Mike checked the light switches to make sure there wasn't a problem with the power. Grabbing two of the pokeball from his pack, he clicked the buttons. Two bolts of lightning appeared taking place as Orion and Alroy.

"Gonna admit, I was expecting us to be somewhere a bit more hospitable." Orion stated as she took in her surroundings.

"I would believe that would have something to do with the rain." Alroy spoke up.

Mike rubbed his neck. "Yeah, turns out there is a major rainstorm right now, so we're stuck here for now until it stops." He tried to explain.

"And Malina would be where?" Orion asked.

Mike started to develop a cold sweat. "We got into a few wild pokemon fights and I thought Malina could use a rest." He lied.

"That Absols can hardly handle a few wild attacks, ha, I could go for days beating down wild creatures." Orion bragged.

"Well Malina isn't like you Orion." Mike reminded. "She's still under training."

"No offense Mike, but maybe you're, as the humans say, just beating a dead horse." Alroy warned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mike asked.

"What it means is that Malina may not be cut out to be a fighter. Her insecurities get in the way of her training." Alroy explained.

"Well she's not completely useless." Orion spoke up. Catching both Mike and Alroy off guard. "At least for now she can be used for early damage against enemies."

"That's… an interesting way of thinking about it." Alroy replied.

"Everyone has a purpose." Orion assured. "At least she does until she fulfills her part of the deal." Orion thought.

"Look, I know she's not as powerful as you guys, but she's trying. For now let's just drop it." Mike urged.

Mike decided to let the other two Pokemon check out the cabin while he tried to figure out what to do about Malina. Orion explored most of the rooms, noticing most of the rooms were just guest rooms. Orion guessed that it was a getaway house that humans used to go camping. She wondered if there was any camping gear in the house somewhere. She stepped in one of the guest rooms and quickly wiped her paw across the top of one of the nightstand. The amount of dust she picked up assured her no one had used it in years. It also would explain why the wiring from the electricity was poking out of the walls. She checked a few drawers, but to her disappointment, none of them had anything in them.

Orion checked the beds. The covers were heavy, most likely stuffed with a lot of cotton. They also seemed softer than she expected. A sudden grin crossed Orion's face as she got an idea.

Mike watched over Malina's pokeball. He could try to give Malina some rest outside of the ball, and try some healing techniques from there, but what if Malina was in worse condition than he thought? He didn't just want to leave her in her pokeball, he needed to talk to her about what happened.

"Hey Mike, can you come here for a second?" Orion's voice called.

Mike put down Malina's ball and walked over to the room where Orion's voice came from. When he walked in the doorway. He noticed Orion lying on her side on the bed. One hand held her head up while the other slowly slide downer thigh.

"The bed's comfy." She informed in a warm voice.

Mike quickly turned around. "That's not funny!" He shouted behind his back.

Orion smiled, the red across his cheeks said otherwise. Orion hopped down from the bed, satisfied with her fun.

"Orion, I think I found something." Alroy's voice spoke up. Orion followed Alroy's voice to adjacent room. She was a bit confused when she noticed that he wasn't actually in the room. "Look up in the closet." Alroy suggested.

Orion walked over to the closet and looked up like Alroy had said and noticed the top of the closet had a square shaped hole in it. Orion climbed some shelves in the closet until she could reach the hole. Pulling herself up, she found herself in a dark attic.

"Alroy, you up here?" Orion asked.

"Right here." Alroy replied. Orion jumped as the voice had come from right next to her. She could barely make a faint outline of the scizor.

"How long have you been up here?" She asked.

"For a few minutes. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness." Alroy informed.

"Anything interesting up here?" Orion asked.

"That's the reason why I called you up here." Alroy Explained. He waved for her to follow. Orion tried to follow Alroy in the dam, but she kept tripping over some random thing in the dark.

"Arceus, isn't there a light up here?" Orion asked.

"I didn't see one." Alroy replied. Alroy stopped right in front of a chest. "This is the thing I wanted to show you." Alroy said, tapping on the chest.

"Where? I still can't see anything." She asked, stumbling forward. Suddenly her foot hit the chest and she fell over it. Alroy let out a snort and tried to keep himself from laughing anymore loudly.

"This chest, it's locked. I was wondering if you could use your claws to lock pick it." Alroy asked

"I would, if I could see where the hell it is." Orion replied, pulling herself to her feet.

Alroy looked around and saw an old flashlight on top of some old boxes, he flicked it on and handed it to Orion. Orion flinched at the sudden brightness before taking a look around. The room was filled to the brim with spider webs and even thicker amounts of dust. She aimed the flashlight at the cheating question. It was a dark red chest that was surrounded by a copper frame. On top of the chipped of paint there were bite marks around one of the edges of the chest, implying something had tried to bite through the chest.

Orin came to the front of the chest and noticed a large iron lock keeping the chest shut. Getting on one knee, she slipped the flashlight into her mouth. Having one paw on the lock, she inserted her claw into the keyhole. Moving her claw around a bit, she tried to feel for where the sweet spots were. When her claw finally scraped against something that felt loose, she pushed it in. I small click was heard. She repeated this once more, finding the second sweet spot. Pushing it in, the final click was heard and the lock came undone.

"For a simple wild zangoose, you seem to know more about human things." Alroy spoke up.

"My mother spent time with a human." Orion replied, taking off the lock. "She taught me what she knew when I was born."

Alroy put his pincer on the top of the chest and pushed against it. The top of the lid fell open and the two peered inside.

"Clothes." Orion spoke disappointedly. "All that work for a chest filled with clothes."

Alroy started to sift through the clothes and noticed something particular about them. "These clothes seem a bit small for a human don't they?" Alroy asked.

Orion picked up one of the dresses and held it against there body, she noticed it was more or less about her size. "If I didn't know any better, I would say these clothes were meant for Pokemon."

Alroy picked up one of the clothes and noticed it looked very much different from the others. It was a white shirt that had a black over jacket to go with it. The black jacket a small red handkerchief hanging out of the chest pocket, and the sleeve wrist were topped in a gold-like thread. The back of the suit had two holes fit for wings. Curious, Alroy decided to put on the shirt. Despite how small the arm holes were, they stretched as if to make room for his claws. When his claws exited out the arm holes he was surprised to see that the sleeves fit snugly around his arms.

Orion snorted when she saw the suit Alroy had put on. "You look ridiculous." She laughed.

Alroy wasn't sure what she was talking about, the suit looked fine to him, plus the suits wing holes gave his wings free movement. Searching deeper into the chest, Alroy found a top hat, monocle, and a wooden pipe. He placed the top hat on his head and put the monocle on his left eye before putting the wooden pipe in his mouth.

"I'm a human." He stated in a British voice. "Do as I say or you'll get no dinner tonight."

Orion laughed at Alroy's impression. Alroy put the wooden pipe back in the chest but kept the monocle and top hat. "Maybe you try one of these." Alroy suggested. "That one looks interesting." He stated, pointing to the dress Orion was still holding.

Orion looked down and saw that the dress had a very pink palette to it. "Maybe we should look for another one." She said as she threw the dress to the side, too embarrassed to try it on. Orion shifted through the clothes and found one that seemed more interesting. Pulling out, she noticed it had a blacker palette to it in contrast to the pink one. The dress had a very elegant design to it. The collar had a purple tint to it and hung low as if to reach the shoulder rather than the neck. Orion slipped it on, the dress ran down to her feet, covering nearly her wok body, except for the shoulder upwards like she had expected.

"You look like you're going somewhere fancy." Alroy laughed.

"Well maybe I might be heading for a dinner with the mayor." Orion joked.

Alroy chuckled, despite not knowing who a mayor was. As they were about to check out the other clothes, they felt a presence behind them. Turning around, they saw Mike looking at them with a smile on his face.

"Having fun?" He asked.

Orion's face grew red. "Oh, uh, we were just trying out these clothes we found." She replied, trying to pass it off like she wasn't enjoying it.

"Seemed to me like you were playing dress up." Mike replied, His smile turning to a cheeky grin.

"No we weren't!" Orion protested.

"Oh really?" Mike asked. "When's that dinner with the mayor?"

Orion face got red again. "Hey, look at me, I'm Mike." Alroy suddenly called out.

The two looked over and noticed that Alroy had changed clothes that were similar to Mike's, although of a different color palette. "I'm gonna' travel the word and sleep into the woods!" He stated in an obviously mocking manner.

Orion face palmed herself. "This idiot is going get us in trouble." She thought. But to her surprise, Mike burst out laughing.

"That's awesome." He praised. "You really work well with those clothes don't you?" Mike bent down next to the chest. "Let's see, oh, here's one you can try on!" He suggested.

Alroy quickly removed the clothes he had on and switched them with the ones Mike handed him. They were a greenish tint with a red cape and a cap that would resemble a whistle blower of the middle ages. Mike laughed at both how ridiculous the suit looked and how well Alroy fit in it. Looking back into the chest Mike picked out a dress that he thought Orion would look good in.

"Hey Orion, maybe you should try this one. Orion?" Mike looked over and noticed Orion trying to sneak off, but upon feeling eyes on her she stopped. "Where are you going, don't you want to try some of these other clothes out?" He asked.

"No, I-I think I'm good." Orion replied.

Mike was about to try and make her reconsider, But Orion ran off before he could get a word in. Orion quickly left the attic. Walking back into the adjacent room, she plopped on the bed and put her face in the pillow. "I can't believe I let Mike see me like that." She thought to herself.

Orion sighed and suddenly noticed she still had the dress on. Taking it off she threw it to the side and laid on her back as to stare at the ceiling. Her mind went blank as she tried to clear her mind of the event, but it didn't really work. The rain still poured outside and showed no sign of letting up. Pulling the covers up to her shoulders, Orion decided it would just be better to try and sleep rather than torture herself with the embarrassing thought.

Combined with the heavy pouring rain. Orion found it pretty easy to sleep on the bed considering how soft it was. She awoke a bit later when a small think rang from the other room. Rather than investigate she closed her eyes again.

"You alright Orion?" Mike asked.

"I'm fine." She sighed.

"Sorry about picking on you earlier, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or-"He tried to Apologize.

"I said I'm fine!" Orion announced annoyed.

Mike wasn't sure how to continue. "Well, if it helps, I thought you looked cute in that dress." He added.

"Stop saying things!" Orion shouted, glad the covers were hiding the red that had grown over her face again.

Mike smiled and left the room. "What do you say I get dinner started?" Mike asked Alroy who was still wearing the top hat from the chest.

"Sounds fine with me." Alroy agreed. "Mike, did you really mean it when you said I could try it out?"

"Well, yeah, I think you'd be good at it, plus it would be better than just battling Pokemon." Mike assured.

"Ok, I guess I'm just a bit surprised. Being built for fighting and all." He responded.

"You may have been built for fighting, but that doesn't mean you can't do other things." Mike replied.

Alroy wasn't sure how to respond, he had never thought of it that way before. He had just assumed he was only meant TO fight.

"Why don't you go rest for a while, I'll wake you when I get dinner done." Mike suggested.

"Oh, yes, I guess that would be a good idea." Alroy replied, partially still deep in thought.

Alroy left the room to go sleep in one of the guest rooms leaving Mike to handle the cooking. Mike had a smile on his face. Alroy was slowly but surely coming around to the fact that he had freedom now, and with it, he could try new things. Heck, maybe even one day forget he even had another master.

But for now, they still had to take things one step at a time.

To be continued…..