"Sir Rowan, this is extremely unfair and puts a blemish on the reputation of the team before we have even started to establish ourselves!" Allison followed briskly behind Sir Rowan, her heeled shoes somehow remaining on the surface of the grassy field. Percius and the boy in the leathers followed behind her, keeping a similar pace if only to keep up with their leader... who was also my leader now, I guess.
"Ya've been complaining about not havin' coverage against Ghost type Pokemon, and now ya got it." Sir Rowan didn't even turn around to address Allison and simply continued to walk towards the doors to get back inside the church. "It's almost time for lunch, so why don'tcha stop yer complaining and get to know yer new recruit over a hearty meal!"
With that conversation quickly squashed and the group now stopped in their tracks just before the door, the boy in leathers finally spoke. "Well, Sir Rowan's right about one thing at least: I'm starving!"
Percius scoffed. "You'd eat a meal with a Ghost Hunter? I'd think it more likely he'd poison all of us the second he has the chance."
"He's a Ghost type Trainer, not a Poison type Trainer." Allison scoffed back.
"I don't actually have a Ghost type Pokemon." I lied. The entire group turned to me in confusion. Wouldn't it be illegal for me to have a Ghost type Pokemon anyways? "My Partner Pokemon is a Houndour. Blitzkrieg." I gestured to him and Blitzkrieg barked happily.
"Oh for Arceus' sake, you're that kid from the farm, aren't you?" Allison pinched the bridge of her nose. I nodded. "I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to actually catch that Houndour as your Partner Pokemon. There are so many risks to being a Ghost Hunter in the Arceian Church."
"Like what?" I had kept hearing people say there were dangers, but I hadn't heard anyone actually talk about them.
"For one, full body possession. That's the fast track from Ghost Hunter to Hex Maniac." Allison pressed her index fingers together as though she was going to count more dangers, but apparently that's where the list stopped for her. The boy in leathers shifted awkwardly, adjusting the straps of his armor.
"You could also have your life force drained or your soul stolen." Percius added as though those two things weren't that big of a deal in the face of full body possession.
"Worst of all, in all of those cases chances are high we go down with you." Allison informed. "There's a reason Ghost Hunters usually work alone but I can already see from your stupid expression that you're not going to give us the luxury. So I guess we're going to go eat. Donald, why don't you lead the way if you're so hungry?" She addressed the boy in leathers, who did as he was told.
While the meal was probably some of the best food I had ever had in my life, the conversation was scarce. I was used to that though, even at home we didn't talk much at the table if we sat together to eat at all. Usually it was just Riley going off about her newest obsession over some Trainer she had stopped along the road to talk to. But now it felt like I was the one who was holding back conversation. There were glances between the three other members of my group and opened mouths before they looked at me and closed them again. I had to break the ice.
"So-" I began, "your sister is Priestess Emilia Fayeri, right?"
"Yes she is. No I don't know where she is right now. Yes she is very powerful. No you can't meet her. That everything?" Allison looked at me through eyes hooded with annoyance.
"I was just going to say that I don't really see all the fuss about her." I replied stupidly. I definitely saw all the fuss about her, but when I had brought her up it seemed to sour Allison even further, so I had begun to blindly backtrack.
"She's one of the most powerful Fairy type Trainers in the world is what the fuss is." Allison replied more matter-of-factly, spinning her fork idly in her food as she leaned on her hand. "Not to mention her Gardevoir Paling Moon is one of the only Pokemon we know of to have ever Mega Evolved."
"What's that mean?"
"Mega Evolution is when a Pokemon goes beyond their maximum power and evolves into another form for a short period of time, allowing them to use immense power to achieve incredible feats, like when Paling Moon Teleported an entire city during The Great Dragon Rage." Donald explained the subject as though it was something he had studied often.
"Can any Pokemon Mega Evolve?"
"Theoretically." Donald shrugged. "But we don't really know how or why it happens. It just... happens."
"I once saw a Salamence Mega Evolve." Percius said while still shoveling food into his mouth.
"Everytime we bring up Mega Evolution it's always the Salamence." Allison shook her head. "Why are you so obsessed with Dragon type Pokemon?"
Percius swallowed the large amount of food he had shoved in his face with some effort. "Dragon type Pokemon are cool."
"Justice pees himself every time Ballet even just looks at him." Donald snickered.
"Just because Dragon type Pokemon are weak to Fairy type Pokemon doesn't make them any less cool. Justice has literal axes growing out of his face and if that's not cool I don't know what is." Percius paused for a moment. "Also you literally named your Partner Pokemon Crybaby, so do you really have any say in what makes a Pokemon cool?"
"He's got a point there." Allison shrugged at Donald.
"You named your Partner Pokemon Crybaby?" I parroted. Most of the time people gave their Pokemon a name that endeared them to their trainer, and I didn't feel like 'Crybaby' was one that would get the job done.
"Yeah, I did. Honestly I just threw the apricorn at it because it was hurting my ears. I didn't actually mean to catch it." Donald sighed.
"Oh yes, the ultimate problem solver, throw an apricorn at it." Allison rolled her eyes with a smirk. "It's a waste of apricorns. We've been on two missions so far and the only reason you didn't throw an apricorn at something during the second one was because we didn't actually find anything on Jackson's farm."
"You've already been on two missions? What was the first one?"
"Rescued a Skitty from a tree." Percius dismissed.
"It was a Purugly." Donald corrected, though the annoyed look on his face said a lot more about that mission than either of them cared to say.
"Beginner missions are almost always completely harmless." Allison put a hand in front of her mouth as she spoke through her food. "We'll probably be sent to check stuff out, make sure it's necessary to send out a more experienced team, and then come back with the report."
"Completely harmless." Donald scoffed. "You can tell that to my scratched up arms."
The conversation continued like that for quite some time, with the mood finally having been lightened. There was still some hesitance in including me in the conversation, but I was used to just sitting and listening. Wooloo weren't much for conversation and Blitzkrieg couldn't really talk, as much as I wish he could, so most of my days had already been spent with my mouth shut. Even so, I was the one chosen to be clapped on the shoulder by Sir Rowan as he came to get us.
"I hope yer all done with lunch, cuz we've got a special mission for yer team!" Sir Rowan announced, and we cleaned our spots and followed him like soldiers following to receive our orders. Where he lead us was a massive room adorned with images of Pokemon I had never seen before. I recognized the two I had been told stories about by Oscar; Ho-oh The Wish Granter and Lugia The Devastator circled around three other Pokemon who looked like large birds of different types. On the back wall was a mural of Arceus The Creator, reared up in Judgement as Mew The All-Being circled around his body. The Pokemon on either side of Arceus I didn't recognize, though that was true of almost all the Pokemon painted on the walls in this room, and the spot above Arceus appeared to have been painted over several times, though the coat of paint currently there was already starting to flake off to reveal the one below it.
"Who are all these Pokemon?" I asked, mostly in awe at the size of the room.
"Seriously?" Allison seemed both annoyed and disappointed. "Do you not know the Creation Story?" I shook my head. "Well, I don't have time to tell you it now. Later." Her voice fell to a whisper before dying entirely as a woman wearing purple robes stepped towards us. Her skin didn't seem to have a single blemish on it and her white hair fell like a waterfall over her shoulders, framing her pale face in such a way that she seemed to glow radiantly. Her voice was soft and smooth as she spoke to us, opening her cloudy gray eyes but not looking at us.
"Hello Children Of Arceus."
"Hello Prophet Kelsie." The other three started and Allison elbowed me in the side so I would join them in addressing the woman I didn't know the name of.
"It has only been a few days, but I see your team has gained a new member. Step closer, let me see you." Prophet Kelsie put out a hand and I stepped closer and hesitantly reached out to touch her. She pulled away suddenly, a dark look crossing her face as she scowled at me. "Ghost Hunter, your fate is lost to me. You walk in the path of darkness." She quickly composed herself and regained her glowing radiance. "As is the case of all Ghost Hunters, in the end. Nonetheless, it seems you will be integral to the coming mission. Nearby, in the Treasonous Pits, there is a presence stirring. One more foul than usual. Small, but numerous. They will need to be dealt with."
"Dealt with? But Prophet-" Allison was cut off.
"Your team has shown the need for higher challenge, and with a Ghost Hunter on your team, this job should be little more than an inconvenience for you." Prophet Kelsie played my team like a fiddle. I watched Percius puff out his chest and Allison adjust the pose of her jaw a bit higher.
"Very well, Prophet Kelsie. We will be off for the Treasonous Pits in the-"
"Immediately." Prophet Kelsie corrected with a smile. "The journey and the task should only take you a few hours. You will be back before dinner."
"And if we're not?" Donald questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Then you will be dead." Prophet Kelsie's smile took on a different meaning as she said that.
With that horrifying thought fresh in our minds, we set off. We had barely made it a mile down the road before Allison complained about her feet hurting and Percius informed her that maybe it was because of her choice in footwear, which started a conversation about the best kind of footwear, which we all decided were leather boots after I reminded them that you wouldn't be able to properly squash a Joltik with cloth shoes even if they had leather insoles. It took us nearly an hour and a half to arrive at the Treasonous Pits; which I had learned was previously a den full of Hex Maniacs; and by that time the sun was starting to set.
"Make it back by dinner. Yeah right." Percius kicked a rock down the side of the hill we had just hiked up.
"Come on, let's get this over with." Allison pulled out an apricorn and tossed out a very oddly colored Kirlia. Where it should have been green it was instead a very soft blue.
"Uh... is your-" I started, but she raised a hand.
"I can't explain everything to you on the fly. Learn through experience." She turned from me and started to walk into the cave. "Ballet, use Protect." A bluish bubble of energy wrapped around the Kirlia and her Trainer before Allison turned to all of us and gestured dramatically, cooing at us like we were lazy Herdier who hadn't listened when she called the first time. "Come on."
Percius sent out Justice and followed into the cave, and I sent out Blitzkrieg, but Donald walked in without sending out Crybaby.
"Aren't you gonna get your Pokemon ready?" I looked to him with a mix of concern and confusion.
"And alert whatever's in here that we're coming? No thanks." Donald shook his head.
We walked slowly into the cave in forced single-file until the narrow pathway opened up into a wide cavern. Darkness swallowed us up along with the walls and anything not immediately in front of us. "Jackson, give us a light." Allison ordered, and I instructed Blitzkrieg to use Ember. The cavern lit up and illuminated the walls to show several holes burrowed deep into the rock and a pathway leading further downward. "Nothing here. Let's keep-" Allison stopped, opening her mouth slightly and squinting into one of the holes. "Anyone else see that?"
I turned to look into one of the holes as well. There was something in there. "Gems, I think." I stepped towards the cave wall.
Donald grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back, pulling out two daggers from his belt as I heard Percius extend his lance behind me. On the other side of me Allison's fancy white gloves flipped out crossbow limbs at her wrists. I drew Excalibur from my back and looked down at it. It looked back at me unblinkingly and its blade reflected the light from Blitzkrieg's Ember, but also reflected the horrible white smiles of the tiny purple Pokemon starting to emerge from the holes in droves. Donald screamed.
"Sableye Swarm!"
