Chapter 11: The Trials Continue

“Our bag got stolen! Are you kidding me!?” Riley says loudly in exasperation while Alice lets out a heavy sigh.

Eric started to apologize profusely to his friends before Marco loudly clears his throat, making the Eevee jump in place. “Hey! Instead of apologizing, how about you go get the bag back? Or better yet, get one of them to do it!” Marco snaps, to which Eric lets out a huff.

Riley rubs his head in growing frustration before Alice abruptly clears her throat this time, getting the others’ attention. “Guys! Look! Panicking isn’t going to solve our problem. We gotta think this through!” She says firmly.

“Y-Yeah you’re right!” Eric replies then he turns to Riley. “Riley, do you think you can use your aura sense to find it?”

Riley pushes up his glasses slightly as he looks around first. “I think so. If I’m lucky, your aura should have rubbed slightly off on it, kind of like a scent. At least I’ve heard that being possible. Lemme see…” Riley takes a deep breath & closes his eyes, tuning into his aura sense as he holds one paw out in front of him. As he begins to concentrate, the sight of his friends’ auras come into focus – each of them a vibrant blue hue. He takes a few steps past Eric & Alice, focusing his reach as far as he could which given his being a Riolu, it admittedly was not too far. But, as luck would have it, Riley found something!

“Oh! Woah… Okay, I can sense three auras aside from our own. Each of them are heading in a different direction.” Riley points out the directions that the three separate auras were heading in. Though when he stops, he faces Eric, & he tilts his head, letting out a small hum. He leans forward, eyes still closed as he appears to be studying the Eevee’s aura. “That’s weird… Hey, was there always… Bah never mind for now.” Riley quickly shakes his head & opens his eyes.

“So there’s three auras. Were you able to tell which one has the bag?” Alice asks to which Riley shakes his head no. “Damn. Well, maybe we ought to split up then? Each of us takes one and finds that bag.” She offers & Riley nods.

“Yeah I’m game. Eric, what do you say to that?” Riley asks as he turns his gaze to Eric once more.

“Err, yeah! Let’s do that! Honestly I was just going to volunteer myself to go and get it, but if there’s three potential targets, it’s probably best we all take one.” Eric says.

After Riley reiterates the directions of the three auras, the trio breaks off, heading in separate directions to find each aura, to get their bag back.

Heading east of the lake, Alice goes charging through the woods, trying to follow the direction that Riley had pointed in. She ducks & weaves past the more low-hanging branches & bushes, avoiding tripping on anything so as to get to whoever the source of the aura is before it’s too late. Eventually, Alice arrives at a small clearing, just before exiting the woods entirely and she comes across a figure. “Hey! You over there!” Alice calls out without hesitating. Upon moving closer, Alice would look surprised as she sees a Spinda wearing a little sun hat tied with a blue bow.

“Ohhh, hello?” The Spinda twirls around a couple times before stopping to face Alice. “And who might you be?”

“Oh! I’m Alice. Listen, sorry to bother you but-”

“Alice? Ohh what a pretty name. Alice.” The Spinda cuts off Alice with a giggle as he twirls around in a lazy circle. “I’m Barrie.”

Alice lets out a small huff. “Right, so I was wondering. Did you happen to find an explorers bag in the forest? It belongs to one of my friends and it got stolen when we were gathering some plants and – wait, hold on.” She pauses as she recalls one of the job requests they had been given.
“Did you just say your name was Barrie?”

“Thaaats right!” Barrie the Spinda replies as he twirls ’round & around.

At this, Alice’s expression brightens. “Oh! Wait this is perfect actually, I’m part of an explorer team, or rather, working to be an official one, & we’ve been sent out to find you! You’re lost aren’t you?” Alice says as she deftly steps toward Barrie, stopping in front of him as he had started to twirl away.

“Ohhh, I’m lost?” Barrie asks with a loopy grin. There was a slight eye twitch from Alice as she felt something in her head fizzle from such a question.

“Ummm, yes? Your companion, Gertrude the Ludicolo. She wrote the request that you were lost. Something about smelling wildflowers?” Alice replies with a slight head tilt.

“Huh…” Barrie idly sways side to side as he taps a paw to his cheek. “Weird… I thought this wasn’t the city for a second… Buuuuut I wasn’t too sure soooo I kinda just kept spinnin.” He says before beginning to twirl once again. Though her expression was still somewhat stoic, Alice could feel her patience beginning to dwindle with this scatterbrained Spinda.

“Wait. Rewind a second.” Alice raises a paw to stop Barrie. “You weren’t aware that this open field – or rather this forest clearing,” Alice gestures to the scenery around them both. “Was in fact, not Ballistine City?”

Barrie shakes his head & twirls around once.

“And rather than doing something like retracing your steps, you just kept going in the same direction away from the city?”

Barrie nods his head & twirls around twice.

Alice then lets out a heavy sigh as she lightly slaps her paw to her forehead. “Wow… I honestly do not know what to make of this.” Alice says, her head lowered as she felt a slight headache come on. Her gaze then turns toward the direction of the city. “Look, my friends and I will be able to bring you back to Ballistine City, but since it seems you don’t have our bag, would you mind at least sticking with me for a bit? Once we find what we’re looking for, we’ll escort you and-” Alice stops mid-sentence as she looks back to where Barrie was and…

The Spinda was nowhere to be seen.

“…WHAT?! HOW!? I looked away for like, three seconds!” Alice shouts in shock. She lets out a huff of growing frustration before noticing the sunhat that Barrie was wearing on the grass nearby. She pads over & picks it up, then looks back toward the forest. She sighs as she decides to put the hat on for the time being & she follows in the direction the Spinda spun off to.

Meanwhile, as Alice had gone east from the lake, Riley had gone south of the lake, where one of the auras he had sensed was closest. He moves through with great haste, hopping over thick roots & ducking down from low hanging branches. All the while, his eyes were closed as he hones in on the aura he detected. He was focused, his thoughts were set on only finding the bag thief. Once he did, he’d go all out in getting the bag back, & then he would go back to his new friends, then finish these missions.

But why did he lie to that Pidgeot Tallius? And by extension to his friends as well?

The moment that question sneaks into his supposedly focused thoughts, Riley’s eyes shoot open as he stops mid-run. But then he shakes his head, trying to dispel the thought.

He knew his real reason, but would they understand?

Riley lets out a growl of growing agitation as he ducks past a low hanging branch. “Hey, shut up inner thoughts. There’s a bag thief I need to get!” Riley says sharply to no one.

The Riolu closes his eyes once more, his aura sense kicking back in as he continues on his way.

Would he even be able to do what he set out to do?

Riley stops once again when that thought crosses his mind. His aura sense fades out but his eyes remain closed. Surely he could do it. Surely he could find the Pokemon that had ruined his life…

As Riley stood in this small patch of woods, memories of that horrid night began to flash behind his closed eyes. The faint, yet still distinct sounds of terrified screams. The intense crackling of the houses that burned. The feeling of the wood inside the barrel he hid in. The cries of his mother & father, then that sight, that horrid sight of his mother & father being cut down by sets of razor sharp claws. Then, that pair of green eyes turned to look at the same barrel he hid in, a crimson mane of hair, black fur illuminated by the firelight. Riley growls before he takes off running, eyes still shut as his legs did their utmost to take him away from that sight. Though he knew he could never forget, there was something within him that Riley did not want to admit, but it still persists deep inside himself.

Riley Riolu… He was-

WHACK!

All of a sudden, darkness gives way to a flash of white followed by an undignified yelp of pain as Riley’s snout- followed by the rest of his body, collides with a tree he had failed to look out for. He lets out a pained growl as he flops onto his back, rubbing his poor snout, unaware at first of his glasses that flew off as a result of the sudden collision. He would have had a better chance to evade it had he kept his aura sense going while running, but as he was busy ruminating on thoughts of his past, his focus was rather divided.

“Owwww…. Stupid tree!” Riley glares at the arboreal obstacle before him, propping himself up on his elbows before he quickly scoots back just in time to avoid an apple that narrowly bonks him on the head, seemingly in response to his little outburst.

“Hey! Don’t get mad at me! You’re the one rooted in place!” Riley retorts to the tree. Then he slowly gets back onto his feet, brushing some flecks of bark off his fur before picking up the apple. “Or… maybe you feel bad for me?” He then asks, looking up at the tree with a slightly more apologetic look. “Sorry… didn’t mean to yell. Got a lot on my mind…” He admits to the tree with a sigh. He tosses the apple in the air & lightly catches it while he leans his back against the tree. Staring at the apple, his thoughts began to settle as he began to slowly breathe in & out. In & out…

His breathing would get caught in his throat when he suddenly realizes something was off.

“My glasses? Glasses!” Riley’s head swivels around in growing alarm as he realizes his beloved glasses were not resting on his face. “Where!? Where are they!? Where!?” He pushes himself off of the tree, looking around frantically for them, until he hears an unfamiliar voice nearby.

“Hehehe. Well well, lucky me indeed! These specs, bet they’d fetch a pretty poké.” The somewhat nasally sounding voice snickers as they start to walk away. But it would not be for long as Riley whirls around the tree, & that’s when he spots them.

“HEY!” Riley stands just a few feet away from a Salandit, wearing a dark maroon scarf around their neck, along with a small set of pouches around their waist. And in their hand was Riley’s glasses. The Salandit jumps slightly but spins around to face the Riolu.

“Hey yourself. Whaddya want?” The Salandit says with a furrowed brow.

“Those glasses are mine! Give ’em back!” Riley demands, stamping a paw forward.

The Salandit chortles. “Really? Gimme a break! No self respecting fella would leave a pair of glasses like this just lying around in the woods. Sorry lad, but these belong to ol’ Thistle Salandit now!” He makes a show of it by placing the glasses on his own face, sneering at Riley all the while, much to the Riolu’s growing agitation.

“You better take those off if you know what’s good for you!” Riley threatens, his temper rising by the second. The Salandit- Thistle, snickers some more.

“Aww what’re you gonna do lad? Ya can’t hit a guy with glasses now can ya? Don’t want these to end up breakin!” Thistle then turns & begins to walk away, leaving Riley to his frustration. But the Riolu was not going to give up so easily.

As Thistle turns around, Rileys hands slowly clenched into fists. “Why you…”
He pulls one fist back, wind gathers at the metal piece on the back of his hand. “Give it BACK!”

With a shout, Riley punches the air in front of him, & with almost a whip-crack like sound, a burst of air flies out as he uses vacuum wave. A small but sharp wave of condensed air flies out at top speed, & it nails Thistle square in the back, causing him to yelp in both shock & pain. He tumbles forward- ass over teakettle, before coming to a stop a short distance away. He flops on his belly in a brief daze.

Thistle groans before craning his neck to turn & look back at the Riolu who was now charging at him with fury in his eyes. “Hey! Don’t you know it’s rude to strike someone when their back is turned!?” The Salandit yells before quickly rolling away from a force palm that very narrowly was driven into his back. He scampers to his feet as Riley looks ready to fight. “Alright ya little brat! I’ll just burn ya up a bit before I go off on my way.” Thistle takes a breath before unleashing a spew of embers from his mouth. Riley nimbly jumps to the side to avoid the crimson sparks & he retaliates with two more vacuum waves, but this time Thistle was ready. He ducks down from one & lets out another spray of embers against the second, resulting in a blast of smoke between the two combatants. The Riolu presses forward, leaping through the smoke as his paws begin to flare with aura & the two get locked into combat…

As his teammates went on their ways to find the bag, Eric had gone west of the lake to hopefully find it. In the back of his mind, Eric couldn’t help but worry about his two new friends. But his thoughts would be interrupted by yet another one of Marco’s swift interjections.

“Seriously kid, what’s with you!?” Marco says, his tone as annoyed as always.

“What’s with me? What’re you going on about now?” Eric asks aloud with a huff while he clambers over a large tree stump.

“I mean what’s up with your frankly severe lack of attention?” The inner voice chides. “You let the bag get stolen, and you don’t even make the actual plan to go and find it. You just went along with the Absol’s idea.”

“So? What’s wrong with that?” Eric asks.

He then glances to his left to see that cerulean eye he had always seen in his subconscious manifest on the side of a tree where his shadow was cast & he stops in his tracks. “I’m just sayin kid,” Marco starts. “That it doesn’t seem all that leader-like to just let the underlings come up with all the ideas.”

Eric grimaces at that then looks away. “I mean, I just… I’m still trying to figure this whole thing out. Is it really so bad to look to my teammates for guidance?” He then asks, putting emphasis on the word teammates. “Even if they might only know as much as I do?”

“Hey, I’m just doling out my two poké is all.” Marco replies curtly. “Might not be my business, but since I’m stuck here within you with nothing better to do, better I at least offer some candid commentary so I don’t get bored outta my currently nonexistent skull.” The eye in Eric’s shadow rolls once, to which Eric rolls his own eyes in return.

“Yeah yeah, just keep picking on me. I feel like I should be used to all this from you by now.” Eric says dryly. “Now can you stop doing this whole eye-in-my-shadow thing? I don’t want anyone freaking out when they see you.”

“Pffft! Who’s gonna see me!?” Marco retorts bluntly. “I see everything you see and then some, kid. Ya don’t gotta tell me to bug off. Or wait actually, you can’t!” He then starts to laugh as Eric huffs in growing frustration before taking off running, the cerulean eye vanishing shortly after.

But he would not get very far as Eric would soon hear the faint sound of flapping wings, & a familiar voice calling out from somewhere up above.

“Well well, what do we have here?”

Eric gasps & starts to look around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. After an awkwardly long amount of time looking, much to the voice’s chagrin. He speaks again.

“HEY! Up here you dolt!”

Eric looks up, finally, to see none other than Dante Murkrow, who looks down on the Eevee with a rather annoyed expression. “Oh! Dante! Hi again!” Eric smiles & gives the Murkrow a friendly wave, which only seems to annoy the Murkrow more.

“What’re you doing all the way out here?” Dante asks. It looked as though he were holding something behind him, but from Eric’s angle, he couldn’t quite tell what it was. “I thought you’d still be at Allenwood Town or something.”

Eric keeps his look on Dante as he sits down on the grass. “Well, you’ll be surprised to know that Riley and I are making strides to get our explorer team made official!” He says with a somewhat proud look in his eyes.

“Really…” Dante looked unimpressed. “So where’s Riley right now hm? Looks like you’re all alone out here.”

At that, Eric’s ears lower slightly. “Oh, well…” He trails off slightly. “Actually, he and I have a slight setback. Our uhh, our team’s bag got stolen.” He admits, his ears lowering even more as his face goes slightly flush with embarrassment.

Dante scoffs & lets out a small laugh. “Your bag got stolen? Wow, that’s a real damn shame.” He says as he hops down from his branch he was standing on to a slightly lower one. “Question though, did your bag happen to look like…. This?” With a little flourish of his wing, Dante pulls out Eric’s bag, to which the Eevee gasps in shock.

“Dante! You found my bag! Thanks so much!” Eric says cheerfully, his tail wagging in excitement & relief. “Can you uh, toss it down here? I gotta get back to Riley and Alice.”

Dante gives no response as he just looks down with a somewhat condescending smirk. “Now wait just one second Eric. Don’t think I’m just going to give this to you and be on my merry way. Not until you do something for me.”

Eric’s excited look drops as Dante did not hand the bag back to him straight away. He lets out a little huff & steps forward. “Hey! What do you mean by that? Why won’t you give me my bag!?”

Dante smirks. “Don’t start getting your tail twisted in a knot Eevee, I’m not gonna make you move the earth or whatever. I just want you to answer this question: Why should I give this bag back to you? You’re an explorer, or apparently gonna become one aren’t you? Then they shouldn’t be so careless. Like you.” Dante says, waving the bag back & forth as he holds it in his talons. “Frankly I think if someone is gonna be this careless, then they should really think twice about whether being an explorer is right for them.”

“Hey! Come on now, it was just one mistake Dante!” Eric replies, raising his voice some.

“Tsk. As if you know anything about making mistakes…” Dante mutters under his breath.

“Okay look,” Eric continues. “I get it okay? You’re just looking out for me, aren’t you?”

At that, Dante’s eyes widened in shock.

“I can appreciate that, but you didn’t need to scare me like this, okay? If this is all just to teach me to be more attentive, well good job! I understand now. Trust me, I’ve gotten an earful already about my lack of attention…” Eric mutters that last part under his breath. “So you can give me my bag back, okay?” The Eevee asks, now donning his usual smile once more.

Dante was at a loss for words (Marco was too). Did Eric seriously just come to that conclusion right before him? In truth, Dante was indeed the one who stole the Eevee’s bag. He had been making his way through the highroad & had gotten to Ballistine City on an assignment by his father, & had caught wind of a certain trio making their way to get their explorer team started, with a certain Eevee leading this trio. Dante had figured he could take this opportunity to try & demoralize Eric, make him think twice about being an explorer & so on, but here he is, somehow misinterpreting him completely! Dante couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t sure if Eric was messing with him, or if he was just that naïve. He was more in line with believing this second theory of his…

“W-Well…” Dante had to take a moment to reorganize his thoughts. “I mean… Bah screw it. You’re so naïve you know that!?” He yells at Eric, clearly agitated now.

“Ohhh wait! This was a surprise test or something from you, wasn’t it!?” Eric asks, making Dante nearly squawk in surprise, but the Murkrow quickly composes himself. Good, a potential opportunity that he might be able to take advantage of to get his plan back on track.

“Err, yeah! This was a test actually!” Dante retorts. “And you failed miserably!” He says adamantly. “If you don’t have the awareness to keep track of something like your own bag, then what point do you have in keeping track of an actual team!?” The Murkrow demands, to which Eric looks away.

“Well, I mean…” Eric thinks for a moment, then he sighs. “Look, so this test of yours didn’t work out, but I passed your first one, didn’t I? The one Riley & I did together in that cave.”

“That one doesn’t count! Riley stuck that stupid snout of his where it shouldn’t have belonged!” Dante interjects sharply. “So in short, you’ve failed both of my tests!”

Eric sighs & lowers his head at that.

“Ugggh, how many of his dumb “tests” is this moronic Murkrow gonna throw at you?” Marco says with an exasperated huff, to which Eric ignores.

“Well, what’s it gonna take to prove myself to you?” Eric asks.

“…I highly doubt you’ll be able to do anything to convince me.” Dante states with a scoff. Then he takes the bag & throws it to the side, where the strap loops onto a nearby tree branch & is left hanging several feet above the ground. “You’ve disappointed me twice now Eric! I suggest you give up and go back home already!” With that, the Murkrow turns & takes flight, briskly darting past some nearby branches & soars out of the forest canopy.

Eric sighs as he sits back down, looking far more disappointed now. “Man, I thought Dante really was looking out for me or something. But… maybe I’m wrong?” He wonders aloud.

Marco very clearly wanted to say something here, something that he knew would just make the Eevee extremely annoyed, but something in him stopped him from doing so. “Ah well. I’ll just see if I can impress him next time!”

“A-Are you serious kid…?” Marco then asks, his eye manifesting in Eric’s shadow once more. “Do you even hear yourself!?”

“What? What’re you going on about this time?” Eric asks in return.

“Kid… please tell me you’re joking or something. Dante clearly stole your bag on purpose.” Marco says bluntly. “He’s just screwing with you. You know that, right?”

Eric rolls his eyes slightly. “Pffft. Please. He’s just trying to prepare me. That’s all.” The Eevee concludes. Marco was shocked. And yet another thought started to become prevalent in his mind.

Why was he so shocked about all this?

For the longest time Marco would have had to force himself to care about something like this. Eric’s typical antics made him want to just vanish into the void entirely; the Eevee annoyed him, or left him utterly bored the majority of the time. All his whining, crying, being easily spooked & so on… Normally Marco would just write this off as just yet another instance of Eric being annoying & him not caring at all. And yet this time, Marco was strangely invested. Something was off about all this. There were a number of unanswered questions that Marco was now realizing. How exactly did Dante even find them in the first place? It seemed odd to him that Dante just so happened to overhear about their travels or so he claimed. How was he so stealthy to where he could take the bag from all three- or rather four of them & get away unnoticed? Why even go about this business at all? Marco was left puzzled, & he was puzzled that he was even puzzled about this at all.

Such thoughts of his had to be tabled for now as he saw Eric was on the move again. Now he could see the Eevee contemplating how to get the bag down.

“Can’t ya just cut it down with swift or something?” Marco asks.

“Err, I dunno…” Eric shrugs his shoulders. “I wouldn’t want to hit the bag by accident. And I don’t think my swift can go that high…” He lets out a sigh.

“Maybe just climb then?”

Eric shakes his head again at Marco’s second suggestion.

“I doubt my claws would work… Wait, do I even have claws?” Eric looks down at his paws, tensing a bit until he sees a really tiny set of claws just barely peek out.

“Arceus above kid, those have got to be some of, if not the most pathetic claws I have ever seen. And I have been around for a loooooong while!” Marco proclaims, much to the Eevee’s chagrin.

“Hey! It’s not like I ever needed to use them before! Besides, mom never liked them too long or else they’d scratch the hardwood floors.” Eric retorts, looking away from the mocking eye, which vanishes shortly after.

“Still doesn’t change the fact that they’re pathetic.” Marco retorts dryly.

“Grrr…. Alright, you know what!?” Eric stamps a paw angrily. “I’ll climb that tree! I don’t need claws or anything!” He then takes a running start & begins to try to clamber up the tree. Sadly, the Eevee only gets up about 2 feet up the tree’s trunk before he helplessly slides down, falling onto his hind paws, then his back shortly after. Marco begins to laugh as Eric rolls back onto his paws.

“Th-That was a warm-up! I got this!” Eric proclaims before starting once more, only to be met with a similar result as before.

After spending some considerable time trying & failing to climb even a fourth of the way up the tree, Eric would then hear an unfamiliar voice.

“Hey there! Need some help?”

Panting heavily from exhaustion, the Eevee turns his head to see a figure approaching from the nearby shrubs. A small, bright orange lizard-like pokemon with a flame dancing on their tail approaches Eric. They had on around their neck what appeared to be a small pendant with a number of metal rings hanging on the end, one golden ring, larger than a coin with a sizeable hole in the middle, & three smaller rings set within the leather of the pendant itself, resting atop the golden ring. These smaller rings were each a different metal; bronze, silver, & finally gold. But what caught Eric off guard the most, was the Charmander’s eyes. They had an almost iridescent look about them, almost shining a golden radiance for a brief moment in the now somewhat darkened stretch of woods around them.

“Oh! Um…” Eric was taken aback, unable to form a sentence at first.

“Hm…” The Charmander looks Eric up & down before casually sauntering past him & toward the tree. “That’s your bag up there?” He asks, pointing to the hanging bag.

“Ah! Err yeah it is actually. Why do you ask?” Eric asks in a slight stammer.

“Huh, pretty high up…” The Charmander trails off, then he looks back to Eric, sporting a wide, playful smirk. “Can’t get it down, can you?”
Eric shakes his head no. “Allllright then! No problem!” With that, the Charmander spins & gracefully & takes a leap, his claws digging slightly into the bark as he begins to climb with purpose. It wouldn’t take long for him to reach the branch & he vaults up with little to no trouble. “Ooookay… Here we go…” He straightens up some & starts to balance on the branch, then before long, he reaches the bag & pulls it free. Then he tosses it down toward Eric, who catches it somewhat awkwardly.

“Wow! Th-Thank you so much!” Eric replies happily as he wears the bag once more.

“No problem.” The Charmander swings down from the branch & touches down near Eric. “Though as hilarious as it was to watch someone like you struggle and flop against that tree, I have more important business to take care of now.” The Charmander replies, his voice taking on a somewhat snarkier lilt than before.

Eric was taken aback at first, but then he lowered his eyes slightly. “Oh… Wait, how long were you watching me?” He asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Ohh long enough.” The Charmander snickers & gives a dismissive wave of his hand.

Eric rolls his eyes, too tired to try & make some retort. “Well, thank you all the same. My name’s Eric. What’s yours?”

“Oh mine?” The Charmander places a claw to his chin, appearing to think long & hard about his name. “Hmmm….. You can just call me J, ‘kay?” He says with a playful wink.

“J? Just J?” Eric asks incredulously.

“Aye! J all day will be right okay!” The Charmander- J replies, then he claps his hands once. “Now then, as much as I’d love to keep chatting with you mister Eric, I sadly must be on my way. So I will have to bid you… Good day!” J then spins on his heels & strides through the bushes once more, leaving Eric somewhat bewildered.

“Um… g-good day! J!” Eric calls out after him, then he sighs. “Well… that was kinda random.” He softly remarks.

“Aye. But hey good job kid! You got the bag back with utterly zero effort on your part.” Marco states plainly.

“Hey! I put in a ton of effort!” Eric retorts, to which he would be met with a scoff.

“Yeah, a ton of effort in flopping against a tree over & over. If I didn’t know any better I’d have probably mistaken you for a Magikarp out of water.” Marco replies with a low chuckle.

Before Eric could make another retort of his own, his ears twitch as the sound of fighting could be heard, along with some yelling. “What the? Fighting? That might be Riley!” Without further delay, Eric takes off running through the woods, happy to have the bag back, but also nervous now of what may lay ahead of him.

“Get back here you! I ain’t leaving without my glasses!” Riley yells as he punches out another vacuum wave at Thistle, who nimbly rolls to the side & he spews out another volley of embers. Riley brings his arms up to defend, though the embers still singe his fur.

“Beat it Riolu! Gods above you’re persistent!” Thistle yells before he gets a leaping force palm to the side of the head. He grunts before he swipes at Riley with his little claws, scratching him across the chest, but would be met with a kick to the chest in return, knocking him back.

Before Riley would advance though, his ears twitch slightly as he hears some movement coming from the nearby bushes. And all of a sudden, a Spinda that Riley did not recognize comes teetering out.

“Ohh, that’s quite the trip.” The Spinda says & not long after, Riley would spot Alice, charging out of the same bushes.

“Barrie! Please! Just stay still!” Alice says urgently. Then she stops upon seeing Riley. “Oh! Riley! Hey.” She lets out a sigh of relief.

“Hey Alice. Looks like you’re having an evening. Who’s that? Not our bag thief is he?” Riley says, pointing to Barrie.

“No, unfortunately not. Wait, why’re you fighting that Salandit!?” Alice asks incredulously.

“Because that jerk stole my glasses! Doesn’t look like he has the bag though. But come on & gimme a hand!” Riley says before getting back into a fighting stance, but he gasps as he sees the Salandit running away. “HEY!”

Thistle snickers some while he runs off. “Snooze ya lose Riolu! See ya nev-OOF!”

All of a sudden, Thistle crashes into someone else. And both Riley & Alice wince in reaction.

“Oww! Hey!”
The pair would recognize the voice of the one that crashed into.

“Eric! Haha! Nice save there buddy!” Riley cheers as he then runs over & grabs the Salandit’s arms, pinning them behind his back before he could get back up.

“Uhh, thanks?” Eric rolls off of Thistle while Riley snatches his glasses back & puts them back on, sighing in relief as he feels the familiar feeling of the glasses resting on his snout once again. “Umm, good news team! I got our bag back!” Eric says happily.

Both Riley & Alice let out little cheers before the Absol has to pull Barrie back to her side. “And I found our missing pokemon here!” Alice says. “And it looks like Riley’s caught our outlaw.”

“Yeah! …Wait, I did?” Riley looks back at Alice incredulously, who nods her head. “Uh yeah. Did you forget? Our target was a Salandit. Is his name Thistle?”

“Yeah.” Riley nods his head, then looks back to the Salandit. “You said your name was Thistle, right?” He quickly asks, to which the Salandit sighs & nods his head.

“Maaan…. I was doin so well too…” Thistle utters dejectedly.

“Then there we go! Missions complete!” Alice says satisfied.

“Wait, not quite!” Eric says suddenly. “We forgot to put all the plants & stuff we gathered into the bag. I got it back, but we should be able to get everything we need again.”

Riley lets out a slightly annoyed huff at that. “Right… The bag was too busy getting stolen for us to be able to put everything we gathered in it.”

“Man, you guys are a mess…” Thistle remarks, which gets him a bop on the head from Riley.

“Zip it you! Your robbing days are over now!” He says as he hoists the Salandit to his feet.
“I think the lake’s not too far from here. Let’s hurry there, grab our stuff, then hurry back to the city.”

The trio all look at one another, then nod their heads in unison.

And so, Eric, Riley & Alice, while in the company of Barrie the Spinda, their missing rescue target, & Thistle the Salandit, their outlaw hunting target, all would make their way toward the lake where thankfully the berries & other such fauna the trio had gathered was thankfully still there. Eric wastes no time in putting everything away & after a brief struggle of keeping the Spinda on track, they were finally making the journey back to Ballistine City. At this point, night had long since fallen & it was a touch tricky to find the main highroad once more, but with Alice’s keen eyes that naturally adjusted to the dark much quicker given her proclivity for nightly clan based activities, allowing her to find the path back.

It wouldn’t take much longer after that for the trio to find their way back to the city proper, entering its streets now lit up with lanterns that a few fire type pokemon had made their ways about lighting manually. They would then quickly plan out their route to finishing the jobs & set off.

First, the trio would take Thistle toward Zircon Magneton, who after Riley hands the bandit off, the Magneton gives a nod. “Well done you three. We were informed by Sir Tallius Pidgeot that a group was taking on this job as part of their competency missions. And it seems you have performed satisfactorily to typical explorer team standards.”

“Thank you!” Eric says as Riley goes & hands the job flier to him.

“Yeah, that guy was a bit of a handful. But I got it done.” Riley says with a nod, adjusting his glasses slightly.

Zircon nods & produces a stamp, to which he stamps the flier with, then hands it back to Riley. “Present this, & your other completed jobs to Sir Tallius Pidgeot to complete your competency mission. Good night to you.” Zircon says before turning around & floating away, with three Magnemites that were flanking Thistle all toward the holding cells.

Up next, the trio head toward Gertrude Ludicolo, where after much guidance & scrambling around to make sure Barrie didn’t get lost, they finally got the Spinda & Ludicolo reunited. There was much rejoicing between the two as they shimmied, danced & hugged with much love & relief in their hearts.

“Ohh thank you so much dears! You have no idea how relieved I am that my Barrie is back safe & sound!” Gertrude says cheerfully.

“No problem. Though if I may…” Alice pauses to take a breath. “Barrie here, was quite the handful. I’d advise keeping a better eye on him in the future.”

“Ohh of course dear, of course!” Gertrude says as she accepts the flier Alice hands to her. “You know when Mr. Tallius told me that my request was going to become a competency job for an up and coming team, I was a little skeptical. But you pulled everything off without a hitch! I think you all are going to do great things as an official explorer team!” She says as she signs her name on the flier before handing it back to Alice.

“Thank you. That’s really kind.” Eric replies as Alice nods her head.

After bidding Barrie & Gertrude farewell, the trio finally head to the general store that Tony the Kecleon runs. They head inside & after having to wake him up from sleeping at his post, he looks over the items that were gathered by the trio.

“Ohhh, not bad at all. Not bad.” Tony says with a yawn. “Ohh boy…. Sorry I’m a bit tired at the moment. Been workin all day long nonstop…”

“I can see that.” Eric remarks as he pulls out the flier & Tony tiredly signs it. “Well, thank you very much sir. I’m glad we could help.”

As they turn to leave, Tony raises his voice slightly. “Oh! Come on back tomorrow. I’ll have more stuff for ya later in the morning!”

And so, the missions were complete. Eric, Riley & Alice all look at each other, then down at the signed fliers, & they all smile. “Well, we did it. It was just the three of us, but we pulled it off. Got a bit hairy there for a bit, but… wow!” Riley says as the trio make their way toward the ETFA building. Fortunately, despite it being rather late at night now, the building was still open. And they were able to walk in, or rather jog in as the group’s growing excitement of finalizing their team was so close that they could practically taste it.

They get the attention of the Girafarig attendant, who after some excited brief retellings of their missions’ success, are led down into Tallius’s office.

“Sir? I have the applicants here.” The Girafarig says as the door opens.

“Ahh there they are. Come on in!” The Pidgeot replies with a nod.

“We did it sir! The missions are complete!” Eric proclaims as Riley grabs the job requests & slams them onto the table.

“Woah! Oh ho ho, look at that.” Tallius picks up the mission fliers & looks them over one by one. Then he gives a satisfied hum of approval.
“Well, good work to the three of you. Well done indeed.” He says as he then stows the papers away. “Now, there’s just one more thing you need to do, then you will be all set.”

“Oh, and what would that be?” Riley asks as he rocks back & forth on his feet.

“Why your team name of course!” Talius replies with a hearty chuckle.

At this, the trio all look at each other. A similar thought of what exactly their team name should be, but they all appear to come up empty… That is until Eric speaks first.

“Well, at the very least, I think our team name should be something that involves all of us somehow. In some way or another.” Eric starts.

“Hm….” Riley rubs the side of his head in thought while Alice lightly taps the floor with a claw.

“Well, we all have auras, maybe we can do something with that?”

“I mean, you’re the only one who can actually harness the aura though.” Alice says.

“Yeah, but that’s not the angle I’m going for here.” Riley replies. “I’m saying we all have aura, it’s something that involves all of us.”

Alice then nods in understanding of that, letting out a small hum as she does.

“Well, being an explorer….” Eric trails off for a moment. “It requires being brave, wouldn’t you say Mr. Talius?” He asks the Pidgeot, who nods his head.

“Sure, everyone in a team certainly needs to be brave when faced with the unknown.”

Riley & Alice both look at Eric, who looked like a small epiphany had struck him.

“Alright I got it! I know what our team name should be!” Eric bounces a bit in place as Talius hands him the sheet, to which he writes down the name…

“BraveAura”.

Author’s Note

Howdy folks! Bronze here. Whew! This chapter was a bit of a doozy to figure out… Just wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to those who have been waiting patiently for new chapters to come out. I know it takes awhile, but I do my best with when I have the time/motivation to actually sit down & write. Thank you again for the patience & understanding! Hope you enjoy what I’ve put out so far! Stay healthy out there!

-Bronze