-Chapter 10: Don't Mess With Fire-

-Vulcan's POV-

We stopped by Kangaskhan storage to pick up some items; A couple reviver seeds, a couple apples, a TM for flamethrower, for me, and a couple pieces of gear that we got as rewards from other missions.

Connor kept the Stamina band, Vincent got a pecha scarf, and I gave Atlas a power band. I kept the blue bow, and Atlas wrapped the power band around his arm, "So… Those Team Skull freaks. They're gonna try and ambush us, huh?"

I nodded, "I can almost guarantee it."

Vincent dabbed his tail in an easel that he always carried, "Well, let's make sure we're ready!"

Connor nodded, and we walked to the well. I wrote down our adventures so far, and after that, we set off for apple woods. We worked out a strategy for tackling team 'd probably use Skuntank to knock us out with his gas, so I thought of a strategy. I told them along the way, making sure to keep it to a whisper.

We made it to the entrance after a solid thirty minutes of walking, and Vincent looked to the treeline, "Well, it's not called Apple woods for nothing."

He was right about that. There were apples everywhere. But the Perfect apples were at the center of the forest, which I presumed Team Skull already knew about.

Anywho, after a quick recap of my plan, we all took off, the branches of the trees turning into a wall behind us, signaling a mystery dungeon.

After walking for a ridiculously long time, I had to say, the effects were getting annoying; Sleep, slowed, poison, paralysis… Why couldn't these pokemon just fight normally? Granted, Vincent used sketch to learn spore, which was really useful, so it wasn't all bad. None of the pokemon in the dungeon really caught our eye as good recruits, except combee, but it needed to be a female. But the ratio of guy to girl combees was pretty one-sided, and we didn't have all day to search for one.

When we reached the center of the forest, we saw a giant tree in the middle of a clearing that had perfect apples growing on it. Chatot wasn't joking when he said that they were big, either. Those things were bigger than my head!

We walked up, and Atlas said, "Well, we're here. Let's get some perfect apples and go home, guys."

"Chaw-haw-haw!"

I sarcastically said, "Oh, who could that be?"

Sure enough, Team Skull dropped from the tree, and kept my sarcastic tone, "Oh, we never saw this coming!"

I can't believe that they didn't catch on, but Skuntank did a fake bow, "Chaw-haw-haw! Team Skull at your service!"

Zubat went on, "Heh-heh. Hey, it's wimpy and company. Sure took you long enough to get here!"

Koffing smacked his lips, "We've been having ourselves a picnic of Perfect Apples while waiting for you to show. What took you so long?"

I turned to my friends, "Ignore them. There's still more on the tree."

"Chaw-haw-haw. Ignore us? That's very rude of you! In fact, we were wanting to help you!"

He walked to the side of the tree, and headbutted it several times, making a few dozen perfect apples fall to the ground, "Go on, pick them up."

I stared at the apples, but Connor took a step forward, "We're not buying it. It's a trick."

Koffing floated backwards slightly, "Well, color me surprised! They didn't fall for it at all!"

Vincent smirked, holding up his tail that was covered in a rainbow swirl of paint, "What color you want?"

Skuntank scowled, "Hmph. You're no fun at all, you know that? If it's a fight you want, then we'll oblige! Chaw-haw-haw!"

Koffing and him lined up while Zubat moved back, and I turned to the others, whispering, "Vincent, you ready?"

He nodded, and I turned forward, "Wait for it..."

"Chaw-haw-haw! Let's see if you can stand up to this attack. Koffing and I will use our… Noxious gas combo!"

Koffing and Skuntank sprayed gas at the same time, and I ignited my hands, "NOW!"

Vincent raised a paint barrier around my teammates, and rain started falling from the sky as I launched a flamethrower, igniting the gas and sending a fireball straight back into Team Skull.

*Flashback*

"So, here's the plan, guys… I did some research on the gas sprayed by skuntank and Koffing. Connor, you know how Koffing's gas exploded when you used a blast seed back when we first fought him?"

He nodded, and I continued, "Well, I'm going to use flamethrower as they spray the gas. Same concept, except a bigger fireball. Vincent, you know safeguard, protect, rain dance, and how to use a sword. Put a Safeguard over us, just in case the gas doesn't ignite; We should be safe from all status effects for a while, including their stink. We'll all have to fight our hardest; Skuntank and his goons are probably tougher than last time. Vincent, you use protect on you, Connor and Atlas, then use rain dance. I don't want to burn down the forest."

He nodded, and I continued, "Afterwards, Vincent, you take on Zubat; You have wings, of sorts, so you can stay on his turf, I'll take down Koffing; Connor, Atlas, you two take on Skuntank. I'm not saying that you need to beat him, just keep him occupied until his goons are down. We'll come help when we're through."

Atlas cracked his knuckles with a grin, and Connor nodded.

"Alright; Apple Woods are up ahead. Let's do this."

Before Team Skull could recover from the fireball, Vincent lowered protect, and sprouted some paint wings and sword, taking off straight into Zubat.

I leapt onto Koffing and bit down with fire fang. He fell to the ground, deflated and groaning.

I turned, and Connor had used ancient power to entomb Skuntank, and Atlas used karate chop to smash the boulders to rubble.

-Connor's POV-

I'll admit, letting Vulcan make that plan really helped. He really thought of everything. Rain dance helped bring down the fireball, and protect shielded us from the blast. Vincent just used spore to knock Zubat out from the get-go, and Koffing was taken down by Vulcan with one fire fang.

I used ancient power, making the ground heave up around Skuntank, and piled the boulders around him. Atlas used karate chop to turn the boulders to rubble, and Skuntank broke through, roaring, "You! How?!"

Vulcan used fire punch to uppercut him, and I slammed him into the tree with another boulder. He got up, and tried to spray us again, but Vincent's safeguard saved our butts. Vincent glided in, slashing with a paint sword, and Skuntank used night slash to parry, and knocked Vincent to the ground. Atlas charged forward, and Skuntank used flamethrower, but rain dance made it fizzle out before it reached Atlas.

He used karate chop, and Skuntank slammed back into the tree. A few more perfect apples cracked on the ground from falling after the tree shook, and I sighed after realizing that we weren't going to be able to bring a ton of them back.

I stepped forward, "Y'know, Skuntank… Some people just need a boulder to the face. You're one of 'em. But I'm not about that life."

I used ice ball, and he slammed back into the tree. Vulcan followed up with another uppercut, and Atlas used karate chop again. He fell to the ground, and there was a gust of wind, teleporting Team Skull out of the dungeon, just like any other team.

I looked to the ground, and the perfect apples there were burnt to a crisp and split open. I used ancient power, riding the floating hunk of rock to the top of the tree, and picked a few perfect apples that were unscaved. I put two in my wonder bag, and stacked a few on the boulder I was floating on. Vincent flew up to me, flapping his paint wings, and picked up a couple in a paint-made bag.

I floated back down, and filled back in the holes made from me heaving up the earth. Vulcan grabbed a couple apples, and Atlas carried the last two. We still got ten perfect apples. Not a bad haul.

We walked back to Treasure Town after munching on some oran berries, and when we came to the guild, Vincent and Atlas followed us in to deliver the perfect apples. When we took out all the perfect apples, Chatot looked at what we brought, "Odd… There are usually more growing this time of year…"

I shrugged, thinking of something to say, "That's all that was there when we got to the tree. Sorry."

I felt the rest of the team glaring at me, and I was almost tempted to tell him the truth, but thought wiser of it.

"Well, I suppose it can't be helped. This will be enough for the Guildmaster for now. I'm willing to mark this as a partial success. I'll just have to make the trip myself to stock up for the expedition."

I shrugged, "Alright… If it's alright, Atlas, Vincent, Vulcan and I were wanting to go to Spinda's Café for a quick drink before dinner."

"Very well. Team Firestorm, you are dismissed."

Vincent, Atlas and Vulcan all eyed me as we walked out, and I turned to them on the stairs leading to the crossroads, "I know you wanna ask."

Atlas nodded, crossing his arms, "Yeah; Why didn't you tell Chatot that it was freaking Team Skull that ate all the Perfect Apples, were the reason that we didn't bring back even a dozen, and tried to stop us?!"

Vincent and Vulcan both nodded, and I sighed, "Trust me guys, I wanted to, but they got kicked out of the dungeon and were warped straight here. They had a solid half an hour to make up a story, and no doubt they made up a really good one. If we brought it up to Chatot, then he would have brought up what Team Skull said, then that would've made us look suspicious. Especially if we kept pressing, trying to convince him. Team Skull is a crafty bunch. We can't just out-muscle them, we have to stay one step ahead of them. But the thing is that we're simply not respected enough yet to make Chatot change his mind about them. Give it time, Atlas."

He crossed his arms, and Vincent placed a hand on his shoulder, "Chill out, muscles. We still beat the snot out of them."

He let a slight smirk cross his face for a moment, "Yeah, but I don't like that they get off scot-free."

I shrugged, "Well, no matter; Let's have a drink in celebration for our half-successful mission!"

We all liked the sound of that, and we each made our favorite gummi smoothie to celebrate while listening to the music flowing from the walls of the café.

This chapter, guys... The reason I wrote it like this was because, A. I despised that you never actually fought team Skull in the games. And B. I feel like in the games that your partner can be... Dumb at times. I made him smarter throughout the whole story, so I like to think that it made sense for the most part. I think it's better written like this instead of no fight scene at all. Let me know what you guys thought of it with a quick review or PM, and I will see you in the next update!

-PS - OC submissions are getting pretty filled up due to my story progressing. If you want to see your OC member in any sequels to come, then be sure to PM me soon, before it's too late! Much Love!

-PL