"Hnnnnnggghhh… Sooooooooooorbeeeeeeeeeeeet… Why do we have to wait for so long…" Baxcalibur groaned folded over onto their serrated back. They had been waiting for around two hours and he was getting bored. It was dark, lame, and there was nothing around for him to screw around with. The best he could do was tear the grass off the forest floor and stare into the stars glittering through the canopy of leaves.
"Be patient Gelato. We have to wait, situations like these come with the job," Houndooom scolded looking over the bushes. He was on lookout for the entire damn time, which was even worse. Sorbet was a pain in the ass sometimes but it was better than the company of the tree eyes staring at Gelato. But now that Sorbet got focused on something he would stick onto it like a Shuckle to its shell. That was mostly because they're usually too lazy to get out of it but that didn't apply to Sorbet.
"Yeaaaaahh, I knooooooow. But they were supposed to come a hooouuuuur ago-" Gelato was cut off by a heavy shushing.
"SHHHHHHHH. Shhh,"
"Uh, what is it-"
"SSSSSHHHH. SHH. Shhh. Sh. Shh-Shut it, Gelato. I see the boat docking. Be quiet," Houndoom loudly mumbled to Gelato.
Baxcalibur happily hopped up off their back and came rushing over to Sorbet, "Huh? That's great-"
"SHUT IT!" Sorbet screeched hypocritically. "I, hnnn, mnnn, ehnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeed you to SHUT IT!"
"Fine," Instead of dwelling on the rudeness of Sorbet, Gelato instead took notice of the boat and its occupants.
The two were hiding behind a bush at the top of a grassy incline that led its way down to a silent beach. As warm waters splashed against the surface of the sand, pushing and pulling, the only thing that disrupted the serenity of the view was a boat that had recently docked.
The boat was rather small, enough for it to be hidden from Pokemon flying from above in the darkness of the nights. It was the kind that you would move with a paddle but instead of a paddle moving it through the pitch black sea there was a Sharkpedo connected to the front to burst through the waters. Atop the boat there were only two people. One of them was a Ceruledge standing tall, burning a dark purple and blue light, which kind of stopped the stealth that the boat needed. She was the personal bodyguard of the boss. Her name was Lady Athena. And the other… Gelato couldn't tell who the other person's species was but he didn't need to know that. He already knew who he was.
The two were already on the star lit beach as Gelato came over to Sorbet. The Ceruledge first came off the boat taking a step into the water. The figure came off the boat. His entire body was covered with the veil of a deep, dark, purple cloak. For the rest of their quadrupedal body, it was entirely covered with rolls of stained white bandages lining across his entire span, and on his head, blocking view from the face, was a golden mask with only two, empty, black holes for his eyes.
As the two made their way off the water Sorbet signaled the two to their direction with a small tune. Ceruledge's eyes immediately darted over to them while the figure stood still. Athena's eyes narrowed as she called out to them, "Sorbet! Gelato!"
The duo immediately stood up in response and began to make their way over to the beach. Sorbet lowered his head downwards to her, "Lady Athena."
Gelato followed along, "Lady Athena."
"I would say sorry for the short notice, but due to your screw up you must've had a lot of time on your hands. But currently I shall be telling you of a mission of most importance," Lady Athena instructed cruelly. Her voice was elegant and it sounded smooth like the edge of a sword but like a sword it was fierce and cutting, with every word that she spoke always coming off with an undertone of anger and annoyance.
"Before the end of the next day you shall safely transport him all the way over this island to Lively City," Lady Athena pointed a blade to the figure. "You must not be seen, you must protect him with your life, and you shall not ask any questions. For when you enter into the city bring him to the docks and immediately leave. You must not be seen at all during this mission. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Lady Athena, "Both Sorbet and Gelato answered.
"Good, you two must begin making your trek now if you want to do a good job," Lady Athena turned her back to them and began to head to the boat. As she walked away her neck suddenly snapped to the side and she glared at the duo, "If you fail this mission, don't expect to see another dawn."
"Y-yes," Gelato swallowed the spit that welled up in his throat.
Lady Athena didn't reply as she stepped back into the surface of the boat. In a mere moment the Sharpedo cut through the water like a razor and disappeared as if they were never there.
Sorbet, Gelato, and the escort stood there all alone. Now that Gelato could finally look up at the fellow, he was gigantic. He had a hard time staring up at him and when he did try to make conversation the escort just stared at him. This person's entire feeling was strange and unnatural and he can tell that from one thing; through the soulless dark holes in his golden mask two eyes shone through the darkness. Two eyes that had gilded rings circling the shining, metallic, yellow irises.
Episode Four
Fire Starter
Chimera didn't have any dreams last night. There were no nightmares of drowning, no dreams of the future, and Giratina had never appeared once at all. All there was now were the random pieces of straw and hair in their mouth as they groggily awoke.
"Hrngh… hck! Cough, cough! Urgh…" Were the random noises they made as they sluggishly rose up and coughed the strands of hair and straw out.
Where am I? They took a look around the plain wooden room. There was nothing in it, only a window behind them with the small curtains blocking the sunlight and a small table holding something that they couldn't see.
Oh… I forgot. Chimera looked down at the straw they were sleeping in. It was scattered all over the place, they must've been moving a lot last night. The straw wasn't actually that bad of a place to sleep to them, sure they have only really slept on the grass and an overly plush bed but it was now theirs, which made it feel a lot better.
But that bed in the infirmary really was good.
Taking a few moments to get on balance they slowly stood up as they took a look around the room.
What do I do now?
After being shown off to the whole Guild no one had really told them what to do. They really just talked with Zoroark for a small bit and fell asleep. No one had really approached them, the only thing that came were weary stares and whispers.
I guess I should head to the cafeteria.
As Chimera wobbled over to the door they noticed a lavender scarf and the bronze badge on it laid upon the top of the table.
Oh?
Chimera headed over to it slightly confused.
I've seen all of the Guild members wearing these, does that mean this is mine? There's a badge and everything on it.
As Chimera thought those things a few knocks on the door filled the quiet room. Chimera headed to the door, leaving the scarf on the table. After clumsily messing with the handle they opened the door to find Team Parallel standing before them.
"Morning, Chime!" Zoroark greeted them with a friendly smile. She looked absolutely pristine although Chimera did notice that there were a few small bronze brown hairs of fur stuck onto her hands and forearms.
"Hey," Eevee said, still looking groggy and with disheveled fur as if someone got into a fight with him.
"Good morning you two," Chimera replied, giving them a polite smile. "How are you doing?"
"Heh, I should be the one asking you that since you're the one who's starting your first day here!" Zoroark playfully answered. "But, yeah, I'm doing good."
"I would be doing better if someone didn't drag me on the floor," Eevee sneered at Zoroark.
I did have a feeling something like that happened.
"You got out of bed so it was fine," She dismissed the remark easily.
"T-that's swell, I guess," Chimera said, very unsure of what to say. "So, uh, what do I do?"
"Did no one tell you the schedule?" Zoroark asked.
"Well, no. Nothing at all," Chimera scratched their neck.
"Well that's just irresponsible. Here I'll tell you as we go get breakfast," Zororark waved her wand signaling for them to come along as she turned to her side and began to walk down the hall. Eevee just simply stood there, still tired from waking up.
Taking a bit to recognize the action, Chimera scrunched the scarf into a ball, yoinked it off the table and hastily hopped over to Zoroark due to one of their legs being used to hold their scarf, "Hmph! Hmph! Uh, can you please help with something?" They asked trailing behind Zoroark while the two made their way down the hall.
Without looking back she answered, "Yeah? Anything ya need?"
"Can you please help me with putting on this scarf? I have no idea how to put it on."
"Oh yeah sure," Zoroark turned over Chimera. Once seeing them her fur shot up a bit, "Did you just hop over here? Could've just asked me to wait up you know?" She sighed as she walked over to Chimera.
"Err, uh, I'm sorry," Chimera tilted their head down.
"Yeah, it's fine pal," Zoroark held her hand out for Chimera to drop the scarf into as she had the other on her hip. Chimera obliged, "You know I just thought about telling you that you should watch me do this so you can later, but now that I think about it you really can't." Zoroark said as she began wrapping the scarf around their neck and pushing their hair away from their neck.
"Oh, well, yeah. Unless I kind of prop myself up on something," Chimera thought of what a scenario would be like if they were to do that. They would kind of have to press their chest onto a large flat surface, get one of their front legs onto it, then get the other onto it, and hold it all up with their elbows on the surface. It sounds manageable. They'll have to figure it out later.
"Should probably get you a stool or something. Hey… NATHAN!" She yelled as she looked past Chimera. "GET OVER HERE!"
"Hm? What is it?"
"It's nothing Eevee is just standing there. He looks like he's zoned out," Zoroark finally finished wrapping the scarf around Chimera's neck. Chimera looked down at it. Chimera looked down at it to find it nicely bundled around their neck with the ends of the scarf hanging down to their chest. On the front the bronze badge stood nicely.
"Thank you very much!" Chimera said.
"It's no problem. Just ask whenever you need something."
From behind quickly approaching footsteps came marching down the hall as Eevee came close. "Sorry, sorry," he came towards the two.
"What was that about?" Zoroark asked.
"I don't know, just thought of something. Anyways I'm hungry, let's just go down already," Eevee let go of the topic and began to walk ahead of the two into the main lobby, with the other two following along.
Chimera took a step into the lobby. The large empty room was brightly lit by the morning sun that filled the room from the large window overtop the main door.
It's my first time experiencing a morning isn't it? I've been unconscious until noon for the past two days. This is… nice.
The group soon quickly headed over to the cafeteria. It was quite empty with only a few teams already eating. One of them being the Armarouge and Indeedee team from yesterday.
The three quickly went to a countertop built into a wall with a long table connected to it. Chimera remembered yesterday's dinner and what to do, unfortunately they didn't have hands so they had to rely on Zoroark who was already holding three plates. One on each hand and the other being held by her mouth biting the edge of it.
"Are you okay?" Chimera asked.
Zoroark couldn't reply but instead made her way over to a circular wooden table and plopped the plates down. There were three chairs around it and underneath the table was a stool that Eevee pushed in order to get into the chair. Chimera simply just ignored it as Zoroark took a seat on her own.
"Got what you like Nathan," Zoroark said.
"Thanks," Nathan responded before almost instantly devouring an entire bread roll.
"And for you Chimera, I didn't really know what to get so I just a bit of everything."
"Thank you," Chimera looked down to their plate. It was filled with a sliced half of every berry you can find on the market, two buns, a portion of spiced beans and rice, a boiled potato, and scrambled Chansey egg.
Oh. This might be a bit too much.
Carefully placing a fork between their talons instead of just trying to free hand it they began to pick away at the food.
"So Chimera," Zoroark said, after swallowing a bite.
"Yes?"
"How are you feeling, like, this whole new experience you're having? Are you doing well?"
"Well… I guess I am. I'm certainly excited to be doing something… I think. I don't know. Everything is really new to me now so I kind of feel aimless. Maybe that's because I wasn't really told anything at all, but… eh. It's weird not really being able to remember things. It's kind of like I was just born."
"Yeah, I guess that is fair," Zoroark had an awkward smile on her face.
Before being able to continue eating in silence among the group, Eevee began to speak in between his bites, "Honestly, I think you're kind of lucky."
"Huh?" Chimera was surprised.
"What do you mean by that?" Zoroark asked.
"Well, to me you basically just have a new life," Eevee chewed his food and swallowed before speaking again. "Your memories are kind of just your entire life, right? And if you just forget them you're a new person. You get to experience, relive old things you enjoyed again. And everything that sucked is now blown away with the wind. Doesn't that seem good? I would certainly wish to start a new life and just leave everything behind."
Zoroark gave Eevee a worried look, he didn't notice and continued to eat without a care.
"I don't really know about that," She concluded. "Sure, you may be able to relieve everything you enjoyed and leave everything bad in the past, but what about the people you care about? Your friends, your family? If you just forget about everything you won't exactly have the same relationships with those people. Those will change because if you forget you'll probably just be changed. Those past memories make you who you are, the bad and the good, and you won't always be able to just relive everything. You'll never really be the same person if you forget everything."
"Eh, whatever you say," Eevee replied nonchalantly.
"I-I, oh. I never really thought about my situation in any of those ways. I haven't thought about the fact that there might be people who miss me," Chimera said.
What are my likes? What do I hate? Is there anything I love? I haven't thought of those.
Chimera tapped their chin before they spoke, "I guess for me, it is bad that I basically lost my entire life, but I like to think that for now, those don't matter. At some point I'll remember in the future but the only thing I care about right now is just… trying to live my new life. I want to try a lot of things, I want to make new memories in this seemingly new place with all these new people, and I think that I shouldn't have to care for now."
"That's honestly… very sweet," Zoroark replied.
"Sure is an optimistic point of view," Eevee said.
These thoughts, these ideas, brought a newfound vigor into them. They hadn't thought of any of this before, but now that they had, a new feeling developed in them. Hope.
The group stood in the middle of the boards along with many other teams trying to find a job to take for the day after having their breakfast. Chimera felt rather giddy and excited to see what the job was like.
The three had been looking at one of the three boards, this one was for the smaller missions, like retrieving an item, or bringing someone to another person inside a dungeon.
"Since Chimera's planning on coming with us we should probably take an easier job than usual," Zoroark stroked her chin.
"Do we really have to? We're good at this! And having Chimera won't be so different from having a normal escort mission! The guys we bring suck anyways," Eevee complained.
"I don't think we're that good at this," Zoroark put her hand flat in the air and shook it. "I do want something exciting too but I feel like since Chimeras has been here for a short while it would just be better to do a D or C ranked job."
"Oh, no. I want to do something exciting too! I'm sure I'll be fine with whatever you do!" Chimera was lying through their teeth.
"Are you sure?" Zoroark furrowed her brows. "Are you good with your body? I want to make sure you ain't hurt."
"C'mon Adrian! You heard them, we can totally do that!" Eevee tried reaching up a paw to go on her shoulder but realized he's only two feet tall and lost balance.
"Maybe we can do this one?" Chimera pointed to a piece of paper on the side of the board with in large uppercase lettering WARNING and at the bottom were pictures of a Baxcalibur and Houndoom running.
"That's a warning," Zoroark said.
"Umm, yes?" Chimera said, confused. They didn't actually read anything on the flyer, they just wanted to say something.
Zoroark walked over and read it, "Warning. These two are highly ranked dangerous criminals, if seen run away immediately. Do not approach if unprepared. Here are some things to keep in mind when encountering them: Once hit by a Houndoom's fire the pain from the burn will not go away with natural healing methods or time, it will stay there forever. You must be directly healed from a move, berries will not help, except for a rawst berry which will help numb the pain. Baxcalibur's glaive rush can cause massive damage to you but afterwards the user will take double the damage, use it to your advantage in order to stun them. Here are some predicted movesets… Yeah we don't really need to read this. The Guild will put these up for specifically really strong criminals. Most of the time these are useless to us since we'll probably never encounter them. Anyways, let's just try to find a job that's good for Chimera."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen," A voice said behind them. The trio turned their heads around to see a tired Primarina with bags under her eyes, and a clay mug in one hand that said, 'The Distortion World's Favorite Arsonist.'
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Eevee asked.
Primarina took a sip of her drink, "I mean that yesterday Charizard was supposed to tell Chimera that was some stuff they needed to do today, unfortunately because I slammed him over his head with a frying pan yesterday he got knocked out and wasn't able to tell you this: As a command from Guild Master Avery, you are not allowed to enter into the outside due her not wanting you to be seen by the public."
"What?!" The three all exclaimed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Eevee asked angrily this time.
"Why do you keep repeating the same thing? Are you even listening?" Primarina was getting more annoyed. "It means that Chimera's going to have to stay inside the Guild unless during some very specific situations."
"I'm going to be stuck here?" In such a short moment Chimera's heart sank to the floor.
"That isn't fair! They had barely been outside at all and now they're just going to be stuck in this dump for the rest of their life?!" Eevee's voice began to rise.
"Well not sure what you want me to do about that. I don't make rules. Don't shoot the messenger."
"C'mon, maybe we can ask Miss Avery and see if she could make an exception?" Zoroark tried to coerce.
"I don't know about that," Primarina responded. "I also forgot something too, you two are on street patrol for today because the other team got hurt."
"Seriously?" Zoroark said, astonished.
"Are you shitting me!" Eevee's temper had finally flared up as he yelled out his frustration. "Is this some kind of joke?"
Walking up the stairs Charizard was holding their head, groggily, "No… it isn't…"
Nathan exploded, "You're seriously not fuc-"
Zoroark snapped her fingers and suddenly, even though he was still speaking, no sound came out of his mouth. Zoroark looked obviously very fed up. Zoroark pinched the space between her eyes, "Urgh, by Articuno's wings… Look, sorry for his outburst. You understand though, right?"
"Yeah, whatever," Primarina looked unbothered by the whole thing, on the other hand Chimera noticed that the other teams began to stare at them. Their body lowered trying to make themself seem smaller as nervousness and tinges of fear stirred in their stomach.
Zoroark quickly took notice, "Anyways, I think I'm going to head up to my room to put away some stuff. C'mon Chimera."
Zoroark pushed through the thin wall of people watching them and made her way up the stairs. Chimera steadily followed along with a heavily annoyed Nathan, trying to ignore the other people.
Charizard stood next to Primarina and looked at her mug, "Give me that back." He quickly snatched it out of her flippers.
Once they got into the hallway they began walking to Team Parallels room but instead of entering it Zoroark immediately passed by it and went to the restrooms.
"Oh? What are you doing? Your rooms back there?" Chimera asked.
On Zoroarks face a frustrated frown was drawn on it but it soon flourished into a sly smile, "I know that. We're going to the restrooms."
"W-what?! Why there?"
"I'll spill once we're alone," Zoroark opened the door to the showers and entered.
The restrooms were on the right side of the hallway. In order to enter them there was an empty doorway that split off into two like a really flat T with two doors at the end of them, one for the bathroom and the other for the showers.
The shower room was one large space with private booths lining the walls that contained the showers. There were a few cabinets that were set aside but apart from that there was only a large mirror on the far part of the wall.
"So why are we here?" Chimera asked.
"We're here because- ack!" Zoroark tried to answer before being hit on her knee cap by a still muted fuming Eevee. "Oh, forgot about that, sorry."
Zoroark snapped her claws together and what looked like a spark appeared around Eevee's mouth.
Eevee spat out his words and held his neck as if someone stopped choking him, "Urgh, enghf, bleugh! Jesus, Adrian! Don't do that!"
"Jesus? What's that?" Chimera said.
"Look, It's too early in the morning for there to be an entire argument in the middle of the Guild, and I really don't want Chimera to get a bad reputation with it being their first day," Zoroark reasoned.
"Well isn't it fair for me to complain? I didn't want to get screwed over like that! Patrol duty is boring as hell, all we do is just walk around the city."
"I'm not having this right now. You can complain once we go to town, but I'm sure you won't be doing that so much because we're still going to bring 'em."
"Oh? You are?" Chimera tilted their head in confusion. "I'm… fine with just being here, you shouldn't have to try and trouble yourself."
"Well guess what, I don't care!" Zoroark stood tall with one of her fingers pointing in the air. Zoroark's pose immediately dropped afterwards, "But as an affectionate, 'I don't care,' because I think it would be good for you to see the town and go outside."
"I thought I was supposed to be the one for theatrics," Nathan added.
"Well, you don't have arms so you can't really do any posing, and I'm a Zoroark; this stuff runs through my veins."
"So how do you plan on getting me out of here without anyone noticing? I'm sure that I'll be stopped at the door and I don't think I'll be able to fit through any windows."
"Oh, I have the perfect way to get you out of here, and it's all thanks to my special ability," Zoroark clapped her two hands in front of her chest and slowly raised them up from each other, revealing what looks like a large, teal, porcelain bead somehow magically appearing from the inbetween of the hands, as if her hands were curtains being pulled away to reveal the actor standing upon the stage. The bead looked semi-transparent, and looking further into the bead the inside seemed to be glowing ever brighter, as if it was the sun rushing over the horizon. The bead itself began to spin faster and faster as it somehow began to float in mid air between Zoroarks hands.
"My special ability is to-"
"It's to create illusions,' Nathan cut in with a smug smile, breaking the suspense of the moment.
"Nathan, you are the bane of my existence," Zoroark said in an oddly deadpan voice.
"I'm pretty sure Chimera already knew so it's good."
"I knew what the ability is. I just wanted to be nice," Chimera gave a polite smile
Zoroarks posture flopped down as the suddenly appearing bead just as suddenly disappeared in a poof as if it was never there, "Well it was obvious wasn't it. But, yeah I can create illusions, it's just that my kind of illusions are special."
Zoroark stood back up straight, "Zoroark illusions have two contrasting versions, each being very different. They're kind of like two sides of a coin. One of them solely affects the person themself. They are able to perfectly hide themself behind a veil of illusions where whatever the shape they hide behind becomes the exact same, as if they just transformed into whatever they chose. Outsiders can see it the way the user wants, they can feel it as if it was the real thing, and the user can just add whatever attributes they like, such as making a fake smell or sounds. However there are some drawbacks, if they get hit a single time then the illusion immediately shatters and they can only affect themself. Another thing is that their ability to affect the area around them with illusions is weakened."
Zoroark continued, "The other kind is one that solely affects the terrain around them. They have a large range on the area they can affect, from entire forests to mountains. Just like with the other kind their ability to change their own looks is weakened, only able to change what it looks like but any other effects that the other has can't be made."
Zoroark pointed to herself, "As for me: I can do both. Well on certain levels really. Because of the fact I trained my ass off my illusions can both reach throughout large places and create highly complex personal disguises. Although they are both toned back. I can't just entirely change an entire forest, the most I can reach is probably the entirety of this Guild. I can make really good looking personal illusions and even place them on other people, it's just that I can't really make them flexible. The illusions still feel real and I can even make and remove sounds, it's just that I have a difficulty keeping them on multiple people and adding other senses on them."
"Honestly the drawbacks don't even seem that bad," Eevee added.
"I think I got the plan. You just sneak me out of here with an illusion and keep it up the entire time we're out?" Chimera lined out.
"Exactly!" Zoroark gave them a thumbs up.
"Well that's great, I guess. There's just kind of one problem…"
"Hmm, what is it," Eevee prayed.
"As much as I want to go outside, and grateful for you two for giving me an option, I'm not exactly comfortable with just lying underneath the Guild Masters direct rules. For now I'll have to decline your invitation, unfortunately…" Chimera nervously pawed the ground.
"Huh? Are you seriously just declining it? I feel like just the right to go out is more important than being a little rule stickler," Eevee pointed out.
"I'm sorry, but I'll just stay here," Chimera tried to give a smile but did feel kind of disappointed. They had only been brought into the Guild and on the proper first day of being here, it would be a horrible decision to just break the rules like that even if they would miss out on everything.
"Well, that sucks," Zoroark swung her leg at nothing. "Look, if you ever change your mind at around two we'll be back, you can come over to us and say if you want to come, 'kay? We'll find out whatever kind of look you'll have then."
Chimera nodded back at her.
"That's great, anyways we gotta get to the streets or else the other teams on the block will have our asses," Team Parallel headed for the doors as Eevee spoke. "See ya then."
"Goodbye," Chimera waved.
I haven't spent a single full day here, there's no way that just staying here would be that boring. Right?
Chimera was in fact, quite wrong.
