Chapter 7

Initiation

For Blake's first exploration team job, she was being accompanied by another newer member of the guild, her name was Jewel, a Pokémon Blake found very pleasant to be around. Jewel was a fox-like, quadrupedal Pokémon covered in thick, luxurious golden-white fur. She had a small mane of thicker fur around her neck and a long, fluffy crest atop its head. Jewel had slender legs with three-toed paws and nine, long glorious tails with pale orange tips. Finally, she had red eyes, pointed ears, and a triangular black nose. There was a bright red scarf around her neck and a silver ranked expedition badge. Balke was wearing a purple scarf with her new rookie ranked badge. The duo were walking down a path through the trees heading to Apple Woods.

"So you like having a sword?" Jewel questioned with a motion to Gambol Shroud on Blake's back, secured by a strap around her.

"Yea, if we need to defend ourselves…" Blake explained.

Jewel nodded and said "it's not a problem, some Pokémon carry weapons like that but most rely on their powers for defense"

Doing her best to learn information without giving things away, Blake asked "I know you're a little newer to the guild, but what do you know about Alex, the leader of Team…Outriders I think it was?

Jewel gave Blake a confused look before saying "oh right, amnesia. Well, Alex is a living legend…who kinda lives up to the legend"

Blake nodded and replied "really? What makes him so famous"

"Well, he saved the entire world. When Temporal Tower was about to collapse and cause the destruction of time, he and his partner Blaze stopped it " Jewel began.

Blake gave a confused look and questioned "how could a tower cause time to be destroyed?"

"Because Temporal Tower is home to Dialga, a being whose very existence creates the flow of time and keeps its stable" Jewel continued.

Blake looked even more confused, the idea of a being as powerful as Dialga was mind boggling to her.

"Alex managed to fight off Dialga and stop the destruction of time, and while he died in the process, Dialga brought him back as thanks. Then Alex had to fight Dialga's brother who controls the very concept of space, Palkia. Alex and Blaze beat him, and then defeated the mastermind behind the temporal tower crisis, Darkrai" Jewel finished.

Blake's expression went blank at the mention of Darkrai, as if she had heard that name before, but the Meowstic disregarded it and asked "have you ever met him?"

"Several times, he and his partner live on the edge of town in a hollowed out cliff, and while he's out of town right now, he and his partner check the nexus almost every day. He's not honestly what I expected home to be like when I first heard of him" Jewel admitted.

Blake was even more interested as she pressed "what do you mean?"

Jewel chuckled and replied "for such a big and intimidating dragon type, he's a really nice Pokémon. Far too modest for a member of the best exploration team in the world"

"What does he look like?" Blake questioned.

"Around 9 feet tall, black armored scales, eh you'd know him if ya saw him" Jewel dismissed.

Blake helped on the job quite a bit, using Gambol Shroud and her psychic powers, they were able to fight off the wild pokemon and rescue the Wurmple they were looking for.

Ruby and Tide were leaving school when Darwin and John came up behind them and said "hey! I got something cool to tell you"

Tide smiled and replied "what's that?"

John motioned for him to come closer and said "there's a mine near here run by some Drilbur, and since you like exploring, I heard there's some incredible treasure hidden in a closed section of the mine!"

"Really? That sounds amazing!" Tide exclaimed.

Ruby smiled at the mudkips enthusiasm and asked "what kind of treasure?"

Darwin butted in with "apparently some really rare jewels!"

"Why don't we go there and see Ruby? I packed my bag with some items, so we're well equipped!" Tide mentioned.

Ruby nodded and followed Tide out of the school entrance, happy to go on an adventure with her new friend. Both of them never heard Darwin and John chuckling under their breath…

Far away in a cave known simply as the "cave of the deep", three pokemon were stranding around an improvised stone table, the only source of light being a skylight above the table. All of them were in the shadows, but that did nothing to hide how varied there sizes and shapes were

"Where is he?" a calm female voice asked.

The largest silhouette grunted and said "i'm tired of waiting!"

"He'll be here soon, and you all know how much trouble we'll be in if we leave" a cold voice replied.

"SO WHAT? He's not even the boss!" the largest pokemon boomed.

Just then a pokemon walked in, he was taller than the others, and the flames coming off of his wrists illuminated the cave around him. He was similar to a Blazeiken, but different as he lacked the yellow markings on his legs and instead had black markings on its upper legs and chest. His hair-like feathers had taken on a wing-like shape and pointed upward, and the portion around his chest was rough around its shoulders. The crest on its head was also a flat horn that curved backward. There was even a pair of Tonfas in holsters on his back.

"What's the big idea Sam?" the colder voice replied.

"I was speaking to an agent of ours who had something very interesting to tell me, and remember, codenames only aside from here" the mega blaziken reminded him.

The largest silhouette grunted and replied "ok...Sirocco, what was so important?"

Sam, or Sirocco nodded and replied "a former human has appeared on this continent"

This earned a gasp from around the room, but the Mega Blaziken continued with "not just that, but the former human is a Fennekin with silver eyes, named...Ruby"

The cold voice slammed his claw on the table, cracking the stone as he said "that's impossible, she could've ended up anywhere in thousands of worlds, and she's here! I'll tear her to shreds this time!"

Then the female voice spoke up and said "no, she may be key for the beginning of phase 3, stranger things have happened...with your permission Sam, I'll go and see for myself, quietly, I'll know if it's her, and unlike him, I won't lose my cool"

Author's note- a lot happening, which is good as this story is a little too slow for my liking

More foreshadowing of Alex, it's gonna be important when he shows up so I've gotta build up to it.

A shadowy introduction to a certain set of Pokemon, two of whom will be in RWBY Distortion soon, as there isn't many real villains in Super Mystery Dungeon aside from mind controlled innocents, so these four will fix that.

Next Time- Ruby and Tide have their first boss fight, while Blake gets to know the other guild members some more.

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