After the announcement that they'd be traveling to the Guilded Games, Team Apex went into town to stock up for the journey.
"Are you certain that three will be enough reviver seeds for our purposes?" The Prince asked, as Blizz handed off the money to Kecleon.
"We haven't actually needed any since rescuing Rune," Blizz argued. "Plus, we're not gonna be fighting outlaws or anything, it's just climbing a mountain."
"Was not Rune's rescue also supposed to be climbing to the top of a mountain?"
"Look these things are expensive as hell and if we get knocked out more than three times then at that point we deserve whatever's coming."
"Hmph."
With all their supplies purchased, they pretty much had the entire day off for the first time since Blizz broke his leg. It didn't take long for the Prince to come up with some excuse to remove himself from the rest of the group, and at that point they just decided to split up.
Blizz settled on going through town, browsing all the stores with a renewed interest now that the team had a considerable amount of Poké to their name. Not that he'd use team funds for a personal thing, but still. Fun to consider.
Once again, his search ended up with him in Leavanny's store. In addition to the usual wares he's grown accustomed to seeing here, there was also a blue striped scarf on display.
"Hey, what's that? Looks new."
"Ah, your eye remains sharp as ever. That's a Chill Scarf, it cuts the temperature of ice and water moves from the user in half. Great for ice-types. I believe a southern Vulpix joined your team?"
"Yea… how much for it?"
"If we were in one of the southern cities, it would be much higher. But given that there aren't many ice-types up here, I'll cut you a deal. Around 2000 Poké?"
Blizz actually considered that. Rune wasn't exactly their team's power house (outside of the extremely specific situation where someone she doesn't like was charging towards her), and her having this would be a huge buff to her power. Plus, 2000 isn't really that much for an item like this.
"Deal, let me go to the bank to withdraw the Poké. Could you put it on hold for me till I get back?"
"Absolutely sweetie."
Within their team fund, they had amassed around 5000 Poké. Most of their mission rewards goes towards buying Revivers because holy fuck those things are useful, but even with their stash they've still managed to put some in savings.
"Here's your Poké," Duskull stated, laying out the two 1000 Poké coins. "Let me know if you wish for me to watch over any more funds."
"Thanks man."
Back at Leavanny's shop, Blizz finished the exchange.
"Pleasure having you here sweetie, come again."
Holding the scarf felt like holding a cup of ice water— It was definitely kinda chilly and if it was cold out then he'd have to switch which hand he held it with every few minutes, but it wasn't freezing. He decided to keep it in his bag until he could hand it off to Rune.
Before he left the store, he took another contemplative look at the set of All-Weather Goggles, still on display in the shop and still 10000 Poké above his preferred price point.
He shook his head and continued out of the store. Damn that sense of vague familiarity that refuses to elaborate on itself- oh shit.
Lost in his thoughts, he didn't really pay attention to what was on the other side of the shop door he just opened, and ended up slamming it into an Absol walking down the street.
"Fuck, my bad." He held out his hand to the Absol. "You good man?"
"Ah, no worries, it was an accident." He got up on his own, leaving Blizz's hand awkwardly extended. As he dusted himself off, Blizz realized this was the Absol he's been seeing in the guild.
"Oh, you're the Treecko from the guild, right?" He asked, having come to a similar conclusion.
"Yea, that's me. Guess you've seen me around?"
"On occasion. Your guildmaster is somewhat fond of your team, it appears."
"Damn, really?"
"Yes, we've had a few conversations over the past couple of days, and Team Apex was a frequent talking point."
"Oh yea, wanted to ask, I've been seeing you in and out of the guild a lot, what's up with that?"
"… Well, I suppose I can tell you, given your affiliation with the guild. I have been investigating the husks that have been appearing recently in mystery dungeons. Lucario and I have had a… history… but we're putting aside our differences for the time being so that we may handle the current situation better."
"Oh, so you're the source they've been mentioning?"
"I would assume so, most of the investigation has been carried out by me, and I've been relaying any intel I find to your guild."
"Rad. You headed there now?"
"That was my intention."
"Same, wanna head back together?"
"…Certainly, I'd be interested to learn more about your team."
Through their walk back to the guild, Blizz relayed some of their team's stories, taking care to avoid any mentions of Earth or the whole ex-human thing.
Not that he needed to focus on it much at this point.
"So your mission to Shining Peaks was a D rank? That…certainly should not have happened."
"I know right? The fucker up there ended up breaking my leg. The rescue became a new teammate though, so not a complete loss."
"Peculiar…" Absol seemed to be lost in thought. "At least it ended favorably for you."
"Yea, Rune's been great."
"Your entire team appears to be rather odd. A Jangmo-o who used to work for the police department, a southern Vulpix who ended up at the summit of Shining Peaks, and a shiny Umbreon who was detained for…" A thought occurred to him. "Sorry, when did you meet Umbreon?"
"Uh, like a week ago? Maybe a bit over?"
"Would you mind if I were to touch you with my horn? I would like to examine something."
"… Sure, go ahead." Blizz had no idea where this was going but has learned to not question it when a Pokémon asks to do some random thing.
"Thank you." Absol lowered his head to tap his horn against Blizz. The moment it made contact, Absol jumped back in terror.
"…oh… oh my…"
"Is something wrong?" Blizz asked, moderately concerned.
"Ah… well…" He looked like he was struggling to get his words out. "I'm extremely sorry, such a reaction was rude of me. Are you familiar with Absol's ability as a species?"
"Uh, not really."
"Absols are born with the capability to sense impending disasters. While my sense for such things has diminished over the years, I can still say with significant confidence that your life is functionally a series of disasters, one after another."
"Huh… dope."
Absol stared at Blizz. "I'm sorry… what?"
"Sounds rad."
"W…Would you care to elaborate?"
"I mean, it sounds like that'll be exciting as hell. If it's a series of disasters that means I definitely survive most of them, right?"
"…That is an interesting perspective…"
"Look, everything out here is chaotic as hell anyways. What's a little bit more?"
"… I understand that you are an apprentice to Lucario, and his way of thinking is definitely visible in your own personal philosophy, but Nova Town is supposed to be a highly peaceful community. Most Pokémon here do not particularly appreciate disasters arriving onto their doorstep."
"Yea, probably should make sure it doesn't hurt everyone else. Can your disaster sense thing tell when stuff is gonna happen?"
"Typically the feeling intensifies within a week of the disaster's worst point. For you there is certainly something that matches that instinct."
"Damn, we're gonna be at the Guilded Games all week too… Wait…"
Absol sighed, then connected the dots for him. "If I were to make a guess, I'd assume that whatever this is would occur at the games."
"Wack." Blizz kept walking towards the guild. "Guess I'll have to deal with it then."
"… I am beginning to understand why Lucario appears to be so fond of you."
They continued into the Lucario-head tent, and descended down the guild's ladder. Inside, Scizor and Lucario seemed to be in the middle of a heated conversation.
"Are you certain leaving the guild without anyone to oversee it is a good idea?"
"We'll just throw all the important shit in Kangaskhan's. An outlaw would have to be a fucking idiot to break into this guild anyways."
"I suppose our reputation would serve as an adequate deterrent, but what about missions that arise while we're away?"
"I hired a couple independent teams to take on missions around town while we're out."
"… I would appreciate it if you consulted me before making these kinds of financial decisions."
"I knew you'd argue it, saved some time that way."
Scizor sighed, before noticing Blizz and Absol. "Ah, Absol, welcome back."
"The pleasure is all mine," he reciprocated. "Am I to assume we are continuing the previous day's discussion?"
"As long as you got new info," Lucario answered. "But I'm always down to shoot the shit too."
"Well I do in fact have new information." He turned to Blizz. "Thank you for accompanying me, I rarely get the chance to converse with Pokémon who share your perspective."
"Uhh, no worries."
Scizor seemed slightly annoyed that Treecko and Absol knew each other, but that feeling of mild annoyance was overwritten by the greater feeling of annoyance he received from the guildmaster.
"You fuckers getting ready for the games?" He asked Blizz, holding out a paw.
"Hell yea man," Blizz responded, completing the fist bump.
"That's what I wanna hear."
"If we could begin the meeting?" Scizor asked.
"Alright, fine."
The three entered Scizor's office, leaving Blizz to his own devices.
At Apex's room, he found Rune and the Prince on their beds.
"Yo Rune, got a gift for you."
"Hmm?"
Blizz tossed her the Chill Scarf, who made no attempt to catch it as it fell on top of her face.
"Thanks…"
"That all you're gonna say?"
"… It's just a scarf, isn't it?"
"Try using Powder Snow."
"… Fine…" She readied the attack in the general direction of the Prince, who was awake but making a conscious decision to not pay any attention to what was going on. As the attack was charging, the scarf glowed slightly.
When she unleashed the attack, the temperature in the room immediately dropped a few degrees. On the Prince, it dropped many degrees, prompting him to jump up as the attack landed.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
"Did I do that?" Rune asked, only somewhat sorry.
"Yea, supposed to make your ice attacks much colder. Looks like it worked."
After recovering from the attack, the Prince stared down Rune. "You will pay for such insolence." He readjusted his bed, placing a wall of straw between himself and Rune.
"…I like it," Rune commented, pulling the scarf over her neck. "Thanks."
The new day brought with it another round of chanting the story of Little Rattata. However, unlike previous days, the guild remained as a coherent group after the "LET'S FUCKING GET IT" call.
"Now, listen up, because this is fucking important. Breach Mountain is near the center of Varin, which is about a 12 hour walk from here. I don't care who here's a dark type or brought eyedrop seeds or any of that bullshit, no one is going into that dungeon today. Understood?"
Lucario was met with a series of muted acknowledgments.
"Good. Now, because we're not going up today, we'll be setting up camp at the base of the mountain for tonight. We're gonna be walking there together, and I don't give a fuck how fast or slow someone feels like being, we're gonna do this as a guild. Tomorrow you'll be climbing the mountains with your teams. Then, you can do whatever the hell you want as long as you make it to the top alive. For now, we are going together. Am I clear?"
Another round of acknowledgements.
"Then let's fucking go! Scizor is sweep, don't let him get past you."
The guild filed up the ladder one by one. Once the last Pokémon got out, Scizor locked up the trap door covering the entrance ladder.
Team Apex was towards the rear of the group, with Team Spark serving as a buffer between themselves and Scizor.
Scizor was appreciative of this arrangement.
"I can't wait for my first Guilded Games," Chimchar exclaimed, 30 minutes after departing from Nova Town. "I've always heard stories about it, but to finally be there in person is gonna be completely different!"
"Are you even aware of what events will be contested?" The Prince asked.
"Well…"
"They always do the battle royale," Shinx contributed. "Although I think that one's probably going to Hawlutcha."
"Wouldn't Lucario win that though?" Kibo asked. "He seems pretty darn strong."
"Guildmasters and their assistants aren't allowed to compete," Sneasel informed them, ahead of their group. "Only apprentices are, and of them, Hawlutcha's probably our best. Though if a certain Dewott could get his anger under control for more than a few minutes, he could give Hawlutcha a run for his money."
"RIP AND TEAR!" Dewott shouted.
"Unfortunately I don't believe that will be today."
"What other events are there?" Blizz asked.
"They change year to year," Sneasel answered. "Depends on the venue and what's going on in the world. A race of some sort usually isn't a bad guess."
"They always do four events though, to represent the four settlements of Varin," Chimchar added. "Plus a tiebreaker round, if any guilds are tied."
"So every guild will be coming here?" Rune asked.
"Tenea City, the Cascian Archipelago, Gremis Keep, and Nova Town," Shinx explained. "The only guild I know though is Hydreigon's in Tenea City."
"He's a dick," Sneasel commented. "All he cares about is how his guild looks. He has some history with Lucario-"
"I would advise you not to continue that subject," Scizor interrupted from the rear. "It's not something myself or the guildmaster enjoy discussing."
"Fine… But yea, there's some bad blood between our guild and his."
"So you've met him before?" Rune asked.
Sneasel nodded. "Once, at last year's games. This one is my third."
"How do these normally go?" Kibo asked.
"First place is usually a toss-up between our guild and Hydreigon's. Cascia is pretty good if they're running water events, but otherwise they don't put up much of a fight. Gremis is filled with eggheads, so anything that involves actually using your brain is pretty much a free point for them. They tend to suck at everything else though."
"Then let's bring it home," Blizz declared.
"Well I doubt you'd be winning many events, but you got the spirit."
The walk continued as the group ventured further and further from Nova Town. The environment slowly changed, as the mild temperatures around Nova Town and the flora that came from it gave way to thinner plants better suited for the cold.
The temperature change wasn't quite as noticeable, but still definitely there.
The trail they followed varied in quality. At one point it was washed out completely, and they had to climb up a mountain pass on their own. Admittedly, this was much easier to manage when the entire traveling party consisted of intelligent magical animals than it would have been if they were humans.
Still, having to search for where the trail resumes is always a pain.
After several hours of traveling, they took a break along a river to eat lunch.
"This walk is simply unbearable," the Prince complained between bites of his apple. "The infrastructure to connect various sites of significance across this continent must be improved."
"What are you expecting, a limo to drive you there?" Rune snarked.
"I don't know what this 'limo' is, but judging by your tone I assume it to be something that those of my status deserve."
"Every time you speak I somehow find a way to like you even less."
"The opinions of commoners scarcely matter in the face of royalty," he stated, before breaking off of the group to focus on his meal.
Blizz and Kibo's interest in the exchange only went so far as to ensure Rune didn't try to freeze the Prince again. Once that was no longer a threat, they were able to shift their focus back to the upcoming games.
"It's pretty darn cool that we're competing at this world's Olympics," Kibo stated.
"Not really sure that's the best comparison. It's not like we had to qualify or anything."
"True… still, people all over care about it. You think we'll be able to win anything for the guild?"
"No clue. I'm not even sure how it works, with who does what."
"Every event is basically a free-for-all, and whatever guild the winner belongs to gets the point for that day," Sneasel explained, having suddenly appeared right beside Blizz.
He jumped up a little in response to the sudden presence. "How the fuck do you do that?"
"Do what?" Sneasel asked innocently.
"… Nevermind. So it's basically a free-for-all?"
"Normally. Of course, we're not gonna fight each other unless every other guild is out, but technically we're all on our own."
"That's a bit sad," Kibo commented. "I'd like to do it with my teammates."
"There's nothing that says you can't, just that they don't want you to. I would, but Dewott is barely a good teammate in dungeons. Don't think he'd suddenly get the spirit of cooperation in the middle of a contest."
"Fair point." The group looked over to see Dewott slicing his apple into an indeterminate amount of pieces. "Is that how he eats? I don't think I've ever seen any food actually enter his mouth."
"I think so, he's a bit of a mystery."
"I wouldn't say he's the only one," Kibo commented.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sneasel responded in a tone that made it very difficult to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not.
As if to emphasize her ambiguous point, she vanished the moment Blizz and Kibo took their eyes off her.
Once they were finished with lunch, the guild lined up again and continued down the trail.
The temperature continued to steadily drop the closer they got to the mountain base. Kibo and the Prince were slightly off-put by it, while Blizz and Rune didn't seem to notice.
"I was not aware we would be dealing with such reduced temperatures," the Prince complained. "Had I known I would have requisitioned a scarf."
"It does feel like it's getting colder," Kibo agreed. "Though I am a dragon, we don't do that well with the cold to begin with. How are you getting on Blizz?"
"I'm alright, doesn't really feel that cold."
"It's the same as that god-forsaken mission to Shining Peaks," the Prince noticed. "Are you simply incapable of feeling cold?"
"I guess? Dunno."
"See? You guys should be more like Blizz. It feels like it's usually burning in Nova Town," Rune added.
"I will not take such disparaging comments from an ice-type, your endurance in this environment is hardly a result of your own merits."
Before the conversation had a chance to continue, Blizz and Kibo positioned themselves between the two.
"So you really don't feel anything?" Kibo asked. "I'd think you'd be going through the same issues I've been, with how grass types fare against ice."
"It just doesn't feel much different than Nova Town or anywhere else we've been."
"Perhaps we could test this capability by venturing into a warm environment next," the Prince suggested. "I would be interested in determining the extent of this."
"Well unless Breach Mountain is a volcano, we're probably gonna have to wait a while to find out," Kibo reasoned.
"It isn't," Shinx added from behind them.
The conversation trailed off after that. It proved to be very difficult to find a conversation topic that didn't involve the Prince and Rune going at each other again, especially with the general sense of exhaustion the walk gave them.
After what felt like an eternity of hiking, an imposing mountain towering above all the other hills in the region appeared over the horizon.
"Breach Mountain…" Chimchar commented, staring up at the peak. The mountain itself was extremely steep, there was no chance a Pokémon could reach the summit by climbing up the side.
Unless that Pokémon happened to have the ability to cling onto walls, but Blizz was pretty sure he's the only one in the group who fit that criteria.
"Alright fuckers, this is where we're setting up base," Lucario declared as they filed into a clearing. "Tomorrow morning we'll go into the dungeon, I don't want to see a soul climbing up tonight."
"That was the fifth time you emphasized that…" the Prince muttered under his breath.
The guild went to work setting up their tents for the night. The qualities varied, with Team Blitz's perfect tent on one end and Team Apex's "multiple poles with a canopy in its general vicinity" on the other.
Technically they still beat Lucario and Scizor, who didn't bother with a tent in the first place.
The sun was starting to set as the guild prepared dinner for themselves. Unsurprisingly, it was more apples.
Blizz's was impaled on a stick he was holding over the campfire. No one else on Apex cared enough to bake their apple first, but Kibo and the Prince were still standing around the fire to ward off the cold.
"… Y'all hear something?" Kibo asked.
"Hmm?" Blizz tried to tune out the cackling of the fire, and could make out a series of footsteps.
At that, the other guild members around the fire tensed up.
"It looks like they've arrived," Hawlutcha commented.
"ALRIGHT BOYS, WE'RE SETTING UP CAMP HERE!"
Blizz turned around to look at the source of the shout: a Hydreigon leading a team of various Pokémon. They stopped at the other side of the clearing and threw down their bags.
More than a few of Hydregion's group spared glances at Lucario's guild, but didn't seem bothered by it.
"Ugh, the fucker's here," Lucario commented, getting up from his spot around the fire to approach the other camp site.
"OH IF IT ISN'T THE FUCKING PUNCHDOG," Hydreigon yelled, floating up to meet Lucario in the middle.
"Fuck off with that, you were the dumbass that decided to set up next to my guild."
"OH WHAT, DID I INTRUDE ON YOUR SPECIAL LITTLE CAMPSITE? YOU WANT TO TAKE THE ENTIRE DAMNED THING TOO?"
"If you take one more fucking step you will-"
Before the conversation could continue much longer, a spire of stone shot out from the space between the two guildmasters, forcing them to back off. Blizz saw a midnight Lycanroc approaching the duo, one of his claws glowing with brown energy.
"Guildmaster, we've discussed this. Try to not antagonize him until we reach the summit."
Scizor, who was off collecting firewood, zoomed past the guild to land at Lucario's side. It was the first time Blizz saw him actually fly.
"My apologies, I didn't anticipate your team arriving this quickly. Otherwise I would have been more proactive in monitoring the guildmaster."
"Don't worry about it," Lycanroc accepted. "We both know how it is. No harm done."
Scizor and Lycanroc dragged their guildmasters back to their campsites, the Lucario and Hydreigon not breaking eye contact during the entire process.
It was only once there was a tent severing the space between the two guildmasters that Lucario took his focus off Hydreigon. "That cunt…"
"Yes yes, Hydreigon could stand to be more polite," Scizor dismissed. "I ask you remember the games of four years ago where your actions led to both guilds being disqualified though."
"As if that bullshit was my fault-"
"It was both your faults, and if you like to avoid a repeat of that please keep your interactions with guildmaster Hydreigon down to aggressive staring, at most."
"…Fine."
An awkward silence set over both sides of the clearing.
"They're always like this," Hawlutcha commented, noticing Blizz's confusion. "I still don't understand it. Our assistant guildmasters get along very well, the issue is strictly between Hydreigon and Lucario."
"We're still gonna beat them to the ground at the games," Combusken declared, punching his arms together for effect.
"Save the fire for when it actually starts," Hawlutcha scolded. "We still need to get through a dungeon tomorrow."
Blizz ate his apple, idly listening to Hawlutcha and Cobusken arguing about the precise amount of fire one should be bringing at any given point. It was fairly awkward, but he supposed it was cosmic retribution for the way Team Apex's arguments tended to escalate to the point where everyone else can listen in.
As soon as he finished, he retreated to the bundle of sticks and canvas Apex was sleeping in. He wasted no time crawling into his sleeping bag and passing out.
"GET THE FUCK UP ASSHOLES!"
Blizz was woken up by a call that definitely did not belong to Lucario. He slowly crawled out of Apex's "tent" to see what was going on.
Across the clearing, Hydreigon was waking up his own guild, but the process woke up Lucario's as well.
"FUCK YOU TOO!" Combusken yelled, though the only Pokémon who seemed to react was Hawlutcha, who proceeded to smack him.
Deciding that there was no point in trying to go back to sleep for another half hour before Lucario would wake them up, Blizz started to pack his things.
The Prince somehow managed to sleep through that, so their pathetic excuse for a tent was staying up for now. Blizz put everything else he could away before joining up with the rest of the guild for morning announcements.
"LISTEN UP!" Lucario began. "The games are starting tomorrow, that means we're climbing up the mountain today. The path up is still a mystery dungeon, that means each team is going in half an hour after the last so there's no bottlenecks."
"To save time, we will be merging the two-member teams," Scizor explained. "Drill, you're going with Arctic."
"Understood sir!" Rockruff yelled.
"Spark, you're coming with myself and the guildmaster."
"R…Really?" Chimchar's eyes seemed to sparkle.
"Correct. Teams Blitz and Apex are going up as they are."
"Right on." Blizz first bumped Kibo.
"Arctic and Drill will go up first, followed by Apex, then Blitz, and our group will be last," Scizor continued. "The camp locations are already decided by the event organizers, set up there as soon as you arrive. Remember that we will be spending 5 nights here, so try to put some effort into your camp." He gestured at the number of poorly assembled tents. "Lastly, please do not needlessly antagonize Hydreigon's guild. I understand the nature of the rivalry, but picking fights with them will reflect poorly on both our guilds."
Lucario huffed at the last point.
"That will be all. Guildmaster?"
He somehow managed to lead the chant louder here than he did back at the guild.
"IT WAS TWELVE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN!"
Despite all the hype surrounding it, the dungeon proved to be pretty easy. The Pokémon weren't that difficult to fight, the floor layouts were straightforward, and the next staircase was rarely more than one or two rooms from where they came in on.
The flip side was that it was long. Blizz knew the mountain was high, and that logically it made sense that he would have to climb a lot of staircases to get to the top. Still, to be around floor 15 with no sign of stopping was a bit off-putting to the team.
As Blizz rounded a corner, he noticed a Bagon on the opposite end.
"Bagon up ahead," he called, firing off a Leafage. The Bagon looked shocked as the attack landed. There was a small puff of smoke, and it turned out the Bagon was actually a Zorua.
"Hold on, I'm not feral!" The Zorua yelled out before Rune could fire a Powder Snow.
"Uh… my bad," Blizz apologized sheepishly. "One sec." He dug out an Oran Berry and tossed it to the Zorua.
"… It's fine, I suppose it's my fault for disguising myself without a badge." She accepted the berry and bit off a part of it. "Did your group just come from that way?"
"Yea, there was a room with a T junction just a bit ago. Guessing there's no staircase where you came from?"
"There wasn't, so it would be ideal to go back to the room you came from."
"Gotcha. Kibo, take the lead back to that room," Blizz called, flipping their party order.
"On it."
As they continued down the hallway, Blizz could see the Zorua's teammates come out from around the corner. First was a Flareon with weird colors, followed by a Taillow, and a non-illusion Bagon in the rear.
Once they made it into the room, the two groups stopped to examine each other a bit closer.
"Yea, sorry again about that," Blizz apologized.
"As I said, it's fine. Leafage isn't a particularly heavy-hitting move anyways."
"Fair enough… so you guys here for the games?"
"That would be correct," the Flareon answered.
The Prince seemed to be fixating on the Flareon, who reciprocated the interest.
"We're with Hydreigon's guild!" Bagon yelled.
"Sorry to inform y'all, we're with Lucario's," Kibo responded. "Guess that means we're rivals?"
"That's how it's supposed to be…" Taillow commented.
"Nothing saying we can't get out of this dungeon together though," Blizz said. "Name's Treecko." He held out his hand to Zorua.
"Zorua," she responded, shaking Blizz's hand. "Behind me is Flareon, Taillow, and Bagon. We're Team Terrae."
When their hands touched, Blizz froze. He felt… something coming from Zorua. Almost as if there was something from her pulling him in.
Judging by the shocked look in Zorua's eyes, she was feeling something similar.
"I see no reason for my proper name to not be-" Before Flareon could say anything else, Bagon head butted him.
The moment died, as Blizz and Zorua turned their attention to their other teammates.
"Sorry, don't mind him, he's a bit of an ass sometimes," Bagon explained.
"I would have liked to hear what he was saying…" the Prince muttered.
"Of course you would've…" Rune snarked.
Blizz recovered from the shock of whatever just happened and re-entered the conversation. "No worries, our team prick is Umbreon. Also got Vulpix and Jangmo-o. We're Team Apex"
"Nice meeting all you guys," Zorua responded. "I guess you would like to complete the dungeon as a single group?"
"If that's cool with you, we usually don't do missions with more than the four of us."
"I don't think we'd have any objections."
The now group of 8 continued through the dungeon. Blizz and Zorua traded off as leader surprisingly seamlessly.
"So you guys are nearly Silver rank and have only done three rescue missions?" Zorua asked, legitimately confused.
"I swear, every single one we've taken has been cursed," Blizz responded. "Outlaw missions are much more predictable. Just go in and beat the shit out of some dude, drag their body back to Magnezone."
"But having to fight a potentially powerful Pokémon every single time…"
"Better than the bullshit dungeons we keep having to do rescue missions in. A single Pokémon is nothing compared to a dungeon where tidal waves run through- Snorunt ahead of you- where waves run through every five minutes."
"Have you considered doing some research into the dungeon before accepting a mission into it?" Zorua asked, knocking out the Snorunt with a Scratch.
"Sounds boring. Plus outlaw hunts are more fun anyways."
"I guess… my team's focus is on rescue missions, the few outlaws we've taken on have all almost beaten us."
"Guess it's more of an experience thing then."
After five more floors of idle chatter and curb stomping the occasional feral, the group ascended the final floor.
The summit of Breach Mountain was much larger than it looked from the ground, to the point where it was more of a plateau than anything else.
Not far from where they climbed up were four large square campsites, with a few tents already set up. Further down the way was a number of stalls selling things at a markup that probably should have been illegal. At the end of the mountaintop was an arena, surrounded by five sets of bleachers.
The entire summit was covered in snow, with the main pathways the Pokémon were taking being more of a dirt-ice slush.
"Guess this is where we part ways," Kibo commented. "That was fun."
"You're awesome, dragon dude!" Bagon shouted, headbutting Kibo.
"I find your presence to be far more tolerable than most others I've encountered," the Prince said to Flareon.
"Rest assured, the feeling is mutual."
"Take care…" Taillow whispered.
"Yea, good luck…" Rune muttered back.
"Look, you guys are my favorite Team from Hydreigon's, so if they win any that better be because of you," Blizz explained.
"I'll see what I can do," Zorua responded. "… Oh, uh… was that a joke?"
"I fucking love you guys. Go get it!"
Team Apex split off from Team Terrae to set up at the campsite for Lucario's Guild.
A/N: Happy New Year's everyone! For this momentous occasion, I deliver a chapter one (1) day earlier than originally planned.
This chapter does introduce a bunch of new characters, I kinda like how it went though.
Ch 7: Fight For Your Right - 1/8/22