#they assume a human form for the first time when arceus tasks them with stopping volo &&. dialga / palkia

[stellanoa]

⸻

[nelvana]

In which preparations are made

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which another expedition begins Previous: In which a warning is received

    “The Lake Guardians?” Keahi repeated, “after you? Again?”

    Alex let out a sharp hiss, rubbing his forehead with one hand, “dammit…�� he groaned, “okay… The Lake Guardians… also worked for Primal Dialga, so they didn’t like us much. That doesn’t explain why they would be upset at us now!”

    “They’re working for Palkia now,” Nelvana told them quietly, wrapping her arms around herself and shaking her head. “I saw… No, okay, we really need to talk to the others. It isn’t even just us two. It’s… Arceus, it’s nearly everyone they’re after.”

    “Do you think Tsuki has started talking to everyone by now?” Keahi asked, glancing back and forth between zir two friends.

    “Hopefully,” Alex muttered.

    “If not, no one should be that far out of town,” Nelvana pointed out, “bring everyone to the base. This is going to be incredibly important to have everyone there. Even those who have been staying at the base but aren’t on the team.”

    “Should we split up to find them?” Keahi suggested, “let’s all find Tsuki first, actually, and see where to go from from there, alright?”

    Nelvana nodded hastily, “yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Okay, let’s go then.”

    Despite the numbers between them only seeming to grow each time they had to gather everyone for one reason or another, it wasn’t terribly challenging to find everyone for this meeting. Tsuki was met outside the café, having rounded back to meet with the other three, so she helped guide them to where everyone else had wandered off to for the morning.

    Ceebee, Gardevoir, Edgar, and Damien had all grouped together in the dojo to train together; Ceebee having mentioned something about bypassing psychic weaknesses with types earlier that morning, and while Tsuki had already left by then, she also mentioned wanting to bring the absol for the next time. They, to some surprise, found Dusknoir with Kangaskhan. While he didn’t admit it, it was clear that he was trying to spend more time with the various townsfolk so that he could grow more comfortable with them and adjust to the cultures of this time.

    Sensing the urgency from the group of four alerting them, everyone was willing to drop their various tasks to meet back up at the team base to discuss whatever new news had been brought to the table.

    The rebuild of this house had been designed for larger groups, but at this point everyone had to silently admit that it was beginning to get crowded trying to fit everyone in the kitchen area of the building together. Nelvana sat on the stool at the head of the island table while the others gathered around it, Alex, Keahi, and Tsuki especially close to her sides as the others that had been around for the recent event. She took in a deep breath as several eyes turned to her, sensing that she would be the one to make this announcement, whatever it was.

    “I had another dimension scream vision,” she began.

    She paused for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts and her breath. She often wasn’t the one at the head of announcements.

    Fortunately, at least, they had explained her ability at the last meeting like this. Dusknoir hadn’t been there, but he was already familiar with the dimensional scream from previous interactions, back in the dead timeline, so she would be able to just move on to what she saw.

    “And I saw… Well, as Tsuki told you all before, Maurice the spinda, Spinda’s nephew and assumed as Baguette’s partner, arrived into town injured. He had a hat, and that’s what I touched to activate the ability,” Nelvana continued, backtracking momentarily to add more context, now seeing some nodding with confirmation.

    She went on to describe what had happened to him. She had seen most of it in her vision, from the point of view of Maurice. It began with him encountering the Lake Guardians and Ditto, and she had been awoken just as Maurice was beginning to flee and the howls of Ditto turning into a houndoom began. It wasn’t too hard to predict what had happened after that; leaving only the question of how he got away.

    “They specified a lot of us as these anomalies,” Nelvana stated, swallowing as she studied the expressions of the rest of the group. “’A time gear thief grovyle, a mislead servant dusknoir, a cursed spirit guide gardevoir, a corrupted celebi ahead of their time-“

    Ceebee bristled, “corrupt? The hell is that supposed to mean?”

    Nelvana shrugged with defeat. Ceebee exhaled, settling down some but crossing her arms with frustration. She nodded silently back to the cubone to finish.

    “And two humans who have taken pokemon form,’” she said, finishing the quote.

    “Two humans?” Damien blurted out, standing up. “How did I get involved in this world balance stuff? Heck, Gardevoir isn’t from the future either, how are-“

    He cut himself off, his own words catching up to him as he glanced over towards Dusknoir, who regarded him with a slightly widened eye.

    “You’re human then too, hm?” Dusknoir questioned.

    “Er, yeah…” Damien muttered, rubbing his forehead before moving on. “But still, by the way that started, I would have assumed this was focused on all of you from the future, but it’s Gardevoir and me too… dammit.”

    “Technically…” Gardevoir spoke up softly. “Technically, we are time travelers as well. Or you are, at least. You are from the past, Damien. And while I did not jump through time as a spirit guide, you did bring me out of my curse a couple hundred years early. That may have to do with it.”

    “That must be it…” Alex murmured, shaking his head almost in a daze, before his expression hardened. “Well, this may be bold to announce right away without knowing much, but I’ll bet Palkia is wrong,” he spat, “if we weren’t meant to be here, we wouldn’t. Gardevoir being mentioned as well helps confirm any suspicions that maybe Dialga messed up, the judge is a third party. Nel, Damien, you both said that Ninetales’ reluctance about breaking the curse had more to do with Damien anyway; she would have stopped you if it would disrupt the world’s balance more.”

    Nelvana nodded slowly, “Maurice said the same sort of thing. Aside from morality, that was what stopped him from going along with the Lake Guardians.”

    “I would have sensed disaster related to you all as well if that were the case,” Tsuki agreed.

    “So, that’s it then? We all agree that there must be something else wrong then,” Keahi spoke up, waiting to see nods before continuing. “Alright then! I had better not hear any of you doubting yourselves then, you hear that? If we’re going to fix this, then we can’t be doubting ourselves!”

    Keahi’s enthusiasm and insistence on the matter rubbed off on everyone, and there were some cheers and laughter after that short speech. Any cheer quickly faded, however, as the matter of the situation settled back in.

    “What next then? I don’t think that we can just stay here trying to search around like we have been,” Edgar said, “we’re gonna need an expedition or something. For information, and so the Lake Guardians don’t just corner us here. They know we’re here.” His voice was strangely firm, yet quiet.

    “If I may.” Dusknoir approached from where he had been leaning against one of the counters at the back of the kitchen. “Dialga would know most about this. They are related to Palkia, and the world’s balance. We should seek them out.”

    Ceebee sighed, “I hate to admit this, but I agree with you. Dialga would be our most solid source on the matter.”

    Nelvana winced slightly and Alex grumbled something under his breath, but neither of them spoke against this idea. Keahi, however, chimed in again.

    “I was thinking we could look over at the guild!” zie suggested, “they may not be as… familiar with the matter as Dialga would be, but they definitely would know a lot. We could also go there for more items, directions, maybe even allies…? They probably have figured something is off by now, so we could exchange ideas.”

    “Those are both good ideas, but…” Gardevoir paused, glancing over at Damien. “You mentioned the judge, and it got me thinking. Since they were able to help bring me back, and Nel you once mentioned that they knew about you, then they must be some… some sort of higher being. Perhaps they would know more on the matter as well.”

    There was a moment of silence, as the three ideas remained the only ones, but no one could think of anything to say that would truly push one ahead of the other. All three had their merits, and would push them closer to their goal.

    “Where is the judge? And the guild?” Dusknoir asked, finally breaking the growing silence.

    “The guild is… Here, we should get a map, I can point it out there,” Keahi responded, nodding towards the bag that Alex still had nearby himself.

    “I’ll get the map we used for our journey too! Ninetales marked on mine,” Damien added, already hopping off his stool and heading over to the bag. “Oh, hey, that does remind me, I have some TMs in here that we could use to prepare ourselves as well for the journey.”

    Alex laid out Team Galaxy’s main map first, some other scrap papers and notes falling out when he unfolded the large page. Many of the little notes were written by either himself or Nelvana, and would be unreadable to most pokemon, though there were some either from before that idea had come back to mind, or simply written by someone who wouldn’t have that option. He carefully swept those extra slips back away into the bag as Nelvana reached out to the table to flatten out the map with her hands.

    “Right up north up there, that’s where the guild is,” Keahi told them, pointing to one of the pre-marked dots on the map.

    “Murky Cave was over here,” Nelvana added, pointing out the location of the dungeon from memory.

    Despite hearing Nelvana say this, Damien brought over his own map anyway and laid it out with the first. It was the same sort of map as Team Galaxy’s, but less marked on yet somehow dirtier and more worn. He pointed out the hole where Ninetales had marked Murky Cave, comparing it to where Nelvana was pointing on the other map.

    “Ah…” Dusknoir rumbled, “this is just a map of this continent…”

    “I’m afraid we haven’t had a need for a world map before,” Tsuki replied.

    “Regardless, if I recall… We would have to head out south to get to the Grass Continent,” Dusknoir continued, reaching out as well to point out the general direction on the map; Nelvana swiftly removing her own hand as he did so.

    “All these locations are really spaced out,” Edgar pointed out.

    “We can’t go to all of them…” Alex mumbled, biting his lip as he stared down at the maps.

    “Or could we?” Ceebee chimed in again, fluttering closer to the rest of the group huddled around the table. “It may sound crazy, but hear me out. Keahi, are there any docks up north by the guild? Preferably towards the east?”

    “Oh, I think so!” Keahi answered, zir eyes flitting around as zie searched for the legend at the bottom of the map, and then for the icon that matched for boats. “Yeah, right over here!” zie exclaimed, moving zir other wing to point out a spot on the edge of the map.

    “Splendid!” Ceebee chirped, “okay, here’s my idea. To get to Dialga, we’ll need to go through Brine Cave, which is on the edge of the continent, towards the west. It will be a bit roundabout since we need to go south to get to the Grass Continent at all, but we could take a ferry down there after visiting the guild,” she explained, “or we could always teleport back to the base after visiting the guild and take a ferry a bit closer south, but on the chance that the Lake Guardians may be waiting there… I’m not quite sure about that. We’d have to see.”

    “What about the judge?” Damien asked.

    “Getting to that, don’t worry!” Ceebee hummed, “I’ll go to the judge! While the rest of you are on your way to the guild. I can fly really fast and skip over all the dungeons and water to get to the island in a day or so, and then go through the dungeon and speak to the judge myself. Then, I can either fly or teleport over to wherever you get to in the meantime, whichever ends up being more convenient for me. I’ll be able to sense you wherever, even if you get too far for telepathy, so you won’t have to worry about leaving me behind.”

    “You’ll go through the dungeon alone?” Damien questioned, “it was pretty bad… and there were a lot of poison-types, you are grass, right?”

    “I am! But I am also psychic, so that’s a type advantage!” Ceebee pointed out.

    “You could use the mobile scarf. We won’t be needing it, even if we have to go through dungeons on the way. There are enough of us that it wouldn’t make that much of a difference,” Nelvana offered.

    “Perfect! That would help a lot, Nel, thanks!” Ceebee replied, grinning widely by this point.

    “I like that idea! I think we’d be able to get through everyone’s ideas, and it makes more sense to visit Dialga last out of all of them, since they would have the more final take on everything,” Keahi exclaimed, “do we all want to do that then?” zie checked, glancing around at the others.

    Alex began nodding slowly, “I think we could make it work, yeah. Do you know how long it should take us to get to the guild, Keahi?”

    “I’m not quite sure… a few days, at least. Especially with a group our size now. We won’t be able to move at the pace we did for the last expedition,” Keahi murmured.

    “About that, then.” Dusknoir narrowed his eyes slightly. “Are we all going? Nine of us is quite the large group, you know.”

    “Says the one who traveled with an army at all times,” Alex hissed under his breath.

    “Well! We might have to fight Palkia, and the Lake Guardians if they catch up to us! Numbers in those sorts of fights wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Edgar pointed out loudly. “I mean… we’ve beat Rayquaza before, but Palkia sounds like a whole other matter…”

    “They are,” Dusknoir agreed, “but if we do not want the Lake Guardians to follow us, we would leave less of a trail if we were a smaller group. Besides, some of us are better in battle than others. We would not want to risk any weaker links slowing us down.”

    Keahi’s feathers puffed up with indignation at the statement, and Alex let out another hiss. While the latter had to silently admit to there being a point to not being tracked, he disliked that Dusknoir would say that in such a way.

    “No one is a weak link!” Keahi snapped, leaning over the table to glare up at Dusknoir with fire in zir eyes. “If someone stays behind, it will be because they want to, not because someone thinks they aren’t battle ready. Even those who don’t fight have their own strengths.”

    “I’ll stay behind,” Gardevoir spoke up, “someone should hold down the base anyway, and even though Dusknoir did put that rather rudely, I am not in the right state for long travels or battling.”

    “H-Hey, I’m sure he wasn’t referring to you in particular. I’m not the best fighter either,” Damien assured her, ears flattened.

    Gardevoir chuckled softly, “it’s alright. I don’t mind either way. I was going to offer in the end anyway; even if we never brought up the idea of someone staying behind,” she responded, “this sort of adventure… feels to be a bit too much for me right now. I still want to settle down some.”

    “Are you sure?” Nelvana asked quietly, her expression softening from under the skulled mask.

    “Yes, I am. Don’t worry, I’ll still be able to communicate through telepathy, at least until you all get too far,” Gardevoir responded, “I’ll keep an eye on the place, and warn you if the Lake Guardians show up.”

    “They are after you too though,” Tsuki reminded her, unable to keep the sudden worry from her own voice.

    “I’ll be surrounded by company. I have faith that I will be safe here,” Gardevoir hummed, “besides, I am just me, just one of us. If they catch wind that you have left, they would likely prefer to go after the larger group before you get away,” she added.

    “If you’re sure then, you could stay back here. We aren’t going to drag you after us or anything,” Alex said, letting out a snicker at his own comment. “Besides, the B Squadron could always stay here too like they did on the last expedition. They would be able to help you out if needed.”

    “Good point,” Keahi responded, nodding slightly as zie slunk back into zir own seat. “Is there anyone else who would rathe stay behind with Gardevoir then? Or is that that?”

    “Er, well, this isn’t be volunteering, more the opposite. I just wanted to clarify before anyone asks, there hasn’t been anything for me to do to help out around town. I think that they wouldn’t mind me helping you all go save the world anyway,” Damien stated.

    “I was wondering about that,” Tsuki replied, “thank you for explaining. We welcome your assistance in this mission.”

    “Oh, thank you!” Damien hummed.

    Past Damien’s explanation, no one responded to Keahi’s question. Even before silence overcame the room again it was clear that no one else would speak up to this. The adamant expressions on the faces of most confirmed that they were determined to go on this journey, for one reason or another.

    “Very well then. We will be a party of eight then,” Keahi announced, “tomorrow morning, we will all set out for the guild, except for Ceebee, who will head in the direction of Murky Cave. We should all meet up again before the guild, then we will arrive at the guild, and then afterwards we will take some sort of ferry down to find Dialga. Gardevoir will stay behind to inform us on news for as long as she can, and take care of the house. Is that our plan?”

    Nelvana nodded, judging the expressions of everyone else before answering, “I believe so. Today we prep then,” she hummed, “do… do you want to announce it to the town, or…?”

    “We shouldn’t have to,” Alex muttered, “they’ll know we went on an expedition soon enough, especially with Gardevoir here if they really have questions. Honestly, telling them in one big meeting in town may do more harm than good. They may panic at the prospect of the end of the world again, and world will spread quickly. We will be able to buy ourselves some extra time if the Lake Guardians don’t realize that we’re on to them,” he explained.

    Tsuki nodded, “that makes sense,” she agreed, “shall we head out to pack then?”

    “Probably. We can make use of Damien’s TMs too while we’re at it,” Nelvana answered, nodding again.

    “Alright, let’s go then!” Edgar exclaimed

    With those words, Edgar spun around and hurried out of the stuffy room by floating directly through the wall to get outside. After a moment, the door opened from the outside and creaked open slightly. Keahi chuckled softly before heading over to the door next, with the rest of the group beginning to follow.

    Stopping by Kangaskhan Storage was the obvious first choice for the team, and thus they began to work on checking through their items on hand, and what they would need for the journey ahead.

    “Are you all off on another journey, dearies?” Kangaskhan questioned, looking over at they spread out their supplies on the ground to look over in front of them.

    “Yeah! We’re going off to the guild,” Keahi told her, keeping in mind what Alex said about not wanting this to be big news, but also not wanting to lie.

    “That’s nice! It’s a long way though, make sure to pack lots of food and water,” Kangaskhan replied, “it has also been getting chillier lately, so if you have room in your bags, please try packing some blankets or warm clothing, just in case!”

    “We’ll keep that in mind, thanks mom,” Tsuki purred.

    Dusknoir glanced over towards the absol and kangaskhan, “’mom’? You aren’t even in the same egg group.”

    “Oh, shut it, as if you’d know what family is like,” Alex snapped, not even bothering to look up at this point.

    Kangaskhan frowned, “Alex! That wasn’t very polite.”

    Alex still didn’t look up, nor did he say anything in response at this point. Kangaskhan let out a sigh.

    “Alright, so I’ve got protect, earthquake, frustration, and thunderbolt here,” Damien announced, for the first time laying out the TMs he had collected back in Murky Cave. “Oh, at the bottom of the bag there’s toxic too. I actually already used that on myself though… do you have recycle yet?”

    “No, we don’t…” Keahi sighed, “that would be nice though, we have a few used TMs sitting around.”

    “Shame you got frustration and not return; we could have all made use out of return!” Edgar commented, “still, the rest are all pretty good!”

    “Earthquake risks hitting all of us, but you could still benefit by learning it, Nel,” Alex pointed out while he continued to handle most of the rest of the supplies with Tsuki. “It would be a good move if we get split up, or just need a good, strong, last minute move and can risk the team recoil.”

    “Hm… yeah, I guess I’ll take that then if no one else wants it,” Nelvana murmured, already reaching for the mentioned TM to look it over.

    “Protect could be used by any of us… so who gets that?” Edgar asked.

    “We may have to come back to that one later. You’ll probably get it though, since most of the rest of us are more of strikers,” Keahi answered, “how about thunderbolt though? Who could learn that?”

    “I could, but I would rather not,” Tsuki chimed in, “ice beam is the only special move I would want to make use of. If no one else can learn it though, I will take it for the type coverage.”

    “I believe that Damien should be able to learn it,” Dusknoir pointed out, “you are a special attacker, as you’ve said, after all. You would benefit most by having it.”

    “Oh yeah, of course! Damien, you should learn thunderbolt!” Keahi chirped, nudging the disc closer to the gengar with a foot.

    He hesitantly took it, before nodding. He and Nelvana both took the TMs that had been selected for them, and after a few moments, the resounding sound of cracking confirmed the item being used and the pair’s new moves being gifted to them.

    It was then that footsteps could be heard approaching, and with everyone turning their heads they could see four of the five members of the B Squadron making their way over to join the rest of Team Galaxy. Baguette was missing from the group.

    “BZZ BZZ! THERE YOU ALL ARE. WE HAD BEEN WONDERING WHERE YOU HAD GONE. WE HAD THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD BE BACK AT THE CAFÉ,” Rayden greeted, continuing to float over until he was just beside Edgar.

    “Oh, we apologize for any confusion,” Tsuki replied, “we had a meeting, and are now preparing for a journey. We meant to tell you soon.”

    “A journey? Where to?” Bobo asked from his perch up on Hiram’s shoulder.

    “We’re going to the guild!” Keahi answered, then pausing. “And then… to Dialga. We’re going to get to the bottom of what’s going on with the world’s balance. We may not be back for awhile,” zie continued in a hushed voice.

    “We’re trying to keep a low status on it though for now, don’t want to raise any unnecessary alarm,” Alex added.

    Hiram huffed, but nodded, “that makes sense. This town can be prone to panicking, from what we’ve seen,” he agreed.

    “Would you like us to stay at the base again?” Pearl asked, “it may be best for us for the moment anyway; Baguette is terribly worried about Maurice there.”

    “So, they are partners then?” Edgar asked, “why did they split up before…? I think I forgot, if I heard about it at all. Did it happen before I joined the team?”

    Pearl chuckled softly, “I’m not sure if you got the news. It isn’t exactly something we feel the need to bring up often. Maurice went on a mission of his own, searching for the source of a special feather he found. He must have finished that and been on his way here before…”

    “Yeah…” Keahi sighed, and then shook zir head. “Well, you answer your question, yeah you can stay at the base! It would probably help a lot, actually. Gardevoir will be staying there, but you can always keep her company,” zie told them.

    “YOU ARE?” Rayden turned to look over at Gardevoir, who nodded and waved back at him. “OH! BZT!”

    Gardevoir nodded, “yes, I am. I wanted to stay back here; still not quite up for the big adventures yet,” she giggled, “you’re still welcome to stay at the base, of course. It’ll probably be a bit lonely otherwise.”

    “Yeah! We’d love to hang out with you, Gardevoir!” Bobo chirped.

    “The guild’s up north, right?” Hiram asked, focusing on the initial topic. “How many dungeons will you have to run into on the way?”

    “I’ll need to double check with a map, but hopefully not many!” Keahi answered, standing up and shaking out zir feathers. “I know Howling Forest is one though, we might have to go through Pitfall Valley too depending on the quickest path to the guild.”

    Hiram nodded slowly, and then turned towards Rayden, “hey, you should show them what we just got. It’ll probably help them out a lot.”

    “HM? OH, RIGHT! I HAD ALMOST FORGOTTEN!” Rayden exclaimed, “I THINK I STILL HAVE IT ON ME…”

    “It’s stuck to the back of your left magnet!” Bobo directed, pointing towards the mentioned limb with one foreclaw.

    “BZZ! BZZ! THANK YOU, BOBO!”

    Twisting the other magnet around back, Rayden detached the item from his left magnet so that he could hold it for the others to see. It was another TM disc, the number “67” visibly marked into the silvery record. It took a moment for the number to be pieced together mentally as to what actual move could be learned with that TM, but soon eyes began lighting up from the A Squadron.

    “That’s recycle!” Keahi exclaimed, “where did you guys get it? That’s really useful!”

    “Kecleon stopped us just now on our way in to give it to us,” Pearl explained, “he said that he knew Rayden could learn it, and said we could take it for free if we use it to repair some of their TMs for reselling.”

    “I HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO LEARNING IT YET SINCE WE HAD BEEN IN A HURRY, BUT I COULD NOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE,” Rayden offered.

    “That would be really good,” Damien replied, “we were actually just talking about that sort of thing, good timing.”

    Nodding to them, Rayden moved to place the TM on the side of his head. Like with other TMs, after a few moments it audibly cracked. Unlike most other TMs, however, it broke completely into several pieces, dropping to the ground as Rayden let out a static shriek of alarm.

    “BZT! WAS… WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN? BZZ BZZ,” Rayden questioned warily.

    Kangaskhan glanced over to them, and offered the magnemite a comforting smile, “yes, it does do that. Do not worry, you did nothing wrong. Recycle is the only TM that can never been recycled. It’s strange how that works, but nothing has come up yet as a way to get around that.”

    “OH. THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW. BZZT,” Rayden replied, magnets sagging to his sides with relief.

    Tsuki, who had been just talking to Kangaskhan before, turned her attention more to the conversation being held. Piecing together what was being talked about, she collected the team’s used TMs that they already had and gave them to the group currently handling that. After receiving thanks, she went back to her own conversation with her mother.

    “Alright, so now we have all of Damien’s TMs, and then flamethrower, brick break, and calm mind!” Keahi announced, looking over the growing pile.

    “I WILL BEGIN TO PRACTICE MY NEW MOVE!” Rayden declared, floating over to the discs.

    “Ooh, did someone say calm mind?” Ceebee fluttered over to join the rest of the group, Gardevoir following behind her. “We could both learn that!”

    “I think Tsuki actually could too, would go well with her ice beam,” Damien commented, biting his lip.

    “I can learn calm mind?” Tsuki repeated, her attention regained at being directly mentioned.

    “Yeah, I think so,” Damien replied, “it would be worth seeing, since you have a special move.”

    “Well, once Rayden figures out recycle, anyone can learn any move we have laying around here, so there’s no waste or anything,” Nelvana added, “just whoever wants to learn it first, might as well go ahead. It’s one of the only ones left unused right now.”

    “I’ll go ahead and take it then,” Ceebee hummed, taking the TM in her hands and going to make use of it.

    It took another few minutes after this for the first TM to get repaired, but once Rayden figured out how to use it the first time, it didn’t take long for him to get in the swing of using the move.

    “Alright, once protect is ready or whatever, I think every one of us can learn it, so we should,” Alex instructed as he finished up rationing out the food for the expedition.

    “Sounds good!” Keahi agreed.

    “Actually, I’m not sure who exactly can learn flamethrower, but I think Nel should try learning it,” Damien suggested.

    Nelvana frowned, “me? How come?”

    “He’s got a point,” Alex responded, glancing up. “You won’t be able to use it much in general, but it’ll help cover your grass and ice weaknesses in a pinch.”

    “Ah, that is true. I didn’t think of that…” Nelvana murmured, “and Alex, you should be able to learn brick break, you should learn that too...”

    Ideas continued circling around the team, the discs themselves being passed around the group as well with the sounds of cracking and then repairing going ‘round as they made as much use out of the TMs as they could.

    “Should we really be learning so many moves?” Tsuki questioned as the protect TM was passed over to her. “It is not simple to be efficient in several moves.”

    “That is true, but we aren’t learning these to be perfect in all of them,” Alex responded, “we’re learning most of these just in case. I doubt we’ll all really need protect for example, and get good at using it, but just in case,” he explained.

    Tsuki nodded at this answer, leaving the question at that and learning the move for herself before passing it back over to Rayden to repair.

    While the B Squadron got their share of learning new moves, and A Squadron went over what Alex had planned for them to pack, adding and removing items as they saw fit. Ceebee gathered a small sac with some smaller items for herself, in advance for her separate journey from the others.

    Eventually though, they had finished what they needed to do at Kangaskhan Storage, and began cleaning up. Returning all their items they didn’t actually need, and making sure there wasn’t any shards left on the ground from the recycle TM breaking.

    “Alright, we can store all the TMs now too, right?” Nelvana asked Kangaskhan, passing over the last of the extra apples back over the counter.

    Kangaskhan nodded, “of course dearies! And since these aren’t cracked anymore, you will even be able to access them through the statues.”

    “That’s great!” Keahi chirped, hopping up to stand beside zir partner. “You never know when you need a spare TM!” zie hummed.

    “Do we need frustration though?” Alex pointed out, “Damien, you did mention that was one you had, right? We could just sell that one for some extra coins.”

    “Well, I would, but I can’t actually find it anymore…” Damien muttered, searching on his hands and knees through the grass.

    “I thought you put it back in your bag,” Nelvana commented.

    “I thought so too…” Damien sighed, sitting back up and brushing off his arms.

    Dusknoir approached the gengar, and held out his hand. Damien eyed it warily, and then relaxed as he saw that the larger pokemon was just holding out the missing TM to him.

    “Oh, thanks,” Damien told him, accepting back the item.

    He frowned as he looked it over. The TM for frustration was cracked, used.

    “If we’re done here, we should move on to prepare more elsewhere,” Dusknoir mumbled, already starting down the path.

    The rest of the group merely watched him leave at first, before they all scrambled back to their feet, ready to move on to the rest of their preparation for the journey. There wasn’t much left to do for now, but it would be good to make a couple more stops before considering themselves ready for the next day.

    “He used that TM, didn’t he? That’s why he had it,” Alex asked Damien in a mutter.

    Damien nodded, “I don’t get why though. Even if he doesn’t like us much, isn’t his plan to stay with Dialga once we get there? He doesn’t hate them.”

    “There’s more to the move than that,” Edgar pointed out quietly as he passed the other two by, and then continued on ahead of them without another word.

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