Chapter 1
It was a rather tame week at team Bang's home base. Artie was adding some upgrades to Roto, Torrent was working on some surf techniques, Static was eating chips and playing her 3DS, and Blaze was getting frustrated trying to kill a fly.
"Augh! You damn pest, I'll murder you!" the hotheaded Charmeleon screamed swatting at the fly for the millionth time. "Screw this" he said as he released a hot Ember attack burning the fly to a crisp and also setting the bookcase on fire.
At the smell of smoke Torrent leaped into action. "Dammit Blaze, don't use fire attacks inside the house!"
He quickly doused the flames with a Water Gun attack but the damage was done. All that was the left of bookcase was a pile of soggy ashes.
"Dude, look what you did to the bookcase, what the hell man." Torrent snapped.
"So what Torrent, who the hell needs books? I don't read." Blaze retorted.
"Maybe if you did and then you wouldn't be such a jackass." Torrent snapped back.
The flame on the Blaze's tail flashed white in anger " You want to take this outside."
"If you were outside none of this would've happened."
"I'm getting an incoming call on the Poke' Monitor" Artie interrupted.
"Hey guys shut up we got a mission." Static added.
"Finally!" the fire lizard exclaimed.
Just then a Chatot's face appeared on the screen.
"Hello Team Bang, what a nice day it is."
"Quit your yapping and give us our mission already old timer." Blaze chimed in.
Ignoring the rude lizard, Chatot continued "Well as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, we have a rescue mission for you in Mt. Bristle."
"Cool beans, I could use some fresh mountain air" Static interrupted which got her a death glare from Chatot.
"There will be no time for leisure I'm afraid, a couple of children got lost in a cave on a field trip. Mt. Bristle is a very dangerous area full of hostile Pokémon, you need to get those children out of there ASAP."
"Thanks sir will do" Torrent replied before the screen went blank.
"Alright team let's gear up."
After tying on their rescue team bandannas and badges, they filled their backpacks with various materials including food, escape ropes, and iron spikes. This was their first rescue mission in weeks and they were running low on cash and patience. Before they departed on their journey Artie came out with three strange looking belts.
"What the hell are those?" Blaze asked.
"These are teleporter belts, they're linked to my psychic powers and allow me to teleport you guys back to home base."
"Wow that's so awesome" Static exclaimed genuinely excited.
"Be careful with them, teleporting Pokémon takes a lot out of me so I can only use them once a day. So only use if you finished a mission or in case of an emergency." The Abra warned.
Torrent was the first to comply "Understood Artie. I 'm impressed you really outdid yourself this time champ." He complimented. The little Abra beamed proudly.
"I think they look a little tacky" Blaze complained.
"Anything looks tacky on you Blaze" Static joked. Blaze was about to slug her when Torrent intervened.
"That's enough guys, we have work to do."
Fortunately, Mt. Bristle wasn't too far from their home base as it was only a two hour journey but the real danger was inside the cave.
"Here we are guys." Torrent said.
"Well at least the weather's nice" Static laughed while shivering profusely.
"Let's do this already" Blaze exclaimed.
The cave at the tip of the mountain was cold, desolate but surprisingly well lit. The terrain wasn't much to look at, the ground was dry and barren aside from some twisted weeds and the walls echoed their every step. Things were going along quietly until they heard someone scream.
"Intruders! Halt! We have intruders!"
The team looked up to see a squad of well-disguised Gravelers hanging from the walls.
"Stop the intruders!" The rock type Pokémon leaped off the walls each landing with a heavy thud.
At this point Torrent realized this wasn't going to be a diplomatic mission. Blaze knew this too and his eyes began to gleam with excitement. Static was getting antsy. Torrent attempted to defuse the situation to no avail.
"Looks like it's time for a good old fashioned brawl." The fire lizard chuckled.
"Guess we don't have a choice" the turtle added.
"Wow, look at that talking boulder." Cracked the thunder mouse.
Just then the Gravelers started rolling towards them at high speed. Blaze quickly somersaulted to the side evading the oncoming assailant and countered with an ember attack. To his surprise it had very little effect as the Graveler punched him in retaliation. Using her amazing agility Static evaded the Rollout, and tried countering with a Thundershock to no effect and was knocked back. Torrent used Withdraw just in time not to be crushed to death by the Rollout, but nevertheless he was still pretty banged up.
"Team regroup!" The team stood back to back anticipating the next attack.
"Damn these guys are tougher than they look" Torrent panted.
"These bastards looked pretty tough to begin with." The Pikachu replied.
Furious, the hotheaded Charmeleon was even redder than before. "Screw this. I'm not going down like some punk!" he leaped back into the fray slamming a Graveler into the wall using his powerful tail. As another charged him with a tackle, he quickly dodged and countered with a Metal Claw. The blow left rock type staggering in pain. Gathering back his confidence, a cocky smirk spread across Blaze's face, "Guess you bastards aren't so invincible after all." And with that he pounded another Graveler into the ground with Metal Claw.
Meanwhile Static skillfully dodged two oncoming Gravelers, by acrobatically weaving side to side. After landing a double aerial she used Double Team to confuse her aggressors. When the confused rocks attacked the duplicates the real Pikachu attacked with an Iron Tail from above knocking the two Gravelers down. "Ouch that's gonna hurt in the morning."Then she added apologetically "Sorry I didn't even mean to hit you that hard, I'll hope you guys are okay."
Torrent quickly withdrew into his and propelled himself into the air using Rapid Spin. While still spinning rapidly in midair he let loose a powerful Ice Beam freezing all the surrounding Gravelers into blocks of ice.
His teammates stood there astonished and dumbstruck. Static was the one to break the silence.
"Dude I wish you would've done that before we were getting our asses kicked."
"To be honest I didn't really know I could. I actually tried using Water Gun but the cold air must have turned my water to ice."
Blaze mildly jealous of his friend quickly changed the subject "Let's go find those brats before anything else happens."
Torrent once again focused on the mission "For once I agree with Blaze, let's get the heck out of here."
He turned to Static, was still in the back fooling around with the frozen Pokémon. "You coming or what"
"Yeah dude" the Pikachu said while taking one last look. "You have to admit that's a pretty good look for them. "She chuckled.
The three rangers move along at a brisk pace until they reached an old abandoned mountain trail.
Torrent pulled out his communicator and contacted Artie "So what's our objective?"
"Chatot said the children are lost on the somewhere are the peak of the mountain, that means you'll have hike up those through those passages and follow that cliff trail." Artie informed them.
"Sounds easy enough" Blaze huffed nonchalantly, "What's the catch?"
"Some rocky foundations among the trail are withered and unsafe lacking a solid foundation; the trail could easily collapse at any second which is why it was closed down."
Blaze's golden eyes flashed in frustration "This is pretty much a suicide mission!"
Unlike Blaze, Static remained cheerful about the situation "I don't know about you but I find the prospect exciting, it's all part being part of rescue, right guys?"
Torrent was the first to respond, "Somehow Static I don't share your enthusiasm about our predicament, but I'll admit your right. We're a rescue team, this is what we trained for and every minute we waste here debating, those children are still in danger."
Blaze nodded in agreement 'Alright let's do this"
"TEAM BAAAANG!"
The winding path was treacherous as each creaking step made Torrent's gut wrench. Knowing the trail could crumble on the slightest step at any given moment made his heart pound through his shell. He looked up ahead at Static who was scampering gracefully among the steep mountain trail and felt a pang of envy toward the nimble mouse Pokémon. Just behind Static was Blaze moving at a brisk but clumsy pace almost losing his footing a couple of times while scraping his sharp claws along the rock wall for a better foundation. Torrent however was clambering behind at a slow and steady pace.
They edged along the wall until they reached a crevice along the in edge of the cave. Taking a few minutes to regroup and catch their breath, they quickly gobbled down their food as fast as they could knowing that time was of the essence.
The trail was a little thicker around the crevice so travelling was a bit easier for the time being. Blaze felt something small hit the back of head. Hard. "Ow Static" the Charmeleon winced "What the hell man".
Static was dumbfounded "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything."
"No times for games guys we're on duty." Torrent scolded.
"Ow, Blaze why you throwing rocks? "Static rubbed a red spot on her head.
Torrent picked up a small oblong object off the ground, and inspected it closely. It wasn't a rock, it more resembled a seed. He wiggled his ears inquisitively "That's peculiar, a random seed yet there's no plants growing around here anywhere. So where did these seeds come from?" Torrent looked up and saw dozens of glowing yellow eyes.
"Hey guys look at the ceiling."
Blaze grabbed his flaming tail and flashed it the ceiling for better lighting. He looked up at the cavern ceiling and saw dozens of Grass type Pokémon suctioned to the ceiling. The plants had eight petal-like pink tentacles protruding from the opening on its upper body. The cup-shaped body has a set of yellow circular patterns on it resembling eyes. The upper portion of their body were connected to its lower by means of a yellow-colored stem, extending from a semi-spherical base that has four 'roots' to anchor them to the cavern walls.
"No way are those-"
"Lileep?"
"It can't be. They're extinct. "
Just then the dormant Pokémon began to writhe and wiggle as if awoken by the light. Suddenly a spray of Bullet Seeds came raining down on the three Pokémon like a hailstorm.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
They weaved and dodged frantically under the frenzy of seeds, using their hands to cover their heads.
"Ow, ouch, augh, owowow, dammit!"
Torrent withdrew inside of his shell, and called out to his comrades "Hey guys carry me"
"No way! You have legs" Blaze shouted back.
"Just do it!"
The two Pokémon ran back and heaved their comrade over their head. "Damn you're heavy" Static groaned.
"Just shut up and walk." The Wartortle replied.
Static and Blaze made their way through the trail as the storm of seeds harmlessly ricocheted off of Torrent's shell. Static was elated, "Wow this is actually working."
"Dude keep walking, my arms are getting tired." Blaze snarled.
Soon they managed to cross the hazardous trail leading to the peak of the mountain.
"Thank Arcues that's over."
"I hate to admit it, but we wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Torrent's quick thinking," Blaze conceded.
The water type and the fire type looked at each other and nodded in mutual respect for one another. Suddenly they heard a voice call out. "Hello is someone down there? We need help."
"Don't worry we're a rescue team, we're on our way up." Torrent called back.
The trio made their way up to the peak, where were three baby Pokémon perching on a high ledge. A Togepi, Azurill, and a Wynaut were petrified and wailing.
Static shouted over the wind, "Hang on little dudes I'll get you down"s she proceeded to take an escape rope and tied an iron spike to the end. She twirled the spiky end for momentum and flung it as hard as she could. The spike pierced the rocky ledge and she pulled the rope to test the strength of the grip. The grip was strong so she instructed Blaze and Torrent to hold the rope steady as she nimbly climbed up, rescuing the children one by one.
As she was getting down the last child the rope began to wither and snap in the harsh winds. The frightened Azurill clung to Static for dear life as the rope erratically swayed back and forth. "Guys hold the rope as steady as you can!" she shouted over the wind.
A strong gust of wind blew the Azurill out of Static's arms, and Blaze leapt into action leaving Torrent holding the rope that kept Static steady. In one fell swoop Blaze caught the child in midair and landed hard on his back with the child safely tucked in his arms.
"Whew that was a close one" Static said happy to finally have her feet on the ground.
"Thanks for saving me, mister" the Azurill said as she kissed Blaze on the cheek. Blaze's face wrenched in fake disgust. "No problem kid." He clicked his belt, "Hey Artie, get us the hell out of here."
And in a flash of light they were safe at home base.