[Silver]

“C’mooooon you guys, get it together!” Oko was bouncing around the entire room, trying to contain his excitement.

"What exactly are we doing?" Harbor asked. He rubbed his face to clear the sleep out of his eyes.

Typhoon looked concerned but didn't say anything. He fiddled with his shell and watched to see what the other two might have to say instead.

"We've been chosen!" Oko leaped over and tapped Typhoon on the shoulder excitedly. Typhoon looked more nervous than ever.

"Chosen? What does that even mean?"

"We're going on a mission! Just us, no senior members or obnoxious watch dogs, just the three of us!"

[Silver]

"Woah!" Harbor put his flipper up to get Oko to be quiet for a second. "That's crazy talk! Ty and I have never been on a mission alone before and I don't think you have either."

"That's why it's so great!"

"Y-you mean we're going to go out all by ourselves? U-us?" Typhoon finally piped up. His eyes were wide with terror at the thought.

"Look, we got this. I chose you two specifically because I know you have what it takes!" Harbor and Typhoon locked eyes and seemed to agree that they didn't really buy Oko's explanation.

[Silver]

Oko usually looked very confident in what he was saying but just for a moment he relaxed his stance and softened his voice. "Look you guys I worked really hard to get Charlie to let us go, so if you could just trust me, that would be really great."

"Okay okay. I'd Charlie things we're ready, that's good enough for me. Ty?"

"Yea. If. If Harbor is going, I'll go too."

"That's the spirit!" Oko jumped up and down in place. "Grab your stuff, we're headed to Nodia!"

"Nodia? Like the beach?" Typhoon asked Harbor quietly but with a hint of excitement.

[Silver]

"Yea! Must be why the want us to do it. Who's better at swimming than the two of us?"

"Well except Buka and…"

"I said get ready, team!" Oko said, trying to sound authoritative. The other two rolled their eyes, but they went to get their things instead.

Surprisingly, it didn't take them too long to get to the beach. Unsurprisingly, Oko didn't tell them what they were supposed to do when they got there. As soon as they could see sand, Harbor bolted as fast as he could toward the water.

[Silver]

"Hey do you guys know any good pirate songs we could sing? Aw who cares, it's perfect even without it." He stopped at the edge of the water and let the tides brush against him.

Typhoon took a more measured pace on his way to the water's edge and Oko followed behind. Oko was clearly thinking about something else since he was trailing behind, not really paying attention.

"Hey Oko," Harbor said after a few minutes of enjoying the salty sea breeze. Oko snapped back into the moment with the sound of his voice. "What are we supposed to do now that we're here?"

"Well…" Oko still seemed distracted.

[Silver]

"Well…?" Typhoon tilted his head and waited for a response.

"I'm not entirely sure."

"W-what?" Typhoon seemed very surprised to hear it, though Harbor didn't.

"Ha! You just wanted to play on the ocean! I knew it. You could have just asked." Harbor tried to knock Oko into the water, but he swiftly dodged out of the way.

"No. No. It's not like that!" Oko was frazzled and not just because he was almost shoved into the surf. "I've been thinking about it the whole way here but I'm not sure where to start."

"Start with what?" Typhoon asked.

"The mission!"

"Well what's the mission?" Harbor chimed in.

[Silver]

"We're supposed to be gathering data about this area," Oko explained. He plopped his backpack down and pulled out some instruments and journals. "They didn't tell me what we were looking for though…"

"Is that all?" Harbor laughed a squeaky laugh. "That's fine! We'll just write down everything and see how it goes."

Typhoon nodded in agreement and grabbed a compass out of the pile. He put a pen in his other paw and started stumbling around trying to follow the wiggling arrow. Eventually, he got dizzy and fell back onto his tail.

[Silver]

“Do you even know how…” Oko started using his condescending voice, but he cut it off quickly with a well aimed glare from Harbor. “Nevermind, let’s just get to writing down anything suspicious that we can report.”

“C’mon Ty, you can come with me. You do the writing. I’m… not really good at it.” Harbor looked down at his flippers pointedly. He didn’t really mind, but it was easier to get Ty to use his paws for some things. It’s what made them such a good pair.

“Okay,” Ty said, putting the compass back into Oko’s bag. “But I think the paper will get all messed up in the water, so maybe we should continue along the beach?”

[Silver]

Harbor let out a little squeaky laugh again. “Yea, that’s fine.”

“Hey you two, in case we get separated, I want to meet back by… uh that rock when the sun goes down, okay?” Oko said, trying to sound serious but not too bossy.

“Yea, the one that looks like a pineapple!” Harbor said. Typhoon twisted himself around to see if he could see the pineapple Harbor was talking about, but he couldn’t. He merely shrugged and wrote something down about it in his notebook which at this point was mostly full of little doodles and few actual 'notes'.

[Silver]

The three of them wandered along the beach for a bit without finding anything of note. Every now and then, Typhoon would scribble some drawings of crabs, shells, and interesting rocks into his notes, but they weren’t finding anything that sparked Oko’s interest at all.

The Froakie let out a defeated sigh and plopped down onto the sand. Harbor didn’t seem to notice, but Typhoon stopped and went over to him. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Nothing. Nothing’s the matter.”

“You don’t have to pretend, it’s okay to say how you feel.” Typhoon said softly, channeling the comforting words Harbor often told him when he was feeling troubled.

[Silver]

Oko looked like he was debating what to say for a moment before finally saying, “There’s nothing here. It’s a stupid mission. They don’t actually trust me at all, they just sent us out here to get me to leave them alone.”

“Th-that’s not true!” Typhoon insisted, though he didn’t really believe it himself. He did have some doubts about whether or not they were ready for a 'real mission' as it were. If it was that important, surely they would have sent someone more... well experienced, for a start.

As if on cue, Harbor called out to the others. “Hey I think I found something! Ty! Ty? Where’s that notebook?”

[Wild Pet Found]

[Silver]

[Hunt #2 starts here.]

Typhoon and Oko shared a short, tense look before running off after Harbor. Oko nearly crashed right into him, still at full sprint, but he managed to skid to a stop just in time. Sand sprayed up from where he slid into the back of Harbor’s head. If Harbor noticed, he didn’t seem to care.

“What is it, what is it?” Oko asked. He was so excited that he practically climbed over Harbor to take a look.

Harbor slapped him away and said, “Dude you’re way too close, what the heck?”

“Just tell us what you found!” Oko shouted, clearly annoyed as he rolled back to his feet.

[Silver]

“Oh! Right. Look, it’s like a huge shell! Like a Cloyster or something.”

“A cloyster?” Typhoon repeated. He tilted his head to look at the large shell that was lying on the beach in front of Harbor. It was interesting, but he wasn’t sure if it was worth all the hubbub.

“No, Cloyster are purple, this is like… grey.” Oko said. He too tilted his head, first one way, then the other. “Maybe it’s dead.”

Typhoon looked clearly uncomfortable at the mention that they might be staring at a corpse. Even if it was obvious that there wasn’t a living Cloyster just laying on the sand in front of them, he found the stark wording and pointed reminded of death unsettling.

[Silver]

“It’s okay, Ty.” Harbor pulled Typhoon in for a little hug. “Maybe Cloyster shed their shells, or maybe it’s from an ancient Pokémon and it only recently washed ashore.”

“Still dead, though,” Oko pointed out.

“Dammit Oko, do you ever shut up?” Harbor snapped. He looked torn between being very annoyed and his attempt to comfort Typhoon.

All the yelling clearly got the attention of something under the shell. It started to wiggle like something inside was moving around or perhaps waking up. The trio of adventurers jumped back in surprise and Typhoon dropped his notebook to cling to Harbor’s side.

[Silver]

A long red tentacle crept out from under the shell and felt around the opening. It seemed timid, like it was trying to feel around for something that might be of harm to it. Clearly it was attached to something, and if they had to guess it was probably…

“Oh! An Octillery?” Typhoon peeked out from behind his own paws. The cute way the tentacle flopped about was actually pretty endearing and not at all terrifying like he thought. Cautiously, he reached out to give it a poke.

“Hello, is someone in there? We’re not here to hurt you…” Harbor said, scooting closer.