Yay! A new chapter!

Vines & Briars

Chapter 6: Remember

The next morning, Rick woke up to a ringing noise, like a small bell. It wasn't particularly loud, but it was certainly audible in the quiet of the morning and constant.

It also irritated Rick severely. He'd already been through a long couple of days, and this had been his first night on what would've been even remotely considered a bed. His night's sleep had been deep and quite restful thanks to his comfortable surroundings… up until someone had started ringing constantly.

He looked up, a drowsy scowl on his face, at the source of the noise.

It turned out to be another pokemon… one that resembled a very small bell, so the fact it was generating such a sound wasn't surprising.

Rio and Quil were stirring as well and starting to wake up and when all three were clearly awake, the little pokemon stopped ringing.

"Good morning." he said, his tone a sharp contrast to Rick's grumpy waking demeanor. The bell-pokemon then turned and bounded away, what looked like an attached scarf waving behind it.

"Ugh… who was that? And did he have to wake me so early?" Rick grumbled, his head dropping back onto the straw bedding he was on. Normally, Rick would've been at least courteous to someone new… but given his drowsiness, he felt anyone would understand his behavior at this time.

"His name's Pitch." Rio answered, yawning and stretching, before getting up, "and yes, he did. The guild starts all activities first thing in the morning, so if you want to keep staying here, you'll have to work with our schedule." Rio said, finishing waking up and starting to head out, Quil following.

It was a strong temptation in his mind to just stay where he was and continue to sleep, but in the end, Rick got up and started after Quil, yawning.

-0-

"Today, we have a guest staying with us for a period of time. His name is Rick and he will be working with Team Aura during his stay with us." Roserade announced to the guild during the meeting they were all attending.

Rick scanned the area around him, looking at the other guild members, who were a small but highly varied group. He saw an over-sized ladybug, a crocodile standing on its hindlegs, the bell that had woken him up previously, and some other creature with a striped tail as large as itself and rabbit-like ears. There was also a purple pokemon with golden-colored hair that looked somewhat human next to the guildmaster.

Talk about the "funny farm". There's no pattern to this group whatsoever. They're all so different.

Of course Rio, Quil, and Rick himself added a dog, a mouse, and a snake (respectively) to the procession, so perhaps Rick had no right to criticize.

All eyes turned to Rick as he was introduced by the Guildmaster. Most nodded lightly. He noticed at least one look of mild puzzlement. One or two smiled in greeting to him. There was an unsettling feeling about the crocodile though and the look in the reptile's eye gave the former human the feeling that that fellow wasn't about to give him a warm welcome.

Ehhhh… maybe I'm just imagining it. He's just focused on getting started today.

Even Rick knew he was lying to himself here though… but he really didn't want to think about getting on that pokemon's bad side.

"That is all the announcements for today. Dismissed!" Roserade finished, and the group broke up, each heading to their own destinations.

Rio and Quil headed over to the job board and started looking over the papers plastering the board. Having no idea of what sort of job the two were looking for, Rick simply stayed behind them, waiting.

While he waited, someone tapped Rick on the shoulder and he looked back, to find himself looking at the large ladybug he had noticed earlier.

"Hello." The bug said politely, sounding soft-spoken, "I've never seen anyone like you Rick. If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"

Rick sighed quietly to himself. Were he honest, he was getting tired of this question, if only because he could never answer it.

"I really don't know. I've been trying to find someone who does know, but I haven't met anyone who does…" Rick responded, keeping the exasperation out of his tone, "So, who are you?" he then asked, trying to be polite himself.

"The name's Ledyba." The bug answered warmly, his eyes having a certain happy sparkle to them.

Whatever pleases him I suppose.

"So, how long do you think you'll be staying Rick?" Ledyba continued, carrying on the genial conversation.

"Err… probably a week… maybe two. Not sure." Rick answered, feeling more awkward by the minute.

"Well, I hope to get to know you even better during that time." Ledyba said "Oh, looks like Rio and Quil have decided on a job. I guess you're gonna be going. See ya Rick."

Rick looked back at Rio and Quil as the ladybug said this. They were both looking at a particular slip of paper they'd pulled from the bulletin board and they nodded to one another.

"Alright Rick, we've got a job we think you should be able to handle with us." Rio said, turning to face him and handing over the slip of paper.

Blinking once, Rick took the page and looked it over.

The job in-question was in a location called "Moss Cove"… and there was apparently a pokemon down there named Torchic who had managed to get this message outside the cave to the guild. The pokemon needed to be rescued.

"We figured you'd probably need a little warm-up on how explorations go so I don't think this should be too hard for you to help us with. Is that alright?" Rio said, looking at Rick with an odd concentration.

Once again, Rick found himself wondering if Rio was trying to remember something. The subtle perplexed look in the Riolu's eyes couldn't hide that Rio was thinking about something pretty hard.

What that "something" was, Rick had little idea at this point.

"Yeah, sounds good, looks good." Rick responded, pulling his mind off of this distraction, "I'm guessing we're heading out immediately?"

"Hm? Oh! Yeah, we can head out after we've done some preparations first." Rio's response was a little delayed.

Whatever he was thinking about, it's really distracting him…

Quil was glancing at Rio as well, though Rick didn't get a good enough look before he turned and started heading out, leading the way. Rick was left with little choice but to follow behind him and Rio.

-0-

After a visit to Khangaskan Storage (which they were all grateful did not see any quarreling in the town at the time), Rio and Quil then guided Rick out of Silver Village and they headed west. It wasn't long before they arrived at the cave, which had traces of water flowing about it. Just looking around, Rick could already see how this place would be called "Moss Cove" as there was wet moss all over the rocks. Rio then turned to Rick and asked:

"Would you like to lead for this exploration?"

Rick was a little startled by the offer.

Seriously!? He's asking me to lead when I have hardly any experience compared to him!

Seeing Rick's stun-shock and doubt on his face, Rio continued:

"We're gonna be encountering mostly water-types in this cave, so having you in the lead will allow us to use that type-advantage most effectively. Besides that, I'd also like to get a better idea of your abilities. So, would you lead?" Rio asked again.

…So that's why they chose this place for me… well, I guess I can at least give it a try this once.

Rick swallowed his doubts and nodded, stepping in front of the others and heading into the cave, the two of them tailing him.

As they entered the cave, Rick could feel the moisture in the air increase and the air cooled slightly, though not to uncomfortable levels. He could also see puddles of water here and there.

It wasn't far into the cave before they encountered another pokemon (a small, four-legged, blue creature with orange cheeks and a fin for a tail) and Rick could already tell from looking at the resident that it was about to react to Rick like all the rest he had encountered outside of Silver Village.

Brandishing a vine, Rick lashed out at the Mudkip. There was a sharp snap and the water-type was knocked out of the way and KOed in one hit.

Rick continued onwards, trying not to pay any mind to Rio and Quil's gazes boring into him from behind as they followed. The two whispered between each other every now and then.

Feels like I'm taking some sort of exam with them observing me so closely.

Rick came to a cross-road in the cave from time to time and he looked around before picking a direction and heading that way. He had no idea where he was headed, but he decided to just head downwards whenever he could. Naturally though, he couldn't help feeling like he was being a fool.

I don't know my way around this cave. Heck… we could be lost in here forever for all I know of how to navigate this place.

But if Rio or Quil were concerned about this, they didn't show any sign of it. They followed Rick without complaint and looked around every now and then when they weren't watching him.

When they came across a resident pokemon that looked more humanoid (it had a beak though and a lily-pad on its head), Quil stepped forward, standing next to Rick.

"Let me lend a paw here." Quil said calmly, focusing on their opponent.

Rick didn't protest or speak at all. He focused like Quil and lashed their opponent with a vine. The pokemon used one arm to shield itself from the vine and counter-attacked, advancing on Rick and swiping with both its clawed hands repeatedly. Rick tried to shield himself as best he could from the strikes until Quil intervened in the attack, spitting several small fireballs at the attacker.

Their opponent jumped back patting out the embers that were attempting to scorch it, a little unsettled. Though it was clearly grass-type like Rick, he found himself wishing he could take getting burnt quite as well as this pokemon. He put these thoughts aside though and flung himself at their opponent, tackling it. Both of them went down on the ground and the lily-pad pokemon shoved Rick off before looking over at Quil and proceeding to spit a fast stream of bubbles at him.

Quil yowled and attempted to roll out-of-the-way. A portion of the stream hit him nonetheless and there was a hissing noise as the bubbles hit him.

"Argh…" Quil groaned as he recovered from the attack and charged at the enemy, rolling into a fiery ball mid-charge and rolling into their opponent. This attack knocked the enemy down again, and it stayed down this time.

"You alright?" Rick asked, looking at Quil after he had unrolled, particularly the haunch that had been doused by the bubble-stream. The way the water was steaming there and the slightly pained look on Quil's face told Rick that it certainly hurt.

"I'll be alright…" Quil said, breathing out and relaxing as the pain apparently faded. Rio gave both of them a nod and an approving smile as he gave Quil an Oran berry to eat.

I guess we all have our weaknesses. I don't like fire at all, and water seems to really sting for Quil.

When he thought about it, yet another memory started to surface and Rick felt like he knew much of this stuff about weaknesses already. However, due to his memory loss, he couldn't seem to remember all the specifics.

Still… I think I could probably trust my instincts about weaknesses…

-0-

They continued deeper into the cave, Rick fighting off residents one after another with Rio and Quil backing him up as needed. Ducks, one or two fish, and more lily-pad pokemon. Rick beat a path through them all with the help of his two companions.

After what felt like a couple of hours of working their way down, they finally arrived at what appeared to be the bottom of the cave. Rick paused as he spotted a pokemon here that looked out-of-place.

Is that the pokemon we came here to rescue?

They looked like a small, orange bird with undeveloped wings and a few feathers sticking up on its head. The somewhat scared, lost look on its face was unmistakable.

All three stepped up and the bird turned to look at them, looking more scared… until it noticed the scarves that Rio and Quil were wearing.

"A-An exploration team?" she said (the voice was unmistakably female) "Oh thank goodness! Thank you for coming down here!" she burst out with relief and ran up to them.

Rio crouched down to the bird's level.

"You're unhurt right?"

She nodded in response, looking quite happy now and then noticed Rick and, looking him over, looked a little concerned.

"He's with you… right?" Torchic sounded a little scared.

What? What the heck do I have to do to show pokemon that I'm not some bully who's about to beat them up?

Rio glanced back at Rick a little confused at first but then seemed to realize something.

"Ah! Yeah, he's with us, he just joined us recently." Rio said his tone reassuring, "He led the way down here, so in a way, he's the one most responsible for getting us down here."

This apparently warmed the little bird up to Rick quickly as she brightened up and, running over to him, she proceeded to nuzzle his belly with her head.

"Thank you for coming to rescue me." She told Rick quite gratefully.

Rick, for his part, was a little startled by the complete turn-around in the bird's attitude towards him and it felt a little awkward to him to have the small bird trying to cuddle with him like this.

However as he noticed the amused and cheerful expressions on Rio and Quil's faces, Rick couldn't help smiling and feeling very satisfied with himself. He rubbed the back of the bird's head, feeling a little affection.

Alright… so this job does have some perks to it.

"So, how'd you end up down here anyways Torchic?" Rio asked.

"Some mean otter grabbed me when I was minding my own business and he dragged me down here." She said as she turned to Rio, "I don't know why he did that. I thought he said something about making me stronger, but I don't get it personally. I've just been scared the entire time I've been stuck here."

Recognition crossed Rio's face as she explained.

"Alright, thanks. Let's get you out of here now then, eh?"

Torchic was more than happy to agree. When Rio simply pulled the badge off his scarf and held it up, Rick was startled yet again when a beam of light enveloped Torchic and she was gone.

"W-what the-!" Rick stammered.

"These badges are more than just for show." Rio said simply lowering the badge slightly, "They can also be used to get our client pokemon out of mystery dungeons. Very handy. Now let's get out of here ourselves." Rio then brandished the badge at the air again and more beams of light enveloped each of them, ending with Rick who felt a sudden rush of air and he was deposited outside the cave the next second next to Rio and Quil.

After taking several moments to get his bearings and recover from his utter shock, Rick looked around.

"A-Alright… so those badges can get others and ourselves out of dungeons…" Rick said his voice a little unstable, "Anything else you might tell me about before I get another surprise like that?"

Rio chuckled.

"That's about it, though Torchic was sent to the guild instead. She'll be waiting for us there. Shall we go back?"

Quil agreed and, after a bit more struggling to grasp the recent series of events Rick finally agreed as well, though he had a question.

"Rio… the culprit that Torchic mentioned… do you know who they are?"

Rio nodded his tone a little more solemn as he responded.

"Yeah. A recent trouble-maker around the island. Calls himself Denzel. Exploration teams have been trying to capture him for the last week at least, but the guy's a Floatzel. Too fast."

Rick took in this information and nodded.

Guess there's trouble-makers no matter where I go around this world.

"Now I've got a question for you Rick." Rio said, then glanced at Quil, "Quil, go on ahead, Rick and I will catch up."

Quil's expression had a hint of exasperation to it, but he turned and headed towards Silver Village.

Rick then focused his attention on Rio, curious what he wanted to ask.

"Rick…" the Riolu asked "Do you know anyone by the name of Elisa?"

"…"

…Rick considered the question… he really did… he thought through all the names he could remember…

"No… I don't..."

Heh, bet you've been waiting for THAT question... and quite the surprise there, huh?