Last Time: Nero, Bianco, Halo, Rusty, and their new ally Clay managed to find their way to Bacchus Town to intercept a group of Cross-Void Pokémon who they all had to fight, during the fighting they were backed up by Rusty's original team of other Dark-Type Pokémon while Halo managed to get her paws on a book meant for Nero with some information about his sword and shield.

Location: The Town of Hermes

After hours of helping the Bacchus town, more help came from neighboring towns and both teams needed to head back, they did want to help out more since it was the right thing to do but the residents of Bacchus town told them they helped more than they ever could with them fighting the evil Pokémon, they also needed to report back what they saw in the town.

They at first wanted to use Clay as a ride again but there were more of them, and they were hurt. They went through the same mystery dungeon through Athena Forest which was easier since they had both the Pangoro and Clay with them and made it to town. It was a long day for them all, Team Hope left early in the morning and made it to the town close to noon and spent so long that it was close to late afternoon. They even had to have a light lunch so they could go back to helping the town.

As they walked through town, some onlookers looked at Clay with either interest or confusion. They once even stopped to rest at some benches in the middle of town with Clay still standing, some flying Pokémon landed on Clay thinking he was a new statue they either apologized for landing on him before flying off or flew away while being spooked. After resting for a bit, they continued back to the guild where they all saw Diva the Hattrem along with a large pink Pokémon with pointy ears with brown tips and fairy-like wings on their back. It was a Clefable the Fairy Pokémon.

"Hey, Diva, Magenta, happy to see you both!" Bianco said with Diva waving while the Clefable named Magenta looked annoyed by Bianco's happy-go-lucky attitude.

"Now isn't a good time Bianco," Magenta said as she pulled out a letter. "Raider sent a message via messenger from Bacchus that you all encountered something that needed to be addressed. Is that true?" She then clearly noticed Clay. "I feel like it was true... also the Golurk? Are they with you?"

"Yeap, that's Clay, he's cool, and I saw it with my own eyes, you should also be happy to hear Rusty was punched in the face!" Bianco said with his hands behind his head with a wide smile.

"Twice." Rusty said as he corrected his statement.

"Twice."

"Sigh! Can't you be serious for just a minute when we talk Bianco?" Magenta said clearly annoyed further. "We are also having a meeting currently. Both you and Raider need to attend it if what your letter says is true. Also, we have guests so please behave Bianco."

"I make no promises!" Bianco said with Magenta zooming in front of him with her hand into a fist with purple energy surrounding it and her eyes glowing red. "I will make as much on my promise!" Bianco said without any hint that he was intimidated, his shaking knees was a giveaway though.

As her hand was clear of the glow and her eyes turned back to normal, she looked behind Bianco and noticed both Nero and Halo. He picked up Bianco like he was made of paper and put him to the side as she looked at two children Pokémon, his face that had clear annoyance was changed to a happy and somber look as she kneeled down to get closer to the two. "Aww, and who are you two? Are you the latest recruits?"

"They are, Riolu is Nero while the Eevee is Halo, she's Apollonia's daughter." Bianco answered.

"Aww, so you're her daughter, oh my gosh! I didn't recognize you! I visited her a few times and saw you when you first hatched! I wished I could have visited more!" Magenta said as she picked up Halo and held her in the air with a gentle grip so she wouldn't hurt the Eevee. She then heard an "Ahem!" and looked at the others. Her face switched back to the nasty look. "Oh, right." She then lowered Halo onto the ground. "Unless the Pokémon you were fighting said anything important then I'd ask for you to write a report but if they didn't then you can take your leave, both Raider the Pangoro and Bianco the Zangoose must enter and report what happened in the meeting. You'll also be given your reward for completing the mission, so until then you can all take your leave."

They all entered the guild hall. Clay was looked over by Diva who looked more interested in his arm and the box he was guarding with their life. Rusty, Nero, and Halo told Magenta about what happened while the Pangoro whom Nero learned was named Raider, and Bianco left to the back of the guild. Halo told her about the temple which Magenta took note of. After about half an hour about what they all learned and saw back at the town, Magenta told them they were free to go and do their own things but if they had questions for later to stay in town, Clay, however, would need to stay in the guild hall for some time, she got up and left before giving Halo a quick set of head pats which she enjoyed as shown by her tail wagging.

The Pokémon all then walked outside of the guild hall and back into town. Nero then remembered something, introductions for the team of Pokémon they had just met. "Right! Sorry about this but we didn't properly introduce ourselves. "I'm Nero the Riolu." Nero said as he took out his hand for a handshake for the Cacnea who stepped back.

"Sorry about her, Lime is trying her best to not get into physical contact with others as she knows her spikes can hurt. As for me, I'm Havoc the Krokorok. The Pangoro you heard was named Raider, he's our boss on our team, we're called Team Shade Walkers." Said the Krokorok named Havoc who took the handshake. Halo raised his paw to also give a handshake which Havoc took and shook.

Rusty noticed the sun was getting close to going down and they rushed to eat earlier so they all could have been hungry. "Hey, are you both hungry? We can eat at Spinner's, on me." Rusty said to them. They did finish the job and got their reward, some money.

Nero did want to go and eat but he wanted to look over something, the book Halo discovered in the temple that was underground. They did check out the location for more information, but it was destroyed and couldn't be looked into. "Sorry Rusty, I need to turn that down. I wanted to check something out, a book and--"

"Oh, I understand, no hard feelings. I think Apollonia and Artemis are still at the guild so I don't think you guys should be at their home alone, maybe you can read at the library." Rusty said to them as they all started to walk down the street.

They talked about facts about the town they lived in the dock area near the shore was a major market area where they could buy items and other materials that were imported from other parts of the world, the lighthouse also being the postal service of a messenger guild, and how they had some restaurants other than Spinner's. The town was a large one.

After some time they started talking about other topics, trying to stray away from food so as to not get the two hungry, they talked about which shop was the best, Rusty thought a shop owned by a Kangaskhan with a Cubone that they adopted but Havoc said a shop owned by a Sabileye was better, they argued for a bit back and forth before Rusty started to throw punches into Havoc's gut.

Havoc then bites down on Rusty's head which makes the Scrafty start to punch Krokorok's jaw. Lime waved at Nero, gesturing to him to follow her as they left the two fights in the middle of the street. Nero, Halo, and Lime made it to a large building with a sign that said "Library" above the door with two statues beside the doors, they both looked like birds with simple shaped bodies with round heads. Nero has seen this Pokémon, Xatu, the Mystic Pokémon.

After leading them to the building, Lime went back to the others to either break up the fighting or watch like the bystanders who were watching when they already left them to fight. Both Nero and Halo walked into the building to see that it was larger than they thought with it being two stories with several shelves adorned with books on them.

They noticed the front desk with a Pokémon with a green-slime material over a small olive body that had a piece above its body. It was a Dousion, the Mitosis Pokémon. They were looking over books. They walked past the desk and made it to a table where they sat down. "Okay, let's get ready!" Nero whispered as they were in a library, Halo quietly cheered, it was more like she opened her mouth wide with a paw up.

Not more than a second later Halo lowered her head as she looked bored. "Um, Halo, if you want you can get a book you can read."

"Okay," Halo said as she got up and walked away. Nero opened the book to look for the page about the sword and shield, there were a lot of sketches and entries that he planned to read later. Halo soon returned with a book atop her head titled "The Beast of Three and the Tower" She then carefully placed the book on the table before opening it herself and reading it.

Nero didn't mind her tagging along to read a book while he was reading something he thought would help him figure out why he was even in this world. He knew that the language of humans was different from the Pokémon language so there was a likely chance she wouldn't understand almost anything in the book. He would then find the page he was looking for, the part about the sword and shield he could summon.

He read through the pages only to discover that some of the words were fading but he could still make out much of the entry, such as the names of both items. "The weapons of two of my closest friends, the sword of Harpe and the Shield of Achilles, both loyal to the end, when I first met them, they saved my life and were like family to me, an orphan with no home or future but they gave me purpose. After finding a way to keep them in my heart I could summon their weapons. I had named them after them, the Sword Harpe, sharp enough to cut through a mountain in my hands and the Shield Achilles, with it I could take hits from anything, both dangerous in the wrong hands..." That was as much as it could describe, it would talk more about both Harpe and Achilles, not what Pokémon they were or just what happened. Only a few tales about some misadventures with whoever wrote this book, except it doesn't say just who they were, not their name or anything.

"Well, at least my sword and shield have names, calling them that would have gotten boring..." Nero said before remembering that they weren't originally his or even the original owner of this book, they belonged to two other Pokémon. He felt like maybe there was more and chose to start skimming through to see if there was anything else, only to find nothing of use. It would seem the entry with the sword Harpe, and shield Achilles were the only bits of information, just some facts about it and some tales of who the real original owners were like.

Nero then felt like something was off like someone was watching him. He turned his head around to see a Pokémon, they were humanoid and small like Riolu, they had what looked like blue hair with twin ponytails on the side of their head and legs with a white upper body with ruffles around their hips. They had a twin set of flat horns that matched their orange eyes. It was a Kirlia, the Emotion Pokémon, only they were different, they were shiny Pokémon. They also had a white bow tied around their neck with a blue gem in the center of it and had a pair of blue bracelets around their wrist. Their eyes had stars shining in them as they gazed at the book.

"Hello--" Nero tried to talk before Kirlia ran behind him and got closer to Nero, like really close that her head was over his shoulder and her left ponytail hairstyle was covering Nero's eyes.

"Is this book written in the human language?!" Kirlia said loudly followed by a 'shh!' from the librarian. Kirlia's face turned red for a second before making a quiet apology to them. They then noticed Nero and realized they were too close and took a step back. "Sorry... I just saw your book and was interested in it when I saw the title. Can I ask you about the book, what does "Nero" mean?"

"Oh, Nero is my name, this is more like a journal, but I think it was made for me, wait, you know how to read human language?" Nero said as she knew what was written on the cover.

"Yeah, I learned about humans when I was younger, about not only their language but culture." Kirlia said as they reached out a hand. "My name is Sapphire."

"I just said my name is Nero, please to meet you." Nero said as he shook Sapphire's hand. She then pulled out a chair and sat down next to him. "My friend Halo said she found this book in an underground chamber, but it was buried by some guys."

"Aww, I would have loved to see something like that," Sapphire said with dismay at that information. She then looked over the pages with Nero laying it down, she could see that the state of the book was well-kept. The pages did have some fade, but they were still readable with some great sketches. "So, you can read humans too?" Nero nodded his head before Sapphire reached out, grabbed both his hands and looked into his eyes with stars in her eyes again. "Really? You can understand Humans too? Who taught you? What do you like about them? History? Culture? Facts?" Sapphire was really cheerful.

"Um, I guess I learned it on my own..." Nero answered, he couldn't just outright say he was a human, remembering Apollonia's words about keeping that fact a secret. He then remembered something, were there humans in this world? "I guess I also like history. Can I ask you something, what happened to humans?"

"You don't know?" she asked with Nero shaking her head. "Well, I can tell you, humans were all over the whole world where they lived side-by-side with Pokémon, living together in harmony, one day there was a horrible war where humans used Pokémon that attacked one another, and one day the war took a turn to the worse where the humans did something with all the humans just disappearing. Some say they were wiped out..." Sapphire said with some sadness in her voice.

Nero looked dismayed about what he just learned. Humans are gone? Wiped out from this world? War was something he learned about; he may have been very self-taught, but he still learned what he could. "Man, which was a lot to take in."

"Yeah, top it off some Pokémon think Humans are nothing but bad news dude to them using their ancestors as living weapons. After humans went through a lot of their technology was left over and some Pokémon used it, although some was still lost due to time."

Nero didn't say anything else. He felt like the last human before remembering he wasn't one at the moment with him being a Riolu. He looked back at the book; it was old but how old? "When did humans have this war exactly?"

"No one knows, it was said that it was thousands of years ago while others would say it was less, some even saying it was just a few hundred, but some Pokémon are close to a thousand who deny this," Sapphire said as she looked over the book again. "If you want, there might be some hidden codes or something inside this journal, I could help you with my teacher, Rune."

"Wait, Rune? The Kabutops?" Nero was shocked as he remembered the Guild member who had a blade to his throat to scale his height.

"Yeah, he was the one who taught me so much about humans. In this very library, he saw that I wanted to learn about humans and took me up as an apprentice along with my team for the guild, we're Team Truth Seekers." Sapphire said with a quiet cheer.

"Hey, I'm in the guild too, Team Hope." Nero said before thinking about her offer. "Maybe I can ask him to see if there is anything with this journal."

"Yeah, I can also help too." Sapphire said with pure utter joy. She felt like she'd made a real friend to humans and looked at a clock on the wall. "Oh, right I need to head home!" She said out loud before hearing a 'shh!' sound and scratched the back of her head. "Sorry," she whispered before turning to Nero. "Anyway, see you at the guild later Nero." Sapphire said as she left the table.

Nero waved her goodbye as she left and looked at the journal. He took in what he learned, now he understood why Apollina wanted him to keep the fact he was once human a secret, guess Pokémon don't trust humans. He looked over more of the pages before finding something, it looked like a door with multiple spheres and lines all connecting to each other. Total of ten of them, with different symbols. Unlike the rest of the pages of the journal this page was written in another different language that he didn't understand.

Location: Guild Hall, conference room

In a large room with a long table with utensils such as cups and plates sat several Pokémon, the Electabuzz, Minerva the Clefable, the Empoleon, and the Heatran all sitting in different spots, after waiting for a bit they turned to the entrance to Apollonia the Espeon along with Artemis the Umbreon, Rune the Kabutops, and Bianco and Raider the Pangoro. "And here I thought we'd wait till we eat. What is Bianco doing here?" the Electibuzz asked.

"Bianco has some information about who we believe is behind something, Gaius." Raider said to the Electibuzz named Gaius.

"Shocked to see me Gai-Gai?" Bianco said jokingly with the Electibuzz getting up from his seat.

"How many times have I said to stop calling me that!" Gaius said in frustration.

"Gai-Gai, sit back down." Raider said with a mocking look on his face, there was clear pleasure in his voice.

"Rah! Not you too Raider!"

"Calm down at once Gaius..." said the voice of Julius, Raider and Bianco moved to see the guild master walking into the room. "We need to get started, Robin, Atlas, and Berserker won't be joining us, but Poseidon and Hades have just sent some of their best here."

"Apologize Grandfather," Gaius said as he sat back down. "Who did they send to join us, I hope Hades didn't send Midas... again." After saying that everyone in the room looked a little nervous with a mix of annoyance on their faces as they hoped for someone other than this character named Midas.

"He said he sent Zagreus instead of Midas." This made everyone have a sigh of relief as they wouldn't have to deal with someone, they all equally disliked. "They should also be now." Julius said as three figures entered the room.

The first to noticed was some sort of lamp floating in the air with a lavender flame inside of it along with two yellow dots next to it like eyes. It was Lampent, the lamp Pokémon. The other had a roundish small body wrapped in bandages with two large hands, their head looked like a skull with three bumps that looked like teeth and a glowing crimson eye in the center. Dusclops the Beckon Pokémon. Both Pokémon had on them a borscht that was made of three rings that had two spikes on the upper ring with two pink cloths on the ends of it.

The last to enter was between the two, they looked more like a living tree, or shadow using a bleached white tree as a body as the joints were broken along with autumn red leaves on their wrist and atop their head, they used the roots like multiple sets of legs as their face was broken from the body like a wide mouth and a crimson red eye. They were a shiny Trevenant, the Elder tree Pokémon. One thing that stood out was that they had a shield on their left arm that also had the three rings with one side of it having what looked like an eye engraving on one edge of the shield with a black and purple cloth at the end of it. The Trevenant looked to the Lampent and Dusclops. "Thanatos, Charon, stay outside. This is a private matter."

The two Ghost Pokémon nodded their heads before closing the door. The Trevenant turned around to see the other Pokémon and walked over to a seat next to Gaius who leaned into the ghost tree. "Thank you for coming and not Midas, Zagreus."

"He was sent to deal with a hoard of bandits that have been causing trouble near the border of Underland. Lord Hades sent him to deal with it since the last time he did anything was... I don't even know how long ago that was." The Trevenant named Zagreus said with Gaius just offering a fist bump. Zagreus looked forward as if they were trying to pay attention to something but gave a fist bump in return. "Who is left to show up?" Zagreus said as he lifted a plate with a teacup where a kettle was above it is pouring tea in the cup. "Thank you, Sir Shade."

"Anything for royalty of my old homeland Lord Zagreus." Said Shade as he was above them holding the kettle, he offered some to Gaius who refused the refreshment. "Lord Kanemaki of Atlantis has arrived along with another." Shade said before the door burst open, with a large blue creature that stood on all fours with golden yellow shell armor on their limbs and head with a horn that looked like a unicorn horn with spikes on it, along with facial hair, a long-curved mustache and beard. Samurott, the Formidable Pokémon. Around their neck was what looked like the same brooch that the other Ghost Pokémon had. The one who busted the door open was a large brown bear with what looked like they were covered gray clay-mud on their arms, legs, tail, and back with a yellow forehead along with blotches on their forehead like eyebrows and some over their snout like a mustache. They were Ursaluna, the Peat Pokémon. "Hahaha! Hello everyone! Berserker has returned!" Said the Usraluna named Berserker.

"Hey what's up Grandpa!" Bianco said to the Ursaluna name Berserker pressing an arm on a wall looking down upset.

"Why does he keep calling me Grandpa? I'm not that old, middle aged at best." Berserker said with humiliation in his voice.

"Now you know how Master Julius felt when you called him an old man at Bianco's age." Raider said with memories playing back in their heads in their younger years as a small bear with a crescent moon on their forehead. Teddiursa, the tiny bear Pokémon. Next to them was a small panda-like Pokémon with a piece of grass in their mouth. Pancham, the Playful Pokémon. They both looked at a Raichu who was drinking from a mug with Teddiursa pointing at them yelling: "Old man!" forcing the Raichu to spit out their drink before running at the two children who ran away frightened by the sudden outburst of fury from the Pokémon. The memory ended.

"I was so adorable in my youth... Well, I still am." Berserker said with a wink before walking to a seat next to Raider with the master of the guild Julius sitting at the edge of the table. "So then since we're all here, what is this meeting about?"

"A few hours ago, after my team had finished a mission, we were heading to Bacchus Town to meet up with Team Shade Walkers with Rusty as he wanted to reunite with them earlier than expected but we ran into some unforeseen circumstances." Bianco said as he took a seat next to Raider, everyone turned their gaze to the adventurer he sat next to who nodded their head.

"Was it bandits? They have been more active as of late." Gaius said with both Bianco and Raider shaking their heads in disagreement. "Hmm? What is it then?"

"Something else, a threat... It isn't just Raider who knows but also Apollonia." Bianco then told them everything, a quick recap as to what they had dealt with in the past few days with him, meeting Nero, taking him to Apollonia, their first encounter with Ivan who told them about what they were, a Cross-Void.

Apollina and Raider joined in, they explained what they knew what a Cross-void they were as didn't know much but could only guess that they could fully understand what they saw. Ivan even explained he was a mix of a Salandit with a mix of fire and poison type, Raider could guess that the ones they've seen at Corinth the Gallade, Delos the Bisharp, and Pompey the Machoke.

They believed they knew that the first one was a mix with something, that Corinth being a mix of Cerulegde due to him knowing Bitter Blade. As everyone was taking in this information it was hard to believe what they were learning, normally something like this would be laughed off as ridiculous but with two high ranking members of the guild backing these claims, they took it seriously.

After that their explanations were put to an end, everyone stood there silent as they took what they learned in. "So... how many do you believe there are? These "Cross-Voids" as you said." asked Kanemaki.

"Currently... unknown, we can confirm at least five or possibly six, Ivan was with another Pokémon, a Murkrow named Al as he put it, we didn't see him do what they did yeah..." Bianco explained.

"Six or seven actually." Raider said in a matter-of-fact tone. Every turned to him which made Bianco remember that Rusty told them what they knew, and he scratched his head embarrassingly. "You forgot about the Golurk named Clay."

"Golurk?" Apollonia asked, turning her attention to Bianco. "What is this about a Golurk?"

"You encountered a Golurk?" Zagreus said, surprised.

"Yeah, outside of a temple and tomb too... it found us in Athena Forest where me and Rusty battled it, we think it is also a Cross-Void since it tanked some dark-type moves we threw at it, after Nero did something it stopped being a threat... it's outside the guild hall now guarding the outside..." Bianco said with Shade walking towards a wall before entering it. The Gengar then popped his head out of the wall from the outside to see a Golurk who looked at them, they then returned to the room to confirm Bianco's claim.

"Interesting, it isn't normal for a Golurk to leave their resting place that they were meant to guard with their afterlife." Zagreus said in even more surprise at this revelation.

"Yeah... we also did have to fight, and Nero did get hurt but he--" Bianco was cut off as his body started to glow before being lifted into the air and flown straight to Apollonia who looked like she had a fire in her eyes. "Um... sorry I know you told me to take the kids on a simple safe mission, but we did have to deal with some bumps in the road. Hehehe... Um, if it makes you feel better Halo didn't actually fight in the battle at the to--" Bianco was cut off before being tossed at a wall crashing into the wall, leaving a dent before he fell to the ground.

The door opened up when both the Lampent and Dusclops came in and saw Bianco on the ground and ran up to him as he was knocked out but upon seeing him just knocked out, they looked disappointed. "Perfect timing, could you two take him out of the room to nurse Peach and Doctor Fuchsia, we need to talk about something private." Minerva asked the two who looked at Zagreus who nodded to them with the Dusclops picking up the Zangoose by grabbing under their arms and dragging them off.

"Now then, let us talk about the real reason we assembled here...'' Julius said to them all who all looked serious about what they wanted to say. "One of the keys went missing..." Everyone tried to keep calm, but it was clear that they all disbelieved this. "I know this is terrible news, the guild and the three Kingdoms of Inizio have agreed to keep the keys a secret but the key that was kept by us went missing as of three days ago."

"Tch! For years Lord Hades told you to keep it guarded or hand it to one of us, we could have kept it safe." Zagreus said with a disappointed tone with Kanemaki scoffing at his claim.

"Hmm, child, best watch your tone, after all, Atlantis would have kept it where no one would seek, unlike your father keeping his keys nearby where anyone could get to them." Kanemaki said as he took a sip of tea.

The shiny Trevenant slammed his hands to the ground as he talked back at the Samurott. "You dare insult my father, Lord Hades, the Eternal King of Underland?! I should have your head!"

"Come and take it!" Kanemaki said as he rose up from his seat, the brooch glowing before he tossed it on his back with it turning into a set of swords that shared a sheath with the three rings turning into guards on a set of swords with the ends of the hilts being pink ribbons. Kanemaki then pulled out two swords made of shells from his arms as the pink ribbons on the swords wrapped around their arms before pulling out of the sheath, wielding four swords.

"I will!" Zagreus screamed as he placed his right hand close to the shield next to the eye engraving with a handle popping out, he grabbed it and pulled on it with a large golden blade with the eye engraving on the handle with two cloths of black with purple edges that wrapped around Zagreus' arm.

"ENOUGH!" The sheer force of Julius' scream was enough to make the two stops. They looked at the guild's master who looked irritated at the two bickering. They sheathed their swords and sat back down. "This isn't about what could have been done but what has already been done. The key we kept hidden was missing... it is a serious deal for if all ten are taken then we'll be in serious trouble about the matter..."

"What about the boy?" The Heatran named Hephaestus finally spoke up with his deep voice. They were silent most of the time, but he wanted to point out a connection to everything, Nero. "The boy named Nero, haven't you all seen a pattern? They arrived at Apollonia's home three days ago, when your key went missing. They also have a strange ability with a sword and shield..." Hephaestus' claim was sound, there were some connections to what has been happening and Nero is a key part of it.

"Yes, this child Nero must be a part of what is going on... I ask that we take custody of this child to learn--" Kanemaki said before being cut off as everyone, he, Hephaestus, and Zagreus, Gaius, Berserker, Raider, Rune, Minerva, Artimus, Shade, and the Empoleon all looked at the Espeon who looked as if they were ready to commit murder. "Um... Lady Apollonia, is there a problem?"

"Nero, he is not for you to take. I have met him, seen his memories, he knows nothing! I have seen what he has been through and after seeing his past I have sworn to be his guardian and caretaker! If you take Nero from me... I will destroy you and the Knights of Inizio..." Apollonia said with a pure murderous look that made the three guests all get out of their seats, mainly Kanemaki and Zagreus as Hephaestus was standing, they all walked to a further spot away from the Espeon.

"So, we all agree NOT to take them into custody for information?" Kanemaki asked with the other two nodding to him. "Good, but maybe we should at some point get to know the boy. Learn what he could know."

"That I can agree with," Apollonia said, calming down. "Don't mess with a caring mother."

Location: Town of Hermes, shopping district

After doing some research, Nero and Halo agreed on one thing, they were hungry. Nero walked with a bag in hand that had some money inside of it, all coins with a symbol in the center with writings on the edges of the coin and a number on it that was the value of the coin. "Alright, where should we eat?" Nero questioned.

"Maybe Spinner again, I like his food." Halo said to her friend.

They walked up to see Spinner's restaurant where they spotted some familiar faces. Viola the Seviper, Blu the Crogunk, and on his back, Rosa the Spinarak. They were eating outside at a table a few feet away from the restaurant, with a plate of ball-like bread. Blu notices them and singles them closer. "Yo. Nero, what's up?"

Both Nero and Halo walked up, they were slightly spectacular to the Seviper for it did attack Bianco without warning. They looked at the Fang Snake Pokémon who used her tail to gesture to them to come closer with a smile on her face. They walked over with Blu greeting them. "Yo. Nero and Halo, heard you both went on your first mission." Blu said with his expression unchanged.

"Yeah, we were to look for an item then--" Nero stopped himself as he didn't know if he was supposed to share what happened after what they'd been through. "Yeah, it was a good first mission," Nero said with a smile. Halo tapped on his side to get her attention and turned to her, she wanted to talk but Nero whispered to her. "We don't know if we should tell everyone yet, just keep it to ourselves until someone says so I guess."

"Yo. That's cool. We just got back not too long ago from saving someone trapped in a mystery dungeon." Blu said as he ate a piece of bread.

"Yes, it was a good thing that it was mainly a forest with Grass-type Pokémon. You're apart of Bianco's team, yes?" The Seviper named Viola asked Halo and Nero nodding their heads. "Hmm, nice to meet you then, I am Viola, I hope my first interaction with you all doesn't bother you, I fight with him a lot, but I have no ill will towards you two. Were named Team Toxic, a Poison team that mostly does recovery, bounty hunting, search and rescue missions. You've met Blu and Rosa already."

"Yo. She's our leader, both I and Rosa work with and for her, we're mostly a normal ranked team." Blu explained to them that both members of Team Hope looked confused. "Yo. Oh, you both don't know the ranking system?" Blu asked with them nodding.

"I'll explain, there are rankings in a guild, and each one is no different, you start with a rank, a total of twelve in four categories in tiers of stars, the first being no stars from starting out with Rookie, then Normal followed Bronze, most Pokémon start out like this for a while." Viola explained as she showed her badge that looked like Bianco's. "I am a Bronze ranking, with both Blu and Rosa having a normal rank."

"Whoa!" Both Halo and Nero said as they looked at their badge that looked how they always did. Blu pulled out two badges that looked like the ones they had but the tops of them were red with the gem staying the same color. "Oh, the badges change color, wait, do the gems stay the same?"

"Yo. On the star tier actually. The gens change color to the star ranking, since we're no stars, the gem is red, they change to blue on one star, green on two stars, and golden yellow on the top three-star rankings." Blu explained.

"That sounds interesting and all but does the star tier also have more ranking titles?" Nero asked.

"That is correct, for instance, one star starts with Gold, followed by Silver, then Platinum. Two stars have Diamond, Pearl, then Ultra titles. The last of the ranks are Hyper, Master, and the highest ranking that only one member of a guild can have at a time. Grand Master." Viola explained before they looked at each other and then went back to Team Toxic.

"Wait, so Master Julius has this ranking?" Nero said, surprised. "That's awesome! What about other members of the guild?"

"Currently there are only two with the Rank of Master, there is Master Minerva and Master Atlas. But we do have some members who have the Hyper ranking, like Rune, Berserker, Apollonia, Artimes, and Raider--"

"Wait, my mom is Hyper rank?" Halo said confused before Viola paused for a second, picking up a cup with the flat end of her tail, taking a sip of her drink before spitting it out surprised into Blu's face.

"APOLLONIA IS YOUR MOTHER?!" Viola said with a mix of surprise and fear. "Oh geez! She's, her daughter?! Good thing I didn't want to start anything bad but-- okay don't panic Viola, she doesn't see you as an enemy, just remember why you shouldn't mess with the Witch of the Forest for so MANY reasons!" Viola thought to herself as she remembered as a child, younger than the children, she entered the forest to find the Witch of the Forest to fight only to get knocked out almost instantly every time.

"Can we sit with you guys?" Halo asked with an innocent smile.

"Yes!" Viola said nervously.

Before more could be said, Spinner exited from the entrance and rolled his ball like a cirque performer to the table. "Buongiorno everyone~, my Nero, little Halo, nice to see you both. Here for something to eat?" Spinner asked the two who nodded.

"Yeah, we joined the guild and finished our first mission," Nero told Spinda who smiled with glee.

"Fantastico, I'll get you a table inside." The spinner was about to roll away, but Nero stopped them.

"Actually, maybe we could sit with them." Nero said as pointed to the trio with Spinner looking nervous about his choice of where to sit. "Is there a problem?"

"Um..." Spinner lowered his head to Nero and whispered in his ear. "Are you sure? You do know their Poison Types, right?" Spinner said to Nero's confusion.

"Huh, I don't understand?" Nero said, confused. "I just wanted to be close to other members of the guild plus they are nice." Nero said with Spinner nodding his head before rolling back in his restaurant.

"You guys don't have to sit with us. You can sit inside." Viola the Seviper said but Nero and Halo stayed close to their table.

"Nah, besides I think we can be friends." Nero said with a smile on his face. As he grew up in the orphanage, he knew how to make some friends easily as other kids came and left often.

"Yo. Wait, you really want to be friends?" Blu asked.

"Yeah. I don't see the--" Nero said but was cut off as he heard the shoulder of someone scoffing. He turns around to see a floating rock with arms and a face with the left eye having some minor cracks on it, they were not far from them. It was a Geodude, the Rock Pokémon.

"Hm, Poison freaks, can't believe they're in these two." The Geodude said, which shocked Nero who looked to the Poison trio who didn't even bat an eye at the comment, they had to have heard it. Nero looked back at the Geodude and got out of his seat to tell off the Geodude, but Blu stopped him.

"Yo. Nero, don't do anything, we're used to it."

"No way! He just insulted you guys; they were very rude." Nero said angrily.

"Yeah, my mom always said never to be rude to other Pokémon!" Halo said with the Geodude getting closer to them, they heard what they were saying.

"What, got something to say brat? You know you're sitting with Poison types, right? The worst of the worse." The Geodude said which made Nero stand up to walk up to the Geodude.

"Hey! I just became friends with them! Why are you so rude?!" Nero asked aggressively.

"HA! You're friends with Poison types, you make bad friends or something? Every Pokémon knows that Poison-type Pokémon are nothing but no good! They do nothing but harm others, ruin the land around them, and even at times, Wild or not, attack others at near random." The Geodude said, disrespecting the trio of Poison Pokémon. "They are just menaces waiting to happen!"

Nero gritted his teeth, he noticed the Pokémon around didn't pay any mind, some didn't care what was happening while others just walked away, some even watched but stayed their distance away. "They haven't done anything wrong, you judge them because of their typing but don't know anything about them."

"That doesn't matter brat. All Poisons are bad, all of them should just go back to Underland with the rest of their type!" The Geodude said getting closer to Nero, even though he could see this Pokémon was looking for a fight. He could also sense that Viola was about to jump in and help him just in case but before anything could be done, something stepped between them.

They had an Otter-like body with blue fur, a pink nose with V-shape whiskers on their face, they had black paws for hands, and feet, and a flat tail. They had a bundle of dark blue fur around their waist as if they were wearing a skirt or something with two shell-shaped objects, one of them on his left side having a pendant on it that looked like three rings with a spike on one of them that had a blue rag on it. Around their neck was a magenta kerchief and they had a pair of goggles on their heads. Nero knew what they were. It was a Dewott, the Discipline Pokémon. "Back off, now." The Dewott said with a cold tone in their voice to the Geodude who took a step back away from them.

"What the-- Oh what are you also defending these freaks too or something?" The Geodude said as they took a stance ready to fight, this is what made so many other Pokémon finally start watching.

"No... I actually somewhat agree with you." Dewott said, surprising both Nero and Geodude. "I see Poison types as a possible menace since they could harm others easily. I stood between the both of you to interact with you." Dewott said as he pulled out a piece of paper and showed a picture of the Geodude, complete with the cracks in the same patterns they had on their face, surprising the Geodude as it said above the picture: "Wanted". "You assaulted and a store clerk in Mercury Town, just a few miles off from here, you ran away and made yourself at these two just a few hours ago."

"Wait, I have a bounty already?! C-C'mon, it was an accident! I ran away because I was given a stern warning, I was leaving town anyway and looked at the bounty! I'm barely worth anything, just 500 Poké." The Geodude said nervously.

"This isn't about the bounty, you ran from your crimes and need to face the consequences of your actions--" Dewott said before dodging a punch from the Geodude, he reached for the twin shells he had on his side with one acting differently, the pendent started to with the shell before it changed to a sword, the shell was on the sheath of the weapon with the guard resembling the three rings and the handle having a cloth on it that was a dark blue, the moment they grabbed it, the cloth wrapped around their arm covering it like armor before pulling it out with the shell being dragged like it was magnetically pulled along before merging with the blade.

"I wanted to do this peacefully, but you forced my hand! Aqua Cutter!" Dewott said before both the shell in his left hand and the blade of the sword were covered in water that formed almost into the shape of blades. Before colliding with the Geodude, a stern voice came from the sword, as if it yelled in a voice that mimicked the Dewott's saying "Slash!" The blade inside the water glowed brightly before swinging the sword at Geodude, knocking them down. When they fell to the ground, they were knocked out almost instantly.

"Whoa, you knocked them out." Halo said as she ran up to the commotion and saw the downed Pokémon.

Dewott then put away both the sword and his shell on his side with the sword disappearing before looking at the crowd. "Someone gets the law enforcement. You, Riolu." Dewott said before pushing the wanted poster in their chest which he took. "You take the bounty, I wasn't after it, tell them a Knight of Inizio arrested them but gave the reward to you. Also, he is right, get better friends that aren't poison-type Pokémon." Dewott said as he started to walk away.

Nero watched them walk away with him holding the paper before holding it tightly in his hand and crumbling it up into a ball, he then got ready to throw it but before it left his hands, Blu grabbed his wrist, stopping him, he then took it out of his hand. "Yo. You'll need this for that bounty, it might not be much, but it is still something." Blu said to Nero.

Location: Artemis' house

In Artemis' house, Nero and Halo returned after eating with Team Toxic, when they arrived Apollonia, Artemis, and Bianco who was covered in bandages were home, they also noticed that Clay was behind the house, when they asked why he was there, the guild needed to keep him somewhere close so since they liked Nero and was close to the guild. Both Nero and Halo looked upset which the other three in the house noticed.

"What's wrong kids?" Apollonia asked the two.

"Sigh, we met Team Toxic, and then a Geodude was insulting them. A Dewott also showed up and agreed with the Geodude before knocking them out, turns out they were a criminal." Nero explained.

"Oh, that... was something," Apollonia said as she knew they were telling the truth. "You're both upset, why?"

"Yes, that Geodude was just a rude jerk to them, Team Toxic was actually being nice, and they didn't do anything wrong! Why do Poison types be treated poorly?" Nero said as he was clearly upset at what he witnessed; it was unfair. Halo pouted as they didn't understand it either.

"Some Pokémon just think poorly of others due to their nature." Apollonia explained before walking up to the two, she then sat down between them, using her tail and psychic abilities to pull them close to her to convert them as she could see they were upset. "I know it isn't fair but sometimes others don't understand others, it isn't just poison Pokémon that are treated unfairly, Dark and Dragon types also get the same treatment, Poison Pokémon release toxins from their bodies that a harmful to most Pokémon, Dark type, most fall to their mischievous nature and cause some trouble around them." Apollonia explained.

"Can confirm," Artemis said, avoiding any eye contact, with her history and experience first and she can agree with that.

"And Dragons, there is a rare chance to meet one kind and gentle but so many of them have a territorial or savage mindset that they do so much destruction. It does seem like an unfair way to treat others due to their typing but don't fuel your hate towards others who have unjust hatred. Alright?" Apollonia asked, with Nero nodding in agreement, Halo did the same. "Great, now rest up, I know you've both been having a long day."

Location: Town of Hermes, docks

On the docks of the town, there were little ships and boats, there were some used for traveling around to islands or diving into the water to collect materials or sometimes for cargo. A Buizel was carrying some boxes, three stacked on top of each other, they ended up nearly tripping on their own feet but before they even started to fall someone stopped them from falling by catching the two top boxes and caught them from falling, pushing them upwards to let them stay on their feet and placed the boxes back. Buizel looked around to see the Dewott walking away, they were the only Pokémon around and realized they were the one who helped them. "Thank you!" Buizel said as they went back to work.

The Dewott kept walking down the docks before coming across a large ship, a bark with three sails with each of the sails having the symbol of a trident on them, the hull of the ship was blue like water with a white bulwark, the bow of the ship had figurehead that looked like a serpent covered in a golden paint. They walked up a plank to get on the dock that had several different water Pokémon with some cleaning and other moving supplies. "Sasaki! You returned boy."

The Dewott turned around to see a red octopus with a large head with a turret-looking mouth, and yellow-looking bumps replacing the suction cups on their tentacles; they also had a captain's hat on their head. They were an Octillery, the Jet Pokémon. They looked happy to see the Dewott named Sasaki. "Captain, is my uncle Kanemaki back yet?"

"He is returning soon boy, there was a commotion going around that a Knight of Inizio from the Kingdom of Atlantis had beaten a wanted Pokémon in town, was that you son?" The Octillery said before pulling out a glass cup and a bottle with a very dark red liquid inside, it was almost a mistake to be pitch black. They poured some of the drink in the cup before taking a sip.

"Sorry Captain Kraken, which was me, I know we were meant to keep ourselves from doing much but I couldn't let someone who committed a crime roam freely when they needed to face justice." The Dewott named Sasaki said as he bowed his head in an apologetic motion, as they raised their head, they bumped their head across something, it was the bottle that the one named Captain Kraken was holding. "Ow." They said as they rubbed the back of their head.

"None of that for me boy, save it for your uncle, you'll be lucky if he is in a good mood. Hehe, until then, relax, me and some of the crew who earned their rest are playing cards in my cabin, join us, we'll teach you the feeling of losing at a game." Captain Kraken said, taking another swig of his drink.

"I'll pass, I'll wait in the quarters for my uncle." Sasaki said as they started to walk off onto the ship.

"Huh? Poor boy... trained so hard that he lost the feeling of relaxation and having fun..." Captain Kraken said as he started to take another drink only to find his cup and the bottle empty. "Hey! Who drank all my Ink wine?! Oh wait, it was me. Hehehe, whoops."

End of Chapter

(AN: Hello again everyone, ECHO here, I hope you're all having a great day. I just wanted to let everyone know that everything is alright and to explain something about this series, which being the naming theme of the characters and locations. If you haven't noticed it yet, I have been naming a lot of my characters after colors and whether historical or mythical characters. An example is Nero and Bianco, both their names being Italian for black and white, the same goes for someone like Julius who is named after Julius Caesar. As for locations, some towns will be named after deities from a mix of Greek or Roman myths with three locations we've seen so far. When I first started writing I was horrible and just gave bland or boring names to some characters which made it seem either boring or lacking interest, so I just started to give my characters interesting names for them. I was originally only going to name them after a mix of Greek and Roman origins but that gave me some limited names to work with so I am taking some names from history around with one being Sasaki's name origin from Kojiro Sasaki since he is an iconic historical figure and because I love Record of Ragnarök, I suggest giving the anime a watch or read the manga. Yeah, anyway enjoy the chapter, tell me what you all think of it, and have a great day everyone.)