Prompt 17: AU

"Right here! We're right on schedule!"

Emmet huffed, setting one hooked claw into the cliff's crevice before hauling himself onto the small allotted clearing that his brother, Ingo, had pointed out during their ascension. Emmet got onto his feet, stilling as a large shadow settled over him.

"Move it, short-stack." Lady Sneasler chuckled as she passed Emmet, playfully ruffling the dark fur atop his head as she javelined a stalactite into the ground, quickly affixing a scrap of gray cloth to the tip. "Here we are! We've finally arrived at the midpoint of Mount Coronet! And after hours and hours of wandering around the base, no less."

"No thanks to Ingo," Emmet muttered under his breath.

Emmet was a part of an exploration team. One that he had formed with his brother years in the past when they used to be baby pokémon. Exploration teams explored. But Emmet and his brother, Ingo, had formed a team with the sole purpose of making waystations within mystery dungeons. A supply team. Setting aside floors within mystery dungeons and setting up Kangaskhan Rocks so that other weary teams could rest, refuel, and maintain their inventory before continuing along their own tracks.

Exploration teams couldn't function without supply teams. Both were two sides of the same coin. Exploration teams found mystery dungeons and supply teams set up communications and rest stops within dungeons. And it just so happened that Emmet's team- Team Conductors- was the most renowned Supply Team in the whole region. They had been the first team contacted to begin laying out a chain along the sheer size of Mount Coronet. A difficult task. Just arriving at their first base camp had taken an entire week.

Emmet was the chief battler. He did almost all of the fighting and strategizing and he always led at the helm whenever a new mystery dungeon would appear. Ingo was the item master of the group. He could sniff out items through walls and he was the only one in the group who knew how to construct Kangaskhan Rocks in the first place. Lady Sneasler had been the caboose to the brother's two-car train. She had been invited by Ingo to join the party- without Emmet's consent- but the noble pokémon had shown her worth in her charisma. She was able to access high-risk dungeons that both Ingo and Emmet had been forbidden from going in on their own. That in turn had led to both of the brothers gaining levels quickly, raising their reputation even more.

Apparently, Ingo had heard Emmet's smart remark, clawing his way up last. His red eyes glinted with barely disguised annoyance. "I was attempting to discover all of the treasures hidden on our last platform! Forgive me if our food stocks were low!" He then shook out his pale, spotted fur and affixed his dusty, old black cap onto his head.

"I think we were just fine," Lady Sneasler commented as she popped an entire Perfect Apple into her mouth. "Though," she murmured, staring outward at the massive cliff view, "I'm surprised that we were the first ones to get here." Sneasler unloaded the basket at her back, stacking a few supply crates against a rocky wall as the two sneasel-brothers worked around her. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but Lord Braviary's team- Team Loft Wing- weren't those idiots supposed to get here first?"

"They were!" Ingo slid down from his place in the cliff, taking a drink of water from the pouch on his bag as he shook spare splinters from his paws. "You must remember, my lady. We- Team Conductors- are the Supply Team. It is our duty to install and maintain the tracks necessary for our passengers to swiftly ascend through Mount Coronet. It wouldn't be at all unusual for us to arrive at our destinations slightly faster than our trailing cars."

"But. It is weird." Emmet scanned the remaining miles of mountain stretching above them, the hair along his dark coat rippling at the prospect of reaching the snowy portions of the mountain. While both Ingo and Sneasler were poison and fighting types, Emmet was a dark and ice type. He had been waiting patiently to reach the colder areas near the summit. And of course, he pouted upon realizing that they had numerous stops to go before they would even reach where frost had been forming.

And so Team Conductors worked. Ingo erected the necessary Kangaskhan Rock. Sneasler tore apart the cliff floor and made it even, managing to dig up a clean spring to drink from. Emmet set up the open supply stocks, sorting through the items the three of them had been assembling throughout their long trek of Mount Coronet. In no time at all, the three had configured a working base camp of operations, even managing to get a fire going. They would remain in that particular base until another exploration group came and escorted them higher.

Mount Coronet was the largest mountain in the land, rising so high that it was theorized that only legendary pokémon could scale their way past the thick, foreboding cloud layer. Almost every exploration team in the world had begun making leeway toward reaching the summit after a strange rift had been torn open at the peak. A rift that- according to the words of multiple guilds- were causing teams to disappear in droves.

Emmet's own guild- The Pearl Guild- had been some of the first to approach the base of the mountain and install as many supply floors as they could. And while Team Conductors was strong, Emmet wasn't naive or stupid. There were plenty of stronger teams out there that were depending on his team and many other supply teams to support them as they stormed on ahead.

Emmet wouldn't lie to himself and betray the fact that he too wanted to discover what lay in the rift. But then his brother would strangle him and so too would Lady Sneasler if he strayed from his post.

"Oh, here we go."

The clearing rumbled underfoot as a group of pokémon made their way up the cliff and onto the platform, pausing upon sighting Team Conductors resting by the fire as they stood loosely in the shadows of the cave.

The pokémon in the lead- a stocky Charmander with unnerving black eyes- eyed Emmet first, steam pouring from their mouth. They then squinted, cocking their head to the side. "Are you a member of Team Conductors?"

"Yyyup. That's us," Emmet retorted, flashing his badge at the newcomer. Jealousy boiled in his gut. "Do you need assistance?"

"No, not at all." The Charmander then peered over their shoulder and waved their tail forward, one clawed hand grasping a water-rotten map and the other pointing at a break in the cliffs were shadows from the campfire had settled. "Team, we're clear to proceed. Get what you need from the rock and then join me up the cliff."

"Yes, captain!"