Sneaks immediately turned around and rushed back into the main plaza to see where the cry came from. From the corner of her eye, Hope could see Spike and Daisy, as well as a slew of other stall owners, jump out from behind their stalls to rush to the source of the cry as well.

Standing smack dab in the middle of the plaza was a long, turquoise, serpentine dragon pokemon. It had a mop of white hair on its head and a small clump of white hair resembling a beard on its lower jaw, giving it the appearance of an old man. It wore pink horned-rimmed glasses and walked with a small limp. It had a large white fluffy tail, and its arms were also covered with white fur. One of the arms, however, had a large gash on it. Unlike Spike’s long-gone arm, this wound was fresh. It was seeping blood that created a trail from where he had been running from, and a small pool was beginning to form where he was standing.

“Solomon! What happened to you?!” Daisy called out. Violet was trailing closely behind her, her eyes wide with shock.

“Mah grandbabies! Dey’ve been kidnapped! Taken!” Solomon cried out, struggling to hold back giant sobs.

By now, a large group of pokemon, including Hope, Klaw, and Dewey, had formed around Solomon.  Daisy put her paw on Solomon’s blood-soaked shoulder. “Calm down, Solomon. Tell us what happened.”

Solomon took a few heavy, heaving breaths. After a few seconds, he continued speaking. “Me and mah three grandchildren were takin’ a walk along the Magikarp Jump River… it was so beautiful outside… we were havin’ such a good time…” He heaved a little bit more, still trying to hold back sobs. “But then a feral gliscor swooped down out of nowhere and made off with mah grandchildren!”

A commotion immediately broke out, with pokemon whispering amongst each other. Spike glowered down at Solomon. “A feral gliscor?” he growled. “At Magikarp Jump River? That’s nonsense! Everyone knows that feral pokemon are nonexistent outside of mystery dungeons.”

Solomon was trembling incredibly hard now, desperately trying to make some words come out of his mouth. But before he could say anything, Daisy stepped forward.

“Spike, Solomon and I know each other very well.” Daisy spoke, a sudden sternness in her eyes. “His two older grandchildren come over to play with Violet all the time. He is one of the kindest and most loving pokemon I know. And he loves his grandchildren more than anything in the world. He never lies when it comes to them.”

Spike looked at the floor for a few seconds, his eyes filled with shame. Then he walked over to Solomon, took hold of his arm, and inspected the gash. “Well, this wound does look like it was caused by a pincer… It’s very possible a gliscor could have made it.”

Solomon was finally able to speak again. “Yes! I tried to fight the ruffian off, but it jus’ cut through mah arm like it was nothin’! All I could do after that was jus’ watch it fly off with mah grandbabies! I remembered that Daisy works nearby, so I ran ovah here fer help!” Tears were starting to well up in his eyes. “One of dem’s only five months old… still jus’ a wee baby…” And with that, he finally broke into massive sobs.

Looking at Solomon, now crumpled to the floor in a screaming fit of despair, with Spike, Daisy, Sneaks and the other stall owners trying their hardest to comfort him, made a surge of emotions rise through Hope’s chest. Without a second though, she stepped forward. “My friends and I will rescue your grandchildren.” she said.

Every pokemon in the area stopped and turned to look at Hope with surprise. Even Klaw and Dewey were staring at her in shock. Spike stepped forward and snarled. “You three? The career criminals? Save someone? Over my left arm.”

Klaw and Dewey suddenly shook off their shock and turned towards Spike. “Just because our dads are psychopaths doesn’t mean we are too.” Klaw snarled.

“Y-yeah!” Dewey joined in. “W-we’re n-not like t-them! W-we’re g-gonna h-help p-pokemon! A-and we’ll s-start with S-solomon’s g-grandchildren!”

Hope looked between her friends, grinning ear to ear with gratitude. Spike, meanwhile, simply just blinked, reeling from the shock of being stood up to twice in the span of eight minutes.

Solomon looked at Hope, Klaw and Dewey behind tear-clouded glasses, his eyes brimming with more of them. But this time, they were tears of happiness. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” he cried out. “The gliscor went t’wards Silicon Cave. I bet bones to buckets that’s where mah grandbabies will be.”

“Silicon Cave… guess it did come from a mystery dungeon after all.” Spike murmured. He then turned towards Hope, Klaw, and Dewey. “I guess I’ll be escorting you three there… But you better know that this is going to get mine and your asses whooped by your daddies, alright?”

“We know.” Klaw responded calmly.

“Y-yeah, we k-know.” Dewey chimed in.

Hope looked at her friends and smiled. “Yup, we know. Take us there.” As Hope spoke, she felt an intense surge of excitement rush through her. And it was completely understandable as to why. She, Klaw, and Dewey were about to get their first taste of being a rescue team.