"Fucking hell. Where am I?" Someone asked as they stood up, rubbing their eyes to adjust to the light, or rather, lack thereof.
They attempted to turn around, but could only do so ever so slightly, effectively resulting in settling with head movement, trying to see anything in the darkness. And eventually, they spotted something.
Fire.
It first appeared in a single spot but grew wilder as it spread beyond their field of view, revealing trees, some of which were seemingly cut off. As if a battle just took place.
And then, a loud stomp was heard coming from behind them. A sinister behemoth evilly grinned, as three pairs of scarlet eyes were visible amongst the darkness, a small yet eerie hiss came from the giant, snaking its head near the being frozen in place.
"W-who or what the fuck are you? What do you want from me, eh?" They asked, gritting as they felt the other's breath in their nape, stiffening up, tense as the head only exhaled.
"Soon…" The figure responded, but the voice didn´t come from the head that was facing him. They narrowed an eye at this.
"Soon what?"
Nothing came, as the trio of heads began cackling hysterically, a yellow glow taking over the pitch black of the area. The figure fired a combined beam straight at them.
A faint voice could be heard from afar, calling out to them. Saying their name.
"Goji! Wake up!"
With a gasp, he shoots up, panting as he saw who called him. An Inteleon. He looked at the now awake Tyranitar, kneeling beside him, a look of worry sprawled across his face. He said nothing, awaiting his answer.
Goji sighed in relief, as he calmed down.
"Good grief Bobble. Way to wake someone up, aye?" He groggily said, yawning softly. Bobble rolled his eyes with a chuckle at his friend´s statement. Standing up alongside him. Both stretching.
He then looked over, a curious look took over, as he eyed his friend.
"Hey, are you alright? You were tossing and turning for a couple of minutes, everything's okay?" He asked sincerely.
"Yeah, just trouble sleepin' that's all, really." He answered with a groan, as if it was a normal occurrence. Bobble knew better than that.
"Really? That's strong coming from someone like you," he replied slyly with a smirk of his own this time, crossing his arms. The Tyranitar let out a playful growl, as the spikes on his back emitted a soft blue glow. Something unique to him, as it turned out.
Bobble´s demeanor quickly changed to a serious one, as he looked at his long-time friend.
"Seriously though, if you have trouble sleeping, or nightmares, you can always count on me, okay?"
"Yeah, we can always count on each other, remember?" Goji said as he stretched his arm out to Bobble. Immediately, they both did their own salute, as they crossed arms with each other, high-fiving and finishing with a sideways fist bump.
"Today's the big day. Team Snipe's first independent journey!" Bobble excitedly said, as Goji looked at him, briefly confused, but quickly became aware, humming in agreement.
It still was wild to them that they graduated from the Rookidee Guild just a month ago. All of them excelled. After that, the first thing they did was to evolve to their final stage. They leveled up so that they had enough experience so that they would all be fully evolved by the time they graduated.
They both stepped outside their base to meet with the rest of their team. The golden light of morning hit them with full force, but they adjusted quickly.
Waiting for them outside were an Amped Toxtricity, a Corviknight, a Golurk, and a Thievul. They all appeared to be eager at this too, this journey was like a reward for their efforts during their stay with the guild.
"'bout time you two showed up, what took you so long?" Shockya, the Toxtricity asked in a casual manner, tilting his head to the side.
They both sighed.
"Just woke up, that's all. How are you all anyways?" Goji answered nonchalantly, wanting to forget the dream he had moments earlier.
"Well, I'm feeling quite excited, though I had to bid my father goodbye, he wishes luck upon us all, if you are curious." Blackwing, the Corviknight, stated. His father was the current Guildmaster of the Rookidee Guild. He was at first doubtful of his son wanting to become an explorer with his friends, but they convinced him after seeing their teamwork in action. He rewarded those initial efforts by allowing, whoever wanted to, the option to evolve.
Bobble, Goji and Blackwing opted to do so, since their evolutions consisted of three stages. The others chose to stay like so until their graduation.
Bobble then strode over to the Thievul. Getting his message, she did the same.
Once he was at her level, they both gave the other a lick before it turned into a deep kiss.
"Yikes… Last thing you want is to do 'the thing' in public, Bobble. At broad daylight not less." The Tyranitar stated, acting disgusted. Toxtricity joined in on the act too.
"Legit, man. The kiss is fine, but why the lickin', yo? Kinda kinky," he stated as he let his tongue out, shaking his head.
The couple rolled their eyes at this.
"Is it wrong to express our love to each other, Goji? Shockya?" the Thievul remarked at their act, as they looked directly at them. Shockya raised his hands as he began to drop the act.
"Shit man, no. We just foolin' around, hehe" he laughed softly, awkwardly looking to Goji and the couple as he scratched his head. The Tyranitar sighed in response.
"No, it ain't, Foxinne. But really, maybe just keep it to yourselves, in private if you can." He stated with a straight look on his face.
Bobble decided to speak up.
"Look, Goji, I know it's just an act, but it's the way we express ourselves. I like to think of our kissing methods as 'assertive'." He said while doing air quotes, shrugging afterwards.
Goji chuckled at the statement.
"You call it assertive; I call it weird as fuck." He said with a sly smirk, getting a brief glare from the Inteleon. He exhaled, knowing both meant well.
Fortmachio, the Golurk, was talking with Blackwing as the scene unfolded before them. They were listing off anything they needed before parting, whether it was items, supplies or enough Poké for the journey.
He then turned towards the others, no clear signs of what he was conveying other than his tone and body language.
"Hey. Hey!" He shouted, raising his voice to get the other´s attention. In an instant, they all turned to face him.
He lifted a bag as he began to tell not to waste time.
"Look, if we want to do this, we better get going then. We might miss the Lapras that'll take us to the Sun Continent, otherwise we'll have to wait while until she comes back, so… yeah." He moved his entire upper body as if he were nodding.
Bobble sighed, rapidly nodding.
"He's right. We should start moving, better late than never." He responded as they all followed him, Goji walked by his side. The two were essentially the team´s founders, ever since they were a Sobble and Larvitar, respectively. They were inseparable. Rarely would they ever be seen alone.
Goji began to contemplate on this, they always got looks ever since they joined the Guild. Most would say due to a Sobble being with a Larvitar wasn't normal, but more so his appearance.
He was born Shiny, but for some reason, he wasn´t born with the traditional colors a Shiny Larvitar has. His skin is a charcoal grey, the diamond shapes that make up his belly and part of his back are a much lighter blue, and the spikes on his back went from grey to several shades of blue that end with a white tip.
'I don't understand, though. Are these colors rarer than the normal ones, or is it something else? Meh, who cares, I like 'em, and the others are fine with them, so screw all that nonsense!' Goji thought to himself as they began to leave Brittlemouth Village, greeting a few colleagues and locals along the way. Yet, there was something he doesn't completely understand.
Upon evolving after the graduation, Bobble and the rest of Team Snipe were surprised to discover that instead of learning Hyper Beam, Goji had learned a different move, which he dubbed "King's Beam", after an ancient attack he had read about months ago, and even then, the Inteleon was the only one who knew the true meaning behind the name.
Bobble on the other hand, was excited for their upcoming journey, yet he still couldn´t shake off the feeling that his lifelong friend had indeed experienced a nightmare moments ago.
He has done this a few times before, and he doesn´t know what he´s dreaming about. Or is he being tormented in his sleep?
'No. That would certainly be impossible, Darkrai is said to be inactive and missing, thanks to Palkia… Let's hope it's just a normal nightmare and nothing disturbing,' thought the Inteleon, as he tried to find the roots behind the Tyranitar´s bad dreams.
The others were talking about their departure, reaffirming they had every necessary thing and whatnot. The two were the only quiet ones among them. And as if they were on the same wavelength, they looked at each other.
Bobble began to nod as Goji mouthed, "Nightmares. I'll tell you later."
The team soon arrived to the Lapras Travel Liner. In front of them was the Lapras, a smile painted across her face as she greeted them.
"Hello! Welcome to the Lapras Travel Liner, where would you all want to head off to?" She sweetly asked, as the Inteleon confidently hummed, turning to face her.
"The Sun Continent."
"Hmm, are you all sure you're ready?" asked the gentle Water-type. Everyone hummed and nodded in agreement.
"Very much, ma'am," answered Bobble, getting a nod from the Lapras.
She announced their departure, as everyone began to get onto her back, apart from Blackwing and Fortmachio, since they both could fly and follow her.
The founders were the last to get onboard. As they made their way up, the two were conversing the travel.
"Man, can you imagine how much more convenient it would be if I just used my Dynamax Orb and started swimming? Mmm, so cool…" Goji murmured to Bobble, to which he gave him a look accompanied by heavy sighing, putting a hand in his face.
"Goji. We've been over this, you can't do that. Your body isn´t made for water, you'll have to keep catching air constantly, plus it may be bad for Lapras if you decide to do it as a business or job," the Inteleon stated as the Lapras departed from the port, the land getting smaller as they moved forward.
"I know how to swim at least," the Rock-type countered as he crossed his arms, puffing his chest briefly.
"Yes you may know, but not only do you have little experience swimming for longer periods, but you also have reference from a book that you read when you were a Pupitar, and we only had few lessons after graduating, soooo," he waggled his hand as Goji gave him a glare.
Shockya joined in on the conversation, getting a chance to nag at him, saying, "Is he up again with his swimming dream? Come on, man, that ain't happening soon," he snickered as the Tyranitar turned to face him, and Bobble couldn´t help but softly laugh at their exchange.
"OH FUCK OFF! DON'T DO THIS TO ME, MAN!" Goji shouted, his expression was priceless, to which the Electric-type punk barked in laughter, his mohawk flaring up as did the spikes on the reckless Rock-type. It could be easy to get him like this at times.
After a callout from the Lapras and several apologies from the other members, a few of them decided to fall asleep, those being Shockya and Foxinne, the latter of which was cuddling with Bobble, in traditional fashion.
As they traversed through the vast seas, the ambience was quite refreshing, even with the Toxtricity's snoring. Blackwing and Fortmachio had to stay awake, since they were on the air. They still had few miles to go before reaching their destination.
Bobble was stroking his lover's fur, to which she purred softly as she snuggled even more with him. Sensing the opportunity, he turned to face his friend, and asked, "Hey, mind telling me about the nightmares you had earlier?"
Nodding, Goji responded, "Yeah."
"You see, it´s always darkness. Like, it feels like I'm always in an empty space, only for it to turn chaotic at a moment´s notice, followed by the weirdest part of it all," he explained, keeping his voice low to not wake any of their sleeping teammates up.
"What is it?" questioned Bobble.
"A voice. I don´t know who it belongs to, but it's different every time. Sometimes it sounds 'normal', others it either sounds low or high pitched… And it keeps spouting really vague stuff." He sighed afterwards, looking at the scenery before them.
"Such as?"
"'Soon…', and 'You'll join them too', things like that. Weird shit, I'm telling ya." Goji stated as he they looked at each other, nodding, yet confused of it all.
Bobble perked up, with a question that still needed an answer, "How long has this been going on for?"
Goji squinted, as he began to remember the first time he experienced them. Once he did, he responded, "I dunno, couple of weeks now, I think."
The answer soon was followed by a silence as the two looked at each other for a few seconds, before turning back to observe the sea. They looked around as they let themselves sink into the calm environment in the meantime, almost luring them to sleep. But those in the air perked up as they saw something small in the distance.
"I see land! We're reaching the Sun Continent now, wake up!" announced the Corviknight, as the duo looked at him, while those asleep began to stir up, yawning in the process. The Flying-type´s armor-like body shimmered in the sunlight.
"Huh wha-? Are we there yet?" Shockya asked groggily as he began to stretch, letting out a yawn. The amored bird turned to him, nodding.
Soon enough, Lapras stopped once they reached the port. They soon landed on the mainland. From what Bobble has read about the region, it has rich folklore and adoration for the sun and the moon, presumably since the temple where the Legendary Pokémon known as Solgaleo and Lunala often appear in, whenever they're needed to restore balance to the light.
In addition, the continent is defended by four guardian deities, the Tapu. It is said that they inhabit a shrine, one for each guardian, scattered across the land. One is said to be covered in mist, near the ocean. Another deep within the woods.
"So this is it, huh?" asked Goji, as he eyed the lush scenery, as palm trees sprawled throughout the land, as the waves softly clashed with the sand. The sun was shining brightly, as they felt heat alongside the humidity of the sea.
The Lapras departed shortly after, receiving the team´s gratitude. As she slowly disappeared from their field of view, they all turned back to face this new land in front of them.
"Okay, then. Where do we start?" questioned Fortmachio, as Bobble pulled out a map from his bag. He traced his finger, until he found one location.
"Palm Town. That should get us started." They all followed him, as their first adventure began.