The sun rose slowly in the azure sky. Dawn had already passed, but it was still early enough to be considered 'early morning'. The Wingull lofted lazily along on the gentle breeze of the sea as the docked boats were gently caressed by a light tide. Scottie could not have awoken to a more pleasant atmosphere. As he rose to the sun flashing through his window, he bolted to it, glancing out at the bay with a glowing grin on his face.
"It's wonderful out today!" he exclaimed gleefully to nobody in particular as he leapt toward his scarf rack, pulling the scarf from it. The young Vulpix was full of energy today, and with good reason. Despite Candace clearly having held back, he had earned his place as an official leader of a Chevalier Squad, and this meant so much to him.
'Today I'm going to make something of myself!' Scottie thought, sitting on his hind legs and wrapping his scarf around his neck with some difficulty. 'Yesterday was good, but I can shoot for further stars today!' He examined the standard-issue Chevalier badge pinned to the scarf, admiring everything he knew it represented. Bounding back to all fours, he walked to the main room of the base and glanced around, searching briefly for Will and finding no sign of him. Of course, this was no mystery. Will was on the most important mission of his life. A mission so dangerous and risky, he had to go alone. That mission, which he'd chosen to accept, was sleeping in.
"That little rascal," Scottie sighed, walking up to the door to Will's room and kicking it twice. "Rise and shine, sleepy head! We've got a big day!"
"Doing what?!" groaned an irritable-sounding Will in a half-yell.
"I don't know! Something! Anything! We can't let this morning go to waste!" Will groaned again, audibly stumbling to his feet and exiting his room with a messy scarf wrapped around his neck and a serious case of bedhead topping him off. As The Oshawott made his way toward his partner, the Vulpix's stomach growled like a Snorlax being woken up early from its nap. An embarrassed shade of red crossed his face, albeit practically invisible behind his already-red fur. "Oh...and I'm hungry. Do you know where we can get food?"
Will sighed as Scottie began to follow his almost zombie-like partner as he dragged his feet around the base. "C'mon, man, you now I don't have any money! Please! Pleeeease?"
"I just wanna go back to sleep," Will complained. "Look, if I go with you to the cafe and get you something to eat, can I go back to bed?" Scottie nodded enthusiastically. "Fine. You need to find a way to make money soon, though. I can't use my personal funds for your breakfast every day. Why don't you pick up a couple of missions from Nancy while we're there, so you can stop burning a hole in my pocket?"
"Geez, why are you so Krabby today?" asked Scottie, putting on a big, enthusiastic grin. "It's a beautiful da-"
"Because sleep is nice, okay?!" Will interrupted quite angrily. "You just don't know the wonders of sleeping until high noon. I for one was having an amazing dream...I was romancing this pretty girl...an Eevee, if I remember right. We were just talking and talking, and as I was just about to make my move, you decided to slam on my door and knock me out of it."
Scottie stared at Will, slightly confused and tilting his head to the right. He wasn't certain what 'romancing' meant, and he made a note to ask Thara about it later. However, there was only one thing on his mind right now: food. Upon arriving at the cafe, Will was less than pleased to admit that he had grown hungry along the way. He was even more unwilling after Scottie subtly rubbed it in with a snide grin. The cafe was different today, having windows open and quite the crowd. Conveniently, two seats at the bar were open.
'It's nice seeing this place all lit up and lively!' Scottie thought as he and Will headed over to the counter and hopped up onto the bar stools. Standing behind the bar was Nancy, the Miltank they'd met the day before. Scottie noted that she seemed much perkier and energetic than she had been yesterday.
"Well, G'mornin' Team Siege!" greeted Nancy, pulling out her notepad and pen. Scottie could easily pick out the fact that Nancy had a fake smile plastered across her face. He knew it was hard for folks to accept his presence, so he appreciated the attempt.
"The place seems a lot more lively today, Nancy," noted Scottie, returning the smile, albeit more genuine than Nancy's.
"Sure is," replied the Miltank. "So, what'll it be, boys?"
"I'll have a glass of Oran Juice and two over easy," Will stated.
Scottie looked over the menu. "Uh...surprise me, I guess. Oh, and do you have any missions, by any chance?"
Nancy jotted down the orders and thought for a moment, tapping the click side of the pen against her lower lip. "Actually, a letter came in fer the two'a ya from Candace." The Miltank pulled up a sealed envelope up onto the countertop as she double checked the notepad and got to work on the orders. Scottie excitedly opened the letter, revealing an unusual ticket and what appeared to be blank parchment. Knowing otherwise, Scottie presented his badge to the plain note, producing a scanning effect that revealed a holographic dialog box.
'Greetings, Knave Scottie and Knave William! This is not a mission notice. Until I feel you're ready to get your feet wet with some real missions, you'll be taking all tasks from me. As you are quite aware, the two of you are new to the Chevaliers. You don't even have your armor yet! And so, that brings me to your first quest. Enclosed is a check made out from Chevalier HQ to the local blacksmith. He SHOULD make you some armor, but if he gives you any trouble, just wave the check in his face! That should get him working.
Wishing you luck: ~Candace Skarmory'
"So what does the crazy, big-mouth bird want?" Will asked rudely.
"She gave us a check to buy our armor!" Scottie replied excitedly. "We'll definitely have to take care of this after breakfast!"
"Armor?" Will inquired, glancing interestedly over Scottie's shoulder. "Well, looks like we'll actually be looking like we have our shit together, and considering you're our leader, we'll need all the help we can get with that."
Scottie groaned, having been growing tired of Will's spiteful attitude toward him. But the Oshawott had a point. Considering the seemingly worldwide distrust towards Vulpix in general, the two really had to step up their game. Despite four Pokemon altogether aiding the duo, albeit some being only semi-genuine, they did need all the help they could get. He decides to put both the letter and the check in his scarf, for somewhat safekeeping.
"Hey, brat!" Scottie turned to an echoing, wrath-filled voice behind him, taking note to the Pokemon with the bad attitude standing before a table where a frightened Pidgey cowered in its chair. The intimidating Pokémon stood an even two feet tall, about eight inches shorter than Scottie himself, wore a pair of round black glasses and had a large black appendage linked to the back of its head, baring toothy fangs that hung out the left and right. The intimidator stepped even closer towards the Pidgey, tipping their glasses as to reveal their blood-red eyes as an additional fear factor. "Do you realize whose table you're sitting at? If you don't beat it, you're gonna GET beat, got it?"
"I-I'm sorry!" cried the Pidgey, still cowering in fear, hopping down from the chair and trying to maneuver his way past the intimidating Pokemon. "I d-didn't know it was your table!" The Pokemon still towered over the Pidgey, which elicited an enraged snarl from Scottie, despising the very thing that Mawile was: a bully.
"Hey! Step off the kid, punk!" demanded Scottie, storming over toward the table where the Steel-type stood. The Mawile turned and stared at him for a moment, letting loose a roaring laughter that could cause ears to bleed with its pitched annoyance.
"And just who do you think you are telling me what to do, Redfur?" she asked, swishing her second mouth side to side tauntingly as it growled slightly.
"Scottie," he replied plainly. "Captain of Team Siege. And who do you think you are that gives you the right to be such a huge bitch?"
The Mawile grimaced. "Ugh! Such unrefined beasts your kind are! But to answer your question, my name is Jeanette, leader of Team Wycked. I don't know this 'Team Siege'. You brats must be Candace's new dungeon fodder." Scotties rage rose up in the form of a deep growl.
Will's ear stubs twitched at the mention of the name 'Wycked.' He'd heard it somewhere before, but set his premonitions aside as the rage of the Vulpix next to him built up into a low growl.
Scottie smelled something… something amiss. As behind Jeanette a Pokémon seemingly formed from dark energy. But in reality it was simply breaking its cloak. The Pokémon was fox-like, similar to Scottie with the exception of only having one, slightly shorter, tail, was a bit shorter. With almost black fur, with red highlights on the edge of its top tuft sitting utop its head with the end of its tail and on its paws, It glared down Scottie from atop the table, and with a scrappy voice. The Zorua yelled at him.
"Yeah! Get lost or get beat dungeon fodder!" Entailing an annoying chuckle from the creature, just to further the torment on scottie
The Steel Type looked over to the new entity, seeming slightly annoyed. "Excuse me, Wallace, did I ask for an echo?" The Steel Type said to the Zorua, then looking back to Scottie "However, He does have a point; I suggest you get your nose out of this, Redfur."
This got Scottie to step forward a little, but suddenly, Will came in between the three with a calm face
"Now now now fellas… I think we could all calm down and talk this over… you see. My Father…" Will began despite the confused stares
'here we go…' Scottie thought to himself, being already previously annoyed with this matter, he was not ready to listen to will gloat about his father again, but he listened anyway, maybe this might be relevant for a change.
"... taught me many many things… How to be a gentleman, a scholar, and how to be modest…." Will continued, with Scottie tilting his head in confusion at Will, not sure where he was going with this.
"But he taught me one valuable lesson…" Will says taking off his Scalchop, waving it in his hand a little "Never. Watch. The Scalchop." He says suddenly tossing it straight into the air, as Both members of team Wyked watched the sea-shell in the air, Will winded back his arm and gave Jeanette a nice friendly punch in the face, which Scottie soon followed up with kick to the Zorua's face and both were sent back a ways, knocking over a table, and the Pokémon sitting at it, a Marshstomp, which got a real angry face as it ran over to team siege to punch them out, which resulted in them dodging, and him punching out a Combusken that was enjoying a plate of he rises from his table, forming a fist and punching out the Marshstomp, which in tune, knocks him into a grovyle.
And that's when shit hit the fan. From that point on a series of random events caused an all out bar fight. Chairs where being broken over heads, Pokemon where being thrown into walls, punches where flying into faces, knees into guts, and kicks flying between… we don't talk about that. And over all in the Chaos, Nancey TOSSES out teams Seige and Wyked with a loud "ANNN STAY OUT!"
Out of frustration, The members of Team Wyked left with a glare, as Will and Scottie sat there for a good thirty seconds, then after that they looked at each other… and started laughing as they got up
"Oh man dude! That was awesome!" Scottie said between laughs "Don't watch the shell, where'd you learn that!"
"My dad taught me!" Will says fastening his Scallchop on his chest "Well.. he taught my older brother, but I was around to hear it." He Explained as Scottie patted him
"Dude that's awesome… Wait hold on, why'd you stand up for me back there, thought you hated me or something I don't know…"
Will shrugged "Dunno. I just hate her more I guess." He commented to Scottie "Hey wait… we paid!" he says turning around
"Oh dude- no!" Scottie says trying to stop him
"HEY! NANCY! I PAID FOR FOOD! WHERE IS IT!" he yelled into the resturaunt, and just like that two bowls of, probably rotten, berries go flying at Scottie and Will with two loud splats, and two stinky, sticky pokemon… Will's watertihjht fur seems to be easy for him to shake off the gunk, but Scottie had no such luck, but he knew where to go.
They went to Thara's where the Altaria using her wings was washing off Scotties sticky fur, with her spongy as will stood clean as a whistle
"Honestly, you're the weirdest fire type I ever damn met." Will comments as Scottie so nonchalantly sat in the water, though he was a little cold, The water seemingly unphased him.
"Oh there's all sorts in this world, different pokemon with different pleasures…" Thara says to will
Scottie scowled a little "And there's some who pick on those whom are weaker…" he said remembering the events at the bar "At the bar we met a pair of jackasses who call themselves Team Wyked… Do you know anything about them, Thara?" Scottie asked Thara who twitched slightly at the name
"Oh dear… everyone knows them. Foul bunch they are, and misusing their badges for their own purposes. Their freelancers… such a shame too, Jeanette comes from such a rich family, I expected better of them." Thara comments
"What do you mean by freelancers?" Scottie asks, curiously, not quite getting at what the Altaria meant.
Thara sighed and shook her head, but it did not seem directed at Scottie… "Well, normal Rescue teams, Exploration units, or Chevalier squads accept commissions from either a mission board, or locally through patrons of the town. You know that much… However, that's where your similarities with Team Wyked end. They take on commissions from big businesses, who pay them to make sure whether or not to save certain individuals, or to prioritize in helping out their business as much as possible. It's rather shady business." Thara tries her best to explain the complicated, yet seemingly simple business.
Scottie seemed confused at all this and he shook his head
"I don't get it, if they do bad stuff why are they allowed to have badges and not be arrested? I mean if their doing wron-" he began but Thara hushed him, shaking her head. Scottie didn't know much but he knew what that meant.
Stop talking about it. Right.
"Uh… anyway, we need to find the blacksmith, do you know where he is?" Scottie asks to quickly switch over the topic. Which Thara seems to think of almost automatically
"Ya mean Smitty, correct? Well he's down the main road. I'll walk you down there, I have some errands to run anyway, give me a moment to get ready, Scottie be a dear and dry yourself off."
She says fluttering off as Scottie hopped out of the tub, shaking his body as water droplets either flew off of his body, or steam escaped. Into the air as Will rolled his eyes at the display as Scottie fashioned on his scarf... then his fur proceeded to fluff out like a ball and Will began to yuck it up at the poor Vulpix, who sat there, embarrassed and all floofed out like a ball of cotton, trying to conceal his face in his paws. Will was howling with laughter, which in retribution, he is whacked over the head with a folded up umbrella held by Thara. Will yowls in pain and quicker than a garchomp on turbo, he hides behind Scottie in Retaliation.
Our heros ladies and gentlemen.
"Come on boys!" Thara says kindly, Scottie looks over himself, knowing appearances are everything. And he did not want to remember himself like this, even Thara giggled a little at it, but assures him with a pat of her soft wing… "It's ok there Scottie-wuckums… Your fur should thin out soon, we just need to be out of this hot humid room."
Scottie wondered what's the difference between the humidity in this room was in this room and the air outside would be, or whatever the distortion humidity is. However, there was a definite difference, because stepping outside, and giving a good shake seemed to have calmed down his fur. Just as Thara said.
They arrive in the shopping district, a slightly more crowded part of town, Didn't make it friendlier, as people simply disregarded his existence not wanting to start a scene. But they weren't exactly being regarded with the kindness that Thara received with her umbrella up to keep the sun from pounding down on her as she walked down the road of the main town.
Thara pointed out the various shops, but only a few really stuck out to Scottie. The General Wares managed by two small Pokémon, that where nearly identical except one was decaled on the cheeks with plus symbols, and the color red, the other blue with minus symbols. They gave Scottie an annoyed look. Their front desk was under a blue and red tarp with a small tent-like structure behind it, assumably where the wares are kept.
"They're known as Plusle and Minun. They're rather rare Pokémon in this region, so upon immigration they can get away with being known as just that at least here in Port Town." She explained, seeming rather jealous. "They run a general goods store, and they will be one of your best friends in your business." She commented.
Scottie doubted those two wanted them anywhere near their store. But he moved forward. He looked and he saw an old kangaroo like pokemon, large and with a cane, she coughs as if she were sick, running a run-down looking shop. Scottie frowns at this looking to a frowning Thara. Her shop was as prior mentioned run down. It was a building in her likeness… though the paint was thinning and some cracks in the stone. The building has seen better days…
"She's Ol'Khannie. That's what we call her anyway… she's been running a storage shop for as long as all of us can remember, and her child had skipped out on her to pursue other goals… Leaving her all alone… It's sort of sad really. She can barley even do her job properly…"
Thara and Will kept moving… but Scottie stayed back for a bit. Looking over the withered old pokemon. Who he could easily see was having troubles. The elder pokemon looked at him for a moment, and shooed him off with a wave of a hand.
"Pick up the slack Mulchface!" Will yelled back to Scottie. Shaking the Vulpix back into reality as he scurried off, with a sense of pity for the elderly Pokémon, No one to help her out…
He passed by a final shop, seemingly hosted by two Pokémon, identical in appearance. Standing taller than Scottie their furs both a light off-white lavender a yellow spot resides above their noses,with purple here and there on their legs, a spot on their heads end of long sleeve-like growths of fur, that gleamed like blades, though they had differences. One had long whiskers that they let hang down, while the other seemed to have her 'whiskers' tied at the back of her head to function like a ponytail.
The one who had their whiskers hanging down gave a slight growl at Scottie, while the other one, with the ponytail, gave a wave to Scottie with a pleasant sounding 'shao~'
Scottie has determined that he will have to stop by later, and to ask thara about them when he catches up, which he does shortly after accidentally bumping into a few fellow Pokémon. Getting the usual bad time, but he's learning to ignore it.
"There you are!" Will yells "Where were you?" He asked him tapping his foot, demanding a reply from Scottie, like he was in charge, but Scottie obliged.
"I… guess I spaced out for a moment… Oh! Thara!" he says remembering the shop run by those two pokemon "As I was running here I saw a shop ran by two pokemon. They looked about the same, and one was really nice…" he proceeded to explain their appearance and thara put a wing under her beak for a moment… then remembered
"Ah yes… The Tao Sisters Dojo." Thara says "Yang and young Jacquelyn run that Dojo, used to just simply the 'Tao Dojo' being run by their eldest brother, Yin. Nobody knows what happened to him though…" She then drifts off muttering "I think he might've left for Chrysolon…"
"Chrysolon?" Scottie asks interested but is interrupted by Will sounding quite annoyed that Scottie threw off the reason why they had initially come to the market district
"Yeah, yeah WHATEVER we can fawn over other people's family issues later!" Will almost hissed "We came here to see Smitty right? Then let's cut to the Arceus-damned chase and go see the old coot!" he seethed at the two
Though while neither Thara nor Scottie appreciated Will's tone; he had a point, Thara came here to run some errands while Will and Scottie came here to see Smitty about receiving armor, maybe even weapons.
"I suppose you are right…" Thara says "He's down the road from here, this is where we part… I must run my errands… good luck with Smitty He can be rather-" Thara began but Will interrupted "Yeah yeah, whatever, thanks Thara, come on Muclh-head lets go." Will says walking off as Scottie follows, wondering where he pulled the oh-so clever nickname 'Mulch Head' from.
They head down the main road, and eventually arrive at a building, much more established then the other bazaar esq shops that dotted the market district. It was made from brick and had a chimney with smoke rising out from it, a loud sound of iron hitting iron can be heard from inside, The Duo nod to each other and head inside the forge.
The forge itself was quite roomy, with weapons, armor, shields and various other works of metal pretty much covering every single wall, on racks, stands, and mannequins all respectively. With a large impending furnace that Scottie bet it could melt any kind of metal, with a large fiery pit nearby it.
Within the Forge they saw a large bulky, almost intimidating Pokémon, who was a red-orange in color and had bright red vein-like markings over its torso and two large red rings around its shoulders, with a large bulbous growth on its head, and a slightly-long grey tuft of hair under it's chin. And It's nose a bronze color. It wielded a large hammer, but he had himself supported by two large seemingly concrete beams. Was working on an anvil, hammering out the basic shape of a sword, But Scotties eyes wandered to the wall behind him… there were a lot of oddly shaped dents in the wall. He wondered why…
"Hey will, why do you think there's dents in the wall?" he asked rather suspiciously, but Will disregarded Scottie's concerns
"Hey Blockhead!" Will yelled, and Scottie can already feel the blacksmith's anger as if it were an existing weight in the air he looked behind him with a piercing glare as Will glared back
"Yeah! Listen up you ol' coot! When people come in your store you-" Will couldn't even finish his banter when Smitty's large hand reached down and enclosed itself around Will, squeezing him hard, as he reared his arm back and TOSSED Will across the room. Creating a dent in the wall, Scottie did a quick double take at it.
"Well that solves that mystery…"Scottie thought to himself, fancying himself a detective for a moment. Well he would if he knew what a detective was, but we all know even if he did he'd make a terrible detective. Leave it to the professionals kids.
Smitty using his beams as crutches walked over, with a loud STOMP every time he walked. And he went right up to Will and glared him down, Will whimpered slightly under the glare as he slid down the wall…
"You…" Smitty said in a growling voice as Will sat there whimpering and shaking under the Conkeldurr's presence. Smitty leaned down to get at eye level "You think. You can come into ole' Smitty's forge… and Tell ole' Smitty how he goes about his business, huh?!" he says as will recoiled back as he could.
Scottie was afraid for a moment, but he swallows his fear and his sence of being intimidated and plastered a stern look. He had just delt with a bully earlier, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let this guy get away with it.
"That's enough." Scottie says loudly and boldly to garter the Old Blacksmith's attention. As Scottie held his head up high and kept his look stern, even under the wrathful angry gaze of a Pokémon who was clearly bigger and stronger than him.
"Get lost Redfur," –Smitty Snarled at the Fox Pokemon. – ", I'll deal with you next.-" Smitty tried to say but Scottie cut him off "You'll deal with me now!" he yells back as the Conkeldurr glared at him.
Scottie pulled out the check and letter from earlier and placed them on the ground, sliding them over with his paw.
"If you haven't noticed We're members of a Chevalier Squad. These Scarves and Badges aren't just for show. And I am the Leader of Team Seige; Scottie" Scottie says as Smitty picks up the letter and began to read it. Scottie waited a moment before continuing.
"We've come looking for armor and weapons. Enclosed is a check from the Chevalier order." Scottie says as upon seeing the check the Old Pokemon's anger turned into a grin. Scottie could almost see the Poke Signs in his eyes.
He lets out a withered, hearty laugh helping up Will and placing the letter on the table "Well why didn'tcha say so in the first place sonny!" he says happily "Now this is the most beautiful number I have read in a long time!" Smitty yelled kissing the check. And putting it down on the table, getting an odd yellow tape "All right then let's get you lads measured up!" he says approaching Scottie first, using the tape, and measured out the height and weight of each of this four legs and his waist.
"Hmm…" The Old Blacksmith let out as he mutters and he writes down the numbers on a stray piece of paper and he moves on and does the same for will. But he lets him down hard, he explains he doesn't know what much to do for will since he has a natural weapon. But he suggests a buckler or a war fan.
Needless to say Will is toughly disappointed.
"Aaanyway…" The fighting type began "I'm going to need you to pick up a specific type of iron for your armor Sammy-" Smitty began but he was quickly interrupted. "Scottie." Scottie quickly corrects the elder Pokémon, keeping up his stern appearance.
"… Scottie" the elder pokemon gives a a look to Scottie but then turns to the wall. His hand going over a series of tools as Will and Scottie watched him, he finds what he's looking for and hands over a tool to Will, appropriate to his size. He wobbles abit though from the sudden weight in his hands
"What is that?" Scottie asks to Smitty while looking at Will fumble
"That's a pickaxe sonny!" The Old blacksmith says "I want you both too do this ole' geezer a favor. Head on down to the Quartz Quarry, an' gather me some metal. Aron Metal is preferred since they take a bit less damadge from fire then most other fire types in the local area… anyway the Trainmaster should be able to get you there." He continued to explain…
"Now… any questions outta either of ya?" he asks looking between the two. As they shake their heads no, Will being intimidated, Scottie determined. The old man smiled and tossed a bag to Scottie who caught it easily. It seemed fashioned for four legged pokemon anyway. so he easily got it on.
"Put the ores in the bag, bring it back, don't worry about the bag breakin' you'd be surprised what that old thing can take, now get to work boys!" Smitty said as if he where their leader, and so Scottie and Will scurried out, Scottie at least, happy to have work.
They quickly get to to the train station, where the good trainmaster Reuniclus greets them.
"Hello youngsters!" Says the Gelatinous Conductor as she turns to face them in the ticket both quickly and readily as they show their Train passes as a holographic dialog box as she looks them over and approves them thus
"So where are you two headed?" she asks almost phasing out of the booth heading for the train as they followed her quickly
"We're heading to Quartz Quarry, to mine some iron for that old geezer who runs the forge so Stupid here can get some armor or something." Will says obviously jealous of the fact that Smitty is more willing to make armor for Scottie rather then he.
Scottie could almost smell his jealousy.
"Sounds like a personal problem!" Reuniclus responds ever so wisely, as she phases into the conductors' cabin of the train with ease, and following her was that same little Cyndaquil… Scottie got a better look at him this time.
Covered in soot, and you could almost see his ribcage pressed against his skin, it was a small little Pokémon, and by the previous details, assumedly underfed, under paid and overworked, what made it even worse was the fact he only looked like a kid, young enough to be, if he had one, Scottie's little brother.
Scottie looked away, not wanting to see the cruelty this world had to offer, and not wanting to cause another scene like he did earlier. But he didn't seem hurt, but the smaller Pokémon never really seemed to notice Scottie, nor was he ever really noticed by anyone. It was like the child was a ghost… Scottie makes a note to try and visit him when he doesn't have Will to anchor him around.
The two of them hop into the passenger car and Scottie looks to Will, who had already pulled out todays issue of the Quick Attack Chronicle and begun reading the articles. As usual, Scottie sighed, knowing when he was being ignored and decided to as usual to begin to rest his eyes, feeling the trains rythmatic chugging along the tracks to lul him into a sleep…
This ride, however, unbeknownst to our heroes had two more passengers in the car behind them….
The Train stopped, the sudden degrade of motion, combined with the loud screech of metal grinding metal, although degraded by the material in the flooring to become a little more bearable, but with his amazing hearing. It bugged him awake as he stood and shook, tossing the side bags around on his person.
"Re-uuuuu~!" the trainmaster exclaimed gartering the attention of team seige quite clearly and quite easily with her high pitched voice when she does that. "Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaartz Quuuuuuuuuarry! STOP ONE! Re-uuuu~!" The Reuniclus exclaimed even more so with her usual enthusiasm, as Will put away and picked up the Pickaxe grumbling about how he hates the job he was given.
"Hey, I'm the one to have to carryit all, don't even think I'll let you complain for a moment." Scottie reminded Will quickly, with that Will shut up for a moment but keeping up a scowl as Scottie shook his head at him, hopping off the train, popping his neck, taking a look at the dungeon before he entered.
The dungeon itself seemed to be originally a part of a small mountain, with the entrance held up by wooden planks, to keep the cave walls from caving in, but Scottie felt like it was irrelevant seeing as it was a dungeon anyway, but he wasn't the one to judge or make decisions on this kind of thing. There of course was a sign giving its name, but enough destractions.
"Come on Will, let's get this over with!" Scottie yells back to the Oshwott, who runs up with the pickaxe strapped to his back, utilizing his scarf as a makeshift strap. It did the job good enough so Will didn't have to constantly carry it in his arms. Scottie congratulated Will briefly, and so they both entered the dungeon with the train behind them leaving… showing two other pokemon who just so happened to be on that train as well…
"Ah Quartz Quarry…" Jeanette commented with her jawed appendage giving an evil grin as she tilted down her sunglasses "They think they're so hot? Come on Wallace, lets beat them to the final floor so we can knock them down a notch." She says to the Zorua who gladly follows her, giving off an evil chuckle repeating her
"Yeah! Knock them down a notch!"
Quartz Quarry.
Below Floor one.
Scottie had no trouble adjusting to the low light that the torches left behind by miners had left behind, though he could tell that Will did. Due to the darkness of the dungeon the stone appeared to take on a deep blue appearance, with the torches orange light, it was almost like the dungeon was perfectly color coordinated.
Scottie quickly took initiative, pulling a torch off of the wall and holding it up with his tail, the torch was surprisingly light, though he wouldn't mind he could have some way to carry it around tails-free. Will got behind Scottie, not liking the darkness the dungeon had, and they both trudged forward into the darkness…
Will was constantly looking over his shoulder and Scottie confidently kept his gaze affixed, quickly recognized the first pokemon encounter as the torchlight reflected off of its white, black spotted armor and its blue almost gem-like eyes.
"It's an Aron!" Will says pointing out the small pokemon intimidated by it, Scottie didn't find it that intimidating, but then again, he stood tall over it, while Will was barley taller than it.
The Aron quickly rammed Scottie using its head, using the move, headbutt, Scottie skit back from the impact, feeling the pain coursing through his body, but it wasn't enough to make him pass out. He fired Ember at the small Aron, which hit it, but wasn't enough to knock out the creature, as it did with the Seawaddle, suprising Scottie, when fire had worked so well against Candace…
The Aron in retaliation dug its small stump of a leg into the ground and slapped up mud at Scottie, which Scottie took major damadge from some of the dirt going into his eyes, he yowled slightly in retaliation from that. Giving it another ember, the Aron went down, as usual disappearing into a flurry of yellow orbs…
"Ugh.. that hurt…" Scottie said as he sat there trying to wipe the mud from his eyes, thankfull that Ember was even able to hit the small pokemon..
"Yeah uh, be careful of ground type attacks, they'll fuck your shit up." Will casually to Scottie as if it where common knowledge, as Scottie looks over, still with mud on his face, but with his eyes atleast exposed.
"Gee thanks for the heads up…" Scottie replied dryly to Will. Wondering if he had anything against him
"Speaking of heads up, there's been something I've been wondering about…" Will replies, but Scottie sure as hell didn't want to talk to him, but he would anyway because he feel like he and Will don't do enough Real talk.
"Lets walk and talk…" Scottie says as they both head out, Will closing his eyes like a numbskull that he was.
"You have amnesia, right? Atleast that's what I've heard." Will asks Scottie, which Scottie had almost completely forgot about, honestly, he was starting to slowly feel at home so well that the Amnesia that plagued him stopped bothering him, really.
"Uh… Yeah, why?" Scottie answered in the form of a question, not sure why Will was prying into that subject, it's not like he'd be able to properly answer any question thrown at him about it, or why he would have it.
"… Well I think you're lying about it." Will says causticly "Now that I think about it, you are able to read easily, how to trick me into following you, and you knew exactly what siege meant yesterday…" he says, as Scottie thinks back to that battle, when he gave that explanation of what siege meant. "… And who would even teach a Vulpix how to read anyway?"
"To be honest… I don't really know how I did either." Scottie says now just realizing it alongside Will. 'I don't remember getting any kind of formal education that could've taught me to read, or most certainly not what the word siege was… but it just felt so obvious to me… and I guess tricking people is just my species nature, but there's no way in distortion I'd admit that to Will. ' Scottie thought to himself for a moment. And then Replied as naturally as he could "I guess it just comes natural…" he chooses to reply with, but he wanted the conversation to be focused on something else, his eyes scan around, and he looks at a fragment of gleaming metal, that he runs over to
"Hey what's this?" Scottie asks, hopeing to change the subject matter to learning which because Will loves proving he is smarter than Scottie, works like a charm, a beautifully crafted charm.
"That would be a fragment of metal from Aron's armor!" Will pointed out as the pigment matched Aron's armor perfectly, ivory white with a black spot,
"You see, when you defeat a steel type like Aron, then it'll sometimes drop a fragment of armor, it was weird how Candace didn't drop a piece of hers… In fact Scarmory feathers I heard make amazing swords…" Will Fantasized for a moment over, what Scottie assumed was will having a sword and shield made of Skarmory armor. Crisis averted, and Scottie let go of his breath.
Scottie did have amnesia, but there's really no way for him to prove it really, so he could understand how someone like Will thought he could be faking. Considering what his species is like, he would probably think so too. That and the fact that there's a chance that the magazine he was reading probably wrote something quite rude and quite strongly worded about Scottie.
Highly. Rude.
As they progressed through the dungeon, Scottie had leveled up again, and Will leveled up as well, but willed managed to pull himself together somewhere along the lines, and learned water gun, a move that sprayed a jet of water at its opponents, which terrified Scottie, but he had to admit it was useful. It took down Arons much more quickly than Scottie did with Ember.
It also helped with the other patrons of the dungeon, which included Pokémon that seemed to levitate in the air, which would be impressive if it weren't just a rock with arms. Also a Pokémon that seemed almost like it fell off the walls, being made of a deep blue stone, and had a crystalline inside, with a rock on top of its head, and for feet. And Odly enough, a bat like one with no eyes, or barley anything besides its ears and wings.
The Pickaxe Will had also did a grand job when it came to dealing with almost every pokemon, save Zubat, they had faced thus far in this dungeon, dealing extra damadge. Scottie felt a growing respect for Will, and Will seemed much more confident in this dungeon then he did in the last one.
It was a good thing, because Scotties vision remained blurry from the earlier attack on him, and could easily feel the pack slowly starting to get heavy. He was really handicapped and glad he could have Will as his fri-.. er. Teammate.
Eventually they found a wonder tile, as Scottie took first dibs in stepping on it, he felt a strange aura wash over him like water, he inhaled and exhaled, as his vision finally returned to normal.
"Agh… "Scottie says happy to have his vision back, shaking a little "Good to have my sight back…" he commented as Will Steps on after him, Will himself had no negative stat afflictions, but it never hurts to step on a wonder tile.
"Wow you're really sucking in this dungeon…" Will says in such a way it could be considered self-praise, which Scottie let him have for once.
'he deserves it, he's really pulling his weight together this time around' Scottie admitted in thought. He could've never ran this dungeon alone, he spots the stairs and heads down the Spiraling staircase with Will, this had to be scottie's favorite part about dungeons, the method in which how they go from one floor to another. Though it was the most surreal, it felt the most natural.
This dungeon however did not have floating stairs, instead the stairs lead down, which was a set of ledges this time, which adjusted themselves as the dungeon seemed to determine where they go, Scottie carefully hops down from ledge to ledge as Will follows.
As they delved deeper into the dungeon, nothing really exciting happened, they battled foes, collected Metal from Aron, until around the fifth floor, nearing the end of the dungeon, Scottie had noticed a glimmer in the wall.
"What's this?" he asks as Will looked "huh… I don't know…" Will Commented thinking it over so he wouldn't sound like an idiot, oh how he'd hate THAT "I guess its natural metal ore in the wall, this place is a quarry…." Will says bringing back his pickaxe to hit it "And I suppose this is why we have this!" He says as he begins to mine into the wall, eventually digging out SOME of it out of the wall until…
"My arms hurrrrrt!" complained Will, as he flopped on the ground dropping the pickaxe, and Scottie snarled, quite annoyed with the, up until now, Will he was starting to respect.
"Is this really the time for this Will?" he asks him, looking around, recognizing a scent of a nearing Aron, which Scottie could do barley damage to whatsoever, and could seriously hurt him. so Scottie had to think fast, forceably rolling him over, and pulling out an oran berry using his teeth, tossing it to Will "Eat up!" he barked, his anger rising from his fear of Aron. As Will looked up to Scottie slightly afraid
"Did I Studder? EAT!" Scottie once again barked at Will, baring his fangs with a glare and a growl.
Will Recognized Scottie was not a happy camper right now and quickly wolfed down the berry as quickly as possible, revitalizing and picking up the pickaxe again, going in front of Scottie, and firing water gun at the oncoming Aron. However the annoying thing with Aron was… It couldn't be taken down in one shot because of its ability Sturdy, so Scottie followed up with an ember. Normally it didn't do a lot of damage towards them, and that was true here, but all it needed was a hit to go down.
Will timidly stayed behind Scottie, letting out a slight whimper, at first Scottie was confused, holding out a paw "Will, are you ok?" he asks softly as Will recoils from the paw, Scottie stood and stared as he realizes what he had just done.
'I just dropped down to Jeanette's level…' Scottie thought 'I pretty much forced him to do what I wanted to do through intimidation… because I was afraid of something.' His heart sank and his ears drooped, with his expression dampening
"Will… Don't I'm sorry." He says apologizing to Will who seemed scared to death. Although Will always put on an act that he was better than Scottie in every way, Scottie knew for a fact that Will, when no one was around, was actually very frightened of dungeons.
"Look, I was scared ok?... Those things can really hurt me and I didn't want to get hurt or blinded again… Ok?" he says as Will lightens up "So I took it out on you and it wasn't fair… I had no right to yell at Jeanette earlier about what she did, then turn around and do it to the guy who punched her our…"
Will smiled "… Relax, Scottie." Will said, as Scottie perks his ears up. This had been the first time that Will referred to him by name. "We all are afraid of things." He says shouldering his pickaxe and heading forward as Scottie walked besides him "Dis, as you can tell I am terrified of most dungeons really." He admitted in Scottie, which Scottie already knew but he put on a surprised face.
"Really?" Scottie asks trying his best to sound surprised, Will bought it mainly because he wanted to really.
"Yup, terr-ee-fied." He enunciated "Honestly, I don't even know how you haven't cracked under pressure until now… admittedly I'd probably be a terrible leader if it where the other way around, and I'd make you leader anyway…" He says as the two walk around in the, surprisingly quiet halls.
Scottie let him talk because he felt like being the one listening for a change, he quite enjoyed having some Real Talk with the guy. He's not quite sure what brought it on though.
"And you're nothing compaired to Jeanette, allright? She is a Class-A Bitch." Will says "Like you don't even know… She does that to people on a daily basis, surprisingly she's been quiet a couple days… She acts like the best thing in the whole world because she has a badge. Well she forgets that Team Storm still exists… although they tend to be gone for a while… Still!" he yelled, leaving Scottie to wonder who Team Storm is, but he supposes if he really needed to know, he would meet them eventually.
The Two make it to the end of the dungeon, which like a large empty abyss, really, It was like a night sky, with the bright, white quartz reflecting the torchlight and appearing like a facilitated night sky…
"Woah…" Will said, both him and Scottie stunned at the natural beauty, both of them absorbing it… but Willl heard something and with a final burst of energy he yells
"MOVE!" he yells forcing Scottie to the side, but it was too late, a dark energy blasts its way between the two causing them to skid along the ground and both of them barley stand as the energy take form. It was once again, Wallace who had a bag in his mouth which he threw into his own side bags
"Well isn't that annoying!"he yelled in his annoying voice, directed towards Scottie "Because your friend left me too only blindsiding you, I only got half of it! Darnit!" he yells looking in his inventory as Scottie feels his bag lighter…
"You took our metal!" Scottie yells upon this realization, going into a snarl with his fangs bared, and his mouth slightly glowing with fire wanting to blaze its way out…
"hehehehe!" the small creature laughed "If you want it back you're just going to have to catch little ole me!" he yells jumping into the air, pulling a flip as he shrouds into energy taking the perfect form of a local Aron, and quickly scampering his way off into the dungeon as Will tried to chase after him, but stopped, yelling multiple profanities into the dungeon…
"Dude… it's not worth it.. he obviously can be anyone in the whole dungeon, and we're both too tired to go through the whole dungeon again…" Scottie pointed out astutely, standing up much easier due to the lightened load… "When we get home I'll stay up a bit later and send a report to Grahm and Candace… you can go to bed… just let it go for now…" Scottie says exasperated, and Will agreed.
They head out of the exit of the dungeon, ending up back at the entrance, and from there they use their badges to go home…
Despite the fact that they had lost half the load of metal, and pretty much had failed today's mission due to Team Wyked's interference, and that obviously entails they had made enemies with them today.
Scottie feels like he made a friend today, that'll probably change by tomorrow. But for now, He felt like Will was his friend, and the thought alone helped him stay awake long enough to write a short mission report to Candace, and even to help him sleep.