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Description
     "Done!" Ice yelled punching the sky before falling back into the snow.

     It was the day of the party and she and Sly had finally finished and boxed all of the gifts. Their progress had gotten a bit slower when Leilani started volunteering to help at Leavanny's Tailoring, since the Sewaddle was the one with the most experience at crafting and the longest attention span.

    "Good job you two." The two dark types turned to the voice and saw the bug type waddling up to them.

    "Delivery tiiiiiiiiime!" Sly shouted as he shifted onto his back paws, and he and Ice started picking up packages. "Pick who you think has the best balaaaaaaance!" he purred as he wobbled trying to see around the pile of boxes.

    "Miss Ice, do you mind?" Leilani asked, glancing at the taller of her two teammates. She got a nod in response, and climbed onto the Sneasel's back.

    "Let's goooo!" Sly declared walking into the village.

***

    "It looks like that's the last of them," Silver announced looking around the stand, wary of last minute shoppers.

    "Good, and you've got your gift shopping done," Coco asked.

    "Yep."

    "Perfect, you better meet up with your sisters then. Maurice and I will be at the Spinda Café when the party starts, please come when you're done. I'll close up here on my own. I actually can carry the box of earnings back, I've just been having you doing it this week because it's less effort for me."

    The Sneasel nodded and hurried back to the team's house while Coco picked up the box with her tail and placed it on her back and headed over, playing with the accessory voucher she had been holding onto since they had finished their last missions.

***

    "We can't thank you enough for this," Nella gushed grinning ear to ear as she looked at the pile of boxes.

    "I'm glad to help, besides, it'd be best if I had someone else deliver this," Maurice said gesturing to a box near him.

     "Let's get going then," Poppins announced gathering a pile of gifts as the other two Pokémon did the same.

    Their first stop was the Medical Tent.

    "Vat did you do now?" Dr. Quaak asked the moment he recognized the two Rescuers.

    "We have gifts for you, Remedy, and Poppy," Nella replied quickly looking through the boxes until she found the three they wanted. "Also, I promise I won't tear open the cut on my leg next time Remedy removes the stitches."

    "Hmmm," the Golduck muttered as he looked over the box she pushed towards him and opened it. Meanwhile, the other two doctors moved over and opened their gifts.

    "Thank you very much," Remedy and Poppy chorused as the two opened up a box containing assorted berries and sweets.

    "It was the least we could do after being horrible patients," Nella replied nudging Poppins. "By the way, is Team Troubled Waters still here?"

    "Yes, over there," Remedy replied gesturing towards the back of the tent.

    The three followed the Audino's gesture to an Oshawott and a Natu, walking past a Sneasel as they did so.

    "Mr. Nauxis, I'm glad you're looking better," Maurice said as he looked at the Natu, who, unlike last time he saw him, was wide-awake and standing with ease.

    "Thank you," the Natu nodded.

    "Oh, Nauxis, this is Maurice, he gave me the medicine you needed, and that's Poppins, we were in the same group that was putting out the forest that started the sickness, and that must be his teammate," Shawn whispered to his friend.

    "I'm Nella, I kind of started the fire," Nella replied wincing under Nauxis's gaze.

    "It was an accident," Poppins cut in offering a gift to the Oshawott. "Here, this from us. Thanks for helping with the fire, I'm not sure if I would have gotten to see Nella again if you hadn't helped."

    "My Water Pulse wasn't very good, the others in our group were more helpful," the Oshawott muttered as he opened the box.

    "Your Rain Dance was great and really sped things up though."

    "Besides, I really should be apologizing," the Houndour continued. "I hope our teams get to work together in the future. You two seem really nice."

    "Yeah, let's work to be great Rescuers together," added Poppins as he held out a wing to the other team. Nella put her paw in, as did Shawn, and Nauxis hopped closer to put his wing into the loose pile and the four raised their limbs.

    "Thanks you guys," replied Shawn, his eye's shining as he held up a kite.

    "You're welcome," Team Jet chorused as they stepped back to let Maurice talk.

   "I wasn't sure what you wanted, but I'm very sorry the sickness affected you two so badly, and for how short Coco was when we talked," Maurice said, bowing his head as he placed his box in front of the two Pokémon. Shawn opened it up to show a variety of candy.

    "Thank you. We'll enjoy these," Nauxis said.

   "You're welcome."

   "Will you two be at the Café later?" Poppins asked.

   "We might be, it depends on how Nauxis is doing," Shawn replied.

   "We hope to see you there," Nella replied as the three left.

***

    "Helloooooo! Sully! Dil!" Sly called knocking on the door.

   "Hey, I can hear Pokémon moving on the other side. They'll get the door soon," Ice replied.

    "Sulllllly! Diiilllllll!"

   "Hold on a sec Sly, I aslmos' go' the door," came a deep, feminine voice from the other side of the door. Finally it opened to reveal a dark brown Bouffalant with a broken horn and a green ribbon. A fluffy little Zubat was sitting in her Afro, while a Starly was on her broken horn looking down at Sly.

   "Did you have to knock that many times? You did hear we were coming, right?" asked the Starly.

   "Yeeeeees," Sly purred grinning.

   "Then why did you keep knocking?"

   "It was fuuuuuuuun. We have gifts for you." Sly placed two of the packages he had on the ground and with one foot edged one to Sully and the other to Dil. "One for your team, and one special for Sully."

   Dil and Sully pulled off the ribbons on their boxes and opened the lids.

   "These are very nice, bu' wha' are they?" Sully asked lifting a long and thin piece of mismatched cloth with bits of scrap metal dangling from one end. Meanwhile, Dil and the Zubat worked together to pull a string that contained a pile of dangling icicles with bits of colored glass frozen inside.

    "That's a ribbon for you, and a decoration for your house. You hang it by the window and the bits of glass in the iciles make pretty liiiiiights appear," Sly replied wagging his tail and staring at the knick-knack that the two Flying type were holding. "Do you want help hanging it?"

   "Sure, come in," Dil said gesturing with his wing. Once inside he and the Zubat moved towards a window while Ice helped Leilani secure it to the wall with String Shot.

   "Sooooooo, who's the new team member?" Sly asked.

   "That's Sloan or Sinclair, she likes both names. I picked up her egg after we broke into the library," Sully replied happily. "Sloan, this is Sly and Leilani, from Team Mischief, and, you have a new member too. Who's she?"

    "That's Ice Creeeeam, but she prefers Ice-"

    "Because that's my actual name," the Sneasel snapped.

    "Anywaaaays, we went on the Sneasel recruiting mission after the library and picked her up," Sly continued.

    "So, how do you like being in Tao Village?" asked Sloan.

    "We live out by Creepin' Forest, but Tao is fun. I like the dojo an' they serve nice food at the café, although that doesn't mean Sly should name me after the food," Ice replied.

    "Ice cream fits because underneath all the threeeats and fightinnng and battle talk, you're a sweet Pokémon," the Purrloin replied wagging his tail.

    "What? No."

    "What's a dojo?" the Zubat asked, interrupting what she felt was an impending fight.

    "It's awesome! It's a place where you can get into all sorts of fights for trainin'," the Sneasel replied jumping up.

    "That seems like an odd thing to be excited about."

    "Nuh-uh. Since I hatched, my big sis told me all these cool stories about what happened in the Slasher Gang and my big bro told me these fairy tales that he learned from our ma an' pa an' some had these cool battles from way long ago of Pokémon saving each other an' stuff," Ice replied dancing around. "Oh wait, I told Silver I'd meet him at the Medical Tent so we can exchange gifts and give stuff to Frost. I gotta go." With that, the Sneasel picked up the two boxes she left by the door and scampered out.

    "So we picked up a philosophical little girl and you picked up a violent one," Dil remarked as the door slammed shut.

    "It appears so," Leilani replied.

    "I think we'd of gotten something different if it weren't for all the propagaaaaaaanda," Sly purred. The two teams stayed and talk for a while before Sly and Leilani left to deliver their last gifts.

***

    "I'm here!!!" Ice skidded in front of Frost's bed and received a glare from most of the tent's occupants.

     "Do you two have something to report?" Frost asked, her gaze intent on Silver.

     "Not really," Silver replied averting his eyes to the ceiling. "It's just that today there's this gift exchange party and we got stuff for you." He handed out identical boxes to Frost and Ice.

     "I made stuff," Ice replied proudly giving Silver a box and putting a second one next to Frost's bed before tearing into the gift her brother gave her. "What's this?" She asked holding up a rectangular object made mostly of paper.

    "It's a book with all those stories ma and pa told us. I know you can't read, Ice, but I'm sure you can learn, I got one for you too Frost."

    "Kay, now you two open your gifts from me."

    Silver and Frost opened the boxes and looked inside. Silver pulled out a slightly lumpy and extremely brightly colored pillow while Frost saw a jagged set of icicles with bits of brightly colored glass frozen in.

    "I made them myself, well, Lee helped, but I did most of the work. It's a pillow for you since you spent a lot of free time nappin', and a decoration thing for you since this place is pretty dreary and we haven't had a chance to work on what you really wanted," Ice began babbling when her siblings didn't say anything.

    "Thanks, Ice, that's the sweetest thing you've ever done," Silver replied hugging her. Frost remained silent.

   "Actually, Silver did have a chance to work on what I really want," she growled.

  "What?" he asked letting go of his younger sister.

  "The Mankey from your team has been spending a lot of time with them."

  "I didn't know. I had been helping Coco at the Kecleon Stand for most of the week, all we knew was that he was helping with decorations."

   "So, the two of you have been sitting around selling things or playing arts and crafts with your new teams while ignoring the fact that the Pokémon who maimed your older sister are wandering around."

    "But you've been getting better. You said your burns don't hurt as much and your knee is slowly getting better. Why don't we all just start over here. Besides, there's no point in trying to restart the gang. There's all sorts of opportunities in Tao, I'm sure there's something that you can do that you'll like. You'll get what Slasher wanted without having to do that awful stuff."

    "I've been getting daily treatments with Heal Pulse from that surgeon, and my skin aint fixed," Frost replied coldly, making both of her siblings flinch. "I want vengeance and I want to stay loyal to Slasher's memory, and you will help me. We're family after all."

   "We'll bring them to you when you're better. I'm sure you'd prefer taking care of them personally," Silver replied emotionlessly.

    "An' if they try anythin' before then, we'll take care of 'em," Ice added more enthusiastically.

     "Good, now scram," Frost commanded, with a smile that was twisted by the burns on her face. "And remember your loyalty is to me, don't get too attached to your new teammates unless you think they'll be part of my plans."

    The two younger siblings walked out slowly and quietly, then stopped near the entrance.

    "She didn't really like it, did she?" Ice asked.

    Silver looked his sister over, her shoulders were slumped and her head was down, the book he had given her had half fallen out of her grip. He had never seen her like this, not even when her ear feather had been cut off. "My team's going to the party at Spinda Café. Do you want to come with?" Silver mumbled.

     "I was going to meet my team there," she replied, the book sliding out of her arms and falling on the ground opening to a page with a small image. Ice's eyes slid over the nicely painted picture of a sopping wet cat with a distinct spiral tail. She remembered the story that image was for, a short tale about a Glameow that almost drowned in her own tears. She picked up the book, snapped it shut to hide one of her least favorite stories, and brushed it off before turning back to her brother, who had also been briefly mesmerized by the image. "Why don't you drop your gift off at your place, I'll go meet my team at the Café. I hope I see you soon," she said brightly before rushing off, not looking back to see if her brother would follow her.

     Finally she made it inside. The Café was covered in bright lights and streamers with pictures of Kyurem. The curtains near the back of the building were pulled back to reveal a stage with the dragon's Ice Sculpture sitting on a stand while a few teams put on a dance performance for the other guests. The tables were packed full of Pokémon, and she began wandering around to try to find one of her teammates.

    "There you aaaaaaaaare!" called Sly.

   "That was good timing, we just finished talking with Team Suledin," Leilani added as she moved over to Ice's shoulder. "Is that a gift from your brother? It looks nice."

Description
     "Done!" Ice yelled punching the sky before falling back into the snow.

     It was the day of the party and she and Sly had finally finished and boxed all of the gifts. Their progress had gotten a bit slower when Leilani started volunteering to help at Leavanny's Tailoring, since the Sewaddle was the one with the most experience at crafting and the longest attention span.

    "Good job you two." The two dark types turned to the voice and saw the bug type waddling up to them.

    "Delivery tiiiiiiiiime!" Sly shouted as he shifted onto his back paws, and he and Ice started picking up packages. "Pick who you think has the best balaaaaaaance!" he purred as he wobbled trying to see around the pile of boxes.

    "Miss Ice, do you mind?" Leilani asked, glancing at the taller of her two teammates. She got a nod in response, and climbed onto the Sneasel's back.

    "Let's goooo!" Sly declared walking into the village.

***

    "It looks like that's the last of them," Silver announced looking around the stand, wary of last minute shoppers.

    "Good, and you've got your gift shopping done," Coco asked.

    "Yep."

    "Perfect, you better meet up with your sisters then. Maurice and I will be at the Spinda Café when the party starts, please come when you're done. I'll close up here on my own. I actually can carry the box of earnings back, I've just been having you doing it this week because it's less effort for me."

    The Sneasel nodded and hurried back to the team's house while Coco picked up the box with her tail and placed it on her back and headed over, playing with the accessory voucher she had been holding onto since they had finished their last missions.

***

    "We can't thank you enough for this," Nella gushed grinning ear to ear as she looked at the pile of boxes.

    "I'm glad to help, besides, it'd be best if I had someone else deliver this," Maurice said gesturing to a box near him.

     "Let's get going then," Poppins announced gathering a pile of gifts as the other two Pokémon did the same.

    Their first stop was the Medical Tent.

    "Vat did you do now?" Dr. Quaak asked the moment he recognized the two Rescuers.

    "We have gifts for you, Remedy, and Poppy," Nella replied quickly looking through the boxes until she found the three they wanted. "Also, I promise I won't tear open the cut on my leg next time Remedy removes the stitches."

    "Hmmm," the Golduck muttered as he looked over the box she pushed towards him and opened it. Meanwhile, the other two doctors moved over and opened their gifts.

    "Thank you very much," Remedy and Poppy chorused as the two opened up a box containing assorted berries and sweets.

    "It was the least we could do after being horrible patients," Nella replied nudging Poppins. "By the way, is Team Troubled Waters still here?"

    "Yes, over there," Remedy replied gesturing towards the back of the tent.

    The three followed the Audino's gesture to an Oshawott and a Natu, walking past a Sneasel as they did so.

    "Mr. Nauxis, I'm glad you're looking better," Maurice said as he looked at the Natu, who, unlike last time he saw him, was wide-awake and standing with ease.

    "Thank you," the Natu nodded.

    "Oh, Nauxis, this is Maurice, he gave me the medicine you needed, and that's Poppins, we were in the same group that was putting out the forest that started the sickness, and that must be his teammate," Shawn whispered to his friend.

    "I'm Nella, I kind of started the fire," Nella replied wincing under Nauxis's gaze.

    "It was an accident," Poppins cut in offering a gift to the Oshawott. "Here, this from us. Thanks for helping with the fire, I'm not sure if I would have gotten to see Nella again if you hadn't helped."

    "My Water Pulse wasn't very good, the others in our group were more helpful," the Oshawott muttered as he opened the box.

    "Your Rain Dance was great and really sped things up though."

    "Besides, I really should be apologizing," the Houndour continued. "I hope our teams get to work together in the future. You two seem really nice."

    "Yeah, let's work to be great Rescuers together," added Poppins as he held out a wing to the other team. Nella put her paw in, as did Shawn, and Nauxis hopped closer to put his wing into the loose pile and the four raised their limbs.

    "Thanks you guys," replied Shawn, his eye's shining as he held up a kite.

    "You're welcome," Team Jet chorused as they stepped back to let Maurice talk.

   "I wasn't sure what you wanted, but I'm very sorry the sickness affected you two so badly, and for how short Coco was when we talked," Maurice said, bowing his head as he placed his box in front of the two Pokémon. Shawn opened it up to show a variety of candy.

    "Thank you. We'll enjoy these," Nauxis said.

   "You're welcome."

   "Will you two be at the Café later?" Poppins asked.

   "We might be, it depends on how Nauxis is doing," Shawn replied.

   "We hope to see you there," Nella replied as the three left.

***

    "Helloooooo! Sully! Dil!" Sly called knocking on the door.

   "Hey, I can hear Pokémon moving on the other side. They'll get the door soon," Ice replied.

    "Sulllllly! Diiilllllll!"

   "Hold on a sec Sly, I aslmos' go' the door," came a deep, feminine voice from the other side of the door. Finally it opened to reveal a dark brown Bouffalant with a broken horn and a green ribbon. A fluffy little Zubat was sitting in her Afro, while a Starly was on her broken horn looking down at Sly.

   "Did you have to knock that many times? You did hear we were coming, right?" asked the Starly.

   "Yeeeeees," Sly purred grinning.

   "Then why did you keep knocking?"

   "It was fuuuuuuuun. We have gifts for you." Sly placed two of the packages he had on the ground and with one foot edged one to Sully and the other to Dil. "One for your team, and one special for Sully."

   Dil and Sully pulled off the ribbons on their boxes and opened the lids.

   "These are very nice, bu' wha' are they?" Sully asked lifting a long and thin piece of mismatched cloth with bits of scrap metal dangling from one end. Meanwhile, Dil and the Zubat worked together to pull a string that contained a pile of dangling icicles with bits of colored glass frozen inside.

    "That's a ribbon for you, and a decoration for your house. You hang it by the window and the bits of glass in the iciles make pretty liiiiiights appear," Sly replied wagging his tail and staring at the knick-knack that the two Flying type were holding. "Do you want help hanging it?"

   "Sure, come in," Dil said gesturing with his wing. Once inside he and the Zubat moved towards a window while Ice helped Leilani secure it to the wall with String Shot.

   "Sooooooo, who's the new team member?" Sly asked.

   "That's Sloan or Sinclair, she likes both names. I picked up her egg after we broke into the library," Sully replied happily. "Sloan, this is Sly and Leilani, from Team Mischief, and, you have a new member too. Who's she?"

    "That's Ice Creeeeam, but she prefers Ice-"

    "Because that's my actual name," the Sneasel snapped.

    "Anywaaaays, we went on the Sneasel recruiting mission after the library and picked her up," Sly continued.

    "So, how do you like being in Tao Village?" asked Sloan.

    "We live out by Creepin' Forest, but Tao is fun. I like the dojo an' they serve nice food at the café, although that doesn't mean Sly should name me after the food," Ice replied.

    "Ice cream fits because underneath all the threeeats and fightinnng and battle talk, you're a sweet Pokémon," the Purrloin replied wagging his tail.

    "What? No."

    "What's a dojo?" the Zubat asked, interrupting what she felt was an impending fight.

    "It's awesome! It's a place where you can get into all sorts of fights for trainin'," the Sneasel replied jumping up.

    "That seems like an odd thing to be excited about."

    "Nuh-uh. Since I hatched, my big sis told me all these cool stories about what happened in the Slasher Gang and my big bro told me these fairy tales that he learned from our ma an' pa an' some had these cool battles from way long ago of Pokémon saving each other an' stuff," Ice replied dancing around. "Oh wait, I told Silver I'd meet him at the Medical Tent so we can exchange gifts and give stuff to Frost. I gotta go." With that, the Sneasel picked up the two boxes she left by the door and scampered out.

    "So we picked up a philosophical little girl and you picked up a violent one," Dil remarked as the door slammed shut.

    "It appears so," Leilani replied.

    "I think we'd of gotten something different if it weren't for all the propagaaaaaaanda," Sly purred. The two teams stayed and talk for a while before Sly and Leilani left to deliver their last gifts.

***

    "I'm here!!!" Ice skidded in front of Frost's bed and received a glare from most of the tent's occupants.

     "Do you two have something to report?" Frost asked, her gaze intent on Silver.

     "Not really," Silver replied averting his eyes to the ceiling. "It's just that today there's this gift exchange party and we got stuff for you." He handed out identical boxes to Frost and Ice.

     "I made stuff," Ice replied proudly giving Silver a box and putting a second one next to Frost's bed before tearing into the gift her brother gave her. "What's this?" She asked holding up a rectangular object made mostly of paper.

    "It's a book with all those stories ma and pa told us. I know you can't read, Ice, but I'm sure you can learn, I got one for you too Frost."

    "Kay, now you two open your gifts from me."

    Silver and Frost opened the boxes and looked inside. Silver pulled out a slightly lumpy and extremely brightly colored pillow while Frost saw a jagged set of icicles with bits of brightly colored glass frozen in.

    "I made them myself, well, Lee helped, but I did most of the work. It's a pillow for you since you spent a lot of free time nappin', and a decoration thing for you since this place is pretty dreary and we haven't had a chance to work on what you really wanted," Ice began babbling when her siblings didn't say anything.

    "Thanks, Ice, that's the sweetest thing you've ever done," Silver replied hugging her. Frost remained silent.

   "Actually, Silver did have a chance to work on what I really want," she growled.

  "What?" he asked letting go of his younger sister.

  "The Mankey from your team has been spending a lot of time with them."

  "I didn't know. I had been helping Coco at the Kecleon Stand for most of the week, all we knew was that he was helping with decorations."

   "So, the two of you have been sitting around selling things or playing arts and crafts with your new teams while ignoring the fact that the Pokémon who maimed your older sister are wandering around."

    "But you've been getting better. You said your burns don't hurt as much and your knee is slowly getting better. Why don't we all just start over here. Besides, there's no point in trying to restart the gang. There's all sorts of opportunities in Tao, I'm sure there's something that you can do that you'll like. You'll get what Slasher wanted without having to do that awful stuff."

    "I've been getting daily treatments with Heal Pulse from that surgeon, and my skin aint fixed," Frost replied coldly, making both of her siblings flinch. "I want vengeance and I want to stay loyal to Slasher's memory, and you will help me. We're family after all."

   "We'll bring them to you when you're better. I'm sure you'd prefer taking care of them personally," Silver replied emotionlessly.

    "An' if they try anythin' before then, we'll take care of 'em," Ice added more enthusiastically.

     "Good, now scram," Frost commanded, with a smile that was twisted by the burns on her face. "And remember your loyalty is to me, don't get too attached to your new teammates unless you think they'll be part of my plans."

    The two younger siblings walked out slowly and quietly, then stopped near the entrance.

    "She didn't really like it, did she?" Ice asked.

    Silver looked his sister over, her shoulders were slumped and her head was down, the book he had given her had half fallen out of her grip. He had never seen her like this, not even when her ear feather had been cut off. "My team's going to the party at Spinda Café. Do you want to come with?" Silver mumbled.

     "I was going to meet my team there," she replied, the book sliding out of her arms and falling on the ground opening to a page with a small image. Ice's eyes slid over the nicely painted picture of a sopping wet cat with a distinct spiral tail. She remembered the story that image was for, a short tale about a Glameow that almost drowned in her own tears. She picked up the book, snapped it shut to hide one of her least favorite stories, and brushed it off before turning back to her brother, who had also been briefly mesmerized by the image. "Why don't you drop your gift off at your place, I'll go meet my team at the Café. I hope I see you soon," she said brightly before rushing off, not looking back to see if her brother would follow her.

     Finally she made it inside. The Café was covered in bright lights and streamers with pictures of Kyurem. The curtains near the back of the building were pulled back to reveal a stage with the dragon's Ice Sculpture sitting on a stand while a few teams put on a dance performance for the other guests. The tables were packed full of Pokémon, and she began wandering around to try to find one of her teammates.

    "There you aaaaaaaaare!" called Sly.

   "That was good timing, we just finished talking with Team Suledin," Leilani added as she moved over to Ice's shoulder. "Is that a gift from your brother? It looks nice."