Heated Encounters
by MalwareBirb404“ So… This place is pretty nice right… ” Thorn said, gesturing around the wooden interior of the restaurant as he tried to break the silence. The sceptile looked around the table at his teammates who were waiting for their food to arrive, and then at Crash who was stuffing his face and pouch with breadsticks.
“What? I’m pretty sure the breadsticks are free.” Crash said, looking around at the others before taking another bite.
Cinder simply sank down, avoiding the scraggy’s gaze. “Fine more for me than.” Crash said as he continued to take more breadsticks.
“So am I gonna get a bag anytime soon? Cause I don’t think there’ll be as much space in here after tonight…” Crash said, pulling on his pouch before releasing it.
“ Anyways… ” Thorn said, trying to change the topic. “You know Char, I think I saw that one lucario eyeing you up earlier… ” The sceptile playfully said, as he nudged the silver fox’s side.
“I told you, I’m not- … look, she scares me… ”
“Ah, come on, she’s not that bad.” Thorn said, poking Char.
“Okay, knock it off Thorn.” Mist interjected.
“ Thank you… ” The ninetales said, glancing down.
“ Just because our brave leader lost a sparring match against the fearsome lucario, it doesn’t mean he can’t look her in the eye ever again. ” The vaporeon joked, using a somewhat dramatic tone of voice.
“ So you’ve turned on me too now huh…? ”
Cinder snickered as she watched the three go at each other. But the vulpix couldn’t help but feel like she was kind of like an outsider looking in when it came to watching Char and his friends. It wasn’t like he never made time for her, or that his friends didn’t want Cinder around. But it still felt a bit weird sometimes.
However her tone soon shifted when Crash told the group a rather crass joke involving a magmortar. Admittedly, she did think it was kind of funny. But that didn’t change how she felt about the scraggy.
“And he says, “Heh… Yeah… sure… flame body…” Thorn smirked, and breathed just a little bit harder than normal. But the others didn’t seem to show much of a reaction.
“ Come on, that was funny… ” Crash said, crossing his arms as he slumped in his seat.
The next morning, neither Crash nor Cinder felt all that great. Cinder had trouble sleeping again, and Crash’s back still hurt a bit from yesterday. “ How ‘bout we go for something easy this time… ” Crash said, as he leaned backwards.
“Cinder…?”
“ …Yeah… …Get that one up there… ”
Crash looked up at the board and stared at the job postings for a few seconds, before a slight grin crept onto his face. He took out the pin attaching the posting to board and grabbed the paper, handing it to Cinder. As for the pin, he carefully placed it into his pouch.
“ Alright, let’s see if that chesto coffee line is shorter now… ” Cinder tiredly said, as she turned to leave.
Char watched as the two left the guild and walked after them. “Cin! Heads up!” The ninetales said, trying to get his sister’s attention. Cinder turned around before she rose up on her hind legs to catch the chesto berry Char had thrown in her mouth.
“You know that was our last one right?” Thorn said as he and Mist walked up to the silver ninetales.
“ Come on, she’ll hear you… And I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine.” Char responded, turning to his teammates.
“Cause let’s not forget exactly how we became gold rank.” The fox said, smiling. But his smile soon faded as he saw Beacon walking towards them, the ampharos having a serious expression on his face.
“Something wrong Beacon?” Mist asked, turning her head to the side.
“Well… Yes and no… we recently got a job that requested for you three specifically.” Beacon said, handing over a piece of paper to Thorn, who began to read it.
“What’s it say?” Char asked.
“Remember that bayleef from the village a couple of days ago…?”
Walking through an open field, the three pokemon approached what looked like a farming village. They could see the pokemon living there were at work repairing the damage caused by the Basin Hound’s raid. Char could feel heat welling up inside of him as he looked around. The silver ninetales was angry, and it showed as multiple tails violently swished around.
“ Are you doing alright? ” Mist whispered.
“ Yeah… I’m just still kinda pissed about what the basin hounds did here…”
They were soon approached by a bayleef and chikorita, the first of which was covered in a few scrapes and scratches.
“Hey, thanks for coming. And uh, don’t mind all the scratches, just showing him a few moves.” The bayleef said, gesturing to their younger sibling.
“Hickory says I need to learn to defend myself.” The chikorita said in a cheerful, innocent tone.
Hearing this, Char couldn’t help but smile as he remembered back when he was still new in the guild, and would show Cinder move techniques during his free time.
“By the way, I… want to apologize again for that thing with the Basin Hounds… I probably shouldn’t have dragged those two into that…” The bayleef said, glancing down. “I saw what happened after we got outta there… You care about her alot don’t you…”
“Yeah, I do…” Char answered, before taking a deep breath. “But it’s okay. You didn’t know… ”
“You know… I’ve wanted to be an explorer for a long time…” Hickory said, looking back up. “But not a whole lot of ‘mons around here are the battling type, plus I’m kinda needed here…”
“ So… you’ve been having more bandit issues?” Thorn asked.
“ Yeah… and I’m pretty sure I know why too… ” Hickory said, glancing away. “ This… might be a bit much to ask… But can you guys keep a secret…? ”
Char, Thorn, and Mist each looked at each other. “ That depends… ” Thorn said, looking slightly off to the side. “We… might have to tell the guild if it’s… uh… “something of interest…”
“ Oh… ” The leafy dinosaur sighed.
“Listen kid, it’ll only come to that if we have to. So if it doesn’t, this stays between us.” Mist said, the vaporeon walking towards the two grass types.
Hickory thought about it for a second, before nodding. “Okay then, follow me.”
The five pokemon soon walked over to a large barn at the far end of the village. As they got closer, they saw two chikorita roughhousing in the dirt. As well a second bayleef pulling a wide tool across the ground.
“Hey! I told you two no fighting while I was gone!” Hickory yelled to the two chikorita, who both immediately stopped when they heard their older brother.
“They started it!” The two both yelled back.
“You said you’d watch them!” Hickory said to the other bayleef.
“Yeah, I lied. Shit needed to get done.”
“Come on sis, I don’t ask you for much.”
“You were showing the little ones how to fight earlier. What’d you think would-… Wait, is this that team you were talking about?”
“Yeah, they are. Now where’s mom and dad?”
“Mom went out for a bit. But dad’s still in the back. With the… thing. ”
As they followed Hickory to the field behind the barn, the team saw a large tent that had several big holes in it’s roof. “Not gonna lie, this is feeling a bit weird… ” Thorn said, as he stared at the tent. The sceptile then began to slowly walk over to the structure, putting his clawed hand up to the flap used to enter. But not before a meganium poked their head out from behind it.
“Ah!” Thorn yelled, quickly taking a few steps backward. The meganium looked down at Hickory and grunted.
“Hickory… What is this…? ”
“Um, excuse me sir.” Char said, looking up at the meganium. “Your son brought us here because of an issue potentially involving bandits.”
The meganium sighed. “I thought I told you that I didn’t want the guild getting involved. At least not yet… ”
“ Well… Since we’re here, do you mind if we can take a look…?” Thorn awkwardly asked, as he tapped his claws together.
“We won’t take too long. Promise.” Mist added.
“…Fine.” The meganium reluctantly said as he stepped aside.
Char, Thorn, and Mist slowly entered, and were shocked by what they saw. Inside were a number of plants that had empowerment seeds growing from them. A crate full of the rainbow colored seeds could also be seen in the back of the tent as well.
“How did you do this…?” Char asked, still in shock.
“Yeah… If I’m right they’ve only ever been found growing in dungeons…” Added Mist. “And even then they’re really hard to come across…”
“ So the Basin Hounds… ” Thorn said under his breath, as faced Char.
The ninetales glanced off to the side, before turning his attention back to the meganium. “ Can you excuse us for a bit…? ”
“Do you think Team Raiders might be sending more ‘mons to finish what they started?” Thorn asked. The trio had since moved away to the now empty front of the barn, not wanting the family of grass types to hear their conversation.
“Maybe… But I’m wondering how Team Raiders found out about what they had back there…” Said Mist.
“ They have their ways… ” Char muttered as he turned slightly away from his team. “The only question is what we should do now…”
As the three headed back to continue speaking with Hickory and his father, they heard what sounded like an exchange of attacks. Rushing to the field, the bayleef and meganium both fired off an energy ball attack at a white and orange rabbit. The cinderace dodged, before creating a ball of fire with his feet and kicking it towards them. However the fireball was soon destroyed by a blast of water that came from behind the two grass types.
Mist and Cher then jumped in between them, taking a battle stance. The cinderace then glanced at the tent, and back at the exploration team. “So you two wanna fight huh?” He said with a smirk. “Come on, I’ll take both you fuckers on!”
“You guys get back, they’ll deal with this.” Thorn said, trying to keep the family of grass types away from the battle.
But as the fight went on, Thorn began to feel like something was off. The ciderace wasn’t fighting so much as he was dodging, and the sceptile could’ve sworn he saw movement inside of the tent. He slowly walked over to the flap in the tent, and opened it. Inside, a pair of bunnelby with paws full of empowerment seeds.
The two rabbits stood and stared at Thorn before darting out of the tent. Seeing Thorn chasing after his partners, the ciderace turned to bolt off as well. However, the fire type soon found himself knocked to the ground by a blast of water. “I’ll deal with this! You go help Thorn!” Mist loudly said. Char nodded, and turned to run after the three.
As Thorn ran deeper into a less grassy part of the fields outside the village after the two bunnelby, he saw that the duo were dropping more and more seeds as they ran away from him. “Look at these guys…” Thorn thought before he jumped and used energy ball to try and cut them off.
“Alright you two. I think that’s enough.” The sceptile said, landing in front of the bunnelby. The two rabbits just looked at each other and took a step back.
“Okay, seriously. Drop the seeds.” Thorn said, crossing his arms.
“ Bullying my new playthings… Don’t you have anything better to do…? ” A soft voice called out. Thorn looked towards some large, nearby rocks. And was shocked at what, or rather who he saw.
The salazzle, Belladonna the Baneful herself, was laying on top of a boulder. Almost as if she was waiting for someone to arrive.
“Belladonna the Baneful! In the name of the Timberglade Guild! You-”
“Yeah, shut up a second.” Bella said, holding up her hand, and giving a sigh. “So, you’re with the guild… Then I guess I can’t be too upset… ” The salazzle said as she slowly got up.
“But you should know I prefer Bella.”
As Char ran through the fields, he could clearly hear what sounded like another battle. The ninetales continued to run towards the source of the noise, and found Thorn engaged in a battle with Bella. With the two bunnelby already knocked out on the ground. The salazzle danced around Thorn, using moves like flamethrower, and fire lash to keep the sceptile at a distance. Char growled, using energy ball to try and drive off Bella.
“Weren’t you ever taught not to interrupt a girl’s fun…” Bella said, glaring at Char.
“Belladonna, you’re coming with us!”
The salazzle rolled her eyes and did a backflip onto a nearby rock. “ Then come and get me, handsome. ”
“ Well now she’s just showing off… ” Thorn muttered.
Char growled, and leapt up at the black and purple lizard who simply stepped to the side. When the ninetales landed, both he and Thorn used energy ball towards Bella. But once again she dodged, leaping into the air. The airborne salazzle then began to spin around rapidly, using flamethrower as she did. Char immediately jumped in front of his friend as the stream of fire danced about.
“Get back, and go get Mist!” Char said. “I can keep her busy, just hurry!” Thorn nodded and ran back towards the farm.
“You know if I’m gonna be honest, your friend’s kinda cute. Might have to track him down later… ” Bella said as she landed. Char’s tails began to violently swish around as his gaze was now solely focused on the salazzle.
“I’d say he makes for a good dance partner… But something tells me you-” She was soon interrupted by a stream of fire just barely hitting her.
“ENOUGH!!” Char yelled.
“ Well if you’re gonna be like that, then I guess it is… ” Bella responded in a more serious tone.
Mist and Thorn ran over to where the sceptile had left Char. Fire, and globs of purple liquid were flying left and right.
“Is that…?” Mist asked, watching the battle.
“ Yeah, it is… And we gotta help Char to cut her off.” The two split up, going around to try and catch Bella from another angle.
Bella jumped and hid behind some large rocks, reaching for some of the bigger vials on her belt. The glass containers she chose held a pinkish-purple liquid. Just as Bella held them up, Char, Mist, and Thorn came rushing at her from three different directions.
“There’s nowhere to g-” Char yelled, before a large, purple cloud erupted from the ground.
A sweet but noxious, overpowering smell began to fill the air as the salazzle ran away. “Get back! And don’t… Don’t breathe it in…” Char yelled, as he started coughing. Thorn, and Mist did so as a mass of fire filled the ninetales’ mouth. A fiery explosion soon cleared away most of the purple mist.
But once it was all mostly gone, it was easy for the three to see that something else was gone. “ ARCEUS FUCKING DAMMIT!!! ” Char yelled, a few small flames erupting from his mouth before he started coughing again.
“Char, take it easy…” Mist said, slowly walking over.
“Don’t…” The ninetales said, holding out his paw. “ Just… take out… some pecha berries… for each of us… ” Char said as he stumbled towards his team.
“Look, we’ll… we’ll get ‘em next time. Alright.” Thorn said with a slight smile, trying to lighten the mood.
Char sighed as he ate the berry Mist gave him. “ Yeah, sure… …What matters is that they’re safe now…” He said, looking back in the direction of the barn.
Bella stopped to catch her breath once she had reached the woods. The salazzle looked down at the one empowerment seed she managed to grab during her escape. She tightened her grip on the seed, before throwing it against a tree. “Fuck!!” Bella then took a few deep breaths before immediately running after the seed and picking it up.
As she made her way back towards the camp, Bella could see what was left of the site being packed away into crates. “The hell’s going on here?” She asked, walking up towards Brine.
“Relocation.” The inteleon said, putting on his cloak. “I don’t know what it is you did, but Scorch is… Upset .”
Aside from what remained of Team Raider’s camp, there were craters, downed trees, and patches of land that were burned to a crisp. As well as a few pokemon laying across the ground that either seemed to be dead, or unconscious. Bella slowly walked up to Scorch’s red tent which was miraculously still up, taking deep breaths as she did. The salazzle opened the front and stuck her head inside. Scorch had his back to her, and seemed to be digging around in some crates.
“ So you’re finally back… ” The emboar said, his back still facing Bella.
“ Yeah… You wanted to talk…? ”
“ Yes… just one fire type to another… ”
“ Okay… ”
“I just want to make sure you understand what I’m about to say…” Scorch said, as the flames around his neck began to grow. “ When fires are left unchecked, they get the idea that they can go around and burn whoever they want, wherever they want… ”
At this point, the emboar’s breathing had grown heavier as Scorch’s flames had continued to increase in size, setting fire to the tent. Everyone around the camp stopped what they were doing, and looked over at their boss’ now burning quarters.
Scorch stomped over to the salazzle and grabbed her arm, holding it up as he walked her outside. “If I can have everyone’s attention! I would now like to show you the reason we’re moving! Bella, and her dear garchomp tried to kill three members of the Crimson Eye Rouges on neutral ground! As a result, they attacked a town to the north in our name! And made the foolish decision to come here!!”
“ It may not seem like it sometimes, but there are in fact rules no matter where you go… ” Scorch said as he slowly turned towards Bella. “ SO WHAT DID YOU DO YESTERDAY?!!! ” He yelled, violently releasing the salazzle’s arm as the flames around his neck shot up at the tent, incinerating it.
Bella’s tail hastily whipped around as she looked away. “ It was just… some dumb thing that started over lunch… ” The salazzle said, in a similar manner to a teen being scolded by their parents. “Besides, they attacked me firs-”
“ If you had done this anywhere else, I wouldn’t give a damn… ” Scorch said, as his fists started to shake. “ But the tavern is off limits… And you two know that… ”
“ What… do you want me to do…? ” Bella asked, taking a step back.
“Since the two of you like to fight so much. You and Hunter are gonna help me clean up your damn mess. ” Scorch grumbled as he turned around. The flames around his neck had calmed slightly, but still danced around wildly as embers flew off into the surrounding area.
“ I’m not letting some damn punks make me look bad… ” The angry emboar huffed, snorting in annoyance.
“So I’m assuming the plan has changed then…” Brine thought, after watching the scene unfold. “Leave it to Belladonna to disrupt everything she touches…”
Vernal always enjoyed his fights above Timberglade. Soaring above the town was something the decidueye did every now and then to clear his head, or just to stretch out his wings. But this time he couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation he and his assistant guildmaster, Beacon had prior to his outing.
“How come you haven’t asked Crash about Team Raiders’ location yet?” The ampharos asked, after entering Vernal’s office.
“ Honestly, I get the feeling that’s the one thing that he won’t say… ” The decidueye said, looking Beacon dead in the eye as he did.
“Vernal, you and I both know that-”
“Yes, I get what you’re saying… Just… give me more time to think about this… ”
“He’s not wrong… never has been…” Vernal thought as he glided back to his treetop office, only to find Char, Mist, and Thorn waiting for him on the deck.
“And how can I help you three?” He said, landing in front of them. Char and his team all glanced at each other, and back at Vernal.
Char stepped up to the guildmaster, and cleared his throat. “ We… ran into Belladonna… ”
After the three followed Vernal inside, they told the decidueye of the day’s events. “ And then she vanished… ” Char said with his head down. “If anything, she probably ran into the woods. But-” The ninetales stopped, as Vernal raised his wing. The decidueye went behind his desk, pulling out a map of the western region.
The map had red markings on various locations, some were clustered together. While others were further apart. Vernal picked up one of his stray arrow-like feathers, and dipped it in a well of red ink. Char, Mist, and Thorn watched as Vernal marked down an X on the location of their mission.
“Each time we make a connection to where they’ve been… … If I just could figure out where they’re going… ” Verenal said, mostly to himself.
“I still can’t believe I-… we let her get away… ” Char said, as he and his friends walked downstairs.
“Look at it this way. We’ll find her again, and we’ll definitely be ready!” Thorn said, raising and clenching one of his clawed hands.
“ Yeah… ”
“Honestly, with her battle style, getting a hold of her would’ve been difficult anyways.” Mist said, thinking back on the fight.
“You know, I kinda want to-…” Char said, before trailing off. The silver ninetales noticing his sister and Crash standing outside the guild.
Char smiled and began to walk towards them, but his smile faded as he stopped dead in his tracks. “ What… happened…? ” Char asked, backing away as he noticed a horrible smell coming from the two pokemon.
“ …Stunky… stunky happened… ” Cinder answered, with a blank look on her face.
“ Yeah… …I’ll admit… this one’s my bad… ” Crash said, with the same blank stare.
“ Yeah, I’m burning that slingshot. ” Cinder remarked, glaring at the scraggy.
“Well, the two of you reek.” Thorn said, covering his face with his arm. “How do you even get that stuff off…?”
“Tamato berry juice.” Mist cut in. “And a lot of it…”
“ Great… ” Cinder groaned.
“ Heh… Looks like we both had a ruff day, huh… ” Char said with a tired expression on his face.
“ Well that sucked… ” Cinder muttered, laying on her back in bed.
“It wasn’t… that bad…”
“ Well ‘cause you’re probably used to covering yourself in berry juice, aren’t you. ”
“ Okay, so you’re still mad about that… ” Crash said under his breath.
“ So… What’s it like having a brother?” Crash asked, as he laid down. Cinder simply rolled on her side, trying to ignore the scraggy.
“Hey, I’m just wondering… Char seems like a pretty cool guy.”
“ Uh huh… ” Cinder mumbled as she tried to tune out Crash and go to sleep.
Later that night, Crash quietly got out of bed and walked over to where he last saw Cinder put her box. The scraggy reached into his pouch, before rapidly pulling his hand back out. He quietly grunted in pain, as the pin he was reaching for poked his hand.
“Dammit, that fucking hurt!…” After sucking on his hand, he reached back in more carefully, and slowly pulled out the pin he took from the job board. “Alright… here goes nothing…” Crash thought.
Crash stuck the pin inside the box’s keyhole, and jiggled it around. “Come on, come on…”
“ Eghhh… ” Crash froze when he heard Cinder groan in her sleep. Crash sighed before getting back to work. After a few minutes, Crash kept at it but had no luck.
“Damn it, what’s with this thing…?” The scraggy thought, starting to grow impatient.
“I don’t get it, this normally would’ve wor-” Crash’s thoughts were soon cut off as he felt a jolt of energy rocket up his arm. Shortly afterwards the scraggy’s arm went numb, and a feeling of weakness came over him as everything went black.
“Crash! Wake up!” Cinder yelled, looking down at the scraggy. “Come on! We gotta go-”
“I didn’t touch your box!” Crash yelled back, as he jolted up and back.
“ …The hell are you…? ” Cinder muttered, turning her head towards the box. It was exactly where she had left it. The vulpix walked over to the small box and pulled it out, jostling it with her paw. “ …Stay outta my stuff… ”
“Char, you look like shit…” Thorn said, staring at his friend.
“ Thanks… ”
Mist slapped the sceptile’s side with her finned tail. “He means you look kinda- ”
“ I’ll be fine… ” The ninetales tiredly mumbled as he began to try and straighten out his fur. “ Just… give me a bit… ”
As the three later approached the guild, Char could see Cinder and Crash sitting outside the massive tree. The vulpix then got up and quickly walked over to her brother, taking a blue and beige colored berry out of her bag and placing it in his.
“For yesterday.”
“…Thanks Cin.” Char said, messing up the fur on Cinder’s head with his paw.
As Char watched his sister walk off into the guild with Crash, the silver ninetales turned towards Thorn and jabbed him in the side. “
I told you she’d hear you…
”
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