A beam of gold splashed upon her lavender fur, prompting Sia to awaken from her slumber. She hasn't realized it yet, but Sia slept most of the morning away in her bed. Deciding to catch the boys up on what "rent" was, she kicked back her legs for a good stretch, and grabbed the satchel her team was gifted. She opted to check on Tuff first, since his door was right across from hers.
"Tuff?" With two knocks, Sia slowly pushed his door open to be met with strands of purple hairs in every direction, and Tuff haphazardly face-first in his bed. "Not even a full day, and it looks like he's been here for years," she huffed at the mess.
With a twirl and the sound of skin smacking the floor, Sia knocked Tuff out of his bed, abruptly waking him up. It was so sudden, Tuff continued to stumble for a bit before regaining his composure.
"Ouch…morning? That really hurt, y'know?" Tuff whined.
"Don't be a baby, I only woke you up. I should've actually hit you, look at this mess!" Sia furled a brow.
"Whatever, I just laid down!"
"Look. We have stuff to do today, we can't afford to relax. Get your stuff together, we're going on a mission."
"Already? Aww, man…" Tuff melted into the floor.
"Yes, we gotta start meeting the rent quota."
Tuff's yawn made Sia feel like getting back in her own bed. Even as the sun eclipsed the flats, a comfy, blanket-like warmth radiated throughout the building. With Tuff up, Sia made her way to Buff's room, whose door stayed open. Buff spent most of the morning reading his complementary literature instead of sleeping.
"Buff, c'mon and get ready," Sia commanded.
Doomp went Buff's book. "For what? It's still pretty early."
"I'll explain on the way, just get your bag and whatever else, alright?"
"Yeah, sure, sure." Buff's ear twitched at the thought of work.
With the boys getting ready, Sia made her way to the couch of the main room, and placed herself in the middle of it. She rummaged through her satchel, retrieving a creased paper and a stamping utensil. The page had thirty spots available for stamping and a small space for extra notes. At the top, the word 'Mission' was hastily scribbled. Not what I expected, but okay, Sia thought.
"So, what's up, big sis?" Tuff's voice echoed down the hall as he approached the main room with his brother.
"Again with the big sis? I told you to drop it," Sia's tail playfully swished alongside her annoyance. "Anyway, come sit down you two, I gotta explain the plans for today."
The brothers quietly followed suit, with Tuff sitting on one side of Sia, and Buff on the other.
"Please don't do that thing, I don't think I'd survive it this close…" This time, Buff whined.
"I accidentally spray you two once and suddenly I'm just a ticking stink bomb? Shut up and listen, we got stuff to do," Sia huffed. "See this paper? We gotta fill it up with missions over the month until we have at least thirty. The landlord said we get to keep what we find in Mystery Dungeons, but any coinage splits seventy-thirty between us and the building. Since it's our first one, we could do something simple and maybe grab something to eat at a local place after. Sound good?"
"Sounds fine, but what exactly stops us from stamping the whole page now?" Buff replied.
"Yeah, and where are we gonna eat though?" Tuff exclaimed.
"That Mr. Rime dude is a Psychic type, there's no way that would work, Buff. And Tuff, we literally just got here, how should I know? We'll just figure it out as we go, c'mon," Sia retorted.
Sia felt spikes manifest in her fur at the thought of entering a Mystery Dungeon. To her, there was nothing safe about a place that is not only constantly changing, but nesting hostile mons as well. She knew she could easily defend herself or the brothers if need be, but the last thing she wanted was to deliberately be in danger. With the plan for today laid out, Team Hope made their way down to the first floor, ready to find their first mission. To their surprise, the two boards seemed to be drowning in requests that weren't there earlier that morning. Several other mons swarmed the outlaw board, causing Sia to direct her team over to the general request board.
"Ohh, lemme pick, lemme pick!" Tuff squeaked.
"That one looks fun, but so does that one. How can we decide!?" Buff was just as excited as his brother.
"That's the thing! You don't," Sia puffed her chest fur. "Even if we made Team Hope together, I'm the leader, so first mission is my choice."
"Oh" is all either brother could reply to their team leader, defeated by pure logic. There isn't a rebuttal to be made, they all agreed she was the most fit to lead the ragtag bunch. Sia scanned the board for a small mission, and to her avail, a plethora of deliveries and item requests fit her mood. She picked off a slightly torn page and stuffed it into her satchel, turning away and beelining to the door.
"W-wait, what's the mission? You could at least tell us that, right? C'mon, Sia!" Buff yelled.
"It's a simple Oran berry delivery to a client that wandered too far into…uh, hold on," She slowed to a crawl to retrieve the request. "Puny Plains."
"Aww, what? What's with the rookie work, big sis?" Tuff puffed his cheeks.
"Shut up, it's our first mission. There's no reason to go all in. We don't even know what we're doing yet," Sia's tail swished like a metronome.
"I guess that's true. What if we ran into a Vespiquen hive on some awful mission?" Buff's fur began to dampen. "That would be the worst."
"Exactly. C'mon boys, Team Hope's got a mission and we don't plan on failing!" Sia yelled.
With that, Team Hope made their way out of Baron's flats and turned to the roads right side of Twiligleam city. As our trio turned the backs on the town, the bustling businesses seemed to waver at their departure. The Mystery Dungeon known as Puny Plains was relatively close to the city, taking a light stroll on the outskirts to reach it.
"Hold up, Meira!" Flint gasped, nearly coughing up a storm as twigs scattered every-which-way from him. "I reckon this'll be our sixth mission today, can't we rest a minute? I'm fixin' to meet our Lord any minute now."
"Aww, hush up with all that, Flint. I promise we can rest after this one, alright?" Meira couldn't help but feel ashamed at how breakneck their team was as of recent. "We still have some apple pie to look forward to, 'member?"
"My, oh my, I nearly forgot! Bless your heart, Meira," chuckled Flint, nudging Meira's cheek with his snoot.
"Of course! On second thought though, I think my roots need a recharge before we go."
Flint sat beside Meira as roots extended from her fur, plunging into the soil. "Go right ahead Meira, I reckon this last mission will be a breeze compared to all the others. Need to tend to my own branches real fast." He mumbled as he pulled twigs from his fur, sinking his teeth into them.
The trio of purple and gray appear before a small conglomerate of oak and rosebushes, accompanied by a wooden sign that read "Puny Plains: Mystery Dungeon Ahead". Sia felt spikes rise up yet again upon reaching the sign, remembering her new life required steel nerves. Tuff and Buff quickly caught up to their Stunky friend, scanning their surroundings.
"Alright, looks like we've arrived at, uh, Puny Plains," Sia scattered items around in her satchel searching for the mission paper. "Yeah, here we are! Good thing the Mr. Rime guy left us those berries too, the handoff won't be so bad now."
"This…is a Mystery Dungeon? Just looks like a plain field to me," said Tuff, itching his side.
"Tuff, you forgot already? Most Mystery Dungeons have an entrance of some kind, where you seem to 'enter' the Dungeon. That's why some can be on mountaintops and such," Buff explained. The book he read earlier helped him look wiser about the mystery than he let on.
"Judging by that rocky gate lookin' thing, I'd say that's it," Sia pointed at what appear to be a gate of rocks that appeared mon made. "You guys ready?"
Tuff hopped in excitement. "Yeah, let's g-"
"Hey! It's you three! Over heeeere!" A lightly seasoned voice called out to Team Hope.
As the trio turned to meet their greeters, a familiar duo came into view, waving and dashing toward them. As they arrived, Sia gave a pensive look at the duo. Flint seemed to be infested with odd looking twigs, and Meira had several small root looking appendages retracting in her fur. Flint noticed Sia's look, and nudged Meira of their neighbor's suspicions.
"Afternoon, Sia, Tuffen, Buffer," Flint smiled as he shook the twigs out of his fur, stepping on them as they landed. "What brings y'all to Puny Plains?"
Sia figured they noticed her staring, and did her best to not mention the weird things she noticed "H-hey. We thought it would be good to do our first mission today at the closest dungeon."
"Nice! I reckon this'll be a breeze for you three!" Meira winked and placed a paw on Flint, ensuring they pay attention to their cuteness more than the roots. "Flint and I were starting a mission here as well, we got five down today already! Say, will y'all be doing anymore after this?"
"Not really," Buff interjected.
"We were fixin' to spend the rest of today in the district, first stopping at Granny Fritta's. Would you guys like to come?" Meira smiled.
"Well, you did promise us a tour, I think that would c-count," Tuff shook with every word, intimidation setting in at the confidence of Team Harmony.
"That's right. I think it would be alright too, then we could get to know each other," Sia added.
"Then it's settled! After this, let's meet at the city entrance, by the flats, alright?" Flint spoke with a twig between his teeth.
Team Hope all nodded in agreement, allowing Team Harmony to pass through to the gate of Puny Plains. With a blink of blue aura, the Fennekin and Pikachu seem to vanish into thin air.
"Woah! So that's how that works?" Tuff's jaw brushed dirt.
"Hey uh, Sia, big sis?" Buff lowered his tone to a whisper.
"What is it?" She quietly responded.
"Don't you find that other team kind of annoying? The way they seem all buddy buddy and all that? Or how helpful they seem to be with complete strangers?"
Sia swallowed the lump in her throat, she knew Buff felt exactly like she did about Team Harmony's nice behavior. "Uh…no? Why should I care? They may be too trusting, but they seem happy. It's kinda nice."
"W-woah! Hel-" Tuff couldn't finish his sentence. He wandered a little too close to the gate, and was pulled in.
"Tuff!!" Both Sia and Buff dived into the gate alongside him, ready to face the unknown.
Boomf! The Stunky and darker Rattata landed with a small impact, splashing a cloud of dust around them. The surrounding plains now seem to loom above, with rocky deposits at every turn, and thorn bushes glaring daggers. The magic of a Mystery Dungeon had finally revealed itself to Team Hope.
"Where are we? Looks nothing like the outside," Sia's spikes stood tall.
"Must be the dungeon, Tuff was gonna start without us!" Buff yelled.
"Nuh-uh! I fell in!" Tuff cried.
"You're lying! I saw you hop in willy-nilly!" Buff retorted.
Sia's ears shot up to the sky as a droning began to erupt from every direction. "Quiet! Something's coming, a lot of something! Get behind me!"
As Team Hope stood beside one another, dots of crimson came from every corner, blasting them with glares. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by an army of unseen enemies.
Notes: This chapter ended up being so long, I decided to split it into two! I've also decided to interject the Harmony duo's arc into Team Hope's a little bit. I have some plans for the two teams to clash a bit more in the future.