-Chapter 9: Stirring Up Trouble-
-Connor's POV-
After the full day of training and missions yesterday, we decided to call it in early. I liked Atlas. He was kind of overconfident, but we could work through that. He really needed to work on his weakness to flying types, primarily; Psychic types, we can't really do much about, because we're all susceptible to psychic or confusion, and we don't even have a psychic type on our team to help train us against other psychics.
Anywho, I woke up to a startled yelp, and Vulcan was on the floor next to me. He stood straight up, his hands lit on fire, and I looked out the window, noticing it was the middle of the night, "What's wrong, Vulcan? Something scare you?"
He was sweating, and had tears in his eyes, "It was just a nightmare. Sorry…"
I noticed his tail flickering a shade of red, and I raised an eyebrow, "Pretty bad nightmare, huh?"
He nodded, a single tear falling down his face, and laid back down, not saying anything. I whispered, "What was it about?"
He didn't even turn around, "I don't wanna talk about it."
I was sort of shocked from his sudden defensiveness, but pushing him would only make it harder to get anything out of him. I decided to let him tell it on his own time.
I closed my eyes again, and fell back asleep. Before long, we were awoken by Loudred, and I'll admit, I wish that he'd just shake us awake instead of bursting our ears.
After morning cheers, Chatot had something more to say. "Let me introduce our new allies."
Everybody was confused, chattering about who it could be, but after Vulcan and I looked at each other, I knew what was about to happen. Oh, please no…
Just as I expected, that terrible scent came pouring down the ladder and had everybody complaining. Just after that, Team Skull made its way down.
Chatot continued, "These three are our new partners." The three goons introduced themselves, acting all polite, and I couldn't even contain my surprise. They aren't even in disguise or anything! How does Chatot not know about them?!
"I'm Skuntank. Remember it." He turned to us, "Especially you two. Chaw-haw-haw!"
Vulcan gritted his teeth, his tail burning a bright blue, which I learned meant absolute rage, and I simply glared at them while Chatot glanced back and forth at us, "Oh, you're already acquainted? That simplifies things." He turned back to everybody else, "These three aren't joining us as apprentices. They will be joining us on our expedition to lend their assistance."
I wanted to say something, but I knew that Chatot wouldn't listen to us. Not yet.
"Anyway, the Guildmaster has made his decision. He has decided that having this trio take part will make us stronger on the expedition. However, it would be impossible to coordinate teamwork if we were to begin working together immediately. Therefore, we've decided that the trio should live with us for a few days."
No way! It's bad enough that they're just going on the expedition, but now this?!
"Though it will only be for a short while, I ask everyone to treat our guests with hospitality."
Loudred whispered to sunflora, surprisingly enough to where Chatot didn't hear, "Doesn't Chatot think something stinks about this? Literally?"
She whispered back, "How can the Guildmaster stand this?"
Bidoof chimed in, whispering, "I sure hope the expedition ends soon, yup yup!"
Chatot, oblivious to the hate going around, continued, "Alright, everyone, let's get back to work!"
Vulcan and I didn't even try, but everyone else threw in a half-hearted "Hooray…"
Chatot flapped his wings, "What's this? Where is your usual spirit?"
Loudred yelled, "You've gotta be KIDDING! This STINKS! How do you expect us to be cheerful when…" The room began trembling suddenly. "What?!" Everybody was trying to stay balanced, and Wigglytuff had started to murmur, "YOOM… YOOOOOM…"
Chatot lost it, "No! The Guildmaster! His rage is building! If the Guildmaster get angry, it will be horrific!" He turned back to us, "Everyone, come on! Be cheerful, even if it hurts! Alright, everyone, let's get down to today's work."
"HOORAY!"
The earthquake stopped suddenly, and everyone sort of trembled to their posts, shaken up about what just happened. Even Vulcan's rage was replaced by a bit of nervousness, because his tail was glowing yellow. Skuntank turned to us, "Glad to have met you. Chaw-haw-haw!" Then he left up the ladder, followed by Zubat and Koffing.
Chatot noticed that we hadn't gone anywhere, and gave us the assignment to pick our own jobs again. After we chose a few interesting missions to Mt. Bristle, we had Chimecho ring up Atlas while we went to the Café.
We sipped some Oran Juice while waiting for him, and I turned to Vulcan, "Team Skull, I know that they've got something in store for the expedition, and I'll bet you a hundred poké that they're going to do everything in their power to make us look bad for Chatot. That's why I think that we should hit up the Dojo before we head out today."
Vulcan agreed, "I'll take you up on that offer. I know that they'll do something, but I think that we can take them. We're a lot stronger than last time we fought Zubat and Koffing."
I nodded, slight memories filing back into my head, "Yeah… But guys like them? They don't fight fair. We need to be ready for cheap shots, and besides, Atlas needs to train up some more, no matter how tough he says he is. Anywho, they're not going to attack us openly; That would mess up their plan of tagging along on the expedition. They're gonna wait for us to get an important assignment, then screw it up for us. Let's just wait and see what they decide to do."
Atlas strode down the stairs and got a glass of Oran juice too, "What's up, Boss?"
Vulcan smiled slightly, "Don't call us that. We're partners. A team."
He nodded, sipping his juice, "Whatever you say."
I filled him in about what was going on with Team Skull, and that we were going to train at the dojo.
He clasped his hands together, "Alright; I've been doing some leg training after what happened yesterday; My vertical's almost two feet now. We'll be ready for those punks."
We nodded, "Well… That's improvement." We filed off to the dojo, and we heard some commotion coming from inside, and when we looked in, Basileus was dueling Marowak, and I began watching them, very impressed.
Marowak was using his bone club to land blows on Basileus while he used leaf blades to parry and follow up with seed bombs, disorienting him. But he would use protect, then bone rush as the blue shield absorbed the blow, keeping the grass-type on his toes. I thought about type matchups, and I suddenly found a new respect for the owner of the place.
He knocked Basileus off of his feet, then after a moment, helped him up, "Well done, Basileus. You're coming along nicely."
He thanked Marowak, and exited, greeting us as he walked past.
We walked in, and Marowak was so delighted, "Oho! Team Firestorm! Always a pleasure to have you here!"
We nodded, and after depositing our items, went into the ground/ice maze for a warm-up. We blazed through there fairly quickly, and after every couple run-thrus of the mazes, we'd take turns checking for new missions to Mt. Bristle. To finish the training session, we did the Normal/Flying maze. Atlas wasn't joking when he said that he'd been doing leg training. He could jump a lot higher than before, and we all learned new moves finally; I learned fire fang, Connor learned rock throw and mud sport, and Atlas learned seismic toss.
Of course, Atlas ended up being just as big a sore loser as Connor, so when he got knocked out in the flying maze, he kept getting back up for more, until we finally beat it after five tries.
So, we headed back to the Café, sipping some OJ (Oran Juice) to recover our energy. We had received four missions, with two outlaw cases rolled into the day. With that, we devised a strategy, which had Atlas guarding the staircase if the outlaw wasn't waiting for us while we patrolled.
With that in mind, we set out for Mt. Bristle. We made excellent time getting through the floors, and the outlaws weren't exactly super tough. We beat them fairly easily, and on the way, we rescued a Smeargle who offered to join our team when we brought him back to the guild.
After a little thought, we figured that he'd be useful, so we agreed. He didn't have a nickname, so we decided to call him Vincent.
We took him to the Dojo for training, and it ended up that he can literally learn any move he wants, and use paint to replicate any object that came to mind. He knew some pretty sick strategies, including giving himself wings, a sword, and shield, all made from paint. But they did the job well, not even bending. When he showed me, it didn't feel like paint, but it actually felt like metal, which was really cool.
That evening, Vulcan and I were both super excited after our badges changed from bronze to silver, marking our promotion as an exploration team.
"This'll help us get picked for the expedition, won't it, Connor?"
I nodded, "Yeah… It sure will."
I kept thinking about how we were going to take on team skull if we needed to. Koffing and Zubat weren't the problem. It was Skuntank. His smell alone had me almost passed out. He's just so strong...
I dismissed the thought, and closed my eyes, "G'night Vulcan."
We awoke the next morning as usual, with Loudred making our ears burst with a shout, and we went to morning briefings. After our cheers, Chatot called us over, "You two! Your job today is to replenish the larder."
Vulcan seemed interested, "You mean go get some food?"
"Correct. We inspected the larder this morning. For some mysterious reason, the guild's food stock has dropped sharply all of a sudden."
He shook his head as he continued, "Furthermore, our entire stock of perfect apples has disappeared. That was the only item to get completely cleaned out."
I raised an eyebrow, "Perfect apples?"
He nodded, "Correct. They're very big and delicious apples. But more than that, they are the Guildmaster's favorite food! If there were no perfect apples, the Guildmaster would… Um… The Guildmaster w-w-would…"
If he's getting this scared just thinking about it, I don't wanna know…
He suddenly got very dodgy, and quivered a bit before continuing, "Yes, that would happen. That's why I'm begging you two to go get some perfect apples."
I nodded, and Vulcan seemed a bit confused, but I told Chatot that we'd handle it.
"Good! Perfect apples can be found deep in apple woods. Now, listen, this may seem like a simple errand, but it's a crucial job. After all, this is about the Guildmaster's… So please don't fail!"
We both gave an "Ok" as we walked to the ladder, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Team Skull watching us as we climbed up.
I'll take one guess at who ate all the perfect apples...
Vulcan turned to me, "How much you wanna bet that they'll try to mess this up for us?"
I smiled, "I know they will. But we'll be ready."
Alright, Chapter 9 people! So, I am changing up the dialogue, because in my opinion, your partner doesn't act all that smart all the time, and I didn't want mine to be a carbon copy of the game. Anywho, hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a quick review or PM if you did, and I will see you in the next update! Much Love!
-PL
