04 - 12
Hopping off of a large Ariados' back, a yellow Shinx smiles and pats the large critter's head before recalling it back with a glow of his badge.
"Okay," the yellow Shinx starts as he puts his badge back inside the rescue bag. "Let's review."
"Can we start with why I'm the one who has to carry this thing?" the Cyndaquil asks with an annoyed frown as she adjusts the bag's straps around her.
The yellow Shinx closes his eyes and sighs. "Because it'll slow me down." He pulls out the mission form from the bag and starts reading it. "We're going to save a rescue team of three who all got knocked out in this dungeon."
The duo turn towards the large and dark entrance of a rocky mountain.
"Floor five, and their other member is on floor six," the electric-type continues as he rolls the paper.
"Probably a team of newbies," the fire-type says as the Shinx places the paper inside the bag.
"I doubt it," the Shinx replies. "This dungeon has a minimum requirement of at least being silver rank."
Closing the bag, the electric-type smiles at the fire-type before facing the entrance of the dungeon.
"If a silver-ranked team got knocked out, that means we need to stay sharp," he says with a determined look.
As the Shinx closes the bag, the Cyndaquil grabs the strap again and adjusts it. "This thing's fire-proof, right?"
"Should be," the Shinx confirms with a nod.
Without warning, the Cyndaquil's back erupts into flames, but the bag stays uncharred.
"Neat," the fire-type says with a smirk—she suddenly coughs, the flames on her back quickly dying out.
Black puffs of smoke come out of her mouth as she coughs and coughs and coughs.
Panicking, the Shinx pat-pat-pats her until her coughing fit dies down. He frowns a worried frown. "You okay, Cindy?"
She wipes her mouth, nods, and coughs again.
The electric-type glares at her. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath and sighs. "I can't have you dying here."
"Pffft," the fire-type pffft's. "I don't plan on dying to something as lame as that, Shino." She stands up tall and proud.
The electric-type rolls his eyes.
She coughs again.
She quickly shakes her paw at the black smoke, dissolving it into nothingness.
She looks back to the unamused Shinx with a sheepish grin. "A-anyway! Let's go rescue these kids!" She marches towards the entrance.
The Shinx stops her. "Breathe fire."
She frowns at him. "I'm fine, Shino. Stop being a worrywart."
He sighs. "Just do it. Please?"
He's really worried, she thinks to herself. Pushing aside her annoyance, she sighs and breathes out a small torrent of fire towards the sky. "There. Happy?" she asks, not meaning to let her annoyance slip.
He smiles in relief and nuzzles her neck, startling her a bit. "Yeah. Sorry for worrying too much," he tells her.
She frowns. "It's okay..." She tries to smile. He can be really sweet, but she's a tough girl, she thinks to herself. Somehow, she finds it troublesome when he worries about her. Especially if it's something as silly as a cough.
She should sort that out, she thinks to herself. But perhaps at a later date as the duo enter the dungeon, the darkness envelops them.
"Looks good, don't you think?" the Mew asks, smiling at the Eevee.
It looks almost exactly like any other job offers that are posted on the board, the Eevee thinks to himself. He shrugs. "I guess," he says.
The duo then slowly move towards the stairs.
"So what do I do now?" the Eevee asks his floating companion.
"Well," the Mew starts, turning to him. "We wait for an interested team to sign up."
"And how will I know that?"
"You'll have to come by and ask for an update for your mission request," the Mew explains. She turns and points at one of the receptionists in the reception area. "We normally tell requesters to inquire there. So you can go ask there, too." She smiles at him. "Or me if you want."
He blinks at her. "So like what, I should come by every few hours or so?"
"Hm... I suggest tomorrow morning, before eight," the Mew suggests. "That's usually when rescue teams and their clients go out to do their missions."
"So I should come here early then to avoid a long line."
She smiles. "Oh, no need to worry about that." She looks back at the reception area. "We have quite a lot to handle that."
He nods. "Alright. If you say so." He frowns. "What am I supposed to do 'til then?"
The Mew chuckles. "I sadly can't offer any help on that." She blinks. "Unless you'd like to dust off the books in the library?"
After declining her suggestion, the Eevee bids the Mew goodbye and he walks out of the guild building, the rays of the high noon sun and the salty breeze of the blue ocean greeting him. Walking down the wide steps, he spots a familiar white Vulpix walking towards his direction.
"Hello," the ice-type greets him with a soft smile. "Are you about to head out?"
He blinks at her. "Oh. Shino hasn't told you yet?" He frowns. "I'm not a rescuer anymore."
As expected, the white Vulpix is surprised to hear this. He tries his best to explain what has happened, and thankfully for him, she quickly understands.
She frowns. "So you're going away soon?"
"Here's to hoping," he says and lets out a sigh.
"May I, ah..." She's curious, but the Eevee might not share his reason.
Then again, she's got nothing to lose if he's leaving anyway.
But, she and her team did rescue him inside that dungeon. That was their very first time ever seeing him. And if memory serves her correctly, she has never seen him nor recognize his scent before that day.
So it makes sense that he's not from here, and that he's working on a way to return to his home. Wherever it may be.
"How dangerous is this dungeon?"
The Eevee blinks, and shrugs. "I've got no clue." He looks up and stares at a cloud. "The pink blob suggested I do a test run or something. Hopefully a team would like to join me tomorrow." He looks back at her with a smile. "And hopefully things will go smoothly." He shakes his head. "Anyway, enough about me." He blinks at her. "How about you? Are you waiting for your friends here?"
He is actually having a conversation with her. Something must have changed. Perhaps it's the hope of his return home.
Whatever it may be, she's glad that he's not as grumpy as he used to be.
She shakes her head. "Shino and Cindy already went ahead." She looks at the large entrance of the guild. "I'm hoping to catch up to them." She looks back to him. "If I can't, then well..."
He smirks. "If not, then I guess you can just spend some time with that Sentret."
She smiles. Or tries to. She pushes herself to smile.
He notices. He frowns. He opens his mouth—
"He's, ah, asleep." She tries to chuckle. "Out like a light." Or at least she hopes he is. Despite the sudden events, she does want him to have a proper rest.
And hopefully it can help him think through all of—
"He just got back from a mission, after all."
The Eevee blinks. The Eevee nods. "I see." That makes sense, he thinks to himself. He supposes that their time schedule is being a hindrance to their relationship. Nothing he can do about it. "Well, I hope things will work out with you both."
She smiles and nods her head. "Yeah. Last night was his team's last night duty, so tomorrow they'll be taking regular guild missions again."
He blinks. "Night duty?"
"Oh, well the police asked the guild for help with the night watch."
"Ahh," he ahh's. That makes sense, he thinks to himself. The festival was just a few days ago, after all.
With nothing else to talk about, the Eevee bids the white Vulpix farewell and he walks toward the restaurant.
Sighing, the Vulpix enters the guild and—
"Whoa!"
Surprised, she looks toward the commotion and sees a Charmeleon excitedly pointing at one of the many posts posted on one of the many bulletin boards.
The fire-type looks back at his two companions. "Guys! Check it out!"
Curious, his two companions, a Scolipede and a Vibrava, approach him and take a look at what their friend is pointing at.
"An unknown dungeon to explore?"
The Scolipede frowns. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Aw, come on!" The Charmeleon smiles brightly at them. "Just think of the things we could discover!"
The Scolipede frowns even further. "And think of the Pokemon that could squish us."
The Vibrava lands on the large poison-type's back and nods her head.
As the fire-type tries to sell them on the idea of exploring an unexplored dungeon, the white Vulpix approaches one of the receptionists.
"Well, it looks like Jay will be heading out tomorrow."
Two beams of light appear in front of a dungeon's entrance. From it, a yellow Shinx and a coughing Cyndaquil appear.
The electric-type frowns at her. "Are you really sure you're okay?"
She groans. "For the last time, Shino, yes, I'm fine!" She coughs again. She scratches her neck. "Okay, maybe not one-hundred percent okay, but mostly okay!"
He sighs. "Well, we should head back." The electric-type stares at his badge, the setting sun's gentle rays shining on it.
"If it'll make you feel better," the fire-type starts with a frown. "I'll go pay one of the nurses a visit."
He smiles at her. "I'll come with you."
Her frown goes further down. "Fine... But after you make your report."
He nods his head. "Deal."
He raises his paw up, and chants—
From the corner of his eye, he notices something.
The yellow Shinx stops and blinks, noticing the dungeon's dark veil 'rippling' a bit, and what follows next startles him.
Wondering what's up, the Cyndaquil looks at him, turns to whatever he is looking at, and gasps.
For a tall Pokemon walks out of the dark entrance. A horned, pink-nosed and yellow Pokemon emerges, its cloven hooves clip clopping on the hard ground. Half of its body is still inside the darkness when it stops. It blinks once, twice, and then looks around with barely any emotion.
A violent spark startles the newcomer, and before it can even blink, an electrified yellow Shinx tackles the Girafarig.
The Cyndaquil's back erupts into flames as she follows her partner's attack with her own, breathing out a torrent of fire towards the psychic-type.
Screeching in pain, the Girafarig takes frightened steps back, the dark entrance rippling.
The Cyndaquil stops her attack to take a breath or two. "How sure are we that this thing's a wild?" she asks as the yellow Shinx tackles it again.
"Well for starters," he says as he lands beside her. "It would have said something by now, right?"
She frowns, looking at the trembling Girafarig.
"And rescuers don't come out of dungeons like it did."
Her frown goes further down. "What about regular folks?"
"Pretty sure they don't get out of dungeons like that either."
Focusing, the Girafarig's two horns turn purple, and it suddenly fires a beam of psychic energy at the duo. The rescuers quickly jump aside to dodge its attack.
Fire erupts from the Cyndaquil's back once again as she takes a big breath—
Her back flames quickly die out, and she suddenly coughs, and coughs and coughs, black smoke coming out of her mouth with each cough.
Her coughing fit dies down just as the Shinx starts to panic. "Cindy, are you okay?"
She tries giving him a thumbs up as she clears her throat. She instead points at their target. "It. Not. Doing..." She coughs again as the electric-type runs to check on her. "Fine. I'm fine... Ack..."
He frowns, but he immediately shifts his attention back to the psychic-type, and he blinks in surprise.
The Girafarig has completely stepped out of the dark entrance. It shakily stands, panting, glaring at them, its purple horns at the ready.
This is strange, the Shinx thinks to himself. Wilds can't walk out of dungeons, nor do they hold back from attacking.
He feels his heart start to sink when he realizes that maybe, just maybe, they just attacked a non-wild. He has never seen how regular folks come out of dungeons. Arceus above, are they going to file a police report?
But wait, hold on... Their badges should have—
The Cyndaquil coughs again, unintentionally breaking her partner's train of thought. She glares at the electric-type who is giving her a worried look. "I'm fine, Shino." She carefully shakes her head, and then looks at the Girafarig. "This one is maybe a wild, but remember what mister grumpy said that one time?"
Shino turns to her, blinking in confusion. "What?"
"Something about consciousness or something?"
The yellow electric-type's eyes grow wide in realization. "Oh, shit...!" He quickly looks back at the Girafarig.
The psychic-type, still weary at them, is still focusing its energy on its horns and its glare on the duo as it shakily lies down on the ground to recover.
"Wait, no," Cindy continues to mumble. "I think it was sapience, right?"
Ignoring her, Shino takes a slow step towards the wild. "Hey," he carefully calls out to it with an apologetic smile. "Uh, sorry for hurting you there, bud."
Its full glare is on the Shinx now.
The Cyndaquil frowns as Shino takes another step towards it. "I don't know if that is a good idea."
"We didn't mean to attack you," Shino continues, but yelps when he suddenly finds his entire body surrounded by a purple aura.
Startled, Cindy runs towards hi—
"Cindy, no!" he yells at her. "Whoaaa—!"
Floating up in the air, the yellow Shinx looks at the angry Girafarig, its muzzle opening and closing, as if trying to breathe more air.
No.
It's trying to say something.
"...a..."
The rescuers hold their breaths as they try to listen.
The angry Girafarig is struggling to keep him up in the air.
"...way..."
The floating Shinx suddenly finds himself slowly pushed away towards the Cyndaquil. She catches him, and he quickly drops on the ground as soon as the purple aura disappears from him.
Standing on four paws, the Shinx shares a look with the Cyndaquil.
"It talked."
She nods. "Yeah. I heard." She coughs.
He glares at her, and then at the small puff of black smoke that floats out from her nostrils.
"I'm fine."
He doesn't believe her.
She groans. "I'm fine, Shino. Sheesh." She turns towards the Girafarig.
The wild psychic-type is slowly licking the burned patches on one of its legs, while occasionally glancing wearily at them.
"...what are we gonna do about this thing?"