Not as They Seem
by MalwareBirb404Crash laid awake in his bed, staring at the floor beneath the dresser. He couldn’t stop thinking about the box… He had the same feeling that he used to have when he was little, whenever his dad told him to stay out of his “personal area”. Because not only did he not have enough time to look inside, but unlike his dad’s booze cabinet, it was locked.
But as much as Crash wanted to look for a key, he was tired. And the scraggy knew from experience that searching someone’s place while tired was a bad idea.
“I guess I could try and pick it… If I had anything to pick it with… But I’d have to get up to find something though…”
Tomorrow. He’d do it tomorrow.
The next morning, Crash and Cinder stood in front of the guild’s main job board. The scraggy shuffled about as he glanced around the lobby.
“Just pick something already…” He thought.
“ I’ve seen slowpoke make faster decisions than this. ” Crash said, mostly to himself. Cinder groaned, hearing the scraggy’s comment and finally took something off the board.
“A lost item…? Really…?!” Crash said as he and Cinder walked out into an open field.
“ Yep. ”
“…Well it’s at least valuable… Right…?”
As they continued walking, three electrike sped past them. “ The hell was that about…? ” But no sooner had Crash asked, a green sphere came flying towards them. Cinder and Crash quickly threw themselves to the ground to avoid it. The two landed in a patch of tall grass and watched as a bayleef ran past them, presumably after the electrike.
“ What’s going on…? ” Cinder asked.
“ I think I have some idea… ”
“Well I’m pretty sure there’s a village over that way… …We’re going over there…”
“ Fantastic… And here I thought we had a job to do… ”
Crash begrudgingly followed Cinder to the nearby village she spoke of. However as they got closer, it began to look like a storm had ripped though half the village. Cinder ran up to a chikorita who was looking over the debris. “What happened here?!”
“ …A group of pokemon came through here to steal stuff and wreck the place… …They call themselves the Basin Hounds…”
“The Basin Hounds?!” Crash said as he was trying to keep himself from laughing.
“Those guys are lo-”
“Going to answer for this!” Cinder interrupted.
“You know what, sure. Why not? I’ve been wanting to mess with those guys for a while.” Crash said, sounding just a bit too happy for the other’s liking.
“My older brother went after them too… can you… just make sure he’s alright…? ”
Cinder smiled at the grass type and nodded. “We’ll get your brother back. You can count on it.” The vulpix said before turning to head back out into the field.
“ …Right, what she said… ” Crash said as he did the same.
“Well we saw them run off this way, it shouldn’t take too long to find them. The Basin Hounds aren’t really known for subtlety.” Crash said as he gestured behind him.
“ And you know so much about these guys because… ”
“I used to run into them a lot . They’d often target the same places my team would head to. Damn that crap was annoying… Acting they were hot shit all the time… They even tried to steal from us a few times… But they’re not really much of a threat.”
Cinder thought back to what she saw at the village. “Not much of a threat huh…?”
Further in the field, Crash and Cinder could hear what sounded like an intense battle. The two peered over a rock, and could see a bayleef attempting to fight off a houndoom, manectric, and granbull. “ Well that’s new… ” Crash whispered.
“ What’s new…? ”
“ Since when did these guys evolve…? ”
The bayleef soon collapsed as the three dogs started cackling, before darting into a large hole in a raised piece of land. “ Well it looks like those annoying laughs haven’t changed… ” Crash said, scowling. Cinder lept out from behind the rock, and ran for the fallen bayleef.
“Hey, are you doing alright…?” Cinder asked as she quickly dug through her bag.
“ …Yeah… I’ll be okay… ” The bayleef said as the leafs around their neck began to glow. Soon after they did, a few of his wounds started to heal and disappear.
“I would’ve done that sooner, but it takes a while for me to do…” The leafy dinosaur said, slowly getting up. “Wait, you two are with a guild right? Help me go after those guys.”
“ That’s kinda why we’re here. ” Crash said, crossing his arms. “So are we going in after them or what?”
Echoing Cavern: Floor 1
“Hey, is it stalagmites, or stalactites that grow on the floor?” Crash asked, looking around.
“ Does it matter…? ” Cinder groaned.
The scraggy rolled his eyes and faced the bayleef. “So any reason you went after them yourself like that? Just wondering .”
“Well someone had to do something. And I’m one of the few pokemon in my village that’s actually any decent at battling.”
“ Huh… ”
“Well the way you spoke about them earlier, I’m guessing you would’ve done the same.” Remarked Cinder, before a pebble soon flew past the vulpix’s face and down one of the cave’s wide tunnels. She turned back and glared at Crash, who was holding up his slingshot.
“ Sorry… My hand slipped… ”
A loud roar then rang out though the cave, as an aerodactyl quickly flew out of the tunnel the pebble had gone down.
“Get down!” Cinder yelled, the three diving behind some large rocks. “Crash! I swear to Arceus, if this happened because you-” Cinder was interrupted as the aerodactyl used hyper beam.
The two dove out of the way, and began a counterattack. Cinder used flamethrower, the stream of flames missing the flying pokemon. Crash picked up a small rock, placing it in his slingshot. As the aerodactyl prepared to use hyper beam again, the scraggy shot the stone at their wing.
The aerodactyl soon fell from the air, and crashed to the ground. It was then that Cinder attacked it with flamethrower. As the rock type tried to get up a green sphere slammed into them, finally knocking them out.
“Let’s not do that again…” The bayleef said, walking towards them.
“ Yeah… Let’s not… ” Cinder replied, glaring at Crash.
Echoing Cavern: Floor 5
“Still no sign of those three…” The bayleef said, glancing around.
“Yeah, guess they stepped up their game since last time.” Crash replied as he was picking up pebbles. Placing one after the other in the baggy skin around his waist.
“Last time…? Do you know those guys?”
“Kinda… and we’re not exactly on great terms… ”
“Huh… Also what are you doing?”
“I just have a feeling I’m gonna need these later… …Well, what do we have here…?”
Echoing Cavern: Floor 10
“This should be the bottom… At least to my knowledge.” The bayleef said, looking around the cave.
“ Shhh… ” Crash held his hand up to his mouth when he saw a black, pointy tail sticking out from behind a stalagmite. The scraggy put one of the small stones he gathered, putting it onto his slingshot. Crash aimed it just off to the side and…
“OW!” The houndoom yelled as he sprang out from behind the rock. “What the…?”
“ Hey!… ” Crash yelled, not trying to stifle his laughter as he raised his arms.
The black and orange dog gave the scraggy a good long look before jumping backwards. “You!”
“Me!” Crash playfully yelled back as the manectric and granbull soon revealed themselves as well.
“ Hey guys… Love what you did with yourselves. I mean you actually look kind of intimidating for once… ”
“ Dude, shut up, I think you’re making them mad… ” The bayleef said under their breath.
The houndoom gritted his teeth before noticing the green band tied around Crash’s arm. “So, how’d you manage to trick them into letting you join?”
“Sorry, what was that?”
“How’d- ack-” The houndoom was cut off as Crash shot another rock at his face. “THAT’S IT! GET THEM! The manectric and granbull stepped forward as the three electrike from earlier came up from behind Crash and the others.
The manectric and the three electrike all fired off a series of electrical blasts. The bayleef came to Crash and Cinder’s defence, erecting a wall of light to surround the three. With light screen effectively neutralizing the blasts, the three took the chance to strike back. Cinder used flamethrower, sweeping it across the room to hit the three small dogs. The manectric stepped forwards and growled, only for the houndoom to gesture from him to go back.
“I’m gonna have fun tearing you apart Crash…”
“You and so many others Marrow…” Crash said, reaching into Cinder’s bag. “Listen, if you’re still mad about me beating you in front of your ex-”
“ARGHH!!” Marrow yeled at the top of his lungs as he lunged towards Crash with an almost feral look on his face. But before he could get his teeth on the scraggy, Marrow was greeted by a large blast followed by everything going white.
“Blast seeds… Gotta love ‘em…” Crash thought as he lowered his slingshot.
Marrow slowly rolled onto his side and glanced at the manectric. “ …Do it… ”
The blue and yellow dog nodded and bent to the side, picking up a seed in his mouth. The seed in question had a rainbow coloration to it, as well as a striped pattern.
“Is that what I think it is…?” Cinder said, taking a step back.
“ You always used to laugh at us Crash… ” Marrow said, slowly and shakily raising to his feet. “ But who’s laughing now… ”
As the manectric ate the rainbow colored seed, his body began to glow and change shape. When the light faded, the changes were plain to see. He had grown a bit in size, and his yellow fur had taken the shape of a lighting bolt.
“He… He just mega evolved…” Cinder said as she, Crash, and the bayleef stared in disbelief. The granbull ran towards Marrow, helping them to the back of the room and behind some rocks.
The now mega manectric howled as the room began to change. Electricity ran throughout the room, crackling, and sparking all around them. “ Electric terrain… ” Cinder muttered, as she looked around the room.
“ Guys… I’m not sure my light screen can hold off something from him now… ” The bayleef whispered, as a large, dark cloud began to appear above the manectric.
“DIE!” The dog yelled, as several lighting strikes came down around them.
The dark cloud above soon began to grow, as more and more sparks welled up within it. It was at this point the manectric started to maniacally laugh. “This is the end of the line Crash! You’re dead! YOU HEAR ME! DEAD!” He yelled, as a massive bolt then struck down from the cloud. But before it could touch the ground. there was an explosion.
Cinder slowly opened her eyes. “I… I’m not dead…” There was smoke and rubble everywhere she looked, but as the smoke started to clear a five-pronged blast of fire shot through the room, hitting the mega manectric dead on. Cinder turned to the source of the attack, only to see Char, as well as a sceptile, and a vaporeon.
The sceptile took out the same rainbow-colored seed that the manectric had. Eating it, his form had begun to change as well. He grew taller, gained red markings on his body, and his tail lengthened, almost becoming the shape of a pine tree. The mega manectric growled and electrified their body, before charging towards the lizard. As the two made contact, the electric attack seemed to have no effect. Thorn grinned, as the bladed leaves on his arms grew. He slashed the manectric and leapt onto the cave’s now electrified wall.
Thorn seemed as if he was absorbing the electricity, as it was visibly courcing into his body. A large green orb then formed in front of the sceptile’s mouth, before he fired it down at the manectric. Flames spewed from the manectric’s jaws as they leapt up to try and destroy it with fire fang.
The result was another massive explosion, causing Cinder, Crash, and the bayleef to duck for cover. Char and his team watched the manectric fall to the ground, stunned from the attack. Letting the ninetales and vaporeon to hit the manectric with fire blast and hydro pump.
As the manectric slowly got back up, Thorn pointed his tail at the dog. A flurry of leaves began to surround it, before the end of his tree-like tail rocketed off. Still wrapped in a storm of leaves, the end of Thorn’s tail barreled towards them. It then detonated into a whirlwind of greenery, causing the blue and yellow dog to revert back to his previous form before collapsing.
For the next few moments, the only sound present in the cave were the echoes of the battle. Crash, Cinder, and the bayleef slowly rose from behind the rocks, staring at the aftermath.
“What the hell happened with those three…?” Crash thought, as he continued to stare at the ruined cave.
Outside the dungeon, Thorn had since returned to normal and was helping the vaporeon to finish restraining the dogs. While Char stood in front of Cinder and Crash.
“That was a rank A mission! What were you thinking?!” The ninetales yelled to his sister.
“ It won’t happen again… ” Cinder said with her head down.
“…They could have killed you… …Come here…” Char said, embracing Cinder with one of his legs.
“ You’re lucky we happened to pick this job… ”
“ Yeah… ”
“…I’m not always gonna be there Cinder… And I don’t want to lose you like this… Listen… I know you just reached bronze rank, but you need to be more careful … ”
“Rank A…” Crash thought. “I really underestimated those idiots…”
Later in the day, Char and his team sat around a table inside a popular bar in Timberglade known as “The Grove”. Like the guild, it was built into a large hollowed out tree. However unlike the guild, most of the bar was underground. The stone walls and wooden floor gave it a slightly different atmosphere then the rest of the town, but seemed to be a welcomed one.
“ I needed that… ” Char said, finishing his drink.
“Easy there buddy.” Thorn responded as he stuck out his hand. “Don’t go forgetting what happened last time…”
“You said you’d never speak of that again!” The ninetales said as he rose part way over the table. Char sighed and sat back down.
“I just can’t stop thinking about what happened today…”
“Well in her defense, Cinder didn’t know that was a rank A job. And that Crash guy said they weren’t much of a threat.”
“ Yeah but this is a member of Team Raiders we’re talking about. ” Mist loudly whispered. “ We can’t really trust everything he says. ”
“ Right… Well when you put it that way…” Char stared at the sceptile with a raised brow. “Not helping. Got it…”
“ … I don’t like her being around Crash either… ” The silver ninetales said, stumbling a bit as he turned to walk away.
“ Char… ” Mist said, standing up.
He looked back at the vaporeon and stuck his paw out. “ I’m just getting food… ”
“ I’ll get something, you sit.” Thorn said, leaving the table.
“ Bleghhh… ” The slightly tipsy ninetales groaned, sticking out his tongue.
“Where are those three…?” Bella thought as she glanced around the wooden tavern. The establishment of which was somewhat popular among those in her field of work. Several bandit teams and other lowlifes would frequent the relatively secluded tavern in the woods as a sort of safehouse to take jobs, and trade information.
As she and Hunter walked inside, Bella bumped into another patron, spilling some of their drink. “ Dammit, I am so sorry… ” The salazzle said looking at the swampert with a somewhat dramatic and apologetic look, before leaning leaning in closer.
“ Maybe I could… make it up to you later if you want… ” She whispered, giving a wink.
The water type grinned. “ Yeah, no problem… ”
“ …You know I don’t like it when you do stuff like that… ” Hunter grumbled, as the two reached their table.
“Oh lighten up would ya.” She teasingly said back.
After a few minutes, Bella looked around again. “Those dumb dogs better get here with those seeds…” Bella thought, until the sound of Hunter eating brought her attention back. The garchomp having an obscene amount of food piled in front of him.
“Hunter, I love you. But how can you sit there and eat that…? ” The salazzle said grimacing. Hunter looked up at the salazzle and rolled his eyes before going back to eating.
The salazzle stood up, putting her hand on Hunter’s back. “I just need to do something real quick.”
Bella walked up to a bar area, getting the attention of the greninja behind the counter. “Hey, did you see the Basin Hounds come through here?” The blue frog shook their head.
“ Damn… ” She said to herself. “Well if you see them, can you tell them: Bella’s going to find you, and tear you limb from limb… ”
The salazzle sighed and glanced back towards Hunter, whose pile of food had almost vanished at his point. And then towards the swampert from earlier.
“Oh by the way, that guy said he’d pay for us.” Bella told the greninja, before turning to the swampert and getting his attention. “We’re still good right?” She said with a wink.
“Yeah, sure.” The swampert happily said back.
As Bella and Hunter left the tavern, the smile that the salazzle wore quickly faded. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but if they horded all those seeds and ran… …You know what, we’ll deal with it later… ” Bella said, mostly to herself as she rubbed the sides of her head.
“ You’d think they’d know better than try to pull that crap with me… ”
The salazzle soon felt herself being lifted off the ground, and behing held in Hunter’s arms. It was then Bella heard a sound she was very familiar with. A rumbling, almost purring-like sound that came from the garchomp’s chest when he was happy or relaxed. Bella looked up and saw that dumb smile on Hunter wore on his face.
“ …Thanks… ”
Neither Crash nor Cinder said a word since they came back to the vulpix’s house. Cinder sat on top of her straw bed in silence. While Crash sat at the table fiddling with his slingshot. After a while, Crash set it down and headed for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” Cinder asked.
“Out.” The scraggy replied, hastily opening the door and leaving.
Cinder closed her eyes and sighed as she got up to follow him. The vulpix was half prepared to follow him to who knows where in town, but found Crash sitting under her treehouse.
As Crash lay against the tree, he thought about the day. He almost died today… Sure Scorch threatened to kill him all the time, but something felt different this time… The scraggy remembered all the times he’d poke fun at those three dogs. All the times he and his group would easily beat them when they tried to go after something they wanted.
Crash quietly chuckled at these memories before being brought back to today. “If I’m gonna keep this up, I wonder if I’ll run into anyone else that I’ve pissed off…”
“Hey! What are you doing?!” Cinder loudly asked.
“ Thinking… ” And that’s when Crash remembered… “Oh yeah… The box under the cabinet…”
Later… He’d do it later…
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