The stress and chaos the morning had brought upon subsided, and in its place a far calmer atmosphere took hold for the newly recruited shinx and minccino.
Tamin had carried away the time by spending it within the confines of her new personal chamber, most of it being spent doing her curious ritual of folding up cloth to be as perfect and neat as possible; even unfolding some cloth for the sole purpose of making it so she could put it together again. She had become enticed by the room, as it gave her a feeling she couldn't fully feel for the longest time: the room truly felt like it was hers, and no one else's. Such simple things like having a door lock on the inside of the room instead of the outside were aspects she couldn't help but fawn over. Although Tamin knew that the building as a whole was owned by the guildmasters and she had learned to keep her guard up.
Locke spent his time looking for something to spend his time one. Tamin was off doing what he considered boring, Dewott was away on an expedition to fill his own daily quota, and Crystal was asleep since she was nocturnal. The shinx did find it quite spectacular to be able to count three friends that he lived with, however, it was disappointing to know that none were a good candidate to burn off time with at that moment. Since he was also wanting to avoid another encounter with the emolga Olivia or the Hunter zorua, he ended up just waiting in his minimalistic room until lunch.
After lunch began and they ate, Locke and Tamin went to the quest board room along with many guild pokemon. Along with the others there, they looked up at the bulletin board and discussed. Some missions were swift forays that could be done and gotten back from before supper started, some were longer and would require camp outs. The tasks ranged from bounty hunting, locating items, rescues, finding secret areas and more.
"Let's stick together for a mission," Tamin quietly said to Locke in his ear.
"Sure," the shinx replied.
"I'll let you pick a mission since you know more about this dungeon stuff then I do," Tamin said.
"Yeah, that's fair," Locke said just before he turned his head to shift his focus back towards the board, "Hmm… There's one to find an heirloom that's not too far away, 'that sound good?"
"How difficult will the task be?" Tamin immediately asked.
"I don't know, this paper has two stars on it, but I don't know what to compare to."
"Fair enough," Tamin said as she was forced to take a step closer to Locke due to the shuffling of the crowd of pokemon around them. "Do you think a cavern is best for you? Wouldn't the pokemon inside be immune to your electricity?" "I guess this is the point where we start asking for others to help us out. Who is best?"
"I've been to that place before, it's mostly just rock type and doesn't have any ground types inside from what I recall," he reassured, "You'd be weak to fighting types and I'm bad against ground types, so we should find someone who can cover that."
"So should we ask Rustin if he's willing to help us? I know psychic beats fighting," Tamin said.
"I could be of your service instead of him~" another voice that was close by said to Locke and Tamin.
The duo checked who spoke, to which they saw a female meowstic in an assumed posture standing closeby. Her scarf was pure white and looked to be of a different texture then the scarves Locke and Tamin were adorned with.
"Who are you?" Locke asked.
"My name is 'Sebastien', I'm Rustin's sister," she told them, her voice being a fair bit softer than what others had, but wasn't child-like. "Rustin's not the type to usually help out new guild members, but I certainly could~"
"Thanks I appreciate it," Tamin said, being genuine, "So that brings us up to three team members, who should our fourth be?"
"Ideally it would be a grass type, since they're really good against the ground types that I'd have a hard time with," Locke said, "Although we probably don't need that anyways. I'm pretty good at going through dungeons."
"I'd much rather be safe than be sorry," Tamin responded, "We'll get a grass type."
"Well, we do have a venusaur in the guild, but I don't think he'd be the best around new guild members, definitely the rough type," Sebastien explained.
"If he's good at missions, then I think he'll be best."
"Okay then… I'll get him, you two get your backpacks ready," Sebastien told them. "You can even over prepare if you feel that unsafe, I won't judge."
With a nod of agreement, the small team separated. Tamin tore the paper off from the bulletin board to retain it for later before she retrieved her backpack from her abode.
Each of them gathered what they thought was necessary. Locke instructed Tamin on what would have been ideal with his honed dungeoneering knowledge, so they both grabbed oran berries, a reviver seed, a pair of heal seeds, some food, a water canteen, and appropriately colored flares while they ignored the various trinkets that even Locke didn't recognize on the shelves. Tamin still hadn't felt sure for herself, so she grabbed an extra oran berry.
With preparations finished (and double checked, at Tamin's request) they returned to the guild's foyer. Sebastien and Venusaur were both stationed within that room as well, both fully prepared. Locke's face was one of confidence and anticipation. Tamin's face was a neutral expression with a slight smile, but that was just for hiding her true emotions behind a façade rather than show it to others. Sebastien's face was one of intrigue in the sense of interest and happy to see new members of the guild be able to perform. Venusaur's face told a story of smugness, his eyes looked towards the new recruits and his lips begged the question "is this it?" wordlessly.
"Well, this team is definitely well prepared," Tamin commented.
It wasn't long into the walk where the natural elements began making their presence known to the old and new members alike. The cruel winter wind had come prematurely and blew its frigid breath on the traveling pokemon, seeming to not be stopped by their fur as it shook their bones as well.
"Are these temperatures normal for this area?" Tamin asked, while she put her arms together and kept her tail close.
"I think we're just going through a cold spell right now, it shouldn't be this low right now," the meowstic responded, "Oh well, it's not too terrible. Winter is coming soon, so it's best that you be prepared~"
"Yeah, glad I joined this guild at the time I did," Tamin whispered under her breath at a volume below what Sebastien could hear with her covered ears.
As Locke saw Tamin speaking to Sebastien, he turned his head to Venusaur with mirrored intent.
"So, what do you like to do?" Locke asked Venusaur, starting with the simplest of simple in regards to the effectively infinite range of questions he could possibly bring up.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry I don't really want to talk. Not with you," Vensauar said as he didn't even give the courtesy of turning his head towards the shinx and only barely looked at the smaller pokemon.
Locke was taken aback by this response that was as cold as the frigid winds. He shifted his gaze away from the larger pokemon and continued walking forward, but his eyes had become more squinted from this interaction as he was not going to let such an incident to quickly fade from his memory.
They walked forward down the road, where they passed by a basinwood sign post that stood taller than all of them. They took a turn as the pathway forked, and kept on talking.
"So, you said you were Rustin's sister, right?" Tamin asked the female meowstic
"That's correct, we're siblings~" Sebastien, her outdoors voice was a little different from her indoors voice.
"Are you two twins? If not, which of you is older?" she curiously asked.
"Rustin is eight months older than me but we're the same age in years right now," Sebastien answered.
"How is Rustin? I haven't heard from him ever since he dropped us by the guildmaster office to be recruited," Tamin followed up, "What's your relationship with him?"
"Oh, I can understand that. He's a little over-serious if you ask me, he just seems to not be able to take things jokingly," Sebastien said. "He is my brother though, so I can't be too abrasive with my words.
As for my relationship, it is quite funny actually. He's one of the best in the guild and certainly better than me; trying to make himself as respectable to Espeon as possible, but in doing so he's become like a pet for my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend? You're referring to Espeon?" Tamin said, tilting her head a smidge in confusion.
"Yep~" Sebastien said as her voice got even more flowery and a twinkle appeared in her eyes. The tone of pride and lust both being compressed tightly into that one word that was expressed, "Now to turn the question back into your court, might I ask about your relationship with Locke?"
"Just friends; nothing more. Don't forget that I first met him two days ago. We haven't had a lot of time to connect," Tamin answered, she tried to pass off the question quickly as she made mental notes in her head about the various characters. "But really, going back to you, you're the guildmaster's girlfriend?"
"We've been dating for half-a-year so far. He's quite exquisite~" the female meowstic began explaining as though she was daydreaming, "I've been through a few boys already, so I know a thing-or-two about relationships."
"What are you with him in specific for?"
"You know, the usual. His forked tail is a perfect match for my twin tails and just the perfect shade (I don't even think he uses dye). His fur is perfectly clean, his claws have sublime pedicure, his eyes bring you into another world entirely when you look into them, his silk scarf is always perfectly folded- he's just sexy in every way, you know?"
"Right…" the minccino said to Sebastien while she began to squint, "So do you love him for his body or his position? Because I think the other possibilities can be ruled out."
"What do you mean?" the meowstic asked while her voice took the tone of being slightly offended.
"Seems a bit convenient that you chose the guildmaster specifically. And from your descriptions, it sounds like you're just seeking to have someone to lift your tails with," Tamin said, her voice getting as cold as the wind.
"What?" Locke said in a confused voice, "I mean, I get the first part about what you said, but what does lifting your tails have to do with anything?"
"Oh, nothing," Tamin said as she began to regret saying as much as she did instead of being silent. "Just ignore that. Let's keep walking."
"Um, okay," Locke said, although he did not know what the act of lifting tails was supposed to mean.
Venusaur shot a smug smile at the shinx while he tried to not laugh.
They kept walked forward without stopping. While Locke was still left puzzled, he still understood some of what Sebastien was saying and what Tamin was implying, and he could see her point of view. His memories of the time he worked side-by-side with Crystal came to his mind; while such a brief experience of companionship was in his past, it felt so pure to him. The idea of someone using companionship for just a source of power or pleasure felt wrong to him, corrupting such a simple thing, like oil being dropped into crystal clear water. The thoughts stayed in his mind as his four legs continued a steady stride.
With more traveling across the plains, the sun passed noon and began casting longer shadows on the land. The hour hand on every clock in the local region clicked at one, and only a scarce few minutes later the party of four approached the cave mentioned on the quest paper.
It was a slight uphill walk before the proper cave entrance revealed itself; barreling downwards into the earth. The cave went eastward down, making it so that the sun wasn't behind them to shine its light down the daunting passageway. As a result, the cave had encroaching darkness that seemed to quickly get thicker without any illumination piercing it.
The four of them gathered at the entrance to gaze downwards into the dungeon before them.
"Well, I wondered how one could lose an heirloom in a dungeon, but I think I see now. If someone dropped an object at the entrance by accident then it would tumble down pretty far," Locke stated.
"That appears to be the case," Sebastien said, starting to act more professional now that they had arrived at the location.
"How many days ago was the mission request given to the guild?" Locke inquired.
"Two days, I believe," Sebastien answered. "Let's hope the object was durable enough to not be broken at this point."
"Ah. So given how deep this looks, do you think it would still be tumbling down all the way to the abyss?" Locke said, a smile forming on his face as he told his joke. "It could be fun tumbling down to the underworld as well. So it's not too bad if we lose our footing.
"Can you please shut up with your jokes?" Venusaur said to Locke condescendly.
"Hey! That's literally the first time you've heard me make a joke," Locke shot back.
"And I feel bad for everyone else who has had to h-"
"Venusaur! Please don't be trying to drive the new recruits off!" Sebastien interrupted.
The grass type only rolled his eyes as a response. He considered making a derogatory comment towards her, but decided it wasn't a good idea to punch up at someone close to the guildmaster he worked for.
In the middle of the bickering, Tamin focused herself on the gate to darkness that was in front of her. The black touched her mentally and caused some fear to course through her mind, but her limbs stayed still without shivering from cold or fear. Her mind still managed to think up plans to make the best out of the bad situations her life seemed to love putting her in.
"So I can guess that we're supposed to use our flares to light this place up, but can everyone get down safely?" the minccino asked, "I'm good at climbing so I should be fine getting up and down, is everyone else alright?"
"I can jump pretty well and land on my paws, so don't worry," Locke responded.
"We're both experienced explorers, we'll be more than fine," Sebastien answered.
"I'm very experienced as well," Locke retorted.
"I have no doubt you have some former experience, but Venusaur and I have been at this for years. We know the right techniques and I'll be happy with teaching you~" Sebastien said, trying to be polite.
"Years? I've practically been going through mystery dungeons my whole life! I've probably gone through a dozen or more dungeons then what you've explored! I can take on this whole place solo if I tried!"
"Says the unevolved," Venusaur interjected.
"Just because I'm younger than you don't mean I'm worse!" Locke said, his grammar skipping around, "I might be the best one here! You haven't seen what I can do with electricity yet! Ever seen someone arc their lightning through several targets? I freaking think not!"
"There's a difference between doing missions and just doing a run through a dungeon. The former requires proper policies and restrictions to please the client while the latter is just pillage and looting how you see fit."
"Can we not get into an argument?!" Tamin said, raising her voice at the others, terrible memories of hearing pokemon yell at each other coming to surface.
"Sorry," Locke apologized. His voice quickly snapped back down.
"Yeah, let's move on," Sebasien said as she looked back into the cave. "Here, I'll use my flare."
The female meowstic grabbed a flare that was held on the bottom of her backpack and used it to launch the upper part down the cave. The color of this flare was pink and left behind the expected contrail of smoke which illuminated the dungeon so the environment could be discerned by normal eyes.
"Okay, let's do this…"
The four carefully descended. Tamin was partially distracted by the argument that made her uneasy, which in turn just made her desire to fold some cloth as a method of getting her mind off of them. The way downwards was steeper than a staircase, but not to the point of making movement dangerous, as they used the light from Sebastien's flare to avoid sharp points or areas where there wasn't much of a footing. As they went down further, different parts of Locke's body started to glow as his species' bioluminescence was activated. Minccino found the sight of his body glowing to be bizarre, but welcomed it in the dark environment.
They reached a point where the cavern flattened out and contained puddles of rainwater surrounded by fungus. The cave did not go deeper, but it did bend forward to reveal a thinner cavern path deeper in.
"Here we are; at the bottom," Locke said as he stepped down to get all four of his paws on the same horizontal level.
"Brilliant observation, clearly you're the only one who could have noticed such an obvious detail," Venusaur said.
"Venusaur, I swear to Arceus, I will report you if you try to harass them out of the guild. They're members now, deal with it," Sebastien said, there being less patience to be found in her voice then what she had as they were walking to the dungeon.
"What was the heirloom we were supposed to locate again?" Tamin asked quickly, trying to intercept another argument from starting.
"I think it was a metal seafaring badge," Locke responded, quickly recalling what the mission description was.
"Doesn't sound like something that would be destroyed by the fall down or the rainwater. Let's search around them," Tamin responded.
The four split apart to search every crevice of the cavern's floor. Every slit between rocks, hole in the ground, inside of the gathered rainwater, and even below every rock. Tamin brushed up some of the dust with her tail as they went through the various natural structures. To her, the room felt like it was taken straight out of a museum on dungeoneering. The more they scoured the area, the thinner the unchecked corners became, and the more it became apparent that the object of their search was not anywhere close.
"It doesn't seem to be here," Locke commented.
"Looks like the pokemon inside took it somewhere else. Or we were entirely wrong about it being dropped down from the entrance. Either way, the only option is to head deeper inside," Sebastien said.
"Well we shouldn't have expected to get through this without some combat anyways. C'mon, let's rough some dungeon pokemon up and find that medal," Locke said, he would have raised his voice into a motivating shout but he knew the acoustics the dungeon offered would have caused it to echo down the natural pathways and attracted more pokemon to their position.
"They typically don't break objects sporadically or take items across the entire dungeon. Item recovery missions don't have awful failure rates, so we should be fine," Sebastien said. "Come now, let's have some fun~"
The female meowstic led the way into the tunnel while holding the still glowing flare so its illumination could pierce the blanket of darkness. Tamin was the closest by and silently took a step behind, trying to be passive. Locke jumped up behind her while the massive Venusaur was at the back.
Without the luminous smoke, what was left of Sebastien's flare and Locke's body were the only sources of light left for the teams. But as most of the members had some degree of night vision in their eyes, the explorers were equipped for the task at hand nonetheless. The phosphorescence revealed the cavern path closing in like a funnel; getting thinner with every step until it was compressed to a size only barely large enough to account for Venusaur's width and would easily trigger claustrophobia to those that had it. The four moved forward while staying in the single file line, keeping enough distance to avoid touching each other's tails but not a meter more. In the constrained walk, they all remained silent as Tamin always sought to avoid attention, Locke and Sebastien both understood that creating unnecessary noise was a bad idea, and Venusaur simply didn't want to talk.
While she did not have claustrophobia, the expedition was still unnerving to the poor minccino. The mix of stone, void, and echoing footsteps was indescribably different from the cozy guildhouse or the place that she used to call home. The primal fear of darkness wormed its way into her mind. Her efforts were put into walking forward while ensuring her fear didn't translate into her body language.
Eventually they reached a point where the funnelled cave opened up again to a larger area. The drops of water from stalactites were heard along with the chattering of cave pokemon within. Sebastien covered the flare up to cloak the light it made while the team ducked down.
"We'll have to be a bit careful, it seems there's a lot of pokemon here," the meowstic whispered very quietly to the others there.
"I know we're supposed to ration them carefully, but I think now's the time to pop another flare," Tamin suggested, speaking in faint whispers as well. "Maybe we could use the light to blind them for a bit since their eyes are used to the darkness."
"I think I've got a better idea," Locke replied. He deactivated his bioluminescence and became dark again.
"What is it?" Sebastien asked as she turned to the shinx.
"I'm going to sneak into there and get a stealth takedown on one of 'em. You guys can follow my lead and charge once I've gotten the surprise," Locke explained.
"That would put you in a dangerous position, the team should be sticking together so a single one of us can't get completely flanked," the meowstic responded, having a leaderly voice despite being forced to whisper and she previously had her mind caught up in lewd subjects.
Completely disregarding Sebastien's words, Locke inhaled a deep breath through his nose. He then walked forward with extremely light steps to go around Tamin and Sebastien.
The other three stayed back while the shinx walked forward on his own accord; his paws with retracted claws made for perfectly muffled steps that didn't echo across the stone infrastructure. He stopped breathing, so he didn't make any noise even that hugged the walls while walking behind rocks and stalagmites alike as he moved forward, sensing the locations of the dungeon pokemon with his ears more than his sight as he relied purely on his instincts to take a safe path through the uneven terrain.
Tamin was too unnerved to put herself in danger or take any action to stop Locke's actions, while Venusaur was indifferent. Sebastien didn't approve of Locke suddenly going off on himself and did her best to keep track of his location. Telepathy was a common ability for psychic types, so she began to focus her psychic energy to make an attempt to silently contact him.
As the shinx went forward- guided purely by his instincts- he was able to sense a close by golbat that hadn't noticed him yet and appeared to be alone. Locke repositioned himself to point his body towards it while shifting into a pouncing stance. The lion's claws emerged from their natural sheathes and his star tail flicked left and right a few times. He felt his breath running short as he was pushing thirty seconds without breathing at that moment.
Then suddenly- completely breaking the pattern of quiet and meticulous movements the team had been executing- Locke leaped forward onto the golbat with daring speed. He landed on top of it with the momentum forcing the off-guard pokemon onto the ground as Locke began tearing viciously with his claws and breathing once again. The golbat cried out in pain and flailed to get Locke off, but that served to do nothing to deter the sudden assault. Electricity escaped from the lion's body to bolster the power of the attacks, but also created light that made his exact location visible to dungeon pokemon and guild members alike.
With the electric illumination serving as a summoning sigil, Tamin, Sebastien, and Venusaur all ran out towards the shinx as the dungeon pokemon went for him as well. Before they could reach him, Locke finished his assault on the golbat as it went on the ground. The shinx with adrenaline-filled speed snapped around and released a thunderbolt at one of the pursuing enemies. His accuracy was unmatched despite the foreboding darkness all around. Venusaur immediately tried to take control of the battlefield and fought multiple pokemon with his moves and Tamin just tried to follow the light Sebastien carried around.
One charged towards Sebastien with her light, which caused Tamin to jump back more than the meowstic herself. Even though Sebastien was quick to retaliate and was as successful as she was swift, the accumulating panic got to the minccino's head as she got the deep feeling that she wouldn't be able to do anything in the black chaos.
Seeking to create light to make the battle more comprehensible, Tamin stood up and quickly reached for the flare she had. She put it in front of her and gripped it with both paws, but before she could activate the item a flying pokemon dove in and slashed at her with its primal claws aggressively. The impromptu attack made the minccino stutter back and drop the flare, with her teeth clenching on her lower lip. Despite the surprise, Tamin knew how to deal with pain enough to not go down instantly. A flash of insight came to mind as Tamin remembered how she had fought the pansage in her training test, remembering how she grabbed it and bashed it against the wall.
Seeking to repeat what had worked before, the minccino reclaimed a step back forward and blindly made a grab attack into the darkness where the attack had come. The move connected with her feeling fur come between her paws, so she clenched down. However, before she could try to force it down, she felt talons gripple onto her back. In a strange reversal, the enshadowed pokemon made a powerful movement with its wings pulling itself into the air above along with the minccino. Not having solid ground below her induced more panic, as Tamin desperately flailed around. It became void in all directions for Tamin, just an endless blackness with no solids to cling to. She tried her bed to find some way of hurting the pokemon carrying her.
Time didn't bide her well for yet another occasion, as before she could deliver the attack, the flying pokemon put its feet onto Tamin's chest then performed a move of letting go of its grip and kicking her down at the same time. She plummeted quickly and slammed against the stone floor back first. The cruel hardness delivered a surging pain from her torso outwards.
The pain created another flash of insight as Tamin remembered some of her worst moments deeper in the past. While the attack would be overpowering to the typical civilized pokemon, the minccino's body had long adapted to a little pain and injury. She still had some fight left in her and rushed to get back up on her feet. On the way up, Tamin gazed upwards to see a thunderbolt coming overhead and hitting the now-revealed noivern directly in the head to knock it away and out.
"Tamin! Are ya okay?!" Locke called out as he ran towards the minccino, stepping carefully to avoid getting his paws stuck in any small holes or getting cut on a sharp rock. While his soft paws traversed through the open cavern, the sound of bullet seeds pummeling the remaining cave pokemon echoed, signaling the end of the skirmish.
"Yeah… don't worry," the minccino responded as she pulled herself off of the ground. Despite the pain on her back, she got back up and into a normal posture. The damage was barely noticeable on her.
"Do you need an oran?" Locke said, his words stopping before it sounded like the sentence should have.
"I have my own to use… is the fight over?" Tamin said as she was close enough to Locke to make out his details and colors.
"The room's all nice and secured~" Sebastien said, her voice returning to normal, aside from the differences caused by the cavern's acoustics.
"Good," Locke declared bluntly, "let's keep searching for that metal."
"Mhm. By the way, give us more of a warning when you're going to break from the group like that," Tamin said, lightly scolding the lion but not raising her voice on him.
"Nah, it's fine," Locke replied. "I can handle dungeons solo, as I've said. I'm best when I do things by my own game. You guys will just have to keep up."
"Hmm…" Tamin said as a non-response.
The minccino retrieved the flare that was knocked out of her paws earlier and the team searched the now-secured section of the subterranean system. After several minutes passed, many small sections were checked, and many bodies were poked to ensure they weren't playing dead, no such seafarer's badge was found in that room either. Tamin voiced her concerns that the task seemed impossible, fearing that the object would have gotten buried. Sebastien explained that there were very few recorded examples of dungeon pokemon burying objects and the success rate of item retrieval missions was high, as the pokemon often feel the object is safe merely by being in the dungeon without needing additional hiding. This explanation failed to entirely vanquish Tamin's concerns, but it did give her what she needed to move on.
Onward from that area, they went from choke point pathway to choke point pathway, open room to open room, and fight to fight. Each area was searched over for the illusive badge, but to no avail. While the place did provide for fascinating sights of different rock formations, such natural displays could not be enjoyed when they could only get a look at them by shining their meager light sources over them and were on edge from the constant combat.
Their resources of recovery items and illumination gradually dwindled down as their accumulated time in the caves pushed onto an hour. But eventually- just as the explorers' patience was being tested- they reached an area that opened up into a room that was the largest they had seen in the cavern thus far. At the end of it was a pile of loose objects that reflected some of their light back at them. The glisten made it obvious to those with dungeoneering knowledge that they were looking at a pile of small metallic objects.
"Looks like we've just found the horde," Locke said, speaking in whispers once more.
"Some pokemon has surely been busy gathering a collection," Sebastien commented. "I suppose when you've lived in a cave your whole life then you haven't had anyone to tell you that all that glitters isn't golden. Anything shiny must look great in a world of dust and stone."
"Whatever. Let's find that badge in the stockpile and loot whatever else we can so we can finally end this mission." Venusaur said, his voice not whispering like the others were and had a hint of complaining in his tone
"Shush- whatever the collector is, it's probably still here. Be quiet," Sebastien swiftly responded.
"Here's what we do: we light off a flare towards the stash to make a path-a-light so we won't fight in darkness if and when it attacks us," Locke said.
"Well-"
Before Sebastien could interject with any words, Locke got his flare out, pointed it forwards and activated it. The expected happened with ttop being launched out, leaving a trail of yellow smoke and light in its wake. The four stood back as they watched the cavern be illuminated; the many dungeoneering examples were finally well visible without becoming so bright that it hurt the guild pokemon's pupils that were used to the blackness.
The four walked forward on the artificial path. Locke once again retracted his claws for a silent stride across the stone, but that meant little when Venusaur's large feet made footsteps that echoed. All of their gazes were looking to the side while they walked forward, their guard was kept on high alert for any ambush, but that made Tamin's stress amplify all that more. As the minccino's eyes darted around fervorously, a massive, grueling sound of a pokemon nearby was heard by the team.
"It's waking up," Locke told the group.
"Uh, what is 'it', exactly?" Tamin, her voice beginning to get distressed.
"Sounds like an onyx to me," Sebastien said. "Everyone, get ready."
"Brilliant commentary, no one else could have identified that," Venusaur snickered.
"Venusaur, I swear to Arceus this isn't the time for your-"
The loud sound of rocks being shuffled around broke off in the cavern. The onyx was charging towards them and all four shifted to look at the direction it came from. It first came straight towards the bioluminous shinx as he stood out the most. Locke's eyes focused in the direction it was coming in on, and kept track of its location. When the distance between them decreased to only a few meters, Locke swiftly jumped to dodge out of the way and landed on the onyx's left side. Only a few split seconds apart, Tamin's body had frozen up as she had no idea how to react to such a large beast being aggressive towards her. In the moment of her muscles locking up, the onyx's tail end sweeped to the side and hit against the minccino's body. The attack fully connected and knocked her back to send her flying across the room as the pain surged through her.
She was airborne for two seconds before hitting against the hard stone walls. The toughness of the walls was a second bludgeon to her body that hurt her back. While the minccino could handle some pain, damage of this extent was far more than just psychological. Tamin felt a previous wound get aggravated, which caused blood to drain from it again. She tried to hang onto consciousness desperately, but the stars spinning around her, the excruciating pain of bone damage, and the warm blood dripping out of her made that task inordinately difficult. Her limbs ceased their struggle to try to get back up, her eyelids closed, and her senses shut off as the minccino fainted against the cave wall.
The onyx made incomprehensible grunts and words as it raged around. "Thieves" was the only real word the explorers could discern.
The battle transformed into a chaotic mess as it became three versus one. With the adrenaline moving through him, Locke's eyes tinted into a shade of red and his instincts took over. His charm slipped away, primal aspects trying to discern what was a threat or not was all that remained. The shinx's mind remembered that the onyx attacked him, he remembered how Venusaur refused to talk to him and used condescending words against him, and he remembered the things he heard Sebastien using that he found abhorrent. In all three cases, his primal and instinct-driven mind found something to disagree on. At such a state, he couldn't easily differentiate between different shades of agreeing or disagreeing; only able to differentiate from three groups: friends, enemies and those neutral. Even then, his ability to discern between those groups was blurred.
Venusaur used his vines to grapple the onyx and attempt to hold it back. While his thin vines lacked the strength to completely restrain the beast, it did forcefully slow it down so it could not make a full berserk rampage around the area. Psychic blasts and crackling electricity barraged down on the stone body to wear it down.
It began to senselessly flail around the lingering smoke contrail to free itself from Venusaur's restrictions, and the sporadic movements made the shadowy fight all the more chaotic. Sebastien saw a part of it flailing close to her so she made a swift jump backwards into the darker sections of the battlefield. But just as she got onto her two feet again, she felt a series of thin, sharp objects slash through the back of her scarf and into the back of her neck. The meowstic quickly turned around to see it was Locke behind her that had his claws still dripping with her blood.
Psychic types were not the best at quick thinking despite their ocean of intelligence. Before she could think of how to deal with the sudden challenge that the shinx now posed, Venusaur managed to unleash a solar beam at the onyx assaulting them. While it was significantly weakened by the lack of sunlight, the attack was still enough to be the last straw to make the onyx fall. The stone serpent fainted- and collapsed onto the strone floor. The fight was over.
Locke took a few heavy breaths as he looked at the various pokemon around the area. But as he saw them all stop, his breaths began to call back to a normal rhythm with his heart slowing down.
"What was that about!" Sebastien said to Locke, her voice getting louder than he had ever heard it.
"W-wha?" Locke stuttered as he continued shifting back to a normal state.
The meowstic kneeled down to pick up the scarf that fell off of her when the back of it was torn by the shinx's claws. She handled the scarf carefully as though it was a fragile life.
"Do you… remember what happened?" she asked, confused by Locke's behavior.
"Umm. Y-yea. I attacked you," Locke said remorsefully, "I-I was just caught up in the- um- and- uh… I'm sorry. I don't know, I was just trying to handle all of my ene-..." Locke could tell that his words were failing him so he abruptly stopped himself.
The room was in silence for a few seconds. For once in the mission there was more that could be discerned visually than there could be audibly. In the dreadful silence, they realized they had a lot to do, so they split up again.
Tamin's body was picked up and a reviver seed was put into her mouth to reconstitute her. When she was returned to consciousness, everything that happened when she was out was explained. The minccino was fed an oran berry for her bones and Locke helped her move until she could walk off the injuries to get back to normal.
The glimmering stash was searched and the heirloom was successfully located. Sebastien put it in her backpack while Venusaur dug piles of the other miscellaneous items into his bags. His face had a smile of avarice as he imagined all the profit he could make by pawning off the objects.
They backtracked through the dungeon while using what flares they had left. Tamin's stress turned into feelings of inadequacy, her mind screamed at her that she was a failure if she was knocked unconscious in the fight without being able to fight back. Even if no one else there was demeaning her, her mind did it to herself automatically. Sebastien found herself taking the role of the leader more than ever, with her eyes darting between Tamin to ensure her condition stayed okay, Locke to ensure he didn't make another impromptu attack and Venusaur to ensure he did not try to bully them. Moreover, Sebastien continued to treat the scarf delicately by putting in a section of her backpack that didn't have any sharp objects inside of it. Even though the object of their search was obtained successfully, the results of the onyx fight made the exhibition feel like a failure to an extent.
Without getting lost, they returned to the dungeon's entrance and the golden light of the sun over the land again. It took far longer to climb out then it did to descend back down, but after many jumps and breaks to regain stamina, they found their way onto the plains of the surface again. One more glance was taken down the shaft to reflect on the events that had just transpired.
"Dang, I guess I'm a minute late to say 'it's all uphill from here'," Locke commented.
"Both the terms 'It's an uphill battle' and 'things are going downhill' have negative connotations to them," Tamin responded while her gaze was still drawn to the abyss they had just arisen from. "Either way you're saying that you're in a bad situation when using one of those 'hill' expressions."
"Wait, so you're saying it's we're always in an appropriate time to say that?" Locke hastily replied.
"Wait- what?! No! Absolutely no!" Tamin said, now turning her head to the shinx.
"Great to know I'm not too late to say that then!"
"...I really hate your jokes," Tamin said.
"You seem to hate them just as much as I love telling them and seeing your reaction!"
"We should be getting back to the guildhouse as soon as we can," Sebastien said.
"Why so serious?" Locke asked the meowstic, noting how her voice tone had been much different then what it was when they were last outside.
"There's just someone that I want to get back to talk with…" she said, her voice staying cold.
"Who?" Tamin inquired as they started to turn away from the cave to make the trek to return.
"Espeon," the meowstic answered.
"Oh, so you're just wanting to have some chity-chat with your boyfriend?" Locke said.
"What? No. Well I am talking with my boyfriend, but not about that sort of subject," Sebastien tried to explain. "I'm going to speak to him as a member of the guild, with his authority and all. Not lovey-dovey talk."
"Oh, respecting authority? The authority of the one with 'eyes bring you into another world entirely when you look into them', whose 'claws have sublime pedicure', and who you said 'His forked tail is a perfect match for my twin tails and just the perfect shade' about?" Locke teased.
"N-no, none of that. Well yes, but-"
Sebastien's talking was interrupted by the sound of Venusaur giving a hearty laugh out loud. For the first time since he had met them, Venusaur found an aspect of the new recruits that made him enjoy their presence. The bipedal cat only turned her head back forward while she closed her eyes and bit her tongue to avoid herself from saying anything else that could be used against her.
The four of them made their journey back to the guildhouse, making their way through the plain roads in the opposite way. The bitter winds had died down making it a far more merciful trek, though still brisk.
After the trip, they reached the grounds of the guild once again. They met with a wartortle who introduced himself as the mission's client and happily gave them the reward money in exchange for the seafaring badge.
Once the guild's share was taken, the remaining reward money was divided evenly with the four guild members in four small cloth sacks. Each of them held the bags in front of them.
"Nice! First profit at this place!" Locke said enthusiastically.
"Yeah, it is quite nice," Tamin said as she took a single one of the coins out to inspect it and twirl it between her paw fingers. Her voice was calm, but internally, she was ecstatic.
"Yeah. It is nice… I'll need to excuse myself," Sebastien said as her mind was clearly elsewhere. After she had spoken, she stepped away from them to head to the guildmaster office.
"Heh, that's really pathetic if you consider that to be a 'nice' amount of money," Venusaur taunted.
"Hey, matter of perspective," Locke hastily responded.
"Yeah. The perspective only taken up by the lowly."
Locke got an angered look: his mouth showing teeth as his tail raised up. His claws extended and small amounts of electricity flowed through him. He took a first step towards Venusaur and a second. But before he could take a third step, Tamin placed her paw carefully. The shinx immediately shifted his look to the minccino to see the concerned expression on her face. The sight of her face as well as the soft fur being pressed on him made him start to calm down. His tail lowered as fast as it came up, with the minccino's gesture being a simple callback to reality to make him realize what he was in the process of doing. No sounds happened in this exchange..
As Locke, Tamin, and Venusaur were still gathered in the foyer, Sebastien had gotten across the building to arrive at the guildmaster office. She raised her paw and knocked on the wooden door.
"Ah, yes? Who is it?" Espeon's voice rang from inside.
"Sebastien," she said in a down voice while one paw was in her bags.
"Oh! Come inside then, I haven't locked it." Espeon said, taking notice of how the meowstic didn't sound like how she normally did.
Heeding by his command, Sebastien opened the mahogany door and stepped inside. The office was how it always looked, though Espeon had been alone in it without Niot beside him. Espeon himself was behind his desk. He had been working on some papers with a pen in hand, but put it down so he could raise his head and get a better look at Sebastien.
"Back from your mission? Did everything go well?" Espeon said, aware that something was wrong by the meowstic's tone and body language, so he tried to identify the complication.
"To an extent. The client is satisfied and we got the reward."
"Then what's the problem? Wait, where's your scarf?"
Sebastien got up to the desk, opened up her backpack and took out the scarf from it. She set it down in front of Espeon, allowing it to be carefully examined with its damage and small amounts of blood on it. Espeon's reaction was hasty as he sat himself up and got his paws under the appearel to hold it.
"I'm sorry. I know you told me to be careful with that particular scarf and I promised it would be fine, but I guess that's not what happened…"
"It's… It's okay. I'll have Niot take over for a bit and try to get this restored the best I can…" Espeon said while inspecting the damage further, "Are the newcomers fine?"
"The minccino took some damage but she was successfully healed, they're both fine," the meowstic said, taking a seat on a chair as she knew she would be there for longer. "But for the shinx, there's something important about him. He was the one that slashed at the scarf."
"What?" he said as he turned his head back to Sebastien.
"We got into a fight with an onyx, and after I dodged an attack from it I felt claws slashing at my nape. I turned around and saw it was him who did it," Sebastien said, "He was just… there. The fight was wrapped up shortly after he seemed to regain his senses once I yelled at him."
"He attacked you?" Espeon tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"Yes. Practically had murder in his eyes as well."
"Hmm…" he pondered. He fully believed Sebastien as they had a relationship, but was trying to figure out what could have happened from Locke's point of view. "I read the description of the quest you went on, and noticed it was in a cave. Is it possible that he simply couldn't see what was going on and this was a case of accidental friendly-fire?"
"That might have been part of it, but that doesn't add up as the full-story. We used a flare to light the area up, I was dodging away from the enemy, he seemed to aim for my neck, and shinx should have night vision."
"His eyes could just be poor. We could get him an eye test and possibly a glasses prescription," Espeon proposed, still throwing out ideas in his defense.
"I didn't see anything else that would imply that. I don't know what was going around, but at that moment he seemed as wild as the dungeon pokemon and the attack felt decisive."
"Wow. I'm going to have to write up an incident report or something on that. Pretty serious if he hurt you, and broke the scarf in the process," Espeon's head turned back to the scarf.
"If you need help restoring that, tell me. I know you told me that was important to you."
"It's not just important, it's irreplaceable!" Espeon corrected, "Whimsicott made this with his own cotton when he just founded the guild. It's a remnant of him and there's not many of these scarves left."
"I understand. I'm terribly sorry this happened," Sebastien said, being sympathetic.
The guildmaster just let out a heavy sigh as he kept holding the scarf.
"It's not your fault. Just grab a normal cloth scarf for right now, I'll do what I can," Espeon said. "I'll make sure my sister, Niot, and Sylveon hear about what happened with Locke. I don't want to do anything major immediately, but we'll make a note about this."
"Understandable," the meowstic said as she began to head over to the bin of unused scarves, "Tell me when you're done, honey. I would like to go on one more date before it starts snowing, so I'd like to discuss ideas and dates when you become available~"
"That would be lovely," Espeon replied, his voice suddenly sounded a bit less stressed.
During the time in which Sebastien was talking with Espeon, Locke and Tamin had been grouped together still. They walked across the guildhouse at Tamin's lead to gain a distance between them and Venusaur. While the shinx wasn't quite able to pick up on the social cues, Tamin was familiar enough with how pokemon who degrade others behaved that she could figure out that Venusaur was planning on bullying them when Sebastien was absent. She noticed the small nuances that told her what his true intentions were, so she got them both out of there.
They ended up settling down in one of the guildhouse's outer hallways, where they pulled out their money bags again to talk about them.
"Even if it's not a lot, I am appreciative of what we have now," Tamin said as she held the coins between her paw fingers again.
"Yeah! Wanna go to a place to celebration?" Locke asked, his grammar being flawed as always.
"I'm not sure that's the greatest of ideas to have," Tamin responded, "I want to build up a reasonable supply of money before I spend any. I don't know what I'll need to be getting yet so having a safety net to fall upon would be wise."
"Eh, makes sense. But believe me, you be safe. We're fed here and sheltered."
"I know, but that doesn't mean I can't have concerns. I just think-"
"Did I hear 'celebration'!" another voice exclaimed as it approached the shinx and minccino.
The two immediately rotated their heads in the direction of the voice, seeing a female emolga coming their way.
"Oh… Hey Olive," Locke said, sounding tired.
"Lovely to see my little shinx back safe and sound!" Olivia followed up.
"You two know each other?" Tamin inquired.
"We very much know each other!" the emolga reassured with twinkling eyes.
"We had a run-in earlier today," Locke told Tamin.
"Mhm!" Olivia said, unphased by Locke's non-sugar coated wording, "And when that happened, you told me 'we could do something together later today'. It is later today now."
"Wait, did I say that?" the shinx said as he delved into his memory to recall what exact words he had used in their last meeting.
"You very much diiiiiiiiddd~" the emolga said like she was beginning a song. "And if you're going off on a celebration, then it sure sounds like the perfect time for me to come along."
"Oh shoot," the shinx said reactively.
"Words are fickle, you're much more likely to hurt yourself with them then others," Tamin said to Locke, but kept her eyes on Olivia to keep track of what she was up to.
"C'mon, it's perfect for us! I know you're still new to this town, but I know it like the back of my paw. I can find us a great restaurant to go to for supper," Olivia proposed.
"Okay, fine. I'll bite," Locke finally accepted.
"WONDERFUL!" Olivia exclaimed while being overjoyed, her voice loud enough that it could likely be heard from the other side of the building, "I'll get myself ready! Just some fur brushes and gel and I'll be good to go! We can check out a few joints around town so you can pick out your favorite, I'll pay for it! Oh, do you want me to groom you as well? I can do that, I have all the right products for electric type fur!"
"...I'll come along as well," Tamin said once her large ears had recovered from the loud noises which arose from the emolga's mouth.
"Oh?" Olivia said, taken aback and with a sudden drop in her volume.
"I will join you two. I can pay for my own meal if you don't want to split your money between all three of us," Tamin exclaimed as she kept her voice calm. Though spending any longer with the emolga felt like a terrible time with her, she didn't want to abandon her most reliable friend to have to be with her alone.
"Oh. Heheheh, that's alright," Olivia said as she began to go over to the minccino. She then brought her mouth to her ear and whispered, "Don't even think about trying to mess this up. This is about me and Locky."
Tamin only stepped back to reclaim her personal space as she remained silent.
"Wait!" the shinx said.
"What?" Olivia asked.
"If Tamin's coming along, then can I have Crystal join us as well?"
"Hhmp. Fine," Olivia said, sounding frustrated at her plans coming apart.
"Great!" Locke sounded enthusiastic once again.
The emolga took a heavy breath in, closed her eyes, and blew it out. She reminded herself of the good times she had in mind, and a smile appeared on her face once again.
"Alrighty! Let's leave in thirty minutes. I'll see you then, Locky!"
"Cya…" the shinx said as Tamin remained silent.
The three all scattered apart from one another. Olivia went to her room to groom herself, Locke went to find Crystal, and Tamin went to drop off things that were on her. She put the backpack and unused supplies back to where she found them originally. An exception to this was that she decided to continue carrying the money pouch for preventing thievery and because she knew she would be using it soon.
While the three were scattered around the guildhouse, a different gathering was transpired on the second floor of the guildhouse.
Sylveon waited at the handguards on the upper floor, looking downwards into the guild's mess hall for how others were behaving like a security guard watching cameras. His eyes were focused on spotting any potential transgression within his range of view, but his focus was halted when he heard a voice calling out to him from the side.
"Sylveon? Do you have a minute?" Sebastien inquired while approaching the eeveelution.
"Hmm? Yes, I can spare a minute," he replied.
"Good. There is something I need to speak with you on."
"Alright. But I think I know what this is about already."
"Did Espeon tell you about what Locke did?" Sebastien asked.
"Yes. He slashed at you and also broke the cotton scarf Espeon gave you," he said, straightforward, "Are you alright?"
"I am fine. Oran berries had no issue with healing me. I just came to warn you, as I think you should keep a watch for him, he might get violent in the future if he got violent with me."
"Be assured, I am taking tabs on him. But I must ask, you are sure that he knew what he was doing and this was no mere accidental friendly fire, correct?"
"Yes. In fact, I specifically asked him afterwards what happened, and he admitted to it. Apologized as well- mind you- but he did know."
"Understood. It's a strange case indeed, and I haven't known him long enough to call what's going on in his head," Sylveon admitted, "Though this does line up with him hurting Hunter this morning."
"Really? He did that?"
"Yes. He seemed to have been provoked by Hunter's usual tomfoolery and his attack seemed to have the purpose of sending a message instead of intent to kill (though he went a tad too far) but he did indeed attack Hunter purposefully. I let him off the hook at the time, but I'm not sure that was the best call in hindsight."
"This shinx certainly gets weirder the more we hear about him…"
"I'm sorry, but may I intrude on this conversation?" a feminine voice behind them asked. "I have overheard what you were saying and I think I can add to this."
Sebastien and Sylveon turned to check who it was and they saw a mawile standing there in a formal posture.
"Ah, Mawile, you can come in."
"Thank you," Mawile said as she came up, "I have been briefed on what has occured as well, and have attempted to do some psychoanalysis from the little we know."
"Go on," Sebastien spoke in curiosity as they all gathered at the handrails.
"These do not appear to be isolated incidents. Back when they were first found, Armin, Rustin and Max have reported him having incredible ferocity as they first found him. They detailed him having red eyes that made him look as primal as the dungeon pokemon. Then while he was being rescued, he apparently fired a thunderbolt at Max. All three of them have reported this happening."
"So we have three confirmed incidents of him attempting to harm a guild member?" Sylveon asked.
"Affirmative."
"Given we've only known him for two days, that is a horrific rate. Much worse than what even Hunter and Yuki have done…" Sylveon spoke to himself.
"Yes, but do you know why he's doing this?" Sebastien inquired.
"I can't make a guaranteed guess at that as we really haven't known him for long, but I will start trying to make a psychological profile on him. From my current theories, I speculate that these incidents are created from intense instincts when brought to a fight-or-flight situation. I have spoken with Crystal (who has been with Locke in the past) on this matter, and this has further corroborated this story," Mawile began explaining. "These instincts seemingly developed from his alleged years of being in mystery dungeons alone. When one is alone in a mystery dungeon with no one else there helping you; things like laying down in a fight to brace the pain, getting restrained, and not fighting at your fullest in a losing fight is a death sentence. Death could very well meet you right then and there.
I believe he was conditioned into a habit where he will always fight to the death. Being in a rage blinds one to certain stimuli, and he could have very well mastered this to the point of disregarding things such as his pain or the fact that he is outnumbered so those will not debilitate him. But as he is used to being in solitude, his rages seem to also make him blind to what is an ally and what is an enemy when he reaches his most ferocious state. Considering the life threatening environments posed in mystery dungeons, perhaps we should be surprised that he is not worse than this?"
"He only started to be like that when Tamin was knocked unconscious and he dodged a powerful attack, so I guess that lines up with what I witnessed," Sebastien said as the three of them were side-by-side on the hand railings.
"Right.
In one way, it's enduring. He will never just give up and will do his absolute best he can do until it becomes biologically impossible for him to move anymore. Useful virtues to have in a business like this.
But in another way, he is perhaps more wild than most of the pokemon we come across. Disregarding everything about him and only giving himself to the fight. And as you saw back there, he can hurt the companions he is not used to having."
"Well, do you have any suggestions?" Sylveon inquired.
"That is a puzzle I'm still working at solving, and I'm still going to need to work on a psychological profile on him. For what I can say right now: It's like an insanity in and of the fact that when it takes control, it is completely normal from your perspective. Even when looking back it can be hard to see the shift in yourself.
If that makes any sense. Apologies if I can't really think of any good analogies for this."
"If it's anything like your theory says it is then it sounds quite… horrifying, really," Sebastien expressed, looking away while she contemplated all of this in her mind.
"You didn't really answer my question." Sylveon stated, "You have just been describing what it is this whole time, but do you have any suggestions on what to do about it?"
"Simple. The Locke that's in the guild right now and the Locke that attacked Sebastian aren't two different people, so don't treat them as different people.
It's the same Locke as the one that dove into the back of Sebastien's neck, and so he is the one that needs some restraint so it doesn't happen again."
After this, Sylveon spent a few moments just looking forward and downward, thinking to himself and what Mawile was suggesting.
"I'll speak to Espeon about this," he raised his head stating, "Doubt he'll want anything to be done about it now. But we should be able to get the stuff so if things escalate and we do need to do something, we'll have the equipment ready."
Sebastian and Mawile nodded while Sylveon walked off. All three still had the shinx's actions on their mind.
End of chapter 6.