Sam zipped around the battlefield dodging thrown rocks as he glowed with a white energy, he smashed into Drowzee only for the yellow Pokémon to withstand the hit and fling Sam with some kind of force, Noah watched on in awe as the two forces clashed and countered each other's movements. Flare was hanging back clutching her arm in pain and occasionally throwing a fireball at Drowzee. taking advantage of Flare's injury, Drowzee focused on the Charmander and after a quick flash of energy Flare went down while clutching her head. Snapping back to reality Noah and Stitch quickly thought up a plan.
"Ok we need to do something," Stitch lamented
"What if we try to take advantage of the fact he doesn't know we are here and try to get the kid out?" Noah suggested
"That could work but I don't do very well against psychics," Stitch said
"I'll take care of distraction duty, you see if you can get the kid out of here," Noah said
With a nod Stitch moved to the walls entering the room and Noah took out his hammer, his pocket knife and some of the berrys from earlier before setting down his pack and entering the room. Noah moved to Flare and fed her a yellow berry while Sam and Drowzee fought.
"Noah?! What are you doing here?" Flare asked
"Ok so a friend of mine is going to rescue the kid while we fight this guy, I need your help distracting him while he moves in," Noah explained
"You brought help? Who?" Flare asked
"Doesn't matter, Point is that we need to ether take him down or escape with the kid, now come on," Noah explained as he helped Flare to her feet
Another flurry of blows were exchanged between Sam and Drowzee as they fought only for Sam to be thrown once again, Noah ran up to Drowzee and stabbed him in the back getting a yell from Drowzee, Ducking underneath Drowzee's attempt to backhand him Noah swung his hammer only for a force to stop the arc dead in its tracks, Noah is shoved to the ground with a blast of energy while his hammer remained in the air, Drowzee dropped the hammer on Noah's chest and knocked the air out of him, Drowzee tries to follow it up but is intercepted by Flare who hit him with a fireball, Noah attempted to sweep Drowzee's leg only to miss entirely as he dodged another fireball, Sam blindsided Drowzee while he was distracted and threw him to the ground. While Drowzee was downed Noah crawled over to Drowzee and tried to choke Drowzee out, as Drowzee's oxygen was cut off he used a wave of force to get Noah off him and push everyone back, getting up Noah saw that Drowzee's breathing was getting more ragged as they fought, trying to capitalize Noah threw his hammer at Drowzee only for the Pokémon to duck under and even dodge Noah's following left hook. Ducking down and grabbing a hand full of rocks Noah threw it at Drowzee only for the stone to be caught in air, the stone fell as Drowzee's exhausted state became more obvious as stone after stone made it closer to his head, finally having exhausted the Pokémon's power Noah fake threw a stone causing Drowzee to flinch and open him up to a shot to the jaw from Sam. Drowzee staggered for a moment as he finally collapsed on to the ground, looking to the entrance of the room Noah saw Stitch and the blue mouse hiding behind a bolder.
"We got em, Christ what was that?" Noah asked Sam and Flare
"That was Drowzee, he's an outlaw" Flare explained
"I noticed, how did we get wrapped up in this?" Noah asked
"I saw it happen, the whole thing" Sam said
Drowzee twitched sending the group into high alert
"Ok we can talk about it later, for now let's just get the kid home and tie this basterd up" Noah said grabbing the rope from his back pack.
After Drowzee was tied up Stitch came out with the blue mouse
"We actually did it!" Stitch said joyfully
"Yeah we did, beautiful work Stitch! He didn't even notice a thing!" Noah praised
"Stitch?" Sam inquired
"Oh right, this here is Stitch! He's a friend and I think he's a good candidate for the sun runners! I had him get the kid out of there while we were fighting," Noah introduced
"Hi," Stitch meekly said
"He saved me!" The mouse said happily
"Yeah. While we were fighting I had him get the kid out so even if we lost they got to safety" Noah explained as he hoisted Drowzee onto his shoulder
"I'll use my badge so we don't have to walk back" Flare said holding up her badge
"What are you talking about?" Noah asked
The badge on Noah's shirt glowed with a strange energy as the world around them shifted quickly until it stabilized back at the guild
"Welcome back!" The floating bell said happily
Noah set Drowzee down and effortlessly plants the bottom of his hammer into the dirt before leaning on it and casually flicked a cigarette into his mouth.
"Hey Flare can you lite this up for me quick?" Noah asked politely
Flare gave small tuft of flame and the cigarette was lit, Noah nodded at Flare and took a long drag as the floating bell listed off the reward.
"I think that's the first time I actually did that successfully" Noah said
"That was kinda cool" Sam said causing Noah to beam at the complement
"Ok I'm going to go out into town now, I was going to earlier but this happened. I'll find the other kid while I'm there" Noah said walking up to the ladder that connects the guild to the outside
Having finished his cigarette by the time he made his way down the guild path Noah put out the butt and put it into a little baggy full of leaves and newspapers to burn later. After a moment Noah heard the loud sounds of conversation that reached him even from the crossroads and made his way towards the newly vibrant town.
"Shes here!?" A small orange monkey exclaimed
"Yes! Lady Roserade is in treasure town!" A brown dog confirmed happily
"We gotta get an autograph!" The monkey said as the two rushed further into town
"...huh. Lady Roserade? Guess a celebrity or someone is in town." Noah said to himself
Walking into town Noah spotted the other blue mouse in the middle of a crowd surrounding someone preaching something Noah wasn't paying attention to, walking up to the wall of creatures Noah tapped the blue mouse on its back to grab its attention.
"Hm? Oh! Mister did you save Azurill?" The mouse asked hopefully
"We did. Got Drowzee too. You should probably go to the guild. I'm sure Azurill would be happy to see a friendly face" Noah explained
The blue mouse thanked Noah cheerfully and rushed over to the guild, breaking from his target Noah notices that its quiet and he feels the eyes of the town on him, a quick turn confirms that the crowd was staring him angrily...while the creature in the centre looked stunned at his appearance
"Uh I'm sorry for interrupting your speech but I needed to inform someone that we rescued a family member. Didn't mean to steal the show there!" Noah said sheepishly as he tried to get out of the spotlight
The creature made its way out of the centre and approached Noah as the crowd parted as it passed like the Red Sea did when Moses shot a bayblade through it
"Don't worry about it! Might I ask who you are?" The now evidently female creature asked with a soft refined voice
"I'm Noah." Noah said uncomfortably
"Well you are quite charming. I'm Lady Roserade" Roserade said warmly only sending further red flags to Noah considering he looked like he picked a fight with a dumpster
"That's a nice name. But honestly I have the beauty and grace of a gazelle from Chernobyl." Noah said
"Nonsense! You're beautiful!" Lady Roserade said
"Thanks I guess... I um need to go clean up now" Noah said without thinking
"Aw are you sure? Can't we talk a little longer?" Lady Roserade asked
"With all due respect lady Roserade I'm literally covered in blood and only half of it is mine. I really need to find a place to wash these so I can get the blood out" Noah said putting his foot down
As if noticing it for the first time Roserade looked at his filthy rags and couldn't find an excuse to counter it
"Very well. I do hope I can see you again " Roserade said as Noah hastily left the crowd
Going as fast as he could without making a scene Noah approached the crossroads and made his way to the beach, finally out of town he breathed a sigh of relief and decided that it probably was time to clean himself, after making sure no one was around to look at him Noah quickly changed to his spare clothes and began the rigours task of cleaning he blood out of his clothing.
"Thank fuck frank was homeless once. Never would have learned how to do this otherwise" Noah said to himself as he scrubbed
Half an hour of scrubbing later and the clothing was finally in acceptable condition to wear again, Noah put the clothes on a small stand and after collecting wood to burn Noah made a small campfire to help dry his clothes.
"Hm... might get the gang together for a bonfire. Should be nice" Noah muttered to himself as he reads the newspaper for his latest kindling
"Time stops in Canada! Local population dwindling fast-"
Noah sighed as he remembered the fate of his family, he had been the "lucky" one, still didn't change the fact that he was the only one of his brothers to make it out of Canada.
"...(sigh) I miss you guys..." Noah said to the orange sky
Noah had to fight off the memories as he waited for his clothes to dry. It had been on his mind ever since the incident, after a moment of tense silence Noah saw the Roserade approaching him and his muted sorrow turned to a soft anger
"Ah Roserade. Good evening!" Noah said flipping into customer service mode
"Indeed! I thought you might want some company" Roserade said
Without the crowd Noah took in Roserade's appearance for the first time, she had a blue cloak flowing in the wind and on the ends of her arms were bouquets of flowers instead of hands which was confusing to Noah but he decided to overlook it and finally finished at her face...which was masked, this was the first time Noah had actually payed attention to the features of one of the creatures he found himself stuck with.
"...so what was going on with that crowd back there?" Noah asked
"I was just giving a little speech about how we should have more garden patches, I simply adore flowers!" Roserade said finally sitting down beside Noah
"Oh that's nice, but why did you stop all together back there?" Noah asked
"Oh? Erm you were just so...heroic back there" Roserade said with a noticeable blush
"I was just doing my job, besides I'm no hero" Noah said
"Are you sure? You reunited two siblings!" Roserade said
"That's just part of the job, I'm only here because I have to be really" Noah tried to explain
"Nonsense I'm sure you-"
"Look. Roserade, I'm not really comfortable talking to people in general, I'm not that smart I'm not that brave and I'm sure as shit not very attractive, why are we doing this song and dance?" Noah interjected
"I-er-"
"Roserade. You seem like a nice lady, but I'm not interested in any rope-a-dope bullshit, please just tell me what I've done wrong? Why I'm being hunted?" Noah said breaking his apathetic mask
Roserade stared at Noah unsure what to do next as he began stuffing the clothes into his bag, and wordlessly put out the fire.
"Noah I don't understand?! What are you talking about?" Roserade asked
"I'm saying get out of here Roserade. I don't do relationships with people I just met. I don't trust it. I'm sorry but I'm going back to the guild. Maybe I'd be willing to try again later but you came at a poor time today. It was nice" Noah said as he walked away
Noah felt cold as he walked back to the guild, he felt Roserade's eyes on his back the entire time up the hill until he stopped at the gate and got let inside, once inside he made his way to his room until he was stopped by Chatot
"Oh Noah! It's dinner time so you should make your way over to the mess hall" Chatot said to Noah
Noah nodded and as he left towards the mess hall he saw Roserade standing by the entrance who was let inside
"Noah I'm sorry" Roserade apologized
"It's fine, just let it lie for a day or too and it'll be fine. But for now I'm going to eat food and probably get some sleep for tomorrow's shitshow" Noah said
"I...I understand, thank you." Roserade said
"No problem, I'm going to go eat now cause I haven't in 3 days" Noah explained
"3 days? That's awfull!"
"That's life. At least I'm getting something this time" Noah finished before walking into the mess hall
Noah entered the hall and casually sat at an empty spot, the moment Chatot gave the word the hall devolved into pure chaos as everyone threw back whatever was on their plate, Noah being starved fell into that rhythm as well and scarfed down every strange berry on his plate that he could. By the end he and the crowd of creatures had left no stone unturned, exhausted Noah headed to his room alongside Flare and Sam and he settled in for a peaceful nights rest...
"You met Roserade?!" Flare asked
"Ugh fuck"