Chp 22

	One week passed without major incident. They did end up doing a couple jobs, but they were quick and easy boring ones. Go collect berries, rescue a lost pokemon, collecting a bounty on a rouge poochyena... But one morning, when they entered the main hall, a machop ran up to them. 

	"Hey, we finished your building. Go on and have a look. And remember Conk Movers the next time you need something built!" He yelled as he walked away in a hurry. 

	"Sweet!" Ashley said. "Let's go check it out.” She started off with some pep in her step. 

	When they arrived, Ashley let out a sharp whistle. 

	"Wow, this is pretty nice." Mystic said. 

	"They really took my quaint idea seriously..." Phantom muttered. 

	The front was just on the edge of the main path, and was decorated with hedges, giving a bit of privacy to the yard. They path to the hut was paved with gravel, and a small mailbox sat next to it. The main portion of land was taken up by the hut. It was merely a simple wooden dome, but was plenty large, nearly three times the size of their previous living quarters. The rest of the yard was nice and open, with a small straw dummy mounted on one side for training. 

	On the inside, the area was separated into three sections. The rear had a depression, where a large mattress was set in, easily capable of letting them all sleep comfortably. To the right was a kitchen area, with a small oven and several containers for food, which were all empty. On the left was another depression in the ground, this one deeper and with a water pump over it. The walls were mostly bare, but there were two windows in the front, on either side of the large door, and one big one behind the bed. There were shutters on the windows, and a lever next to each one. Moving the lever moved the shutters. On the walls were several lantern holders, waiting to be lit by the resident fire type when night fell, and protected so as to not burn down the house. The main entrance had a large set of double doors, which were much lighter than they looked, and set so that they would swing closed by themselves. 

	"This is great. No wonder it cost so much to build." Mystic said, looking up and around. The ceiling had a circular ornamental design to it, a kind of spiral design. She walked forward and turned back. "What?" She asked when she saw Ashley's frown. 

	"There's no god damn curtains!" She yelled. "Shutters don't do shit!" 

	"Chill, sheesh. It's nearly perfect." 

	"We have to go see Hunter and get him to rebind our badges." Phantom said. "But it is a nice place." He added after a moment. 

	"Well you go do that, I'ma go get some curtains. And I guess I should buy some food to."

	"Oh yeah... We won't have free refills and cleaning anymore." Phantom said. 

	Zys walked forward and carefully pressed one leg onto the fluffy mattress. He immediately drew back, glaring at it. Suddenly his head snapped upwards, and he stared at the ceiling for a bit. 

	"You can stay here." Mystic told him. "We'll be back in a bit." The group split up, with Ashley heading into town, and them going back to the main base. They went up to Hunter's office once there. "Hey Hunter. We got our own place!" Mystic said excitedly. 

	"That's wonderful." He stood. He walked over to one wall, and reached into a box, pulling out a large orb. Instead of the usual blue, this one was yellow. "Bury this just in front of your building, or place it somewhere, and touch your badges to it." 

	"Great. Come visit anytime." She told him while taking it and putting into the box Phantom was carrying. "Come on, let's go get settled." She said. Phantom nodded and they returned to their new home. 

	"How about here?" Phantom asked when they returned, pointing to the mailbox.

	"Sounds good." They dug a small hole and buried the orb there, then touched their badges to the spot. When they did, a click sounded out. "I guess that was it." She touched her badge, causing a beam of yellow light to envelop her like normal, and a few moments later, she appeared a few feet away in another yellow flash. "Yep, there we go." 

+++

	"This is more like it." Ashley said, jumping on the bed. "Nothing beats a good mattress." The sun had since fallen, and the torches were lit, filling the room with flickering light. When Phantom looked away, she looked over to Mystic and winked, and she winked back. They had already eaten dinner and bathed, so it was nearing bed time. 

	"Yeah, let's hit the hay already." Mystic said, yawning loudly. She got up and blew out all the lanterns, except for the two outside. There were no windows in the direction the sun rose, only in the north and south. They had hung the curtains, through much trial and error, but they left the front windows uncovered, but shuttered, allowing a little light inside, so they didn't trip if they needed to get up.

	A while later, Phantom was out cold. Mystic and Ashley had been staying up, plotting the entire time, and now, they were ready. They got up and left the bed to regroup on the other side of the room. 

	"Alright, so what's the plan?" Ashley asked.

	"We've gotta get him hard first. That'll be the hard part. No pun intended. After that, we're golden. He'll like this, whether he knows it or not." Mystic whispered back.

	They started to walk towards them, but Zys buzzed loudly, leaping towards them from his spot leaning against the wall. His arms morphed into hands and grabbed the both of them while protecting them with his body. Several sharpened leaves hit him in the back, cutting him. Phantom awoke and let out a surprised yelp when he saw a pokemon hanging upside down from the ceiling, half phased through it. The bird pokemon dropped down, landing gracefully between them. 

	The decidueye raised a wing and formed a ghostly arrow, firing it at Zys, who was still trying to protect the girls. The moment after the shot was let loose, his head swiveled around to look at Phantom, who was preparing a thunderbolt. He dove out of the way and the bolt hit the floor. 

	Meanwhile, the arrow he shot hit just in front of Zys, on his shadow. It exploded in a plume of ghost energy. The pain of the super effective attack caused him to release Mystic and Ashley. The girls dashed out from his prone form, one on either side, and looked at Reaper. The stoic bird said nothing, instead sweeping his wings in front of him and letting loose another wave of leaves. They couldn't help but looked away, so as not to be cut by the many razor like leaves. 

	Reaper moved quickly, in a near blur, and delivered a powerful kick to Phantom, sending him off the bed and into the wall, where he fell in crumpled mess, clutching his cut up and now bruised self. His body radiated electricity as a defense measure, but it did little to stop Reaper from preparing another arrow, aiming right at his head. Just as he let loose, two beams, one hot and one cold, hit him, causing significant damage and making him lose his aim. The ghost arrow hit the wall next to Phantom and exploded, not damaging the wall, but harming Phantom. 

	 Both the girls continued with flamethrower and ice beam, but Reaper melted into the floor, disappearing again. Phantom managed to get back on his feet, and made his way over to them, and they all began to look around, trying to spot the next attack. Mystic was readying a powerful attack, and flames were licking out from her bared teeth. 

	"MYSTIC!" Ashley screamed. 

	Reaper had risen up behind her, his body glowing with energy. Mystic turned around just in time to see him dart forward, aiming his beak right for her throat. She accidently let out her fire blast, empowered by fear, and he dove right into it. 

	The bright flames blinded them all, and Reaper flew through down, crashing next to Mystic, with his entire body smoldering. His face was horribly burnt and disfigured, and all he did was twitch a few times, before falling still. Mystic stayed where she was, her body locked up as she breathed heavily. She eventually looked to her side. "Did I..." 

	"Yeah... You okay?" Ashley asked. 

	"I think... Phantom?"

	"I'm fine. What about Zys?" 

	He buzzed, but remained on the ground. 

	"Okay, so what the hell just happened?" Ashley asked. 

	"Well... I guess he was an assassin, probably sent by the Shadow. He must've been avoiding the federation... too many strong pokemon." Phantom said. 

	"If Zys wasn't here..." Mystic said, still sounding dazed.

	"Zys, will you please take care of that?" Ashley said, pointed to the now extinguished corpse. 

	He shakily got up to his feet. He reached down, carefully picked up the body and walked outside. 

	"Well, there goes that plan." Ashley said.

	"I know, this always happens. Tomorrow." She said, yawning. "I'm exhausted." She walked over to the bed and flopped onto it. 

	Phantom went outside, seeing Zys standing in the yard. "Will you keep watch?"

	Zys looked down at him and nodded, before looking back up and staring at the moon. 

	Phantom went back inside with a worried look. He joined the girls on the bed, his body starting to ache. He was lying with his bruised side up. He started when he felt a lick on it. He looked to see Ashley licking his wounds. "Uh..."

	"Shut it. You and Zys are the only ones who got hurt. So just lie back and take it easy."

	"O-okay..." He returned his head to the mattress, but still twitched and squirmed as she touched sore spots. He eventually succumbed to exhaustion as well, leaving only Ashley awake, though she soon joined them.