(2100 words)
Chapter 12
Greed


Team Rose has a busy afternoon, cleaning up and organizing the base. "Ugh, couldn't you have done this earlier this morning?" Thorn groans.

"We both live here, so we both have to clean it. Besides, it makes a nice team bonding activity."

"Right, because fighting side-by-side isn't enough bonding." Even so, it was nice hanging out with their partner in a more relaxed setting.

"Um... Thorn?" Compass calls, standing by Thorn's bed of hay.

"Yeah?" Thorn walks over. "What's... Oh. Oh yeah." Thorn's bed has been lifted to reveal a spare bone club lying on the ground, with one end sharpened into a blade. "Okay I know this looks bad-"

"Thorn, I though you agreed not to! Sharp weapons are dangerous!"

"I know, I know, sorry. I put it there weeks ago, and forgot about it. I wouldn't use it now!"
"But why did you make it in the first place? How do I know you won't use it? You shouldn't hurt people Thorn..."

"Look, I made it when I still wasn't comfortable here. But this place... It's pretty safe. Sure, there's a few dangerous wild pokemon, but not many, and this town is just so... perfect. It's hard to believe, but I don't feel like I need a proper weapon. Especially not when I've got a partner by my side."

"Aww, I'm glad you trust me that much!.. But uh, you should really get rid of that thing."



"So, what do you do before I wake up?" Thorn asks as the team walks through town.

"Oh you know, have breakfast with mom, check out the bulletin board, yesterday I did a quick job with Team Arrow."

"Team Arrow? Who's that?"

"Oh, just an Oshawott and a Charmander. I was pretty nervous, but the..."

"... Compass?" Thorn follows Compass's gaze to a nearby shop, where a sandile is carrying a box. The team squints, trying to tell if they're the thief they failed to catch, when the sandile notices their staring, drops the box, and takes off running!

"Hey you, stop!" Compass sprints after them, with Thorn close behind!

"Compass, wait!"

The team chases Sandile through town, zipping around corners and weaving through townsfolk, before cornering them in an alley. Sandile backs up against the wall. "H-hey, wait a second!"

"Oh no you don't. You managed to trick us last time, but we won't listen to your lies anymore!"

"Wait, please, let me explain-"

"No, we gave you a chance, and you threw it away! Now prepare to face justice, you-"

"Compass, stop!" Thorn steps in front of Sandile. "They didn't trick us. I let them go."

"... What? But, why in the world would you..?"

"Do you think there were stealing for fun? They were hungry and desperate, they didn't have a choice."

"Um, guys?" Sandile tries to say.

"Of course they had a choice! They could've just gotten a job and-"

"Who would hire a known thief? And besides, they'd get arrested the second they got recognized."

"Well, yeah! They need to face justice for their crimes!"

"Hello?" Sandile says. "Can I please-"

"They don't need justice, they need help! Couldn't you see how scared and hungry they were? They're a pokemon in need!"

"I... They... That doesn't justify-"

A voice shouts from behind. "What is going on here?!"

Compass turns around to see- "Leader Beacon, I'm so glad you're here! This is the thieving sandile we tried to capture before!"

Beacon raises an eyebrow. "... Yes? Why are you- Oh dear, I must've forgotten to tell you. Sandile turned themself in shortly after your mission."

The team turns toward Sandile in shock.

"Yeah," Sandile says. "I was TRYING to explain, but..."

Thorn frowns. "So you turned yourself in immediately after I gave up a 500 coin reward to help you get away?"

"I turned myself in BECAUSE you helped me. I couldn't stand to keep stealing, I couldn't betray that kindness you showed me. Typhlosion was kind enough to lower my sentence to community service, one thing lead to another, and now I basically have a job!"

"But why did you run when you saw us?" Compass asks.

"Um. Because I'm scared of you? You exploded me the last time we met, and you're not very nice."

Compass gasps in offense.

"Sandile, I'm so sorry for all this trouble," Beacon says, "I should've informed Cyndaquil about the situation. Let's go, I'll explain to your boss why you ran off."

Beacon escorts Sandile back to their job, and Team Rose resumes walking to the bulletin board. "Well that was... weird," Compass says. "But justice was served, and everything turned out alright!"

Thorn facepalms. "God damn it, you can't be serious. Justice had nothing to do with it. Sandile got help by Beacon giving them a job. If you had it your way, Sandile would be rotting in a prison cell."

"Well... I... How was I supposed to know they had a good reason for stealing? They were acting like a criminal, like a bad pokemon."

"You say that as if they're the same thing. If you can't tell the difference between greed and desperation, then just stick to rescue jobs." Right on cue, the team arrives at the board, and Thorn points out a job. "Like how about this... one... Um. Compass, that's a lot of digits, right?"

"Huh? Let me- WHOA!! Th-this is a 2,000 coin reward just for retrieving a necklace?!"

"Whoa, seriously?! Where is it?"

"Sinister Woods."

"What? That's easy! Sheesh, this client must have more money than they know what to do with!"

"Alright, let's get a move on!"



"So," Thorn says, checking under a rock, "did the job have any info on where it was lost?"

"No. It just says 'go find my necklace'. All lowercase, no punctuation."

"Great. With any luck, moneybags here was too lazy to get deep into the woods."

"Hey, I see a clearing up ahead! Maybe they stopped for a picnic and lost it then." The team thoroughly searches the clearing, scanning every inch of grass and checking every bush, but they finish empty handed.

"Damn it, are we sure they even lost it in these woods? Maybe they just left it in their coat pocket."

"Let's not give up yet, they couldn't have strayed far from the path. Let's head deeper in-"

"Not so fast, kekeh!" Gengar drops down from a tree, blocking the path forward.

"Gengar?!" Compass says. "What are you doing here?"

"You shouldn't be so loud about money. Somebody might just be eavesdropping, kekeh! Only one of us is getting that fat reward, and it ain't gonna be you!"

"Wow, great plan," Thorn says, "I'm sure Beacon will love to hear about it."

"For 2,000 coins? It's worth the risk!"

"Well that's... Hey where's Medicham and Ekans? Wait, no way, did they ditch you?"

"What?! Of course not, they're- Uh, I mean, they're just handling a different job right now. I can handle you twerps on my own."

"Holy shit they actually ditched you! I never thought that stuff I said would actually work!"

"Oh yeah? Well I wonder if your dear partner would stick around if they knew how you really felt about them! Like how-"

"How I don't trust them, and think of them as nothing but a useful tool? Or about how I think they're a wimp, and only teamed up with them because I could beat them in a fight?"

"Wow," Compass says, "when did you say all that?"

"Two weeks ago."

"Y-yeah!" Gengar says. "That's what Cubone really thinks of you! What do you say to that?"

The team looks at each other, then they crack up laughing.

"Ugegegeh?! Hey! What's so funny?!"

"Well you see Gengar," Compass says, "that would've really hurt my feelings, if I had heard it before Cubone jumped in front of a razor leaf for me."

"Th-they did what!? Are we talking about the same Cubone here?!"

"Sorry to disappoint, Gengar," Thorn says, "but I've changed. But you... You don't really trust your teammates, do you? And you've been with them for how long? I bet you'll never change."

"Heh, and what about it? I don't need to trust anybody."

"Yeah, you'd never care about someone besides yourself. I bet if someone jumped in front of an attack for you, you'd just laugh in their face and call them an idiot-"

"Shut the hell up!" Gengar throws a shadow ball at Thorn, which they barely avoid in time! Thorn lunges forward to strike with their club, but Gengar smacks them out of the air with a shadow punch. He prepares another shadow ball while Thorn is down, but a bolt of flame from the side makes him lose concentration.

Gengar turns and starts throwing shadow balls at Compass, but the distance makes them easy to dodge. He starts to approach, but Thorn strikes them from behind with their club. Gengar turns with a blind punch, but Thorn ducks under it and drives their club into Gengar's stomach! But through the pain, Gengar throws a hard punch that sends Thorn rolling toward Compass!

Compass shoots another bolt of flame, but Gengar blocks it and runs toward the team, dodging Compass's flames along the way. Compass spews out a smokescreen, and Gengar steps back, ready for their surprise attack...

But when the smoke clears, Compass is nowhere to be found, leaving Thorn looking around in confusion.

"... Ke, kekekeh! Looks like your partner's abandoned you, bud! You made me lose my cool back there, and I fought sloppy, but now we can have some real fun..." Gengar's eyes glow with power as he readies hypnosis-

A giant wave of fire strikes Gengar from behind, and he cries out in pain! Furious, he turns around and prepares a shadow ball, making it bigger, and bigger, AND BIGGER-

*BONK*

The shadow ball dissipates, and Gengar falls to his knees, then to the ground, groaning.

"Seriously dude," Thorn says, "did you not hear us? We're partners. To abandon a teammate like that, you'd have to be... well, your team, apparently."

Gengar raises himself with his arms. "Keh... keh... keh... Are you really... sure about that..?"

Thorn tilts their head in confusion, before being struck by a sharp pain in their neck. They fall to the ground and Compass gasps in shock, as Medicham and Ekans walk past them.

"Hello there, Team Rose," Ekans says. "Eating dirt again, I see."

"Gengar, are you okay?" Medicham asks, rushing over with an oran berry.

"Bah, I'm fine. These twerps played dirty, but while they won the battle, we won the war, right?"

"You know it!" Ekans twirls the necklace around his tail. "Thanks for buying us time, boss."

"Perfect! And this, losers, is why you don't mess with Team Meanies!"

After feeding Thorn an oran berry, Compass confronts Team Meanies. "You won't get away with this! Not when Leader Beacon hears about it!"

"Oh, but Beacon would never do anything to the town's #1 rescue team. Especially when we never harmed so much as a hair on her precious Cyndaquil's head."

"But when she hears about Thorn-"

"What, you think we haven't attacked anyone before? We get away with this stuff all the time! Beacon would only care if it's you."

"You... I'm sick of you bullies just doing whatever you want!" Compass grabs Thorn's bone club. "Give us the necklace and apologize to Thorn, or else."

"Kekekeh! Or else what?"

Compass raises the club... and bonks their own head with it, dropping the club and clutching their head in pain.

"... I see. Very threatening. Well, let's move, meanies-"

"Give it, or I'll tell Leader Beacon YOU gave me this bump on my head."

"Ugegegegeh?!? H-hey, that's cheating! We didn't touch you!"

"Necklace. Now."

"Y-you little... Curses! Fine! Ekans."

Ekans tosses the necklace into Compass's hand.

"Good. Now apologize to Thorn."

"Why you... Fine, whatever, Medicham-"

"No. All of you."

... Medicham crosses her arms. "Hmph. Sorry for karate chopping you," Medicham says. "Again."

"Sorry for making fun of you," Ekans says.

Gengar growls. "... Sorry you were too slow to dodge-"
"Apologize for real. Or would you like Beacon to know how you kicked me while I was down?"

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry for attacking you! Let's just get out of here, meanies."

As Team Meanies departs, Compass gives Thorn their club back. "Wow partner," Thorn says, "I didn't think you were the type to lie like that."

"I'm usually not. But it wouldn't be the first time I lied to protect you."

"Aww, you're the best partner ever! I would commit crimes for you too, buddy."

"Please do not."




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