In the morning, the group enjoyed a quick breakfast with Kangaskhan, who had to get up early for her job, before heading back to Pokemon Square to complete some missions. When they stopped by the mission board, they were reminded that Peaky still wanted to show them those wanted posters that Team Meanies had made up, so they decided to make a quick stop there, now that business at the post office had slowed down mostly to normality. However, for once Peaky wasn’t available to speak with them, so they decided that they would have to return later. Luckily, Alex’s badge had arrived, so the stop wasn’t pointless. His badge had a similar appearance to Keahi and Nelvana’s, however smaller than theirs. He cheerfully pinned it onto the bag, as he lacked an accessory like the leading pair, and off they went. There were still a few dungeons left to show Tsuki, and there ended up being enough jobs for those locations to take up the morning. They returned to Pokemon Square early, and enjoyed a simple picnic lunch before trying to check back in at the Pelipper Post Office. This time, Peaky was chatting with a pidgeotto behind the counter. They looked up at the sound of the quartet entering, and Peaky hopped over to greet them. “Hey Team Galaxy! You here to send a letter?” Peaky chirped. “Actually, we were hoping to see those posters you mentioned a couple days ago,” Keahi told them. “Oh! Right! Here, I’ll grab one!” Peaky exclaimed, scurrying back behind the counter. “Each copy looks different, I think that they drew each one individually!” they added, “ah! Here we are!” Peaky hopped back over to the team, laying down a large paper in front of them. Across the top of the page written “WANTED” in letters so big that there wasn’t enough room, and it had to be squeezed together to have the entire word. Underneath, written slightly more properly, was “Team Galaxy: Dead or Alive,” which made Nelvana take in an uneasy gulp of breath as she silently read it. Below all the text, were three poorly done drawings of Keahi, Nelvana, and Alex respectively. Whichever of the Team Meanies members had drawn up this particular poster seemed to have had a lot of difficulty with Keahi’s beak and Nelvana’s skull, the former ending up as just a triangle, and the latter being practically a spiky ball surrounded by pencil smudges. “Huh, they forgot to write down the reward for catching us,” Alex commented, “I guess we’re priceless,” he joked. Nelvana snickered, her tension at the text melting away the longer she looked at the drawings, “I have to give them some credit on my portrait, cubone skulls are challenging to get the hang of drawing,” she said, “that doesn’t excuse Alex’s nose though. At least they remembered your scar.” “Yeah, but they forgot where! Why did they draw it through my eye?” Alex responded. “I guess it looks more intimidating?” Nelvana suggested, “I think you really scared Gengar. Plus, they all had to draw from memory. And the one he could base off, he was probably more focused on finding more excuses.” Keahi giggled, “they drew one of my eyes bigger than the other! And look at the feathers! They’re practically just one big mound!” “I wonder if they’re just bad at drawing, or if they needed reference?” Nelvana asked no on in particular. “I guess we’ll never know,” Alex answered, stepping back from the poster to signal that he was finished looking. “Perhaps they should have taken art lessons from you, Nel,” Tsuki suggested, “then again, there is still the matter of whether you’d even give lessons.” “Uhh, I don’t consider myself a good enough teacher to give lessons to anyone,” Nelvana murmured. “Thanks for letting us see this anyway, Peaky!” Keahi chirped. “No problem! Now I guess all of us should get to work, shouldn’t we? See you guys later!” Peaky replied. The spearow fluttered back to the pidgeotto, who was patiently waiting for their return, and Team Galaxy turned and left the office. They went back home, and watched Nelvana doodled in the dirt while they waited for the others to arrive so they could get started. Wynaut and Wobbuffet were punctual, arriving at noon, excited to get to work and help out the silver-ranked rescue team with their base. It was another ten minutes before the mankeys arrived, but they had reluctantly brought Primeape with them. It turned out that she had forcefully come along to assist with the basics, certain that everyone just needed a better push to get started than the next to no experience most of them had. She had modified their notes, and went ahead and put an order for all the supplies, which left Team Galaxy in a mix of thankfulness, and bitterness at their work being discarded so easily, when they had thought that they had a better grasp on all of this.
The materials wouldn’t arrive until the next day, but fortunately there was still work to be done. They had to prepare the land for building a new base, which mainly meant that they had to get rid of the old one. By breaking it apart. It was sad to have to destroy their old home, but knowing that they would build a better one kept their spirits up, and it helped release some tension. Wynaut and Wobbuffet weren’t able to help terribly much, but the mankeys enjoyed themselves in the destruction. Primeape simply continued supervising everyone, over calling out a comment or critique every so often, much to the displeasure of Team Galaxy, especially since the fighting-type wasn’t actually assisting with the manual labor. With the area cleared out, they were left with no way to progress until the supplies arrived, and so everyone left for the day. Team Galaxy ended up having enough time to complete a few more missions before heading back to the cottage with Kangaskhan, enjoying another evening with the normal-type family. It was the next morning that they spotted a new arrival in Pokemon Square; Shiftry. The older grass-dark-type was brooding off to the side of town, and surprising, Lombre was standing beside him. They appeared to be speaking to each other, but it was being done much too quietly to be heard by bystanders. “Shiftry? He’s back? And there’s Lombre too?” Keahi whispered. “Who’s Shiftry?” Tsuki asked. “He…” Keahi trailed off, “He was the nuzleaves’ team leader.” “Ah,” Tsuki murmured, “do you know him well?” “No, we only watched his team accept Jumpluff’s mission,” Nelvana answered quietly, tracing the cracks on her club as she recalled the event. Despite them staying quiet, it didn’t take long for Shiftry to look up and notice the team. Lombre looked over as well, and stiffened upon seeing them. He was about to sneak away, but Shiftry dragged the grass-water-type over to the quartet. “Hello Team Galaxy,” Shiftry greeted somberly. “H-Hey,” Lombre mumbled, struggling against Shiftry in a way to try not to make it obvious what he was doing, but failing in all forms. “Hi guys!” Keahi greeted, “we… we haven’t seen either of you in awhile, how are you?” “I’ve… been managing,” Shiftry sighed, “look, I just wanted to thank you guys. For everything. You rescued me from Zapdos, and while you couldn’t rescue my teammates… you brought that damned murder to justice. So, thank you for that.” “Oh, uh, no problem!” Keahi replied, “look, we…” Shiftry shook his head, “look, don’t worry about it. I just want to move on, alright? Just needed to give you your thanks first. You deserve it.” “Okay,” Keahi sighed, “so, you’re staying here now?” “For now.” Shiftry nodded. “Anyway, this lil’ frog has something to say too,” he continued, shoving Lombre at them. “Ack!” Lombre croaked, stumbling forward. “Geez, you don’t need to be so rough…” he huffed, brushing off his arms before turning back to Team Galaxy and stiffening again. “Shoot…” Shiftry glowered down at Lombre, who was looking more uncomfortable by the minute. “F-Fine!” Lombre hissed, “I’m sorry for distrusting you like that! And for almost joining Team Meanies to hunt you down! And for… and I really messed up, didn’t I? I’m sorry.” Keahi smiled warmly at Lombre, “it’s alright. You messed up, but we forgive you.” “Would have been nice to not have you be so reluctant about apologizing though,” Alex mumbled. “He’s just a wimp,” Shiftry chuckled, harshly nudging Lombre. “Yeah, yeah. Can I go now?” Lombre sighed. “Sure, go ahead, frog,” Shiftry hummed. Just as he said, Shiftry stuck around Pokemon Square during the next few days. He continued avoiding most of the townsfolk, but would give Team Galaxy a wave as they went by, and sometimes they would see him chatting with the kecleon brothers. Construction continued as well, the supplies arriving on time to the Kecleon Shop for further work. Primeape kept coming with the mankeys to contribute with her advice, and by the end of the day, was actually helping with the work instead of sitting on the sidelines. It was a new, challenging, and long job, but they all found themselves enjoying their first few days of working. It was the fourth day that brought more change. Arriving in Pokemon Square with Kangaskhan that morning greeted them with a large crowd in the center of town with many unfamiliar pokemon. “Woah, that’s a big crowd. Wonder what’s happening this time?” Keahi gasped, “hey look! Those guys have badges! And so do they! And… is everyone here part of a team?” zie continued. “Look, there’s Team New Blooms, let’s go ask them,” Nelvana suggested, pointing over to the familiar chikorita and machop. Art, most characters, and plot belong to me Pokemon and PMD belong to Nintendo Please don't remix First: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/203259124/ Next: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/276002996/ Previous: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/273527493/
