New objectives

The rest of the day went more or less well. Rachel went back to the guild since that’s where she was staying while the other two got back home. For Mark, however, every conversation with Simon was stress-inducing. Not exactly a ‘bad’ kind of stress, but stress nonetheless. Like his brain shut off every time he heard him talk.

He could only pray that Simon was oblivious to his body language…

The next morning came soon enough, but instead of being woken up naturally, it was because of  a mildly loud knock on the door.

“Ugh… Who the hell is it?” Simon groggily said to himself while he walked to the door. He was wearing a tiredness that only Charlie could compete against.

When he opened the door, it was a surprise. “Oh, thank god you’re awake. I have some news.”

“Guildmaster Gren? How do you know where we live?”

At that moment Rachel appeared from behind them, awkwardly waving. “They asked me to lead them here.”

Yeah, okay, Mark wasn’t going to go to sleep again. “What do you mean by news? Did you figure out where Dialga is?”

“Not yet, I’m still working on that. But there’s an emergency job that I need you three to do.”

“Three? I’m technically not a part of their team yet, you know?”

Gren looked at her directly before pulling up a lime bandana. “You are now.”

“Oh. Well, I… Okay, sure.”

“What’s the emergency?” Simon asked.

“Team Acolyte. They went on a mission yesterday and they still haven’t returned. I wouldn’t worry if it was a harder mission, since those can sometimes take multiple days, but the one they took wasn’t one of them.”

“What if they just went somewhere for the night?”

“I don’t think so. First of all, they live at the guild. Secondly, I told them before they went out that since they were doing well lately, I wanted to discuss a raise for them. I really doubt they’d leave me waiting.”

“Yeah, no, that doesn’t sound like Verm at all…” Simon said to himself. “Are there no other teams available?”

“I could ask someone else, but I know you two are close to the team, and since you’re on break…”

“Where did they go?”

“Crosshatch Chasm. You know where it is, right?”

Simon grabbed his map and took a look. “Yeah, it shouldn’t take us long.” He looked at Mark. “You ready?”

“I think we should replenish items beforehand. Aside from that, I’m ready to go.”

“Good call. Let’s go.”

They left the house and Rachel followed behind. Gren stayed there, looking at them with a pensive look. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking, but Mark didn’t have time to stop and wonder about it.

After a quick visit to Kecleon’s (which thankfully didn’t involve any assaults from the townsfolk), they went out into the wilderness again. Simon seemed to know where he was going, so the other two followed, just like last time. The only difference being this time Mark was left alone to his thoughts.

He felt a bit conflicted. He said to himself yesterday that he’d confess to Simon today. But with this impromptu mission, he was now wondering if there would be a good time for it. He didn’t want to delay it, but the fear he had at the thought of saying it out loud made him search for any excuse possible to avoid it. And this was one of those excuses.

“So what is Crosshatch Chasm?” He said, hoping that the conversation would distract him enough to not think about his internal fighting.

“If you’re wondering about types, mostly Dark-types.” Rachel responded. “If you’re actually asking about the name, I think it’s because of all the intersections in the dungeon.”

“You think?”

“I don’t know, never been there.”

“Rachel’s right, yeah. I’ve been there with Rose a couple of times, a bit of a higher level than usual but nothing terrible.”

“I just hope those three are okay.”

“They will be, I’ve known Team Acolyte almost since I got to this world. They’re tough.” Simon tried to be reassuring, but Mark wasn’t convinced. If they really were okay, they would have returned.

---

The trip was shorter than Mark expected. He appreciated that, less time to let his mind wander around. He took his position on the back, managing the items, as he used to do.

“Fifteen floors, by the way. Although I imagine those three haven’t gotten to the end.”

The ferals did seem a bit stronger than in the other dungeons, but with Simon and Rachel working together now, they didn’t pose that much of a threat. Those two had synergy when they weren’t bickering at each other. Although it wasn’t just bickering, there was a weird feel in the air.

Nobody was saying a word, and yet everyone was working well. Mark wasn’t sure if it was a silent understanding or if they were both too focused on helping the others that they didn’t notice.

Whatever the case, it was clear they were all determined to get through it, and get through it fast.

The floors went by quickly. Both Simon and Rachel were storming through the rooms, with the occasional healing berry or useful orb from Mark. Around the sixth one, they noticed there were no ferals around.

“Hello?!” Simon shouted, hoping for someone to be around.

“Simon?! We’re here!” That was Siobhan. Thank god they were okay.

When they arrived, Team Acolyte wasn’t looking great. It wasn’t terrible, but it explained why they couldn’t come back.

“So, quick recap. Got ambushed by an army of Murkrow. We managed to dispatch them but we were stupid and didn’t bring Escape Orbs with us.”

Dot was sitting against a wall, clutching her leg. Upon seeing Mark’s team, she weakly waved. “So uh… broken leg. And Verm right there has fainted.” Sure enough, Verm was on the opposite wall, carefully leaned against it and completely unconscious. “We’re fine, but we can’t move.”

Rachel approached the ghost. “Doesn’t seem like any superficial injuries, probably just a very nasty hit, maybe some dislocated bones, but he’ll be alright.”

“Isn’t he a ghost, though? Do ghosts have bones?” Mark asked, seeing Verm phase through floors and walls like it was nothing, it felt weird that he had any internal organs at all.

“There’s a difference between ghosts and ghost energy, it’s like- Okay, actually, this isn’t the time, I’ll explain later.” Simon positioned himself beside Dot and helped her up. “Mark, help me with Dot. Rachel, you think you can carry Verm? You seem strong enough.”

“Yeah, sure, leave it to me.”

Mark used the Escape Orb, surrounding all of them with that blinding light. As soon as they were out, they started walking towards the guild.

“Siobhan, do you think you can fly ahead and let the guild know? Maybe we can meet in the middle and make things easier.”

“You got it.”

And so they left, leaving the five of them walking along.

“Thank god you came, honestly. We were worried nobody was going to find us.”

“You better thank Gren. They were the one that let us know you didn’t come back to the guild last night. Speaking of which, did you three stay there the whole time?”

“I mean, we kinda had no other option. We could’ve tried to move, but none of us could carry Verm, especially not me with a broken leg.”

The two of them kept talking, but Mark was having an internal conflict with himself that was louder than the conversation next to him. He was going to tell him. He was going to open up and finally tell Simon what had been bothering these last few days. He deserved to know. All he had to do was return to the guild, and he’d be free to talk it out afterwards.

They were already pretty close to the guild, when a familiar-looking Rhydon came into view. Mark had seen them before, probably on one of the visits to the guild’s café.

“Hi Randall!”

“Hello, all of you.” He pointed to Rachel. “Need help with that?”

“Arceus, yes, please. My back is killing me.” Randall carefully picked up Verm and carried him on his back.

“Damn… how is he so heavy?”

“I keep telling him to stop floating everywhere, but he never listens.” Dot chuckled.

When they got to the guild, Siobhan was already waiting there. Verm and Dot got carried upstairs to the medical area, which only left the four of them.

“Hey, Mark? Gren wanted to see you. Well, the three of you.” Siobhan said. “I’m gonna check on those two. I probably need to explain the situation to Charlie.”

“Okay, be careful, Siobhan.”

Simon waved at them, and they left.

“So uh… are we gonna go to Gren’s office or…?” Rachel murmured. “I imagine they have a clue on Dialga.”

“Yeah… yeah, we should go.” Mark said. But in his head, he already realized this was the next excuse that would help him avoid what he feared to do. It was delay after delay, and he wasn’t sure for how much longer he could keep it up.