ARC 2: Two Sides of the Same Past

Phobia stood in the depths of a dark, blue cave. Things had not gone her way. The takeover failed, Jazzy was dead, and Team Moonlight was gone. And now here she was, a pretty little lady, unable to go outside in peace, and stuck in this god forsaken cave! She sat there, thinking to herself.

“Hmph. Those meddlesome Dreamsavers… I haven’t forgotten what they did to little ‘ol me. Ooh… but juuust wait… One day, I’ll get them back. They’ll regret ever touching me. Mark my words, when I get my tassels on them, I’m gonna- WAH!”

Suddenly, Phobia got tackled down by another pokémon, and a tussle occurred behind some rocks. This went on for only a few seconds. Afterwards, only the Sylveon emerged, but she seemed… different. She looked around for a brief moment.

“Good. Now… time to find the others,” was all she said before departing.

---

Peace. That was a word Anonami hadn’t known in a long time. It had been quite some time since Project Moonlight tried taking over the world, and even though the mood of the region hadn’t changed, there was no denying that things were much better now. Despite the fact that the team that started the guild was gone, the Rescue Team business was still going strong.

This included Team Dreamsavers. After saving the world, the young team had jumped up to Gold rank. With that, they continued and strived to be the best rescue team that could possibly be. But right now, that wasn’t what they were doing.

It was late in the morning, and only a slight breeze blew across the region. Currently, only Zari and Larei were at their base. Despite both of them having grown since the last time they were here, they were still able to fit inside the stump quite comfortably. Zari was tidying up the place a bit, while Larei was relaxing.

“Guys!” They heard a familiar voice call out to them from outside, and just moments later, their white Vulpix friend came sliding down the rope that led outside.

“Oh! Hey Stella,” Zari greeted her friend.

Stella looked very excited. “Guys, look what came in today!” she said, barely containing her excitement. Her friends just now noticed that there was something slung over her shoulder, and upon Stella turning, they saw that it was a rather large bag. Imprinted on the side was a symbol that looked like a dreamcatcher.

“Is that?” Larei whispered.

“It’s our item bag!” Zari finished for him.

“Yeah!” Stella confirmed. “But that’s not all!” Stella opened up the bag and dug around in it for a moment. After a bit, she pulled something out of it. It was a large, round, metallic pin with wings on either side. The round part also had the same dreamcatcher symbol embedded on it.

Zari gasped. “Our badge!”

Larei chuckled. “About time we got these.”

Stella was just grinning from ear to ear. “I guess that means we’re really official now,” she said, admiring the badge in her paws.

“I guess so,” Larei agreed, with Zari nodding also.

“W-Well,” Stella put the badge back in the bag and looked at her teammates. “Are we ready to go out there and help more people?”

“Mhm!” Zari nodded. “J-Just let me finish tidying up real quick.”

---

After enduring the chaos of the last couple of days, some calmer rescue missions were certainly a nice change of pace. Today was no different, the Dreamsavers finished many of the jobs on the billboard that were left behind from rush hour. This is how they usually did things; after all, they didn’t want to leave anyone behind!

The forest was their last stop of the day. They were delivering a pecha berry to a Chikorita there. After gratefully thanking them, the small grass pokémon went on their way.

“That was the last request.” Stella said after they departed.

Zari sighed peacefully. “Today was such a good day.”

“Yeah, it was,” Stella replied. “Shall we go home now?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Zari said. But before they even started walking…

“HEY! There they are!” Uh oh. Another sudden voice? The Dreamsavers turned towards the sound, and nearly jumped out of their skin when they saw who was coming.

“T-Team Ace!” Stella exclaimed as the four larger pokémon approached them.

“YOU!” Ace the Charizard pointed at them. “Dont think we’ve forgotten what you did to us.”

“H-Hey now… We don’t want any trouble,” Larei stammered.

“Can’t we just… talk this out, please?” Stella followed.

“Ohhh no!” Ace snapped. “I don’t care what the circumstances for it were. You lowlifes are going to pay for humiliating us like that!” Ace once again brought his fist to his palm. “Let’s show them their place, boys.”

The Toxricity snickered, and without further warning, he shot a Venoshock at the team. They were all able to dodge the move… well, except for Zari. The attack just grazed her, but it made her wince for long enough that the purple lizard was able to follow up with a Discharge. Zari stumbled and fell on her knees. Electricity sparked from her, and her muscles twitched painfully. She got paralyzed.

As Larei dodged the Toxricity’s attacks, the Aegislash immediately made a move. He aimed towards where the frog was moving, and then swung his whole body at him. Larei got hit by the Sacred Sword attack, and was tossed back into the ground.

As Stella moved, Ace himself approached. Stella jumped back before Ace landed on her, but that wasn’t what he was going for. As he landed, the ground shook violently. Stella was caught off guard by this and lost her footing. Ace smirked at seeing his Bulldoze attack work as planned, and before she could recover, he immediately lunged forward and struck Stella with a Fire Punch. Stella was tossed backwards as well, and struggled to get back up.

“Ha! That was too easy,” Ace mocked, seeing the young team in pain. He extended his claws, approaching them once more. “I hope you learned a lesson here. This is what happens to people who make a fool out of us.”

Before Ace could make a move, though, he was suddenly knocked backwards by an invisible force. His teammates looked on in confusion, but they weren’t able to for long. The Kommo-o got hit by a Moonblast out of nowhere. Then, the Aegislash got struck by a large fire ball. The Toxricity also got hit by multiple smaller rocks. All of them staggered towards each other, and at that moment, a large blizzard swirled around them. No one could see what was going on in there, but it apparently wasn’t pleasant; near the end of it, the Dreamsavers could catch a glimpse of the entirety of Team Ace getting launched across the forest.

As the snow settled, the Dreamsavers looked on in confusion. What just happened? Well, they soon got their answer.

“Guys!” Upon hearing a newcomer, the team turned, and they were greeted with a familiar face.

“E-Ellie?” Zari weakly said.

The small Eevee ran up to the injured team with concern. “O-Oh my gosh, a-are you guys okay?”

Stella was finally able to stand back up and tried to ignore the pain in her side. “Y-Yeah… I think we’ll be fine,” she responded. Ellie let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh. My. God. It’s them!” That was an unfamiliar voice. “We just saved the heroes of the world!”

A sigh came from another unfamiliar entity. “You are aware that we’ve already helped them several times before, right?”

“I know!” the first voice said. “B-But… this time’s more personal… I-”

“You just want to go out and meet them, don’t you?” A third unfamiliar voice? What was going on?

Ellie didn’t seem nearly as baffled as the Dreamsavers. In fact, she giggled at the conversion that was happening off-screen.

“Eon, I think we should let them come out,” she said. “I want all my friends to meet each other!” Ellie paused, silence pierced the woods. Then, Ellie spoke again as if the silence spoke to her and she was responding to it. “Please? We all helped them save everyone! We trusted them with it, and I think they deserve to know!” The team wasn’t any less confused by Ellie’s words.

“Yay!” After a short pause, the team heard an excited squeal. Mere moments later, they were met with a loud “Hi!” directly behind them. The team jumped at the sudden presence (Zari even let out a surprised squeak), and turned to see a Togekiss, whose expression was brighter than the sun itself. The Togekiss giggled, apparently not noticing the Dreamsavers’ shock. “Hi! I’m Wi… uhh, Serene! I’m Serene! Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to finally meet you all!” Somehow, her voice made her sound even happier than her expression.

“Serene…” A sigh came from a Serperior slithering onto the scene. “Calm down, okay? We don’t want to scare them.”

“Oh, she’s just excited,” A Cinccino wearing something resembling a crown was walking beside the Serperior. “Let her get it out of her system, she’ll be good in a moment!”

A Cinderace being followed by a Glaceon were the last ones out. “That’s Serene for ya,” the Cinderace said with a chuckle.

“Whoa,” Larei mused at the sudden full house. “Who… are you guys?”

“Well… we’re a rescue team!” Ellie responded, her tail wagging all the while.

“Y-You’re in a rescue team?” Stella asked in disbelief.

“That’s right,” the Cinderace said. “We were the ones who helped you on your adventure.”

“You… helped us?” Zari said in awe.

“Mhm!” the Cinccino responded. “Leading you to their base…”

“Blowing a hole to get in…”

“Sharing Snow Cloak with you…”

“We played a part in all of that!”

Stella stared at them, awestruck. She was very grateful for the extra help. In fact, they might not have been able to do it without them. She couldn’t help but smile at them.

“Th-Thank you… Thank you all so much.”

“Hey, don’t mention it,” the Cinccino responded with a smile. “I’m Whip, by the way. And this is Crown!” She motioned towards the Serperior, who was just timidly looking away.

“I’m Libero,” the Cinderace said. “And this young lass right here is Tundra.” The Glaceon simply nodded in acknowledgment.

Those are odd names… Stella thought to herself. Oh well, it’d be rude to vocalize that, but she just let it go. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

“Likewise!” Serene said with a bounce in her voice.

“I s’ppose we better get going, though,” Libero interjected. “You know… we still got some requests to fill.”

“Ohh, right!” Whip caught on. “Maybe we’ll see each other again!”

“I-I hope so too,” Zari responded with a smile.

“Bye, Dreamsavers!” Ellie waved at her companions before exiting with her team.

Stella just watched on for a moment. She smiled knowing that there were even more people on her side.

Still, though. She had a lot of questions about this rescue team.

---

“Ah! I finally found you!”

“Hm? Who the hell are you?”

“Oh, I know you’ll remember me soon. But before that. We have some important things to do.”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip you to shreds right now.”

“You feel incomplete, no? You have no memories, and you just feel empty… but for a reason you can’t explain why.”

“How did you-”

“Don’t worry. I was in the same situation as you once. But I know exactly how to fix it.”

“…I’m listening.”