Forming Teams
by MalwareBirb404“This was a bad idea!… This is a horrible idea, what was I thinking!…” Crash thought as he stood frozen staring at the decidueye, who still had his arrow-like feather drawn at the scraggy.
“What the hell is going on here?!” Cinder asked, running back towards Crash.
“Get away from him! He’s with Team Raiders!”
Cinder’s eyes widened as she slowly backed away from the scraggy. She then caught a glance at the wanted poster and stared at it. The vulpix began to breathe heavily as she looked back and forth from the poster and a trembling Crash.
“Walk over here. Slowly …” The decidueye said.
Crash’s heart was pounding. But he did as he was told… Before immediately making a break for it. The decidueye turned and watched Crash run out of the guild, and into the main square.
“ He’s… surprisingly fast… ”
As he made his way into the main square, the scraggy frantically looked for somewhere to run. “This way.” Crash thought as he saw what looked like a market area. He ran and jumped through the various tents and stands, smashing his way through crates before jumping over a counter.
“ Oh Arceus… ” He said to himself, panting.
“ You again… ” Crash looked up at where the voice came from, and saw two familiar looking kecleon looking down at him.
“ Shit… Look, I’m really sorry about earlier…”
The kecleon both looked at eachother, and then back at the scraggy with unamused glares. Crash was then tossed out from behind the stand, and out into the open. Right where several guild members were waiting for him.
Crash was soon taken to a small room in the guild with a wooden table sitting in the middle. He looked around nervously as the decidueye from earlier, and ampharos stood before him.
“Look, if this is about that thing with the kecleons-”
“No, but we’ll be adding that to the list of charges.” Said Vernal.
“Why did I say that…?” Crash thought, gritting his teeth.
The decidueye continued. “The main reason however is your connection to Team Raiders. Namely these four.” He said as the ampharos laid down four more wanted posters on the table. One had a picture of Scorch, while the other three showed an inteleon, a salazzle, and a garchomp wearing a locked metal cuff around their neck.
“Scorch the Inferno, and the Three Drakes, Brine the Sniper, Belladonna the Baneful, and Hunter the Calamity. You are going to tell us everything you know about them.” Crash stared at each one of the posters set out in front of him. “ Well…? ” The scraggy slowly looked back up at Vernal, his face was a much paler shade of yellow and he looked like he was about to pass out.
“ Is… he okay…? ” The ampharos said as he leaned towards Vernal.
“ What do you think…? ” Crash said in a low shaky voice. “ Since you know who they are, so I’m going to assume you know how they operate… ”
At this point, the scraggy was visibly shaking. Seeing this, the serious look on Vernal’s face turned into one of pity. “ Vernal… don’t.” The ampharos said, almost as if he knew what the decidueye would do. Vernal sighed.
“…If I make you an unofficial member of this guild, and you agree to help us find them. Will you talk…?”
“… I don’t have much of a choice do I…? ”
“No way this guy’s with team Raiders…” Cinder thought as she continued to stare at the poster.
Team Raiders, a group bandits whose name is feared across the western region. Bandits known for leaving towns who didn’t comply with their demands in ruins…
“What is one of them doing here…?” Cinder thought. “And why did he just run off like that…?” But the vulpix’s curiosity soon quickly turned into anger.
“DAMMIT!!” Cinder yelled, a few tiny embers leaving her mouth. One of them just happened to land on Crash’s wanted poster.
“Hey! Careful kid…” A pangoro said, putting his hand on the board to extinguish it. “Don’t wanna go burning this down…”
“ Sorry… ” Cinder said with her head down. “ I just can’t believe I let him trick me like that… ”
“Well, it’s what pokemon like him do. Finding…” He paused as Cinder shot him a glare. “ Right. Backing of… ”
“Cinder?” The vulpix turned around and saw an ampharos trying to get her attention.
“ Oh, hey Beacon… Do you need something?”
“Vernal wants to see you.”
“YOU WANT ME TO WHAT!?” Cinder yelled.
“Crash is going to be staying here, and-”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time! It’s just… Is this even allowed?!”
“Certain arrangements have been made to allow this. And you did say you wanted a partner right?” The decidueye said in a somewhat sly tone.
“When I said I wanted a partner, I didn’t mean… THIS!” Cinder then looked at the scraggy. And shortly after the two locked eyes, Crash slowly looked away. “…And what if he tries to run?” She asked.
“ He won’t. ” Vernal said sternly. The scraggy’s body sank down sightly hearing the decidueye’s response.
After Crash and Cinder left the room, Beacon looked over at Vernal. “Do you really think this is a good idea?”
“I’m pretty sure Cinder can handle him.” The decidueye said as he flew from his desk to makeshift perch in the corner of his treehouse office. “Besides, we need to get a hold on Team Raiders…”
Cinder and Crash soon left the confines of the guild, and began to walk past the town square.
“Can you hurry up?!” Cinder said, looking at the scraggy trailing behind her.
“Hey listen here you…” He stopped mid sentence as the vulpix turned to glare at him. “ Listen , I’m not exactly happy about this either.” Crash said. “You think I like being forced into this?”
“Well then maybe you should have made some better life choices. Now hurry up, I’d rather not be seen in public with you.”
The two soon made their way to a small treehouse with a flight of wooden stairs that wrapped around the trunk of the tree. “So this is your place?”
“Yep.” Cinder said as she walked up the stairs. Crash followed, but was met by the door closing in his face. He tried to open the door, but to no avail.
“Really?! You’re locking me out? That’s real mature…” Crash said as he went down the stairs.
Cinder soon looked out her window and saw Crash sitting outside with his back to the house. After staring at the scraggy for a while, she let out a sigh and opened the window. “Fine! You can come inside.” Crash turned his head back to look at the vulpix.
“If I remember correctly, you made it clear that you didn’t want to be seen with me.”
“Well that doesn’t mean I want you sitting in front of my house, it makes me look bad.”
“ How kind of you… ”
“Okay, now I… Eugh! Cinder groaned as she shut the window. “ I actually start to feel a little bad… And he does that!… ” She thought. “…What would Char do right now…?”
For the next few hours Crash continued to sit in front of Cinder’s treehouse. Even after the sun had set, and the night sky crept in overhead. “ It’s really getting windy out there… ” Cinder said to herself, as the howling wind outside began to grow louder.
She looked out the window again to find that the scraggy still hadn’t moved from his spot. Only now he had pulled up the loose skin that hung around his waist in an effort to stay somewhat warm. The same slight hint of guilt from earlier slowly began to come back. “Oh for fuck’s sake… That’s it! Stupid conscience… ” The vulpix said as she stormed towards the door.
“ Get inside… ” Cinder said, gritting her teeth as she walked down the stairs. “If you don’t I’m dragging you in!” Crash slumped forwards as Cinder bit down on the loose skin on the scraggy’s tail and began to pull.
“ Watch your chin. ” She muttered. “What have you gotten me into Vernal…?”
“No… No don’t… No, no, no…”
Cinder soon shot up in her bed, panting heavily. It was next morning. And after catching her breath, she looked around the relatively small space that was her treehouse and found that Crash was nowhere to be seen. “ Arceus dammit… ” The vulpix slowly got off her straw bed, and began to walk towards the door. Only for it to open, revealing a certain scraggy.
“Where were you?! And is that my bag?!” Cinder angrily asked.
“ Just out. And yes, yes it is.” Crash answered as he walked inside.
“What do you mean, out?! You’re not supposed to be out by yourself!”
“ …You getting enough sleep? You don’t look too good. ” Crash said, laying down on a second straw bed.
“ You’re really starting to piss me off, you know that… ”
“ And to think I was going to offer you some of these dried berries. ” Crash said, taking out a berry from the pouch of loose skin around his waist.
“ Yeah, like I wanna eat stolen berries from out of there. ” The vulpix said, standing over Crash. The scraggy rolled his eyes.
“I’ll have you know I bought these.”
Cinder scowled and snatched her bag away from Crash, looking inside. “ Yeah, with my money… ”
The two pokemon soon heard a knock at the door. “Don’t touch anything.” Cinder said as she walked towards the door. Opening it, she saw a silver ninetales wearing a dark green scarf sitting in front of her. “Char? What are you doing here?”
“What? I can’t just visit my little sister…?” He said, putting a paw to his chest. “ You really know how to hurt a guy Cinder… ” Char said, smiling as he dramatically turned away.
Cinder smiled and rolled her eyes. “Just hurry up and come in you big doofus.” Char came inside and saw a scraggy laying on what used to be his bed. “ So… That’s him huh…? ”
“Yep, and he’s a real pain in the ass too…” Cinder said glaring at Crash. “Wait, how did-”
“The whole guild’s been talking about it.” Char answered.
“So I’m the talk of the guild now huh…?” Crash said, eating another berry.
“ Please stop talking. ” Cinder said, scowling at the scraggy.
“Well Vernal felt kinda bad about this, and said you don’t have to come in today.” Char said, looking down at his sister.
“ Lovely… ”
“You don’t sound happy about that.”
“Cause it doesn’t matter if I’m at the guild or not, I’m stuck with him.”
“ Well that’s not very nice .” Crash said in a smug tone as he got up. “ Because I for one, am so glad to be in your company… ” He said putting an arm around the vulpix. The two foxes glared at the scraggy, with Cinder even giving a small growl. “Okay, okay, backing off…” Crash said, quickly stepping back.
“While I’m here, how about we go get something to eat.” Char said.
“Does that mean he has to come…?” Cinder groaned, as she looked back at the scraggy.
“Hey, it’s like you said, you’re stuck with me… ”
As the three made their way to the town square, they were met with many stares from various pokemon. “ I guess they heard the news too… ” Cinder said with her head down.
“Come on, don’t be like that.” Char said, rubbing the top of his sister’s head with his paw. “Come with me…” The ninetales said, walking off.
“See that?” Char said as he went up to a board covered in various job postings. He pointed up to a poster on the board displaying the faces of an inteleon, a salazzle, and a garchomp. “Your big brother and his team are gonna be part of a group the guild’s putting together to track these guys down.” He said proudly.
Crash looked up and stared at the pictures on the board. His breathing hastened as he remembered the last interaction he had with those three. Cinder and Char watched as the scraggy slowly backed away from the board. “ Can… can we go…? ”
Cinder smirked. “Hey, what happened to that smug ‘mon from before? Guess I finally found something that’ll shut you… up…” Cinder paused as her expression changed when she noticed a look of pure fear creep over the scraggy’s face as continued to slowly back away. “ …Yeah… sure… let’s go… ”
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