"Found another one!"
Archie emotionlessly looked at the Servine jumping from under a large oak root, the Grass-type holding a tiny red-and-yellow mushroom in his leafy stubby arm. Archie looked up at the sky. Noon was still far away. Vynn waved a vine and the Archen robotically opened the linen bag, eyes still in the sky. The snake tossed the little fungus like a child tossing a paper ball in a trash bin. It went into a spectacular arc upwards, hitting the topside of Archie's beak before bouncing and falling square into the bag. Archie had no reaction.
"Aaaand Vynn scores another point!" The Servine cheered, raising his arms to the forest and bowing to an invisible crowd. "His performance in this match is amazing!"
Archie's shoulder slumped as he tied the bag again. Despite Vynn always making a party out of nothing, not even his uproarious nature was enough to put a dent in the Archen's stormy demeanor today. The bird sighed. Sometimes he wished he could take disappointments as lightly as his friend did.
"I think we cleared this area." Vynn said. Archie replied with a deadpan nod. "I'll check a little bit further into the forest along the road. We're not supposed to go downhill to the South 'cause of the Mystery Dungeon, so you can go uphill along the forest border to the North. I'll catch up to you in a minute."
Without a peep, the bird turned and marched where directed. If Vynn was excited enough to lead this time, then let him lead. As the Rock-Type made his way, he spotted a tree unmarked by either his claws or his friend's vines. He looked under its raised root, and there it was, the "coveted" prize standing short in all of its mediocre glory. Another Tiny Mushroom.
Yay. One more for the bag. Fantastic.
'Everyone who joins the Crisis Division knows no mission is below them.' Of course you can say that, Sable! You are already famous and well-accomplished!
'You gotta make it fun!' Like it was possible, Vynn! The forest had tranquil in its name, for Cresselia's sake!
Archie felt the bag. A sigh escaped. Only half-full, still far from the quota. He clambered up the sloped forest, traversing the woods alongside a steep hill. All the trees he passed were already marked, and eventually it led to a craggy wall. Another sigh. He had to climb.
From its top, he whistled sharply and waved, keeping his squinting eyes at the squiggly green and cream line until it waved back. Vynn could follow his trail now. His eyes went a little bit up to the view at wing and it had his heart fluttering. There was so much to see from up here. Vynn was so tiny, the dirt road snaked the woods, even the shimmering perimeter of Overgrown Farms was visible far away, further downhill. How would it be to jump from here, wings spread? Yeah, his previous attempts at actual flight had been… dubious at best, but he could at least glide for a bit. Vynn even tagged along in a few glides. The aftermath of the crashes never really mattered; after all, the unfiltered freedom of the sky was unlike any other.
The bird turned around, and his smile faded. Large roots and trees filled his view, a dozen or so more fungi scarcely sprawling the ground beneath them. Archie let his head fall backwards dejectedly. This whole task was mind numbing. They became apprentices of the division that never took anyone under their wing, something unprecedented in the entire guild's history. Being part of the Crisis Division was supposed to be exciting! Rescuing Pokémon who were caught in the middle of calamities, being side-by-side with the best of the best, braving tirelessly against the forces of nature that threatened the world! He would finally be able to follow in his father's footsteps and become a world-renowned Guild Member! Be recognized, make a difference, make his family proud!
Nope. He was stuck there, in the middle of a boring forest, collecting stupid mush—
Sniff sniff.
A faint yet intoxicatingly sweet aroma tugged his nostrils. Archie froze. It couldn't be it, could it? A light breeze from further ahead brought more of the smell. No, it had to be. Archie followed it, completely ignoring the roots and the mushrooms he passed by. He navigated uphill, passing by oversized slashed tree roots, gashed tree trunks and splintered branches. With each minute of his trek, the scent grew stronger. After clearing a few bushes, a clump of fallen trees were slumped against a 15-foot cracked rock wall. Oozing from the fractured trees, an amber viscous liquid trickled down and pooled over the dirty ground. He could not contain the chuckle.
"Pull all m' feathers an' make a pillow with 'em!"
Honey!
He mischievously clasped his wing-claws, making a beeline towards the precious nectar. A single bottle of honey was worth a fortune already, and the tree was leaking, what, a gallon? Forget the mushrooms! A few jars would have the Lunar Guild guffawing at the sheer amount of Oran berries they could buy! For sure, even Sable would be proud of this finding. Hah!
"Archie! Where are you? And why did you leave so many mushroom behind?" Vynn's voice came from far behind, muffled by some sort of buzzing.
"Here!" Archie shouted, rushing towards the amber liquid and plopping both his supplies and the mushroom-filled bags. "Y'ain't gonna believe what I found 'ere!"
"What was it?" Vynn shouted back, his voice closer, still muffled like before.
"Honey!" Archie replied absently, far too engrossed in his search for the jar.
"What? Can't hear you with all this buzzing." Vynn yelled. "What did you—"
Archie straightened up. Buzzing? There had been some buzzing, hadn't it? He looked back. His partner had his head poking out of a bush, wide-eyed, white as a ghost, staring above the Archen. He craned his neck upwards. A Beedrill, twice his height, was glaring right at him, antennae twitching.
"Hi." Archie forced the biggest sheepish smile.
The Beedrill spat a viscous purple drool at Archie. The bird sidestepped the gob, the splatter making a vile sizzling sound. Toxic.
"Thief!" The Beedrill shouted. "You will not steal from the hive!"
In an aerial flourish, the bug descended with its stinger. Archie tumbled backwards, splinters of wood branches narrowly missing him. The buzzing intensified. Archie glimpsed a dozen or so Beedrill begin to squeeze out from the cracks of the rocky wall.
"They swarming!" Archie shouted.
Dirt lifted up as Archie's claws propelled him towards the Servine and the bushes. The wheezing whistle had him lose his balance. The spike struck right where he had been. He used a wing to set himself upright from his stumble.
"RUN!"
Archie's yell broke Vynn out of his trance and to a sprint. Archie jumped through the leafage, stumbling on his awkward landing on the root-ridden woods. The Archen glanced at the swarm already encroaching. The duo swiftly jumped from oversized root to dirt path to oversized root, however the Beedrill were just as deft in navigating the wooden pillars of the forest. One gained enough ground to get ahead and encircle a tree.
"Duck!" Archie yelled. Vynn did, and the Archen's throat lumped for a split second. A rock propelled from his mouth right at the charging bee. It was swatted off, falling head first to the dirt.
They kept the stride. Two more Beedril came with a sweeping motion from their flank. Vynn's clean vine strike sent one reeling against a tree, Archie's spat the Rock Throw which made the other crash hard against a clump of roots. A few more paces and four blocked their path, with one quickly closing in from behind.
"Vynn! Do ya whirlwind thing!"
"On it!"
Vynn breathed in for what was like forever and blew hard. A purple swirling tornado began to form from his breath. The Servine willed the Twister forward, and the winding draconic force was way too fast for the bugs to react. They were all launched in different directions, thuds and cracks echoing all around.
Triggered by the attack landing on its allies, the Beedril behind them charged. Archie spat another lump of rock, but the bee dodged in a well-timed barrel roll. Its arm-lance charged with a vicious purple coat, aimed dead center at the bird. Panic settled in. Too fast. He flinched. A loud 'katching' screeched. There was no pain. He dared to open an eye. Vynn firmly held a hexagonal barrier as he stood between Archie and the Beedrill's poison-laced stinger. Protect. Not wasting another beat, Archie jumped above the bee and spewed another rock, point blank. It was left as a twitching mess on the floor.
They resumed their way downhill, but the swarm was persistent. Whenever one fell, another took its place. Vine Whips and Rock Throws were enough to gain some breathing room, but their stride came to a halt when they reached the slope too steep and too tall to jump down.
"Dead end!" Vynn shouted.
Archie eyed the forest beneath them. They couldn't climb down, they would be sitting Duckletts for the Beedrill. His narrowed eyes spotted the dirt line among the trees. The main road was just a little further ahead. It could be a landing strip. He glanced at his wings. Everytime he tried to fly, it was pure disaster. With Vynn, even worse. The swarm was approaching though. They had no choice.
"Vynn. Glider!" Archie said.
"Glider!?" Vynn stared dumbfounded at Archie. "Really!?"
"'S th' only way! Ya Twister's the cue. Grab my legs wi' ya vines."
"You crazy cuckoo." Vynn chuckled in between rapid breaths. "Got it!"
Archie took a few steps back. He glanced at the swarm coming. His partner's purple swirl materialized beside him. The whirling purple wheezing right past him was his cue.
Step, step, long step, jump.
Archie held his wings as wide as he could. Time stopped. All the rush, the adrenaline, the noise, it was minuscule, an afterthought when his descent stalled and the winds kept him afloat. An euphoric smile crept on his face. He was flying.
A vine wrapped around his leg, and the sudden weight tugged him to a free fall. His core chilled, desperation hit. He flapped his wings frantically, fighting the air. It eased gravity's pull to a gliding fall.
The buzzing, however, followed. The Beedrill were hot on their tail, the swarm reduced to just half a dozen. Archie struggled to weave in-between the trees. One came flying with a purple stinger, homing right into Archie's head. Vynn swatted it off at the last second, falling in line behind them. Another came from the other flank and Vynn veered it off course again. Archie could not compete with the Beedrill's swiftness. They had to do something.
"Vynn!" Archie barely dodged a tree. "Blast Seed!"
"A-are you sure?" Vynn whipped another bee. "That sounds like a really bad idea."
"Do it!"
The remaining six clumped together, a formation homing to strike from behind. Vynn munched a yellow seed with an impish smile.
"Boom!" the Servine shouted.
The explosion left Vynn's mouth and rocketed Archie forward. The trees were zooming way too fast. He swiveled left, narrowly missing a fallen trunk. He glimpsed the road, they were near. He dove down, a branch grazed his head feathers. A wide turn right and he somehow managed to align himself with the road. He descended, but he went way quicker than anticipated, Vynn's tail scraping the dirt. Archie tried to pull upwards, but they were too heavy to gain height.
He glanced at the road further ahead.
There was a Quilava in the path.
They were too fast to dodge.
… … … …
… … … …
… … … …
Archie groaned. His entire body ached. He slowly moved his wings, then his legs. Everything seemed to be in place. What had happened? Honey… Blast Seed… Beedrill… Wait a minute, Beedrill!
In a single motion, he was seated, eyes darting side to side. There was no one. Well, no one except a dirt and dried-leaf covered Servine who was already sitting with the widest toothy grin.
"Dude! That was so freaking awesome!" Vynn threw his leaf arms to the air. "I did not know Blast Seeds could make you go 'woosh'! Out of all times we glided, this one was by far the best! We gotta do that again!"
Archie glared at Vynn with squinting eyes. Of course he did. It didn't last long, though. "We lost th' Beedrill?"
"The Blast Seed did the job." Vynn had the proudest smirk.
Archie sighed in relief. They escaped the swarm. In the moment of reprieve, he leaned back, supporting himself in a wing as he began preening his leaf-and-twig-ridden feathers. After the Blast Seed, he tried to land them on the road. They rolled down a hill after they crashed onto a Pokémon in the middle of the road. His eyes widened.
"The Quilava!"
"Huh?" Vynn had a brow raised.
"The Quilava!" Archie repeated, standing up. "Tried t' land, but there was this Quilava an' I couldn' dodge 'em in time! "
"Oh. You mean the one right behind us?" The Servine casually pointed using a vine.
"The one behind—" A groan interrupted the bird. Archie looked back. No one. He then looked down behind him. A blue and cream blob of fur wearing Safety Goggles slowly opened their eyes. He quickly scrambled up and offered a wing. "Oy! You 'kay?"
"I… am. I think." The Quilava slowly sat up, accepting it.
"Didn' break a bone or anythin'?" Archie really hoped she didn't.
"I don't think so." She looked over at herself. She winced as she moved her left arm though. "But my shoulder hurts."
Only her shoulder hurts. Of all the bad things, a lesser one. Archie inspected closer. The bones looked like they were in place, but there was a big purple area right where she pointed. A wave of guilt swept through him. He was pretty sure it was the imprint of his beak. Cresselia, please, may it only be a bruise and nothing more. He had to help her, heal her, make it up somehow.
"'Right." Archie said more to himself than to the Quilava. "Lemme grab an Oran, t'will make you feel better."
Archie reached for his bag. His claw only found wind. He panicked, his head snapping left and right, then around him. Where was it? He jogged through his memory. The honey, the swarm. He facepalmed hard. He had left it right next to the Beedrill hive when he bolted. She needed aid though. Vynn still had his supplies though. He glanced at his partner.
"Oy! Vynn! Gimme an Oran! I lost m' bag a' th' Beedrill."
"Oh. You don't have to worry about it." The Quilava tried to raise her arms and began to shake her head, but she flinched as she moved her shoulder. Archie gave a concerned look. The Quilava gave a sheepish smile, then began to shuffle through her bag with her good arm. "I have brought some with me."
"Nah. This my fault. Was too fast 'n' couldn' dodge in time." Archie reinforced his mea culpa, glancing back at his partner again. "Oy! Vynn! An Oran! Quick!"
"Nonono. It's fine! Really! I brought Oran exactly for situations like this." She glimpsed at his worried gaze. Unceremoniously, she pulled the blue round fruit from her bag and grinned. "See! Right here! You don't have to worry about it!"
That didn't sit right. He was the one who ran over her, the least he could do was to provide the Oran berry. He would have to at least replace it later.
"Oh. By the way, my name is Ember." She placed the Oran on her lap and extended her good paw, keeping the same friendly grin.
The bird looked dumbfounded. He had screwed up hard and she didn't even get mad. Shame, guilt and relief clashed. He had to mirror her friendliness though, even if he didn't deserve it. He extended a wing.
"Archie, an' m' friend here's…"
"Archie." A vine tugged at the bird's shoulder.
"Vynn." The bird swatted the vine away. "An' sorry 'bout crashing onto ya. We were collecting Tiny Mushrooms, but got too close t' a Beedrill hive. We flew t' get away, but was a bit too fast t' dodge you when tryina land." Archie smiled sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it." Ember smiled back. "Beedrill are known to be quite aggressive when they feel like their hive is being threatened. I can totally underst—."
"Archie." The vine tugged again.
"Stop it!" Archie frowned at Vynn's interruption, slapping the vine away again. Seeing the Quilava's awkwardness at the exchange, he took the lead. "Nah. 'Twas on me. Still feel bad 'bout it."
"Please, don't." The Quilava insisted, paw behind her head. "I was distracted and—"
"Archie."
"What?" The bird snapped, turning to Vynn with a scowl.
"Look around us."
Begrudgingly, he did so. There weren't any oaks like before. Instead, thick and impossibly tall bushes and trees surrounded them, the foliage so dense it was impossible to look through. Fruits grown from these distorted natural walls were a mix of rotten fermented Oran berries and underdeveloped tiny green specks. The few patches of the sky visible were a wavy wobbly haze of blue and purple with no sun in sight. The ground was a mushy fluffy dirt, with short patches of vibrant green weed intertwined with sickly dried ones.
His feathers bristled, his heart sank. How did it happen? How did they even get here? He remembered flying to the road, crashing onto Ember and then… rolling downhill. Along the road to the South was…
"Are we in Overgrown Farms?" Ember asked, head tilted.
Archie gulped dry. "Crap."