3 Pokemon surrounded one.

Each of them was tired, aching, and dirty.

Slowly they encircled the beserker cat as his wild smile flashed toward all of them. He let out a growl as he yelled out to his opponents.

“Alright, punks! Hit me with all ya got!”

The three surrounding foes looked towards each other. The Jangmo-o stood their ground and clenched their teeth and the Glaceon was tense as they stood a bit further back and waited to support. The Scorbunny was similarly determined but had a smile that shined through the dirt on his fur.

“C’mon, lads! He can’t live forever!”

“How about you quit yapping and hit him already!”

The rabbit smiled at the blunt retort and rushed towards the feline. The hidden blades of Drestal unsheathed themselves as Liam came at him with a paw of dark energy. Drestal swung with the intent for a clash but as soon as he charged forward, Liam jumped over him. In a rush, Drestal went to intercept him before his landing only to be met with a scaled tail aimed at his dome.

*CLANG*

A solid slug found itself between Drestal’s horns as Zata felt his body wobble. The sound of an empowered tail on a metal head rang throughout the empty towns. However, no matter how much force she could muster at that level, she knew it wasn’t enough to keep him down. With little delay, Drestal regained his footing and turned towards the wyrmling.

“Nice trick” he snarled. “But it won’t help you again!”

Once more he went on the offense, blades swiping Zata’s face, narrowly missing her as she ducked and dodged his strikes. Drestal went for a broad strike at her legs to which the dragon quickly jumped over. Only to find herself with a free blade aimed straight at her underbelly, sending her flying back. As the dragon flew, the wildcat ran ahead of them, intent to press his advantage. The top of his head gleamed white and shiny as he prepared to Iron Head Zata straight into the ground. With a foot back and his head cocked back, he threw his head straight at the living projectile, only to find himself rebuffed. As he looked up, the dragon had landed, unharmed and surrounded by a soft green barrier.

“Oh, this again?” As he turned to meet the source of the interruption, he saw a cold blue smile looking back at him.

“I’m not the one you should be looking towards.”

A hole formed in the barrier and a piercing scream filled the air, leaving Drestal feeling like his eardrums were turning inside out. With his blades retracted and placed firmly on his ears, another bright Dragon Tail was aimed at his legs while Liam flew in with two kicks to the back of the head. With the metal-coated feline sent topsy turvy on his back, Liam stood with his head held high and shouted-

“Total Elimination!”

Even Zata had to admit that it felt pretty damn good to land something solid on the Perrserker. That feeling, however, was brief as a rumble came from Drestal’s throat. At first, it seemed like a cough but soon grew into a hearty laugh.

“Ohohoho! Hahaha! All of yah are getting better!”

The cat sat up like a dead mon from the grave.

“But yah aren’t better than me yet!”

As Floe put themself next to the three of them, the group stanced up and got ready for whatever else came their way.

…

Miles away from the center of that battle Costello was currently experiencing what people called ‘yoga’. His legs were straight down on the mat provided to him and his body pointed as upwards as he could get. It kinda hurt but in a good way. Proof of effort. He ranked it way above cardio workouts.

“8-9-10. Break!”

Costello got himself back up to a standing position on his mat. Leading the yoga charge was one of Levanny by the name of Annam. An oddly flexible bug type who seemed excited to act as an alternative lesson for Costello. Of course, there were also Arno, Lumi, and Styles who seemed to be experienced with the lessons. Costello felt some type of way of being so close to her but he wasn’t going to deny that she was good to work with.

“Thanks for the help, Anny!”

“My pleasure, Styles.”

They exchanged a look. Costello noticed the amount of eye contact they shared. Weird.

“So, how are you all feeling?”

Lumi wasn’t one to be taken as the flexible type and Arno was more or less an acorn-shaped furball. As both were aching and such, that left Costello to be the representative of the venture.

“It felt nice. I never knew I could bend that far but I didn’t feel bad afterwards. Tired but alright.”

“Glad to hear. We’ll be leaving then.”

“Already? But aren’t they-”

Styles put her paw up.

Three loud thuds echoed throughout the dusty town. “Now we go.”

….

“I’m sick of this garbage!” The dragon had been huffing and puffing the whole walk home. “All we’ve been doing is getting our asses kicked for the past few weeks.”

“Seem like it.”

“Shut it, lizard. Aren’t you busy faking being injured or whatever?”

A shrug. “I’m still considered on the injured list, so yeah in a sense.” Costello rotated his shoulder a few times as Zata grimaced at him. “According to Styles, this was just to make sure I wasn’t going to immediately bust open my shoulder by the time I fight Drestal again. It's not aching so I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

As Zata opened her mouth, Lumi cut off any further attacks on Costello’s character. “How was the hospital process, Costello? You sure you’re feeling ready to get back to work?”

The treecko’s face kept straight ahead. “It was fine. I’m fine.” Lumi’s head tilted a bit at Costello’s statement. Arno however, with jangling bobble around his neck and all, steamrolled past his partner with a pat on Costello’s back.

“ Well good for you keeping the Almas spirit by your side. A little setback like a burnt and broken arm never kept anyone down for long.” Styles paw yapped along with her protege. “ I wanna say not to push yourself but …”

“But what, Arno?”

Arno put on a serious face, as serious a face as an office gossip could make when letting loose breaking news. Lumi put on a similar face as one would when trying to create plausible deniability from their coworker’s actions.

“You didn’t hear this from me, but it seems like Thea and the top brass are gearing up for a new expedition.”

Liam’s face brightened. “No way!”

“What’s your source on this, Arno?”

“Well dear Floe, my source is truthful! Esme already let loose that Devlin got her a spot already.”

“Well, what’s the expedition for?”

“Well that’s the thing…”

...

The meeting hall was abuzz with discussion. The greenhorns were barely seated as they gossiped about what would cause Thea to gather them all in the room. Some of them already had a clue on what it could be but the excitement in the air made their secrets all the more willing to be spilled. The old guard already knew what it would be about. It had been a few weeks since the whole Salazzle incident so you would expect a cooldown period. But with Styles being away from her usual team and Morris being more jittery than usual, it was obvious that something big was on the horizon. The room suddenly turned to silence as Thea flew up to the front of the hall.

“Hello, fellow guildmates. Hopefully, you’ve found yourselves adjusted after such an exciting event with the Salazzles.”

A groan reverberated throughout the room as memories of washing off pheromones and fending off unwanted advances (and in some cases, being fended off in a bout of delusion.)

“Yes. I didn’t want to smell you either but such is life. You live and your learn. To bathe.” A couple of polite chuckles and a loud, courteous HAH from Sera. “I’m sure some of you are already aware of why you’re here. There have been reports of numerous ghost-type appearing in the Northern Passage. Spiritombs to be precise. While one has worked within our company, this is not a natural formation Spiritombs. It seems that the criminal elements found up North have met their end and do not seem intent on meeting their fates. Our job is to ensure that our exorcist will be able to carry out their duties without issue and to make sure that any criminal element is captured as well.”

Numerous mumblings broke out in the hall at the idea of bounty hunting.

“While the idea of facing off against such a unique foe in these ghost types may seem a treat on its own, there is more to find.”

“Pirate Gold!’ Someone yelled out. A series of chuckles and retorts broke out in the room. Thea let it play on for a minute or two before lifting her wing up.

“Yes, there is the idea that due to the nature of the Northern Passage, there will be treasure from the bandits. However, items of importance will be returned to their owners.”

An air of disappointment came over the guild and groans radiated through the hall.

“However, this only applies to items reported missing and identified after a stringent process. Any hordes found to be unrelated will be processed and given to their proper owners. After guild fees and finders fees, of course.”

Pokemon banged on the tables as the chant rang out.

“ALMAS ALMAS ALMAS!”

Liam and Zata especially as even Floe put in some light taps.

“To those of you still in training by the time by the time of the expedition, you will be asked to stay near Seva and the Castle to complete that training. While the official date has yet to be put to print, we expect to be ready in the next few weeks. With that, I bid you the rest of your evening.”

As Thea flew off for whichever assignment was left on her plate, the hall went into an uproar. Excitement over who’ll be chosen and moaning that their assigned mentors hadn’t approved them yet. For one group, however, there was only silence. They knew that unless they had a plan, they were going to be stuck here.

...

The Fletchinders flew around as they made their rounds lighting to lamps as the 4 Pokemon sat around a public table. Zata tapped her tail on the ground as they tried to discuss tactics for the next training session.

“We got Cos back!” Liam patted his friend on the back. “So at least we’ll have the numbers advantage.”

“And that’s great,” remarked Zata. “Only problem is we’ve been fighting him for weeks now. Sparring and training and getting treated as punching bags. If numbers worked, we would’ve gotten him down days ago. Not to mention that he’s been out of action for weeks. So we’ll be dragging deadweight.”

Costello disagreed. “If we win, it won’t matter what the gap is. Besides, we dealt with worse before.”

“We dealt with worse because I was there, buck. Last time we faced something that bad, you ended up injured.”

Floe looked down at the snarling wyrmling and Zata looked back. Costello noticed a silent argument between the two as Zata held whatever else they wanted to say. That moment of hesitation left Floe to lead the rest of the conversation.

“While Zata could phrase it better, she does have a point. If numbers won’t help, Strategy and Strength have to.”

“The Official roster sheet is in a few days, if we don’t get a plan together, I don’t know how we can get that tough in time.”

“We just do,” Zata said. “Through any way possible.”

“Zata is right. However, maybe if aren’t ready now, we shouldn’t force it.”

“Forget that!” Zata said almost offended at the suggestion. “If Esme made it, then Caspian and his gaggle already made it. Even that lazy lion made it! I refuse to admit that we’re not even on the level to mon’s like him.”

“I’m with Zata, chaps. I refuse to skip out on something like this.”

We need to go.

“Why,” Costello thought to himself.

Caspian is going. Caspian has our Head condition.

“If we’re so concerned about our head condition, why didn’t we ask him about it earlier?”

He is afraid of us. We cannot let him be afraid of us. To think less of us. We are all friends here, and friends do not make others uncomfortable. Especially asking them about therapy sessions during their hospitalization. During this journey, we will have all the time to talk about things. It has only been a few seconds. Respond. We need to go.

Costello wasn’t assured by the directness in his mind, but he couldn’t help but agree with his reasoning. If Caspian shared the same condition as him, he needed to figure out if there were any breakthroughs similar to him. He’d spent enough time aimlessly doing nothing and abiding by others' schedules. Now was the time for action.

“I agree with Zata.”

The dragon snorted. “Finally growing a brain then?”

Only a glare answered her jab. “Yeah. Look, we all want to prove ourselves for whatever reason, barring Floe. No offense Floe, we all appreciate your help.”

The Glaceon blushed. The Jangmo-o scoffed.

“In full honesty though, it's going to be 3 and a half against one if we go against Drestal like we are now. Or more specifically, like I am now. So if we’re going to be on par with him and on par with everyone else going on that expedition, we need to get stronger quick.”

Liam looked at his friend. “Does that mean you have a plan then, Cos?”

Costello went through his head, going through memory and ideas to hopefully figure something out. All the way back to his little returning party.

“You’ll learn as you get older that sometimes… the worst parts of your life as you live them; they become some of your most valuable memories.”

The idea clicked. Costello had a plan and began to share it with his fellow schemers.