EPISODE I - RISING STARS
CHAPTER VIII - SLYTHAIN
A few minutes later, the trio had moved away from the tunnel entrance and down a dirt track leading into the woods, not wanting to take any chances in case the bats came screaming out of the tunnel in a fit of rage. Only once they were clear did they stop, with the Zangoose leaning a treestump and rubbing his face with a cloth he had recovered from his wrecked satchel. "Well… that escalated quickly." He said with a sigh of relief.
"That would be an understatement." Alain replied, standing aside with his arms crossed.
Rex stood in front of the Zangoose, a hand resting on his hip as he looked over the normal type for the first time. Much like Foster, he was smaller than the average Zangoose, but was still a bit taller than the Combusken and the Kirlia. He even seemed somewhat slimmer compared to most of his species too, as if he hadn't quite been eating enough. Leaning forward, the Zangoose flashed a weak smile. "Thanks for the save by the way."
Rex shrugged with a thin smile, deep down glad he helped save another life in a short period of time, but at the same time he was somewhat suspicious of this Pokémon. What was he even doing in an abandoned mine?
"Glad to be able to help." Rex replied, "But… who are you?"
Leaning back, the Zangoose managed to widen his smile, "Sylvain."
"Alright Sylvain." The fire-type continued, "What were you even doing down there in the first place?"
"It was beyond foolish to wander in there." Alain coldly stated, his eyes narrowed. "An abandoned mine isn't the place to entertain oneself."
Sylvain's smile evolved yet again, making him look somewhat smug. "That was part of the job! I was asked to check if the mine was still empty and if it wasn't, I could test the new Orbs out!"
That put the fire bird onto the back foot, as he quickly realised there was only a handful of explanations. "Your… a mercenary?" Rex asked.
"Bingo." Slyvain chuckled, flicking a mocking salute the Krilia's way.
The fairy-type looked away with a huff, "Chatte."
"Okay." Samiel said with a faint 'huh' in his tone, "I wasn't expecting that."
Not missing a beat, the white and red mammal pulled out a pair of spherical glass balls from his satchel. A plain blue and one coloured yellow, with what appeared to be a spiral in it's centre. "Some crafters have been looking at the Orbs that Pokemon have been bringing out of the Mystery Dungeons and had a crack at making their own. I was comparing the mon-made ones with the natural ones. Got only part way through testing them all."
There was a second where Slythain visibly shrunk, frowning sheepishly at the blue orb. "Didn't get this Escape Orb working when I needed it. Thought all I was dealing with was Zubats before that big one showed up."
An almost painful tut rang in Rex's head. "Crobat." Samiel stressed, "It's called a Crobat!"
Rex nearly raised a brow to Samiel's words, wondering how Samiel knew it's species. It wasn't something he recognised. He'd have to ask the Scorbunny later. Instead, he leaned forward to inspect the Orbs, this time quickly recognising the objects. He had seen them a handful of times in the past, normally in the possession of other mercenaries and rarely in the Kecleon Stores and other shops. Orbs like these could be used to cause widespread effects around them. Stunning, empowering and changing Pokemon outright. But he had never actually seen one actually working.
"First time I've seen them in action… though I didn't think anyone could actually make Orbs." Rex stated.
"Eh, don't ask me." Sylthain replied with a shrug, "It took me about twenty minutes just to work out how to use a Slow Orb." With that, he slipped the orbs back into the satchel, only now noticing it's damaged condition with a confused look plastered across his face. "Anyway, at least we cleared out those bats?"
"By the skin of our teeth." Alain added with a glare.
"And by accident." Rex chimed in, not wanting to imagine what the inside of that mine looked like now after the firedamp went off.
"What, like all plastered in-"
Samiel! Rex countered, not wanting to think about it.
"Sorry, I'll shut up."
"I'm guessing you got hired by the local town?" Rex asked, "Riverwood right?"
Eyes focused on his satchel as he fiddled with the strap, Slythain managed a brief nod, "Yep. Got the job off the town leader, turns out he's a little bit of a tinkerer too. He did say he was going to have another job ready when I got back."
"When you get back?" Alain questioned, "There are no other jobs there?"
"Oh hell no! The place is a backwater, just a mill and a farm, that's about it." With a huff, the Zangoose slid the hastily repaired satchel of his shoulder. The strap was visibly too small to comfortably allow the bag to hang free, so instead, it was almost stuck under his armpit. "But yeah, got to keep getting paid…" his voice trailed off as if he had just connected the dots. "Aw shit…"
Rex half smirked, half grimaced. "Yeah, we're mercenaries too. We're looking for work there."
Sheepishly, Slythain rubbed the back of his head. Rex knew all too well their conundrum. Two mercenaries pairing up on a single job was easy and a reasonable bet. Three of them was starting to stretch things, especially if things had already been pre-planned. Given their circumstances, the Combusken wouldn't have minded pocketing a third of the pay, but he suspected-
"So… fancy teaming up for the next job?" Slythain asked.
"Non. That's not happening." Alain growled, "We've already agreed to a 50-50 split, I'm not going any lower."
The feline's muzzle wrinkled slightly, exposing a little canine. "Come on! I signed up to the job first! 30-30-30. Easy and fair!"
"And we already agreed to a pact first." Alain countered.
A headache began to run through the Combusken's temples, and Rex rubbed his hand against one of them. Both of them had a point. He couldn't really back out of his deal with the fairy type, the blow to what little reputation he had would have been bad enough if Alain started spreading tales. But Slythain had signed onto the job first, so they'd be essentially robbing him of his work and that didn't settle well at all in Rex's core.
"Yeah… this might be a problem. Some extra firepower would be handy, even if we lose out on the cash. It just improves our chances of getting it in the first place." Samiel pondered, "Which means we have an easier time going for Night Aura down the line."
Rex ran a claw gently past the side of his head, resisting the urge to click it as the idea suddenly materialised. "Slythain." He started, working to keep his tone neutral. "You did help us get away from those bats."
"Damn right I did!" cheered the Zangoose, fist bumping the air.
That being said, his cheery tone quickly disappeared when the fire-type spoke again. "The thing is, you would have probably been stuck in that mine if me and Alain hadn't come along."
The normal-type opened his mouth to counter, only for his jaw to work wordlessly for a few seconds as he tried – and failed – to come up with a good counterpoint. With a huff, he crossed his arms and looked away. "…point taken."
Got him. Rex thought, clicking his claws, "So how about this. This was your job, so you get take the Poke for this one, 80-20 your way.
Alain narrowed his gaze, "This is-"
"And if there is a second job straight after this one." Rex continued, "We'll split towards our side more. 40-40 for me and Alain, and you get the remaining 20. Then we can go from there."
The Krilia raised a brow, clearly taken aback. The Zangoose even more so, who looked unsettled, if only for a moment. "Hell." Rex admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "I'll even cut out my part for the mine job and roll it over to you Alain. That way you get a bit extra. Seems reasonable?"
Samiel's hiss nearly rang in his ears, "Ballsy. We could need that Poke later. That, and I'm fairly sure that's not 50%..."
We can manage, save us fighting over the job later. Better to leave with some than none at all.
"I… I can work with that." Slythain said, picking at his canine.
Alain frowned, turning his head towards the sky in deep thought. After a solid few more seconds, he looked back towards the rest of the group. "Very well. I can accept that. Only until these jobs are over, then I'll be on my way."
An invisible weight shifted off Rex's shoulders. Gotcha.
Slythain flashed a shining grin back at the pair, as if the debate had never happened. "Fantastic! Well, we better head back upto Riverwood. It's not too far, just gotta cut down the old forest road." He pointed a claw at a gap in the trees that the track made it's way through. The gap itself revealed a larger path on the other side, likely some kind of main road.
Sighing, Alain placed a hand on his sheathed sword and motioned with the other towards the path, "Then… lead the way."
As the pair turned away and made their way towards the track, Rex allowed his smirk to surface, enjoying the moment. "Well played." Samiel admitted, radiating a little bit of pride. "Now we have two mercenaries on side for a while."
The smirk only got a little bit wider. Mercenary work isn't just about punching mons, fetching trinkets, and just getting cats out of trees you know. We've got to haggle from time to time.
"Heh… some folks I… should know… would probably… likely… okay damn it, I can't remember them, so yeah. Great strategy. A really good one."
Rex stifled a chuckle –
"Rex, I don't have to be psychic to know how satisfied you are." Alain said, his back turned to him.
And the Combusken promptly choked on said chuckle, coughing in response.
"Yeah dude." Slythain teased as he looked back, "Haggling ain't that special. Try and keep up!"
Feeling his cheeks flush, Rex cleared his throat, "Okay, okay. Right behind you!"
As he started walking after the pair with a wider stride, Samiel chuckled. "Ha… well played."
Feeling his brow twitch, Rex lightly but pointingly jabbed – and thankfully with the other's backs turned – a claw into the side of his head, enough to feel a faint prick.
"Right. Shutting up again." Samiel hastily said.
Once more, I had found myself stumbling into trouble just as quickly as I had gotten myself out of it. Then again, that was part of the charm of the mercenary life back then. There was always something new and unpredictable happening. Not to differently from our modern-day Rescue and Explorer teams in a manner of speaking.
I had already written before how I had met one of my future team-mates in the form of Alain. A mysterious swordsmon who was closed off to others. I'm sure you can already imagine that I had just encountered team-mate number two in the form of Slythain. Charming and even more prone to getting himself into trouble than me.
None of us had any idea that this arrangement was going to persist past this one job… and certainly not in the way any of us expected. And before the day was out, we would be come face to face with our final team-mate…
As the Combusken, Kirlia and Zangoose emerged on to the dirt track and started following it towards the north, none of them realised that within the tree canopy, someone else was watching them. Their features were obscured from view, save for a pair of cold, black eyes…
Author's Note: Okay, compared to the last GoB chapter, this one was actually a little bit more straight forward, as part of this chapter was originally slated for Chapter VII until I realized how much over my word limit I actually went. Either way, looks like we have team-mate number 2!