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A rescue team got up to a lot of things over the course of their jobs. Nico had found that out over the course of his adventures with Joli.

On the surface, it was just as simple as going into dungeons and rescuing Pokemon, and a lot of teams really did just stick to doing that. But even the missions they could pick up at the board were more varied than that. Sometimes it was to catch a criminal; sometimes it was to find an item for someone.

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Some Pokemon even wanted to be escorted into a dungeon, be it to meet a friend or just… to see the sights, as strange as that sounded to him.

On occasion, they’d even seen missions posted where another Pokemon wanted a good scrap, though Nico and Joli avoided those for the most part. They’d gotten used to fighting, but that wasn’t the sort of thing they were looking for. Once in a while, Acheron might take on one of those jobs, but even then it wasn’t all that often.

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But beyond the mission board and all the variety it had to offer, if you went looking for adventure, there was certainly no shortage of it to be found, especially in an outpost town like the one where Nico's team was based.

There were ancient dungeons full of secrets that no one had ever uncovered, and even new dungeons that just cropped up all of a sudden. No one knew exactly how or why they were formed, or where one might find a mystery waiting for them.

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Lupin liked these best, since new dungeons often meant things no one knew about, which in his mind, generally led to riches. As a consequence, he was usually the one who heard about these things first.

Whether or not that logic actually held water, time and time again, Nico would come back from a day of dungeon adventuring to be greeted with some map scrap or flyer being waved in his face, accompanied by proclamations of the riches that awaited them if they went and visited some such place.

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Today wasn’t quite one of those days, but it was remarkably similar. Lupin bounced up to Nico with a gleam in his eye.

“They say they want people to investigate some of this black mist, see?” said Lupin. He was shoving a photo at Nico, who was trying his best to take a look at it. The trouble was that Lupin just wouldn’t stay still. It was a bit hard to focus on a picture if he was going to move it around as much as he was doing right now.

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“Black mist?” Nico said, frowning a little as he tried to digest what Lupin was saying. He couldn’t see the picture, but that… Didn’t that sound awfully ominous? “What kind of black mist are we talking about here?”

“Psh, if they knew, they wouldn’t be asking us to look into it, would they?” Lupin said dismissively. “Come on, they say the pay’s good. We don’t know what it is yet, but it’s being sponsored by one of the big guilds, so I bet it’s going to be really awesome.”

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The little fox’s eyes glinted with eagerness, probably already imagining piles of riches to be had. Nico had to resist the urge to sigh.

Of course it was treasure on Lupin’s mind. It usually was. Nico couldn’t really blame him; that was the way Lupin had been raised. He came from a whole family of, as he called them, ‘master thieves’, though just how masterful they really were was something Nico had his private doubts about. After all, how good could you be if you’d been arrested?

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But then again, their jail sentence had been pretty long, so maybe there was some merit to Lupin’s claims. He hadn't, at the very least, been taken lightly by authorities.

At any rate, the importance of wealth and treasure had probably been emphasized to Lupin since he could understand what it was. Nico supposed it was already pretty good that they’d at least turned him away from acquiring it illegally. For the most part. He still had his moments now and again, but it was a work in progress.

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The problem was, after they’d taught him about legal ways to get treasure, that became the focus of all of Lupin’s efforts instead. And while that wasn’t really what their rescue team was about, Joli liked to humor him for the progress he was making. It was better than nothing.

And, unfortunately, running a rescue team didn’t always pay for itself, so on occasion having some extra treasure on hand was pretty convenient… Not that Lupin liked it when they spent it, but he wasn’t the treasurer, fortunately.

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If it was for treasure, Lupin was up for anything. The trouble was generally with convincing him not to come along to the more dangerous locations. But if there wasn’t treasure involved, or if there wasn’t enough, then forget about it. It was like trying to herd a cat.

“Let me see that,” Nico said, and snatched the picture from Lupin so he could finally get a look at it.

The picture was of a wooded area. JUst like Lupin had said, there was some kind of strange black mist carpeting the place like a thick fog.

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Nico squinted, trying to make out what it could possibly be, but it wasn’t anything he recognized. He did manage to notice little pale specks in the midst of it, but it was hard to tell what they were. The whole photo was in black and white, and inclined to be a little blurry in its own right. Apparently it had been taken in a hurry.

“It’s super weird, right? We definitely have to investigate,” said Lupin, nodding to himself as if he was the picture of concerned exploratory spirit.

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Nico gave him something of a withering look when Lupin was turned the other way. “It looks like this picture was taken in a real hurry,” Nico said. “Do you know what happened to the photographer?”

“Oh, I dunno. They didn’t really mention it,” said Lupin. Nico wondered whether it wasn’t mentioned, or if it was just a matter of Lupin not thinking to ask.

He couldn’t ask that directly, so he tried a different tack. “Where did you hear about this anyway?” he said.

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“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it,” Lupin said. There was even something of a note of contempt in his voice. “They’re talking about it in the square, you know? I told you that this expedition was backed by a big guild, right? They put out a notice to every exploration team base. Lots of people are going to go.”

Nico had the distinct impression that this wasn’t too far off from a kid giving a parent the argument that everyone else in their class was doing something, so why couldn’t they?

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And he didn’t know how to feel about that. Even disregarding the discomfort that came with the idea of himself in a parental role, the logic was clearly fallacious, and… No, he wasn’t going to go down that rabbit hole. Still, the point stood that this argument shouldn’t have held any water, really.

But it could be an interesting expedition. That was also true. And just because Lupin had proposed it, and not for the best reasons or with the best presentation, didn’t rule out its merits entirely.

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It could be a mysterious wonder just waiting to be found… Or, put another way, it could be a danger to the public. Either way, it did sound like the sort of thing a rescue team worth their salt would look into.

“I’ll ask Joli and Acheron about it,” said Nico.

“Yes! Oh, baby! We’re going to be swimming in cash!” Lupin immediately jumped up and began running around, laughing to himself. Nico did sigh this time. Just looking at Lupin was already making him tired.