Connections

"Wake up."

"Ugh... It's morning already?" Keldeo said. "Give me five more minutes, Virizion."

Virizion sighed, but couldn't really blame the colt Pokemon's exhaustion, it's been four days since they had arrived in the Water Continent, and nowhere close to their destination.

"I'm just as tired as you, Keldeo. But we still have our job to do. Now come on, get up."

Keldeo laid still for few more seconds before giving in, he got up and let off a yawn.

"How far till we reach Lively Town?" He asked.

Virizion opened her map and examined it.

"We could be there by tomorrow." She replied.

"Oh thank goodness! I don't think I can survive another-"

"Night." Virizion finished, to the dismay of Keldeo.

"Oh you got to be kidding me!" He exclaimed.

"Come on, we got no time to lose."

"I think I'm going to faint..." Keldeo mumbled, as the two continued onwards to Lively Town.

To meet up with the Expedition Society.

"Ring-ding ring-ding ring-ding"

"Alright, that concludes today's class." Farfeftch'd announced. "You are dismissed."

The class cheered for the end of another school day.

"Man, I can barely focus today!" Pancham said. "This heat is really starting to get intense!"

"It's not like you even focus in class in the first place." Ian remarked.

"Hey!"

"Summer is coming pretty soon..." Deerling said, sweat dripping of her forehead. "Let's just try to survive these next few days."

The whole class nodded, and the each of them went of their separate ways, leaving only Ian and Patience at the class.

"Alright Ian, today marks the first day of business for The Hydroflames!" She said, tossing a Expedition Society badge to Ian. The mudfish Pokemon caught the badge, and pinned it on his scarf. Patience soon followed as well.

"So uh..., now what?" Ian asked. "I don't suppose there's a bulletin board anywhere with job requests?"

"Not that I recall..." Patience said.

"Ampharos?" He said.

"Ampharos." Patience agreed, and the two made their way for the plaza to find Ampharos.

Ampharos chose to sit at the table furthest from everyone else in the café, he had ordered a cup of Serene Village's well known tea. He had kindly requested Kangaskhan to leave him be, for he had "important work to do". Despite Kangaskhan suspicious of the lighthouse Pokemon, it was not for her to pry into other people's business.

He took out his device, pushed a button and placed in at his ear. Dedenne picked up on the other side.

"What can I do for you, chief?" She said.

"Has our "guests" arrived yet?" He asked.

"We received a message from them just this morning." Dedenne replied. "Hold on... Let me go find it."

The sounds of papers rustling can be heard in the background, after a few minutes Dedenne came back on the line.

"Let's see..." Dedenne coughed, and started reading the message

"Expedition Society, we regret to inform you that our arrival has to be delayed. Due to fatigue, our new estimated time of arrival would be in the next two to three days. Sincerely, Help And Protect Pokemon Institute (HAPPI)."

Ampharos remained silent, processing the message.

"Hmm, guess we have no choice but to wait then." Ampharos said. "So much for a "quick arrival"."

"I guess Mist Continent folks just can't take the heat if you know what I mean." Dedenne joked.

"Best not say that in front of them." Ampharos warned. "We need all the help we can get."

"Yes, chief..."

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Ampharos noticed a familiar sight.

The two "Junior" Expedition Society kids.

"Listen, something urgent came up, I got to go now."

"Wh-what...?! Wait a minut-"

Ampharos disconnected the call, and placed the device back into his back, a few seconds later Ian and Patience walked up to him.

"Hey Ampharos!" Patience greeted.

"Yo." Ian said.

"Why, if isn't The Hydroflames?" Ampharos said. "How's work coming along?"

"Yeah... That's the thing we wanted to talk to you about." Patience said.

Ampharos leaned forward from his chair.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"You see... We don't know what kind of tasks we're suppose to do, we don't exactly have a place to accept jobs and-"

Ampharos stood up in shock upon hearing that.

"Oh my! How could I have forgotten the most essential part of an Expedition Society member? Especially Junior Expedition Society members."

"That must be really quite a mouthful..." Ian mumbled.

"You see, job requests posted in places such as bulletin boards are a thing of the past now!" Ampharos explained. "All requests are now on the Connection Orb!"

"Wait, what?!" Ian exclaimed.

"You'll see requests of Pokemon that require assistance displayed in the Connection Orb. Now, if you would kindly open your-"

"In that case, I don't really need an explanation." Ian said.

"What...?!" Patience and Ampharos exclaimed in unison.

"So all requests are now just from the Connection Orb?! If you told me that this morning everything would have made sense!" He said.

Ian took out his Expedition Gadget and turned on the device. He tapped on Connections and a huge blue screen projected from the Expedition Gadget. In the middle of it, a single request for from a pink colored Pokemon called "Sylveon" appeared. The words "Accepted" appeared above.

"H-how did you even know...?!" Ampharos asked in surprise at the mudfish Pokemon's knowledge.

"There was an instruction menu inside the box you gave us yesterday." Ian explained. "Written by one "Jirachi The Genius", it explained everything I needed to know about the Expedition Gadget, explained about how Connections work, how you can gain more, etcetera, etcetera. Although it never said anything about this being the main source of jobs for some reason."

Patience and Ampharos simply stood there, mouths wide opened in surprise.

"Th-then what are we waiting for...?!" Patience exclaimed. "Let's go help out this Sylevon! Wheres the location?"

"Foreboding Forest." Ian replied.

"Let's get going then! I'll head off first to Kecleon's shop to see what he has in stock!" Patience said, running off towards the exit, before Ian could even call out to her, she was already long gone.

Ian turned off his Expedition Gadget and the projection disappeared in a blink of an eye.

"Well then, I guess I'll be seeing you around Ampharos!" Ian said, waving a gesture at the lighthouse Pokemon before leaving, chasing after her fire fox companion. Ampharos stood for a few more seconds before realising what had just occurred. He sat back down, took a sip of his tea, and said to himself.

"With an attitude like that, these kids would make fine Expedition Society members when they grow up."