"Pokémon you meet in mystery dungeons," Hex said, as she glanced at the watering hole, "will wait here for you before you head out."

"That's it?" I asked. This 'watering hole' looked more like a well without a bucket to me. "Why would Pokémon you fight be inclined to join our team? They attacked us! And why would we be inclined to let them join?"

"Most Pokémon these days are confused," Kip said. "They will attack any strange Pokémon because that's what others do to them. But if they see our Guild badges, they may see safety if they join. Safety, and strength. And since we're looking to help Pokémon, if we so chose, they may join under us and help us as we help them. It's a pretty good system."

"And," Hex sang, "this also isn't far from Treasure Town, where exploration teams tend to go to prepare with items they've either found, or purchase from the vendors. Or just visit, on a lazy day." She started walking right, toward the sound of a community -- or bigger. "Come on, Pearl! I want to see your first reaction to Treasure Town!"

Pika followed, and with a glance at me, Kip did as well. "Come on," he added. "You'll want to see this, though it might be smaller than you're used to."

I trotted to catch up, welcoming the thought that the previous conversation between us never happened.

"Used to?" I asked. "I have nothing to compare it to, I've only seen the Guild and the cave at the beach." Though, I'll be honest -- Treasure Town is an odd name.

Of course, I've seen some of the closer shops from a distance. They, like the name, were odd, but both traits were unique. They all seemed to be themed after the Pokémon who ran them, very similar to the Guild's entrance. As we approached, and as the sounds of commerce grew, I noticed that small bushes and trees were between the stalls, or shops, and many more between the crossroads and the town. The Duskull building that I'd seen over the trees, I had fully expected it to be as simple as the Wigglytuff tent.

What we passed was definitely not as simple as I thought. It had a type of circular cinder block base, and the tent was set on top of it. On either side, giant chests that were purple-grey and overflowing with golden coins. Pokécoin, all of them varying degrees of shining and tarnished. The Pokémon must have noticed, for he whispered, "And they're all real. But don't end your life stealing them, heheh."

"And this is the main square of Treasure Town," Hex said, an indication that no one else had heard what the Duskull had told -- or warned -- me of. "The shop run by Duskull there is called Duskull Bank. Kip and I started a PokéClan account with him, so after we finish the tour we'll add you two in, too."

"I can add stuff, too," Pika said. He turned and pointed with his tail another shop, one ahead. This one was an actual cloth tent, unlike Wigglytuff's and Duskull's. It was mainly in yellow and in the colors of an Electivire, and of course had a giant head of one on top, as was the apparent style here. There was some kind of ramp or raised platform in front of it, too. "That's the Electcivire Link Shop. He can help you link one move to another for more damage, or help you relearn a move you haven't used in a while. However..." Pika took a few steps toward the right tent. "Electivire isn't in today."

"That's odd," Hex said, starting to move toward what seemed to be the only solid building. "I wonder what happened, if he's not just taking the day off. Anyway, the other two places here aren't shops." Hex was indicating the solid building -- personally it looked like an organized pile of rubble with a fake Marowak head perched on the other side -- and continued with naming the places of Treasure Town. "That's the Marowak Dojo. There, you can train in different environments, but as a general rule you normally can't take anything in with you. By now, I hope I don't have to tell you who runs it." Hex indicated the final building. "And that, on the other side of the path from Electivire's, is the Chansey Daycare. You see, from some Guild missions, an egg is the reward, hence why this is part of our little tour. Or... you know. Life happens, which explorers can't tend to while also keeping their sanity intact. Chansey, though, mainly takes care of the hatching process."

"Why is an egg a reward?" I asked. It didn't make sense. "Where does it come from? The parents couldn't possibly..." But Hex's expression told me otherwise.

"Well," Pika started, "eggs are sometimes found abandoned, and other times Pokémon think that giving an experienced explorer their egg with mean that egg will have the chance to become an explorer, too. Maybe to give their egg a better life that the parents could never give. And sometimes that works, other times the newly-hatched Pokémon is returned to his parents."

"That's... odd," I said slowly. What kind of logic exists here?

"Agreed," Kip agreed, and nodded to me.

"Come on," Hex said, bouncing away toward a small wooden bridge crossing a thin river.. "There's another part of town. You see the head of that Kecleon tent? We're going there first."

Kecleon... do I know what a Kecleon is?

"They're merchants," Pika explained as we walked toward them. I noticed that Pika had said 'they're,' instead of 'he's,' or 'she's,' when I saw the two of them -- and they were different colors, one green with yellow facial accents, and one was purple with green facial accents, but they both had the same red zig-zag detail across their midsections. The also looked iguana-like.

Even with my memory loss, I was pretty sure I'd never seen the Pokémon in real life before; maybe pictures, but only a handful of times even then.

"Ah, Hex!" The green Kecleon called. "Back to see what ribbons and scarves we've acquired?"

"Browse TMs and Wonder orbs?" the purple Kecleon suggested.

Hex shook her head. "Neither at the moment," she said. "Pika, Kip, and I are showing our Charmander friend, Pearl, Treasure Town."

"A lovely town it is!" Green sang. "Much more preferable to the other places we go."

"You travel?" I asked. "Have you... seen any humans, perhaps?"

They laughed good-naturedly as if what I had said was a great joke. "Humans are legend, my dear!" Green said as he caught his breath. "Why do you ask?"

Pika took a breath to answer. I quickly thought up a lie. "I heard a Pokémon say they they thought they saw one." I shot Pika a glance that I hope said plainly, Not now.

"No," Purple said, taken aback and realizing I was serious. "We've not."

Hex caught on, I think. She kept the subject moving. "You've seen Pika in the market, haven't you?"

"Oh, of course!" Purple said. "We've met everyone who lives nearby, as we're the only general items merchants around."

Hex smiled. "They are new additions to our exploration team."

"Congratulations!" the duo sang.

"Thank you," Pika and I said, smiling.

"See you two later!" Hex chirped. "There's more for Pearl to get familiar with here."

"So long!" the Kecleons called.

Pika pointed at an odd structure next to the shop. "They're brothers. And that is Kangaskhan Storage," he told me. "She will store items, and she upgrades to more space if a team has a higher explorer rank. She's real nice, too. Across the path is Xatu, though I don't know what he does." Pika glanced at Hex questioningly.

"It's called Xatu's Appraisals," Hex offered. "There are valuable boxes in the mystery dungeons that are hard to open, impossible even, except Xatu can, so he opens them for a price. Lately it's been a hundred fifty Poké. The items inside the boxes sometimes are items that you can trade with Croagunk, so the two businesses Pidovetail quite nicely. And that's Treasure Town, it's small but it's all we really need," she finished. "Now, how about we go and find you an outlaw to capture?"

"I'd like to check and see what the Kecleon have for sale first, Hex," Pika said. "I want to gather enough food for the journey, you know? Just in case anything goes wrong."

"Not a bad idea," Hex said. "I forgot you weren't going anywhere with our bag, which we normally have stocked always. And I want to see if any scarves or ribbons are new, too!"

The Kecleon brothers welcomed us back, and while Pika and I bought a few apples each -- "Why only a few apples? They won't hold us long," I asked. Pika shook his head, "They're more than they look," -- plus the same number of oran berries with some Pokécoin Hex offered to us under the notion that we were now part of the team and had a right to the funds, too. Speaking of Hex, she was appraising the scarves and ribbons that Purple had laid out for her as we paid Green.

She made a decision on a ribbon. "Thank you," she said, tying a new ribbon to one of her six tails. I put the fruit in my bag, Pika and I similarly thanking the two merchants.

Two Pokémon, a Marill and Azurill came over to the stand, to see the Kecleons. I was trying to fit the the fruit in my bag in a way that wouldn't crush them, so we four moved off to the side. Pika took a few and placed them in his own bag.

"Ah!" Green said happily. "Little Marill and Azurill! Welcome, my young friends! ♪"

The little Azurill responded, his voice the sound of a child, "Hello. May I buy an apple?"

Green nodded. "Most certainly!" he said, Purple getting a small bag for the apple -- but I saw him put a second one in there -- as Green took the Pokécoin from Azurill. I noticed Hex looking at the young Pokémon. It wasn't affection or concern, per se, but some combination thereof.

"Thank you, Misters Kecleon!" Marill's happiness was evident on his face.

"No, thank you, my young friends! You are to be admired! ♪"

The two little water-types nodded, and headed out. The Kecleon duo watched them go, and in the silence I did the same.

"You see," Green started, turning to us, "those delightful children are brothers. Lately, their poor mother has fallen ill, so those youngsters come and do the shopping for her." He glanced off where the two had gone. "It's quite remarkable. Though really young, they've stepped up and took charge ♪" Green's expression changed, and he mumbled something under his breath. When I looked, I noticed the two young brothers rushing back our way.

"Misters Kecleon!" Marill called.

"Oh?" Green inquired innocently. "What's the hurry? What makes you return in such a rush?"

"There was an extra apple!" Azurill told him.

"We didn't pay for this many," Marill added, a bit calmer.

"Ah," Green said in understanding. "Yes, that, young friends, is a gift from my brother and I." He gave an encouraging smile, as did Purple. "Please, share it among yourselves and do enjoy."

"Really?!" Marill beamed.

Azurill, meanwhile, was bouncing around, just as happy and surprised as his brother. "Yay! Thank you, Mister Kecleon and Mister Kecleon!"

Green chuckled. "Oh, not to worry, my friends. Do take care on your way home ♪"

"We will!" the brothers chirped, and they waved as they left for the second time.

Hex cleared her throat. "See how nice it is here, Pearl? Now that you're set, let's find you an outl--"

A yelp sounded, interrupting Hex. It was Azurill, and he tripped and fell. He dropped one of the apples from Kecleons', and it rolled back toward me. I picked it up, and Azurill came over, I smiled as I handed it back to him "Careful," I said.

"W-we're sorry to bother you," Azurill stuttered, nodding -- whether that was in thanks or something else I didn't understand I didn't know, and didn't bother guessing -- and he continued, "Thank you so much," before accepting the apple.

After that, something... happened. My stomach did flips, my eyes went bright and static started to fill in my vision, and I felt like I was about to fall over. It was a familiar sensation, but oddly just as new. I let out a noise, maybe a grunt, and I barely heard Hex and Pika say my name. They were on either side of me instantly, holding my arms and keeping me on my feet, before darkness, but not unconsciousness, was forced upon my sight, and I heard a high-pitched voice cry out, "H-HELP!"

I opened my eyes to see everyone staring at me. "Pearl?" Pika said, as I blinked a few times. "Are you alright?"

"Ye- yeah," I lied. "I must have gotten light headed... On a side note, did you guys hear a cry for help a second ago?"

Hex peered at me, confusion evident on her face. "No," she said slowly, a little more than lost.

"Is something the matter?" Azurill asked. He's aware enough that something weird has happened... not that he had to look hard.

I smiled as convincingly as I could. "No, everything's fine," I replied sweetly.

"Hey, Azurill!" Marill called. "What's going on? Hurry home!"

"Yep!" the little Pokémon called back. "I'm coming! Wait up!" He ran toward Marill's approaching form.

"Are you okay?" Marill asked, glancing between us and Azurill, as if he was worried we had done something.

"Yup!" chirped Azurill. "I just dropped one of the apples, and they gave it back."

Marill glanced at the Kecleon brothers and nodded to himself. "We're done with our shopping. Now we've got to look for the water float. Let's get going."

"Yup! I'm coming!" Azurill repeated.

When I returned my attention to the team, Kip was looking at me with concern, Hex seemed to be lost in thought, though confused or concerned, I couldn't tell. Pika was watching the brothers fondly.

"Those little guys are cute," he said.

"Pearl?" Kip asked hesitantly. "Are you sure you're okay? What happened?"

Pika started. "Huh? Is something the matter?"

I glanced between them all. I had their undivided attention. Maybe even the Kecleons', too. "Possibly..." I said at last. They all seemed ready to listen and believe me. Kip especially. I briefly wondered how smart that choice of theirs was, but I believed it, so I wasn't one to talk. "I --" I hesitated. "My vision... it went black, and I heard a young voice call out for help... Are you sure none of you heard it? It was so loud..."

They all shared glances. "Uh, no," Kip said, first one to speak. "I don't think any of us heard any shout, Pearl. Maybe you imagined it. It could be a memory," he added in a whisper.

"Maybe," I said, convincingly. "Maybe." But I knew it wasn't true. After hearing Azurill speak after the cry I heard, it could not have been a memory. It was his voice. His cry.

Pika nudged me playfully and laughed to lighten the mood. "Are you daydreaming? There's nothing to worry about."

"Let's go back to the Guild," Hex suggested. "Kip and I will take care of adding you two to the account later, and there are other things we have to take care of..." she motioned to Kip to walk with her, maybe to discuss my dizzy spell. I didn't care enough to listen in, I was in my head. Pika didn't speak either.

That is, until we got to the town square.

"Oh!" he exclaimed in surprise, jarring me from my thoughts. "I wonder what's going on over there?"

By this time, Hex and Kip had paused, both in their conversation and in their tracks, to notice what Pika had called attention to.

It was the two young brothers, Marill and Azurill, but they were with an older Pokémon, a Drowzee. They sounded pretty happy, Azurill was decently vocal about that. Maril was thanking the older Pokémon, and the Drowzee was responding humbly.

I wasn't sure what. But there was something about that my instincts didn't like, and an alarm sounded in my mind. I started forward slowly.

"Hey, Marill and Azurill!" I greeted with false cheer. "What's going on?"

"Oh, hi!" Azurill chirped as the two and the Drowzee faced me. The rest of team PokéClan slowly came up beside me.

"Well, you see," Marill said, "some time ago, we lost an item that's pretty important to us. We've been looking all over for it, but we've not found it yet." He turned our attention to the older Pokémon. "Then Mister Drowzee came along!" he said brightly. "And he says he may have seen our lost item somewhere. He even offered to help us look for it! We're so happy about this!

"Yeah!" Pika exclaimed. "That's great for you!" I said nothing. May have seen it somewhere... that's not vague at all.

"Thank you Mister Drowzee!"

Drowzee smiled warmly. "Oh, please. I'd have to have a cold heart indeed to ignore young Pokémon in need! I can't turn a blind eye! Let us be on our way to begin our search!"

"Yup!" Marill chirped, with Azurill echoing him.

"Hey," I said as they started to leave, "would you like us to help? Even just one of us?"

Drowzee, who hadn't stopped, shook his head. "I've got it covered, thank you. And with one of you, you'd be more of a hinderance than a help." He again smiled warmly, to negate his word's negativity. He bumped me as he passed, the brother's ahead of him. "Whoops! Excuse me."

I mumbled, "It's okay," to his departing back.

"That Drowzee sure is a nice Pokémon, isn't he?" Pika commented. "I'm impressed. With more and more bad Pokémon around, it's hard to do good deeds."

I nodded absently. The sensation from before had returned. I went down on my knee, and put my talons on the ground. "Not.. again..."

My vision went black, but only a moment. I could see this time. There was rocky terrain around, and everything seemed to have a purple or dusky tinge, and I wasn't sure if that meant what I was seeing was at night, or if there was another reason. But my focus wasn't on the color so much, it was on the Pokémon.

It was Azurill and Drowzee, Marill nowhere in sight. Azurill looked terrified, Drowzee looked intimidating. Then he spoke, his voice calm and reasonable.

"If you keep being difficult, it will mean big trouble for you."

Azurill looked ready to cry, the first tears streaking down his face as I watched. He glanced around wildly. "H-HELP!"

It was the same ending to what I heard before. And, unless somehow I wasn't a human but a Drowzee or Azurill before my amnesia, which was impossible, Azurill and Marill were in trouble.

I opened my eyes to see Hex standing over me, Kip and Pika in the background. "Pearl?" she asked, her voice telling me she was getting real worried.

"I- I'm here," I mumbled. "I'm okay, but --"

"No, you're not," Hex interrupted sternly. "That's the second time in not ten minutes. Come on, maybe Chimecho can take a look at you back at the Guild --"

"Marill and Azurill are in danger," I growled. "Drowzee isn't that nice Pokémon he made himself out to be," I said. I recounted what I saw as I stood up, Pika staring at me in disbelief. "I saw it!" I insisted as I finished.

"It does sound serious," Pika started, suddenly unable to meet my gaze. "It's not that I don't trust you, Pearl, but Drowzee seemed sincerely like a nice Pokémon, didn't he? We all watched the three of them go off earlier. They looked like they were having a good time, didn't they? You're probably just tired, Pearl..."

I couldn't believe him. I rounded on Hex and Kip. "Come on, anyone can act like that. It's a Pokémon they just met who happens to know where this thing they lost is, and it happens to be out of town. They're young, how far out of town could it be, if at all? And I keep seeing things indicating the brothers are in trouble! You can't possibly buy this!"

"Pearl," Hex started softly, "even if Drowzee isn't who he says he is, that isn't our job right now. Kip and I can't go after him because we have to get you and Pika situated, and you two are new, so you most definitely can't go after him. And you can't just go around without an assignment. You need to focus on Guild work."

She was treating me as if I had lost my mind. The soft words, the nonthreatening logic she used. She was treating me like I was dangerous. And I'm sure I was, before I lost my memory, and I could be again. But she thought I was dangerous to them. "Drowzee was threatening him," I insisted, my voice under control. I looked them each in the eye. Kip couldn't even do that. "Fine --"

"No," Hex growled, her tails flicking in anger now. "You will not. You're coming back to the Guild with us if we have to fight you to do so."

I was momentarily surprised by her abrupt intensity. "Let's go," she continued in a growl. "Chatot wants you two to go after an outlaw today. And you don't even know where they're going," she added, biting out each word.

I didn't listen. I felt the fire in my throat, in my mouth. I let out Flamethrower and ran, though I just remembered that most Vulpix have the ability Flash Fire, which allows them to be unharmed when they come in contact with fire.

It was true, I didn't know where they were going. But it was in the mountains, and there was a cluster of mountains just northeast of Treasure Town, I could see them towering over other environments.

I don't know where I lost Hex, but I was passing a forest when I took a break. I caught up with Drowzee, Marill, and Azurill, though, the later two who were loudly happy, and Drowzee was repeatedly asking them to be quieter, to avoid dangerous Pokémon. I only had to follow the sounds, and I could watch them before getting up and jogging after them.

I allowed myself to take more than a few-second break when I could see the mountain. Part of me wanted to hope that Hex, Pika, and Kip were coming after me with more supplies, though I did have the provisions from the Kecleons'.

A sound woke me from a doze I didn't know I was doing. It was crying, sobbing. I heard a voice, calling something. As it got closer, I could understand and recognize the voice. "Azurill! Azurill!"

I shot up. "Marill?" I called, now running toward the voice. I saw him, at the base of the path into the mountain.

Marill saw me, and ran to me, the only familiar face, and hugged me. I hugged him back, watching the path into the mountain to make sure no Pokémon came out. "It's okay, Marill. You're safe."

"But I don't know if Azurill is!" he wailed. "He and Mister Drowzee are gone!"

"I knew he couldn't be trusted, but they didn't listen," I grumbled to myself. "It's okay, that's why I'm here. I'm going to go and bring Azurill back safe, and arrest Drowzee."

Marill pulled back enough from the hug to look at me a moment, then looked away. "But why? He's helping us, even if he did leave me behind..."

"Marill, look at me," I said. "That was no accident. When I handed your brother back the apple, I heard him cry for help, but no one else did. Then I bumped into Drowzee, I saw the scene, it was in the mountains, you weren't there... but your brother and Drowzee was, and he was terrified to the point of tears, Drowzee threatening him to do something -- my vision didn't go that far. That's why I wanted one of us to go with you, and that's why I'm here now. Everything will be okay, and Drowzee will learn to not trifle with any Pokémon again."

Marill wiped tears from his eyes. "B-but if you're here, where's the rest of you?"

"I'm afraid this is all the reinforcements we're getting," I said grimly. "They told me it wasn't real, and then tried telling me even if it was, we were under-qualified for this task. But it would take too long otherwise, I wasn't willing to sit back and know you were in danger... Go back to Treasure Town. I don't want to have to worry about you at the entrance here, I don't want any Pokémon to come and attack you. It will make it easier for me to focus on finding your brother, and defeating Drowzee," I added.

The young Pokémon nodded dutifully, and ran off. I turned and faced the trail.

"Azurill, don't worry. I'm coming. You'll be okay."

I ran into the mountain, the trail like a small canyon, as I faced the labyrinth inside.

❦ ✦ ❦ ✦
Annnd June 3rd's chapter is finally out, though so very late... However, it is two times as long, so I guess that's okay. What's not okay is that I basically was able to put it from paper to Google doc (plus a decent bit, everything including and past Pearl's runaway to the mountains!) in two days. (Granted I have a laptop now and typing even on weird laptop keyboards is so much nicer than iPad typing). I hope you guys enjoy, and I'll be sure to get out the next chapter on August 3rd, or around then! Certainly not the time I've been taking with this one, putting it off!