Chp 19

	As the sun rose the next morning, so did Phantom. He looked over to the other side of the room where Ashley and Mystic were curled around each other. A faint bit of steam was rising up from where they touched, but it was incredibly faint. They were both snoozing gently. With a quiet groan, he got up and walked outside, leaving the building and heading into town. 

	He was groggy and his eyes kept drooping, but he pushed on until he arrived at the land. Once he got there, his energy shot up. There were already several pokemon there. The conkeldurr, presumably the boss. There were five other pokemon poking around the land and inspecting things, three timburr, a machoke, and a sandslash. 

	"Um, excuse me." Phantom said, poking the conkeldurr on his massive arm. 

	"Hmm?" He grumbled, turning his head to look at him. 

	Phantom waited for him to say more, but when he didn't, "So, we want a house here."

	"Yes. Demolish that. Build new. Need design." He said. 

	"I don't know how to draw a blueprint..." 

	"We do. Need idea." 

	"How about something... quaint? Like rustic, maybe like a simple hut." 

	"Will make. Cost 600,000." 

	"We don't have that much... Please, is there something we can do to make it less? We have 400,000." 

	"No. 600,000."

	"Hold on a sec, Conk." The machoke said, coming over. "We have a lot of contracts, so if you'll do the prep work for us, we can do 400,000."

	"Prep?" Phantom asked.

	"Yea. Knock down some trees and this shack. You can do whatever with the rubble, just make sure it's gone. And we'll use the wood from the trees to build, so pile them up somewhere. Do that by tomorrow and you've got a deal." 

	"Alright, we can do that."

	"Good. Come by the shop tomorrow and we'll have plans and a contract for you. Okay everybody, pack it up!" He shouted at the other pokemon, motioning for them to follow. All the builder pokemon left quickly, returning to town. 

	Phantom stood there for a bit and looked at the land. They had stuck a few stakes in the ground, marking out a rough square. "We're gonna need some help with this." He said, before going back to the base. 

	Once he got there, Ashley and Mystic were still sleeping, but Zys was up, looking out the window. Phantom got his attention and motioned for him to follow. Once they were outside, Phantom said, "Alright, we need to clear the land. We can do it just the two of us, right?" 

	Zys shook his head. 

	"What do you mean? You're plenty strong." 

	Zys stepped past him and began to walk down the stairs. 

	"Wait up!" Phantom said, hurrying to catch up. 

	Zys walked at a brisk pace to Hunter's office. Phantom was right behind him when he opened the door. He then stepped aside, and looked to Phantom. 

	"Um, I guess Zys wants you to help." He said to Hunter inside. 

	"With what?"

	"We need to clear the land for our new place. So will you?"

	"I could use a break. It's been mostly quiet, which is worrying me." He said, flipping the folder he was looking through closed and standing. "Let us depart then." 

+++

	They arrived back at the land. 

	"We need to clear the trees and this thing." Phantom said. "Everything in this square."

	"This is worse than I expected." Hunter said. 

	"Well we can't afford to have someone else do it." 

	"I do owe you. Let's get to it." He stepped forward and snapped a thin tree between his claw, cleaving it in two. 

	"Save any good wood. They're going to use it to build." 

	Hunter nodded and Zys went to go help him. Zys watched him down another tree the same way, snapping it in two with his claw, and went up to one. His tentacles unfurled and his body morphed into a more offensive shape. With a whip like crack of his arm, he slapped against the wood, but didn't do it right, causing a small crater in the tree, splintering the wood and only going about halfway through the trunk.

	"Here." Hunter said, coming over to him. "You have to hit it accuratly from both sides. You can't just use force." He brought both his claws to the side and crushed the trunk between them, with minimal damage to the wood. "Just like that. Think you can do it?" 

	Zys nodded and let out a buzz before trying it himself. When he did, the base of the tree spilt cleanly, but the falling tree began to come towards him. 

	"ZYS!" Hunter yelled, his wings buzzing loudly as he dashed across the yard. Phantom poked his head around the side of the shack with his eyes wide just in time to see Zys move. Both he and Hunter were fast, but not faster than gravity, and the tree fell with a deafening crash, pinning one pair of Zys's arms under it. They flailed for a bit before falling limp. 

	"Zys! Are you okay?!" Phantom asked, sprinting to his side and nearly falling over when he tried to stop. 

	Zys looked at him calmly, before turning to the log and pulling. His arms popped off, leaving two small stumps at his shoulder. 

	"Agh-" Phantom grunted out in shock, but his voice caught in his throat. 

	Zys was still completely calm. "%%%%." He buzzed. The stumps slowly began to extend, his tentacle arms growing by themselves, while the ones under the log seemingly turned to dust. 

	"Amazing..." Hunter commented. "I've never seen any pokemon do that before."

	Zys got a look of conviction, and lifted the log up, hefting it easily over his head.

	"Wow, ok, uh, just put it over there." Phantom said, pointing towards an empty spot of the yard, near the road. Zys nodded and set the log there. Hunter followed suit, picking up a few of the trees he felled and carrying them over. Most of the trees were not too tall, the largest of them being about seven to eight feet tall, so they were able to move them without too much effort. 

	Phantom was doing his own work, but a very different kind. He was trying to find  some way to easily topple the shack. Most of the boards were old and partially rotted, but the nails still held and it would take a while to disassemble or smash enough to bring it down. He frowned. The building looked decrepit, but it was stable. As he looked up, it dawned on him. He stepped outside for a better look at the perfect tool. Just behind the shack was a larger tree, even thicker than the rest, with many branches hovering over the roof. 

	"Hey Hunter. How about this one?" 

	The scizor turned around and looked at the biggest tree of the bunch. "We should probably wait. That one will take more to bring down safely, so we can do it last."

	"How about we use it instead? Knock it down and let it crush the shack?" 

	"That isn't too bad of an idea..." He said, rubbing his chin with a claw. "We'll need to make sure it's safe first."

	"I thought you were here to take a break? Not worry about everything."

	"I am taking a break. A little physical labor to stop from doing any more paperwork and research. I've been using nothing but my brain for too long. I need to exercise or my skills will get dull." Hunter said, flexing his claws wide and clamping them shut. 

 	"Yea, I guess. It'll seriously speed things up, so let's do it." 

	"Alright. You go watch the other side." 

	Phantom nodded and rounded the shack, looking up at the looming tree. "Ready when you are." He called out. 

	On the other side, Hunter held up both his arms and crossed them. He focused for a moment, and then let loose a wickedly sharp x-scissor. Two slim cuts tore through the trunk, in an x shape. It began to slump down, when he smashed his head into it, causing it to fall towards the shack. The two chunks from the attack fell to either side, before a deafening crash, filled with the sound of splintering wood, hit the air. The shack crumbled and sprayed chips of broken boards into the air under the weight of the falling tree. The building was thoroughly demolished, little more than a pile of rubble remaining. 

	"Perfect." Phantom said, beginning to go around and pick up any stray pieces and throw them into the pile. Hunter went back to downing trees meanwhile. 

	"Well what do we have here?" 

	Phantom turned around to see Ashley and Mystic watching from the road. "Wanna help?" He asked. 

	"You look like you're managing just fine." Ashley teased. They both stepped onto the grass and joined the cleanup. 

	"Phantom, my apologies, but now that you've got help, I need to get back to work."

	"It's fine. Thanks for the help." 

	"It was fun." Hunter said with a nod, before he left, heading back into town. 

	"So what can we do?" Mystic asked. 

	"Well, you can help me pick up wood and sticks and move them into this pile. Unless you wanna take a crack at the trees."

	"Well, I could just burn down the entire forest." Mystic said jokingly. 

	The three smaller began to pick up and toss all the assorted junk into one pile, topped by the remains of the largest tree. 

	"You think maybe we should put this tree with the others?" Mystic asked a short time later. 

	"You gonna lift it? Cuz it's pretty big." Ashley said. "Speaking of which, I got an idea. We don't really need much more wood." She said, pointing to the pile of logs that was larger than all three of them combined. "Mystic, help me out here." She walked over to trees, on the opposite side that Zys was still working on. Despite the amount of trees that had been downed, there was still a large area to clear. 

	"Uh, the deal was that they keep the wood..." Phantom said, afraid of what she was planning. 

	"I'm not going to destroy it all. Just a little." She nudged Mystic into place, and took her place not too far from her, by her side. "Alright, go ahead and light it up." She instructed.

	"You sure?" Mystic asked, not sounding convinced. 

	"Yea, do it. I got this." She nodded back. 

	Mystic drew in a breath and blew a steady stream of fire at the base of the tree. At the same time, Ashley opened her maw and fired an ice beam slightly above. The fire started, burning up the base of the tree and eating into the wood. The ice beam froze the bark it hit, which quickly melted from the heat, causing the water to drip down onto the fire, and extinguish some of it. The resulting equilibrium quickly burned through the tree with minimal damage to the surrounding area, leaving only a charred stump as the tree fell to the ground. 

	"YEA!" Ashley cheered loudly. "Science bitch!" She held up her paw, which Mystic quickly high fived. They were both panting from the exertion of using their moves in such a precise way. 

	"I don't think we can do that much more..." She said. 

	"I got a plan for that too. Zys! Come're." She called.

	"%%%." He buzzed as he came towards them. 

	Ashley walked up to one tree and breathed a wave of frozen air onto the tree, freezing it solid. "Go ahead and take a whack at it." 

	Zys reeled back and smacked the tree. The ice cracked, and fell away, with only the bark removed, and a little bit of a dent in the wood. 

	"Oh... Well, never mind then." She said, frowning. "You can go on back." 

	"%%%." He buzzed, sounding a bit sad, then went back to his side. 

	She and Mystic repeated the process a few more times, until they couldn't do it anymore.

	Ashley let out a grunt as she dropped to the ground, her tongue hanging out as she breathed heavily. 

	"Want me to go get lunch?" Phantom asked.

	"Sure... Yea... Go ahead." Mystic said, panting in equal measure to Ashley. "Wow, using flamethrower like that is hard." 

	"Okay, I'll be back in a bit. The deal was we do this by tomorrow for a discount, so we can't take too long eating." He hurriedly left, trotting his way back into town. 

+++

	The rest of the day proceeded much the same after lunch. Phantom working on picking up and clearing, Zys felling trees and moving them to the pile, and the girls doing a bit of both. 

	By the time the sun set, a large area, marked by stakes in the ground, had been nearly entirely cleared, only a pile of rubble and a pile of logs remained in the square. 

	"Whew. We did it." Mystic said. "So they're going to start building tomorrow?"

	"That's what they said. We just need to sign the contract and pay in the morning."

	"Sounds good. I'll get up for this one." Mystic said. 

	"What about all this?" Ashley asked, referencing the trash pile. 

	"I got this. You're on damage control." Mystic told her. She stepped up to the shattered shack, and breathed a small ember onto it. The fire slowly grew, consuming more and more wood. Most of the grass around the shack was dead, and there was little for the fire to spread to. Eventually, it grew into a roaring bonfire, lighting up their little plot of land with flickering shadows. 

	Ashley was sitting further away, the heat uncomfortable up close, and Zys was standing really close and staring into the flames. Phantom and Mystic were sitting next to each other at a medium distance, close enough to feel the heat. Phantom jumped slightly when she scooted closer, pressing her side to his and nestling her head between his neck and shoulder. The night was silent, the only sound being the crackling of the bonfire. She couldn't help but smirk at the feeling of him fidgeting nervously against her. 

+++

	That morning, just after sunrise, Mystic forced herself to get up and washed her face with lukewarm water to wake herself up. When she turned around the leave their room, she saw Phantom getting up. 

	"Nuh-uh." She whispered, planting on paw on his nose. "You suffered yesterday. So you get to sleep in today." She left and made her way to the building company, and went inside. They were already open. When she went inside, instead of the conkeldurr sitting in the middle of the floor, there was a machoke sitting behind a stone desk. 

	"Hello miss. What can I do for you?" He asked. 

	"I'm here to sign some papers. We have a lot just outside town that needs built." 

	"I know the one." He turned around and took a pile of papers off the desk behind him. Also in that area was a large bulletin board, with numerous blue sheets of paper pinned to it. 

	The stack of papers was set on the desk, easily thicker than her paw laid flat. She flipped in a few pages to find lots of small print and terms, and past that were some blueprints. She tried to make sense of them, but they were too complex. 

	"Just paw print that top page, and let me scan your badge. Then we can get to work." He set out a small pad of ink, which Mystic put her paw in before stamping it on the page. She then leaned her head forward and let him scan her badge. "Alrighty then. We'll send word when construction is done. Should be... about a week."

	"Okay, thanks." Mystic said, not able to keep from yawning anymore. She left and went back for the rescue federation. When she got there, she saw a massive tyranitar talking to an equally large charizard, one who did not have the battle wounds of Flare. But that was the last thing on her tired mind.