Apples to Apples

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Mission Thread Oh I absolutely LOOOOVE Big apples... So I wanted to share my love with everyone! However... I've only saved up 775 Big Apples. I need two more! 777 Will be the perfect amount to feed to Grassveil and Rainfront. Maybe I could even make them into pies! But I'd love for you to get me two more From shadowhue, I'm willing to pay you in Poke, and possibly a free Apple Pie as well! » Client: Eevee » Objective: Collect Two Big Apples(Rare Items) » Place: Shadowhue Forest » Restrictions: None » Difficulty: E » Reward: 200 Poke And A FRESH BAKED APPLE PIE! » Exploration Points: 15

"Right, uh, apples..." A certain yellow mouse Pokemon muttered to himself as he walked through Shadowhue, holding on to the job request paper in his paws. He was a bit on edge, keeping a close watch around the area as he walked through. Last time he had been in Shadowhue things had gotten a bit dicey for him and...what was his name? Murdock? Murphy? Mordred, that's right. Nate remembered the name, wondering how the Scraggy was doing.
"Anyways, no time for that. Got a mission to do..." He commented to himself, brushing the thought away as he walked among the trees, looking around for the Big Apples. They were supposed to be there, they would probably just require a bit of searching.

Nate listened to the suggestions from each pokemon and nodded his head. They were both good ideas, and it took him a moment to realize that they were waiting for his confirmation on it. Oh, right. I guess I'm sort of the one who took the mission in the first place. The Pikachu thought to himself.
"Yeah, both of those sound good. Violet, you'll probably be able to get a good look at the area from there, and Tally, you should be able to see anything lower that might be below the trees. I'll go and search around on the ground as well, see what I can find. Sound good?" He asked the rest of the group, putting the pieces together and waiting to see what the thought. Hopefully I didn't screw up. Not really used to taking the leadership roll. Nate thought to himself, chuckling a bit mostly out of nerves.

Violet nodded with a smile and a short reply of, "Alright then," before she dashed over to the nearest tree and began to climb it, embedding her scalchop into the tree's trunk so she could use it to help her ascent. From her vantage point in the trees she could clearly see the surrounding area, though not the entire content of the branches themselves due to the thick layer of leaves provided by each tree. She would have to search each tree one by one, but at least it would be more occupying than continuously slashing at a tree trunk for hours on end.

This dice is not existing.

"Got it," Tally replied. The leader of this mission had spoken his approval of Tally's plan of action, along with Violet's, and almost immediately after, the Buizel dashed ahead to check for any dangers or fallen apples... or anything else that could be useful, for that matter! She quickly searched through some nearby bushes, but all she got was a paw full of leaves. She sighed and continued to search, when the Buizel accidentally tripped on something. She tried her best to regain balance, and when she did there was an angry Pokemon staring back at her. Getting ready to fight, Tally stepped back a bit just to add some distance in case it only used attacks that made physical contact.

This dice is not existing.

"Okay, good-" Nate started to say as the two other pokemon dashed off, both seeming eager to be off doing what they said they would and leaving him standing still. "Uh...guys? Alright, guess I better get searching then." The Pikachu muttered to himself, almost sounding slightly nervous. Right...well, no use standing here. He chuckled to himself, walking off in the opposite direction of Tally. The area seemed rather calm to him, giving him a bit less of an edge as he walked around.
"Maybe there's something in here..." The Pikachu stopped at a set of bushes underneath a tree, peering into them and reaching for it to search. He winced, feeling a bit of pain in his left paw and quickly looked down at it, seeing the old, recovering wounds from his last trip in the forest. Other then that, there was nothing new that would show any sign of injury.
"Strange...I'm just imagining stuff." He told himself, reaching for the bush and feeling in it, not finding anything. "Anybody find anything?" Nate yelled out loudly, trying to be loud enough for the other two to hear and hopefully respond.

Violet began to search through the branches of the tree, scanning each one for signs of any big apples. She didn't exactly have much experience in telling the types of trees apart, but she assumed that these trees weren't pecha trees because they were completely different to the ones found in Pecha Forest. She hoped that they were apple trees, though that theory proved wrong for the tree she was in when she spotted a lone Oran Berry sprouting from one of the branches. Deciding it would probably come in handy, she picked it anyway and hopped into the next tree over, glancing back at Nate and toward Tally to see if either of them had found anything yet.
"I found an Oran Berry," she called down from her tree as Nate called out to see if anyone had found anything yet. She wasn't too far away from the Pikachu, but still had a clear view of where the Buizel was, "But no apples yet. Sorry," she frowned.

The Pokemon looking up angrily at Tally was, in fact, a Cacnea. The sharp pains in her foot made the Buizel figure out that she had tripped over it. Stepping on a Pokemon such as Cacnea was likely the Pokemon equivalent of stepping on a lego. The orange weasel didn't want to walk on the foot that had tripped on the cactus' crown, and instead grasped it. This was definitely not the best fighting stance, and Tally had to hop around a bit to keep her balance.

The Cacnea raised one of it's arms, about to launch it's spikes at Tally, who continued to hop around with her hurt foot. The Buizel did her best to brace herself for the attack, but luckily enough something acted as a distraction.

"Anybody find anything?"

Tally heard what she recognized to be Nate's yelling. The wild Cacnea heard it too, and looked at where he thought the shouts were coming from.

"Uhh," Tally shouted back, the pain in her foo easing a bit. "I stepped on a darn Cacnea and it looks a bit angry... Not that I'm worried or anything! Carry on!" Right now, she didn't want to show any weakness to these strangers. She was going to fight this thing alone, and if either of two Pokemon she was traveling with came to help... Well, she didn't invite them!

"Don't worry about it, maybe we'll find some apples in another place." Nate responded to Violet, looking over in the direction she had gone in. He continued to listen as Tally spoke, talking about stepping on some Cacnea elsewhere.
"Uh...are you sure you're alright?" He called over to her, somewhat unsure of what she said. True, she could probably take care of herself, he didn't doubt that. But grass type attacks didn't seem to mix well with water in his experience, and that could cause a slight disadvantage. Making a decision, the Pikachu decided to head back in the direction the Buizel's voice was coming from, not exactly rushing to help but still going at a somewhat faster pace. As he did Nate checked around the nearby bushes, searching around for any apples or other items but not finding any.

Violet nodded to Nate despite him not being able to see, before she too chose to follow the sounds of the Buizel's voice, dropping out of her tree and making her way towards Tally via the ground as it would probably be quicker. Though she too was weak to the grass type moves that a Cacnea would usually use, there was a certain safety and strength in numbers even if all of those numbers in question were all weak to the same type of moves. It was one of the reasons why the guilds that organised exploration teams encouraged teamwork.

"Positive," Tally shouted back to Nate. She launched a Sonicboom at the small cactus which knocker it back thanks to the close range of the attack. The Buizel then noticed Violet and Nate coming to help, which distracted her long enough to have the Cacnea shoot a barrage of spikes at her from the ground. Each one felt like a bee sting and Tally knew she was going to have an amazing time taking the thorns out.

Wincing, Tally glanced at the two other Pokemon before returning her focus to the attacking Grass-type. "You really don't have to help me. Like I said, I'm fine," Tally said bitterly. "You've just ended up distracting me!" With that, the Buizel shot another Sonicboom at the Cacnea before sidestepping before it could attack her.

Sure, there might be safety in numbers, but with such a simple opponent Tally felt like the others were wasting their time in coming to her aid. And three against one was certainly not a fair fight!

The Pikachu winced at the attack that Tally had been hit by, and felt the electricity sparking and jumping around him as he sent a bolt of electricity the Cacnea's way, using a Thundershock.
"Well, don't get distracted then." Nate responded bluntly to the Buizel's complaint. He wasn't exactly a fan of pokemon who tried to take everything on by themselves, even when they had perfectly capable help with them. In all honesty, if there didn't need to be a fair fight, or he didn't respect the opponent, then he didn't see any reason why they couldn't make use of an advantage they had. Of course, some of that might be a bit hypocritical, but I'll deal with that later. He reminded himself, thinking about his own tendencies for a moment.

Violet blinked at Tally's bitter response to their appearance. She held her tongue for now, though the response definitely irked her. Why did some pokemon just refuse to accept the help of others? Was it that they were too prideful? In this case it felt like it.
Using Copycat, the Oshawott mimicked the Buizel's Sonicboom attack. Violet's scalchop glowed a bright white as she held it in her paws, before she used it as the medium for white to release the copied Sonicboom from, towards the Cacnea in the hopes of finishing it off.

The attacks of the two Pokemon were enough to take the weakened Cacnea out. It fell backward and rolled a bit back before ending up upside down. It balanced on it's crown, knocked out.

Tally gingerly rubbed where the cactus's thorns had hit her just moments before. Yep, barrels of fun right there. She made a mental note to be a bit more careful when dealing with spiky Pokemon like that. The Buizel turned to the others.

"Okay, I'm good. Thanks, I guess, but next time don't bother with something like that," she said. She sounded rather annoyed, although part of it was directed at the fainted Cacnea. Still, she believed that Nate and Violet had wasted their time on an opponent so trivial. "We're wasting valuable mission time. Let's go."

Nate frowned slightly at the tone the Buizel carried, coming to the conclusion in his mind that she was a bit of an arrogant type that didn't want to willingly accept help. It was only a first impression, he reminded himself, maybe there really hadn't been a need for the two of them to get involved?
"Don't mention it. I figured I should make sure you're alright, after all, you're helping me with my team's mission. It's sort of on me if anything happens to anyone." The Pikachu's frown switched to a smile accompanied by a lighthearted chuckle, as if immediately pushing the prior feelings out of his head.
"And as for the time it's taking, I like to think it's a bit more about the journey then the destination." He commented, before squinting and looking up at the trees, checking to make sure there were no apples to be found.

Violet blinked, glancing to Nate and likely sharing his thoughts before she smiled at his comment, "I have to agree there. No point doing something if you don't make the journey for it worthwhile," she added, turning her gaze back to the Buizel before deciding to move on, "Anyhow. I guess you are sorta right though, if we keep hanging around we're not going to find anything."

The Oshawott then turned back to the trees, scanning their branches for the elusive apples they searched for.

This dice is not existing.

"I dunno, if the destination includes pie I think it's a bit more important than the journey," Tally said. Her tone lightened a bit. Perhaps here eyes were a bit too much on the prize, but helping was something she felt was important for her to do as a fellow guild member. Everyone dropping what they were doing to come help her for such a tiny (if not annoying) foe was something she still felt as unneeded, however.

Tally brushed herself off a bit. She didn't want to leave the stingers in too long, but now was probably not the best time. Hopefully no one would notice them and once again insist on lending another helping hand...