Chapter 2
Quill didn't give Oran or Sitrus a moment to react, he quickly rushed them; Oran was struck by a leaf blade and sent flying, Quill whipped around and unleashed a storm of Razer leaves which is met with a torrent of Dragons Breath which burned the leaves to a crisp and Quill was hit with the fiery attack. The Swablu followed up by rushing toward Quill and attacking with aerial ace, Quill quickly surged forward and struck the bird with a sucker punch, Sitrus was similarly sent flying back and landed on the ground.
Quill was slightly disappointed they seemed like they had much more promise than that, but there they were the Swablu could barely move and turning around he could see the Riolu, charging a giant orb of aura, a slight smirk appeared on Quills face.
The Riolu threw the orb and he began running toward his partner, Quill dodged the orb and attempted to strike the Riolu as he ran past but before he could the orb wrapped back around and hit Quill in the side staggering him.
Oran knelt down next to his fallen partner "Sitrus are you ok?" Oran asked.
"Do I look ok?" The Swablu replied and she was able to push herself of the ground. "We need a plan to beat this guy."
Quill wasn't going to give them a chance to strategize, he rushed them again but this time he was met straight on by Oran, Orans fists were coated in aura and his punch met Quills leaf blade. The Riolu was sent back a few steps but stood his ground Sitrus began flying in a circle around the Decidueye and breathing dragon fire onto him.
While Quill was distracted attacking Sitrus with more razer leaves Oran was able to refocus his aura and coat his fist once more, As Quill struck Sitrus with a few leaves Oran jumped towards him and struck the larger Pokémon with as much force as he could muster, the punch hurt his arm but it also knocked the Decidueye of its feet.
Sitrus flew back to Oran and landed next to him, she used heal pulse on him again and the Riolu could feel the pain in his arm subside, Quill got back to his feet and unleashed a barrage of bullet seeds. Oran quickly conjured his aura into a shield in front of them, most of the seeds were blocked however the shield quickly cracked and the duo were hit with a few of the seeds.
Sitrus quickly tried to heal them both but Quill wasn't letting up, he quickly fires three powerful arrows in quick succession. The Riolu focused he closed his eyes and saw the world through aura, those arrows were one of Quills most powerful attacks he could see the colossal amount of energy radiating in them, he knew that if a single one hit him or Sitrus they would be out the fight.
Oran conjured his aura but instead of making a shield he created a staff; in a flurry of movement he deflected all three arrows.
Oran fell down to one knee and his staff vanished, he could feel the strain on his soul, he hadn't used his aura as much in his entire life as he had in the past couple of days. But Quill still wasn't satisfied he charged forward once again and Oran closed his eyes he thought he was about to take a massive hit so he was surprised when he saw Sitrus perched in front of him breathing out massive amounts of dragon fire.
As the fire was beginning to burn out they could hear Quill call out from the other side of the wall of flame, "You two did a great job, you make a good team." Quill stepped through the flame and Oran managed to regain his footing.
"Usually, I just test the new recruits to make sure their capable. I might've gone a little far." Quill told them as he watched the Riolu struggle to stand, "I didn't mean to use Triple Arrows, head over to the Infirmary and show them these, they'll look after you."
The items in question were two bronze badges that Quill gave to Sitrus before he left the cave, Sitrus quite excitedly pressed her badge against her left wing after a few seconds the badge stayed attached.
"You were awesome in that fight." Sitrus told him, she shifted over and attached the other badge to his chest. "How did you deflect those arrows? You moved so quickly."
Oran attempted to respond but he felt another jolt of pain from his chest, he would've fallen over if Sitrus hadn't caught him. "Sorry forgot, I'll get you to the infirmary." She proceeded to move under his arm and support his weight.
The two of them limped out of the cave and Sitrus directed them towards the infirmary, she had flown over this valley enough times to know where it was. She was very impressed; she may have found him dying on a rooftop but he had some significant skill in battle.
The duo entered another cave on the opposite side of the valley, this one was much more warm and homely than the cave they had just come from there were many nests pressed up against the walls but the only occupied one was at the far end of the room, The nest was occupied by a Vibrava and the Vibrava was surrounded by a Gabite, a Noivern and a Hakamo-o.
The three were stood around him and seemed to be berating him "If you hadn't stepped on that trap it wouldn't have happened." The Noivern said, The Hakamo-o continued "You need to stop making stupid mistakes like this."
"I-I w-wouldn't have touched it if Hunter hadn't pushed m-me." The Vibrava tried to defend itself.
For its effort it received a kick in the side from the Gabite "Don't even try to pin that on me."
If Oran was in a condition to he would've said something but all he could do is lay down in a nest at the other side of the room, Sitrus however started walking over to them. He tried to protest this idea but he still couldn't speak.
"Do any of you know where the Healer is?"
The three of them turned around to face her, The Gabite looked quite amused "Piss off, Freak."
Oran could see his partner visibly deflate and begin walking back toward him, Sitrus was usually very headstrong so seeing her eyes watering as she sat down next to him was odd. And being unable to do anything about it made it worse for the Riolu.
"I should probably explain that to you." Sitrus told him, the look he was giving her must've been begging for an explanation "I'm a shiny and many Pokémon look down on shinys, a Swablu is usually blue and not yellow."
Oran realized it was probably the reason why she had chosen him as her partner, In the mountain they didn't treat shinys any differently, or maybe she thought he didn't know what a shiny was. Regardless he could see she was still trying to hold back a few tears, so he put an arm around her and held her at his side.
"Thanks." Sitrus said in response "Normally I wouldn't let it bother me, but I thought things would be different at the guild."
The Riolu could see an Umbreon had appeared and was talking to the dragon types on the other end of the room, after a few minutes the dragons left and Oran made sure to stare daggers at them as they walked past him and Sitrus.
After the dragons left Oran turned his attention toward the Umbreon who was still stood at the nest that the Vibrava had been in, They seemed to be remaking the nest so that it could be used again, since Oran was still to exhausted to move in a meaningful way he instead just poked Sitrus.
"What is it?" She asked as she moved out from under his arm, Oran pointed toward the Umbreon. Sitrus walked over toward the Umbreon.
"Are you the healer?"
The Umbreon turned around to face her.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"My partner is suffering burnout."
"Where are they?"
"Just over there." Sitrus told her as she pointed toward Oran who was still sat on the nest at the entrance.
"I'm so sorry I didn't see you come in." The Umbreon walked over to a locked cabinet and after inserting the key she began to look through it. "Let me just get a few things and I'll be right over."
Sitrus walked back over to the Riolu and was quickly followed by the Umbreon, The Healer mushed a few things together in a bowl and offered the mixture to Oran who hastily drank it. Oran could feel a relief in his chest and lots of energy returned to him.
"Thanks." Oran thanked the Umbreon as he felt his voice returning. "I'm Oran and this is Sitrus."
"So your Team Berry then, Sylvester mentioned you. My name is Floyd come and see me if you get hurt." The Umbreon told them. "I believe my younger sister Silk is waiting for you outside."
"Why would she be waiting for us?" Sitrus asked him.
"I think Syl asked her to show you around." Floyd told them as he began walking away. "Now shoo I've got an infirmary to run."
Oran got to his feet and walked out of the infirmary with Sitrus right behind him and just outside was an Espeon and a Quilava who both turned to face them.
"Hi! I'm Silk and this is my mate Ignatius and we're Team Synthesis." The Espeons voice was very upbeat. "It's very nice to meet you, my sister asked me to show you where your room is."
"Well, I'm Sitrus and this is Oran." The Swablu greeted "Nice to meet you."
"Your next to us, come on." Ignatius told them before turning around and walking toward a staircase etched into the rock.
Team Berry followed Silk and Ignatius up the stairs, And the Espeon kept talking "The cafeteria is just at the top of the stairs here, and right across the bridge are the apprentice rooms. You guys are on the end there, and we're right next to you!"
The four Pokémon crossed the rope bridge at the top of the stone staircase and walked over to the apprentice rooms and out of the furthest room came a day form Lycanrock.
"That's Rubble he's the third member of our team, I'm pretty sure he was doing up your room for you!" Silk told them as she led the party forward to meet up with Rubble.
"So, these are the newbies then?" Rubble asked as he met up with the group "I just got done hollowing out your room and putting some nests in there."
"Why were you hollowing it out?" Oran asked the larger canine.
"Guild doesn't like havin lots of unnecessary rooms, things get confusin." He replied before turning to his teammates "We should get goin I think we've got time for a second job today."
"Alright, well if you two need anything our room is right next door to yours!" The Espeon told them before turning to walk away with her team.
"Hey wait a sec." Sitrus asked "If there's time for a job we'd like to get one done."
"Your partner was just in the hospital." Ignatius chided.
"It was only burnout he wasn't injured." Sitrus argued, he had kicked ass whilst fighting Quill so she wasn't worried about him
"What about them scratches all over him then?" Rubble asked.
By now Oran was starting to feel slightly embarrassed so he stepped in on his own behalf
"I'm fine, that medicine worked very well, I wanna do a job." The Riolu lied, what he wanted was to go in that room and sleep off the rest of the burnout. Thankfully by looking at their auras he knew they were convinced except for the Espeon and suddenly he could hear a more worried sounding version of her voice in his head.
Just don't push yourself too hard, ok? Her voice lacked its usual optimism and she sounded more concerned.
In response Oran just softly nodded his head and that was when Silk turned and began to lead her team back across the bridge "Well there's no use in dawdling up here, we have work that needs to be done after all!"
Oran followed Team Synthesis down the stairs and instead of following she simply landed on his head and let him do the walking, etched into the wall opposite the stairs was two large pinboards with many pieces of paper attached to both.
"These are the bounty board and the request board!" Silk explained "The bounty board displays information about criminals, some are in cities and others hide in mystery dungeons. Whilst the request board usually displays rescues or things that civilians need done!"
"Since you guys are newbies your only able to do D and C rank missions." Rubble informed "Once you've chosen a request let Sylvester know before you leave so she can take it off the board."
"This one." Ignatius told his team; he had already been looking at the bounty board "We can do these two from the request board at the same time."
"Welp looks like we already got our jobs, See you around little guys." Rubble told them as he and his team began walking toward Sylvesters booth.
That left just Oran and Sitrus in front of the massive boards, Sitrus flew from his head and hovered in front of the board. Oran decided to just let his partner choose the mission although he was looking for a certain thief on the bounty board.
"Sitrus come look at this." Oran pressed his paw against the portrait drawn onto the wanted poster. "He's a Kecleon and a petty thief that hangs around the city, his exact location is unknown but he's only a C rank."
"We can keep an eye out when we're in the city but I'd rather do a mission with better chances of completion."
"That's fair enough." The Riolu said, it would be better for them to make a good first impression. "What did you have in mind."
"Theres one up here" The Shiny responded "It's a simple rescue mission to find a Wingull who wandered into a mystery dungeon."
"Let's take it to Sylvester then."
Sitrus and Oran went back over to Sylvesters booth, by now the sun was high in the sky, and the Sylveon was still sat happily in her booth and seemed to be enjoying lunch when she looked up and noticed Team Berry approaching.
"Hello fellas, what's up?" The Sylveon asked with a smile.
"We want to do that mission with the Wingull that strolled into a dungeon."
"It's a little unusual for a team to do an expedition on the first day." The Sylveon told them, but she supposed there wasn't any rules against it. "I suppose if you're going to, I should give you your basic equipment."
Sylvesters ribbons vanished beneath the desk and produced a bag, it was an adventurer's bag similar to the one Oran brought with him from the mountains. "The bag contains a Wonder Map, Oran berries, some useful seeds, an escape orb and two scarves."
The Sylveon handed the bag to Oran who placed it over his shoulder and grabbed the two scarves from inside, both were green and The Riolu tied one around his neck like a bandana.
"Stick your wing out." Oran asked his partner. And he proceeded to wrap the other green scarf around her wing. "Let's get going then."
The Riolu produced the wonder map from his bag, it was very similar to the one he had used before except it showed his position on the map in the form of a small dot.
"We need to get to a dungeon called quicksand pit." Sitrus told him before she flew upwards into the sky.
Oran found the destination on the map, near a beach a few miles to the south-west. He tapped the sketch of a compass on the top left of the map and the compass turned after correctly orienting his direction the Riolu began the trek toward quicksand pit.
Oran was exhausted by the end of the walk and the sun was high in the sky, Sitrus landed down next to him and the two looked out across the desert landscape, thankfully the dungeon wasn't very far in the sandy region however it was the entrance that the duo were more worries about. The entrance to the dungeon was a large swirling vortex of sand that led down into the dungeon.
"Ladies first." The Riolu told his partner.
"No way, I'll follow you."
"You're the one who insisted on doing a mission today."
"So that we make a good first impression." The Shiny exclaimed. "Those dragons will leave me alone if they think I'm valuable to the guild."
Oran looked at his partner with a bit more sympathy, with his aura abilities he could literally see how much she was bothered by the earlier encounter, the Riolu let out a sigh.
"Alright then, we do it together."
Oran offered his paw to the Swablu.
"Ok then."
Sitrus landed on his arm and clung on tightly, Oran took a step forward and fell into the sandy abyss.
Quicksand Pit B1F
Oran awoke once again with a lump pressed against his chest, he moved Sitrus away from him and stood up, he had never been in a mystery dungeon before but from what he had heard this was to be expected, he was in a rectangular room with 3 exits all of which looked perfectly the same.
The Riolu lightly tapped his partner with his foot and she quickly woke.
"This is a small dungeon, only 3 floors." The Swablu explained. "We'll explore each floor and search for the wingull it shouldn't take very long."
"Let's get looking then."
Oran followed Sitrus through the nearest exit, the corridor was long and it led to another rectangular room and in the room was a Sandshrew and a Sandile.
Sitrus instantly flew forward and breathed dragons breath onto both the ferals. The room filled with smoke, but Oran was able to use his aura vision to see the crazed souls of the feral, the Sandile lunged toward Sitrus so the Riolu took it upon himself to strike the Sandshrew with an Aura Sphere, the Sandshrew slashed him with his claws before Oran finished him with an aura coated punch. As the Riolu finished off the Sandshrew, Sitrus struck the Sandile with an aerial ace and the ground type was sent flying back.
The Sandshrew and Sandile were both defeated and they dissolved back into the dungeon that spawned them.
"Are you okay?" Oran asked his partner "Any injuries?"
"No, Just a few ferals." Sitrus responded "Come one, let's keep going."
The Swablu flew out the other end of the room and Oran followed after her, the hallway was shorter than the previous but in the net room was a staircase that led into the floor.
"Should we go down yet? We haven't searched the entire floor."
"It should be fine; our badges will tell us if we're on the same floor as the client." Sitrus told him "Once you find the Wingull make sure to hold onto him and press down on your badge, it'll transport you out of the dungeon."
"Now grab my wing so we aren't separated between floors."
Oran reached out and grabbed onto Sitrus' outstretched wing, she reached out with her other wing and touched the staircase. Suddenly his vision went black once again.
Quicksand Pit B3F
Getting through the second floor had been easy and the Riolu once more appeared in the centre of the room with Sitrus at his side, before they had a chance to begin exploring both of their badges began glowing.
"Does that mean we're on the right floor?" The Riolu asked his partner.
"That's precisely what it means." She responded. "Let's get going."
Oran followed Sitrus out of the room and through another long windy corridor which led to a large room, inside the room was what seemed to be an unconscious Wingull. The Riolu quickly hurried int the room and hurried towa-
"ORAN, WAIT!" Sitrus screamed from behind him. "IT'S A MONSTER HOUSE!"
Suddenly the room filled with many feral Pokémon mainly consisting of ground types such as Sandshrew, Sandile, Trapinch and Gible. Oran was stranded halfway between the Wingull and his partner with many ferals between either and to make things worse he didn't have any useful orbs or items that could help in this situation.
Oran took a moment to calm himself and summon a staff from his aura, he quickly used his weapon to batt away a feral Gible that lunged at him. Sitrus tried to enter the room after him but was blocked by the ferals.
Oran was surrounded and had to think fast, he tried to strike at the ferals with his staff but it was a losing battle. He could press on his badge and escape, but he would fail his mission and that Wingull would be left to the monster house. Oran looked through the bag again as the ferals continued to claw at him and near the bottom of the bag he found a seed that looked like it was on fire.
With a smile the Riolu quickly ate the seed and turned to face the ferals between himself and the Wingull, when Oran opened his mouth a massive torrent of flames rushed forward from the back of his throat and all the ferals in his path were disintegrated.
Before the ferals could converge on him again Oran allowed his staff to disappear and instead used his aura to throw himself forward, the Riolu quickly grabbed onto the unconscious Wingull and pressed down on his badge.
In a beam of light, the Riolu and the Wingull both vanished from the dungeon.
And reappeared outside the dungeon.
Oran was tense as he looked toward the swirling pit of sand that was the entrance. He knew his partner was smart she would escape in the same manner he did, he was sure of it.
She had to.
Oran began breathing quickly, he'd done it again, he'd ran, he had to go back, he had to do something, he could still get ba-
Another beam of light appeared against the backdrop of the setting sun, and the Riolu could feel the tension in his body deflate as he saw a yellow Swablu be spat out the light.
As soon as Sitrus had excited the dungeon she found herself smothered in the arms of her partner.
"Oi, let go doofus."
Oran released the bird and took a step back that was when Sitrus noticed her partner had tears in his eyes.
"Are you hurt?" The Shiny inquired "I don't see any injuries."
"No, I was just worried." The Riolu confessed "I thought you might've gotten hurt when I left."
"Uuurrrgghhh, what happened."
Oran and Sitrus both looked back at the Wingull who had just woken up and the Swablu quickly flew over to him.
"You flew into that dungeon during a sandstorm and the bangle around your wing sent out a distress call." Sitrus explained to him "Me and my partner are guild members we came to rescue you."
"Not to bad for a shiny." The Wingull said "Ill be fine to make my way home, thank you very much."
The Wingull turned and flew away but Oran did consider calling him back to have a shouting match, he way he phrased that thank you rubbed him the wrong way. But his partner didn't seem bothered by it so he would just let it go.
"We should head back to the guild." Sitrus told him "Before we lose the light."
"We'll probably lose it anyway." Oran said as he watched the sun begin to dip beneath the horizon. "May as well get moving."
As Oran began the trek out of the desert and back toward the guild, he noticed that instead of flying up into the sky Sitrus hovered along next to him.
By the time Team Berry returned to the Meteor Guild the only light was coming from the moon and all the Pokémon that had been at the booths were gone, even Sylvester. Sitrus hovered along next to Oran as he ascended the stone staircase and passed over the rope bridge and he walked to the end of the row of apprentice rooms.
The duo entered their guild room for the first time, it was a basic circular stone room with a few basic pieces of furniture and two doors that led to bedrooms.
"I believe my room is on the left and yours the right." Sitrus told him before retreating into her room for the night.
Her room at the guild was very different to her one back in the city however, her nest was now in a tree at the centre of her room and it was on one of the trees branches, the rest of the room was similarly covered in plant life and soft grass and the walls were covered in vines and moss.
She flew up to her nest and saw a little note in it, the note was from Sylvester, and it read "I had Morrison grow some plants in your room, hope you like it!" The Swablu smiled at the note she would make sure to thank both the Leafeon and Sylveon later.
Sitrus lay down in her nest she had a good feeling in her chest, she thought back to what Oran had said earlier. No-one had worries about her for a while and it was a lovely feeling.
Orans room was different to the Swablus the walls were basic stone and the floor was made of wooden planks with a nest at the centre of the room as he lay down on the nest he noticed a few unlit lanterns on the ceiling, he would've looked round his room some more but he was quickly claimed by exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.
Oran woke the next morning to getting scratched in the leg by his partner but he was still tired so he just rolled over and ignored her, the lantern above him had lit itself at some point signalling the start of the day but he had zero intention of getting out of bed.
"Get up, I don't wanna miss breakfast."
"Five more minutes."
"No."
Sitrus jabbed him beneath his ribs and Oran suddenly jolted upwards.
"Alright, alright I'm up."
Oran got out of bed and wiped the sleep from his eyes, the promise of food was enough to compel him for now. He followed Sitrus out of his room and out of their living room. The rest of the valley was still waking up outside as the sun began to appear on the horizon and the various members of the guild were congregating inside the cafeteria.
Sitrus flew over to and entered the cafeteria and Oran followed by walking across the rope bridge, the cafeteria was a long room with large stone tables, the floor was wooden however and at the other end of the room was a serving table being tended to by a Jolteon. Sitting at the many tables were various guild members and rescue teams.
Oran and Sitrus walked over to the serving table.
"Hello, you two new around here?" The Jolteon asked as he began serving the two large portions of berries and pancakes and syrup. "My name is Crackle I run the kitchen."
"I'm Oran this is Sitrus." The Riolu replied with a yawn "Pleasure to meet you."
"I get it, early mornings you get used to it." Crackle told them "Ill get you some bean juice, go sit down."
The duo carried their plates to the nearest empty table and began devouring their food, Crackle came by and gave them cups of coffee, by the time Team Berry had finished eating their breakfast Quill had sat down at their table.
"You two must've worked up quite an appetite." He observed "All that walking around the Valley."
"We actually did a request yesterday." Oran informed as he sat back on his chair.
"Then I applaud the effort." Quill replied, "I was gonna run you through taking requests, but you seem to have that handled."
Quill stood up and turned to leave "I'm the head of apprentices so if you need anything let me know."
"Right then, what's on the agenda today." The Riolu asked his partner.
"We'll check out the request board and see what happens."
"Could we head into town and look for that Kecleon."
"Let's check out the board, if there are any updates then we'll go after him." The Swablu told him "Let's go check."
Oran stood up to leave and instead of hovering Sitrus once again decided to become a hat and let the Riolu do all the walking, at least until they exited the cafeteria where she then flew ahead to look at the Bounty Board and Request Board. Oran stood back and let her pick out a mission, thankfully she could fly above the crowd of Pokémon swarming the boards and get them a job quickly.
After a few moments of searching, she seemed satisfied with a job and flew back down toward her partner.
"Anything new on the Kecleon?" Oran asked.
"No but I did find a good job." The Swablu replied "Collecting water stones at the Freshwater Basin dungeon, we'll need to head into town and get water bangles so we can breathe but the mission pays nearly 2000 per stone."
"Let's go get those water bangles then." Oran was secretly hoping he'd get a chance to look for the thief "Keep an eye out for that thief, yeah?"
The duo set out ahead of the morning guild crowd and began the relatively short trek toward Compass city.
Kecleon walked down the cracked and shattered pathway of the black market, despite his paranoia he was unaware of the eyes that watched from the dark. He slipped into one of the dark alleyways, unaware that he was being closely followed. The Kecleon never saw the figure, but the figure would keep his eye on the thief until the time was right.
Because the thief still wore the glowing stone around his neck and the shadow could not allow that.
AN: Thanks for reading, hope to see you all next time.