Much risk, no reward

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It was another cold day in the Icicle Forest, which had not been surprising for William, as practically each and every day in this frozen forest was a cold day.
Still it has been quite some time since he last set foot in this icy wasteland - actually he had never "set foot" here at all, as his last visit happened while he still had the form of a Gastly.
It was only a faint memory, but the Ghost type remembered the name.
Sorren.
Sorren was a Torchic, who had been one of the first Pokémon, who made William question his preconcieved notions and assumptions about Pokémonkind, so he gladly took this mission, even though it didn't promise a reward.
William had isolated himself for an extemely long time and he knew the pains it had caused him all too well. Sorren should not have to suffer the same fate.

The archen watched his friend rise to the treetops, a bit jealous of his friend's ability to fly without wings when he had wings himself and yet could not fly but he shrugged the feeling off. He looked back to the vast forest in front of them, filled with nothing but white blankets that sucked heat out of everything that touched it and trees that were either dead or in some sort of hibernation state they would never kick out of.
"On the bright side...." the archen tried to be more optimistic, "He's bright orange so it'll be easier to spot him!"

Sorren let out a breath of release after the pokemon fell down, He shivered and felt the weight of the experience Hit him. But he did not cry, he did not cower. It was getting better, but he still wasn't ready to go back.

Though the frozen trees sorren walked, ever vigilant, looking for the next opponent. Then he froze, he noticed a purple form in the air above, wide mouth, with a billowing cloak, and most importantly, A guild bag.

A Gengar? From the guild? Was he looking for him? Sorren swept his gaze across the landscape, and he saw a colorful bird, squinting, he could make out it was an archen, Probably the Gengar's partner.

Then the Archen turned and faced him, Oh he definitely saw sorren, he had to act fast, they may be on a mission and not even bother him, but if they would that would be trouble, If he made a distraction, He could move.

There were three sleeping pokemon under a tree, sorren kicked with all his might and some icicles fell down, waking them up, then he kicked some of the fallen icicles towards the archen, one hitting a tree behind it, making a noise and diverting the attention of the pokemon.

Then Sorren ran.

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

"Uh, I think I can see something orange over there in the dist...yes,  I can certainly see it and it is coming closer. The problem is, that there are quite a few other beings as well, and I doubt they'd simply let us through. Ready to do battle once more?"
Innerly the Gengar sighed. Of course it wouldn't have been difficult enough to just find the Torchic and bring him back. No, they would also have to catch it first and battle some adversaries while they were at it. Why were they trying to get him back if he was unwilling anyway? Wouldn't that just amount to kidnapping?

The archen was confused as the Torchic decided to frame him for the icicles. The icicles crashed onto a Vannilite, Vannilish, and Vanniluxe all glared at the archen, wanting revenge for interrupting their sleep, seeing icicles near them and icicles near the archen. The archen screeched as an Icy Wind rushed towards him, he dodged the attack using his Acrobatics on the trees to get himself out of the way. He was unable to answer the Gengar due to focusing on trying to avoid the beasts that chased after him. He managed to finally speak to the gengar, "I think we should just run from these guys and chase after Sorren.."

The torchic looked over his shoulder, the two were dealing with the Ice Pokemon. Sorren sighed in relief.

He made his way through the trees, running behind shrubs and hills, doubling back, and anything else that might throw them off his trail, because he saw the look in their eyes, they were here for him. However if he didn't find a place to hide soon, the Gengar would just spot him from the air again, but his footprints in the snow would lead wherever he went, so he kept running, hoping to lose them in the curse of the dungeon.

"I think you're right on that. We'd just be losing time dealing with these guys here. Now please do take cover and don't look directly into the light."
Having issued his little warning, the Gengar then collected a most bizarre array of thoughts, shaping them into something, that resembled a small, glowing sphere in front of him. Obviously he was using the move Confuse Ray. That is, he was ateempting to do so, but the Ice types below him didn't just wait for that to happen. Instead one of them launched an Ice Beam at him.
The Ghost type, not expecting such a quick response, dodged the attack, but the attack broke his focus and thus the Confuse Ray began falling towards the ground.

The archen was out of the way of the Confuse Ray thankfully, so it had struck the ground and shimmered out of existence. The first bird pokemon growled in anger at the ice pokemon harming his companion as his tail glowed a brilliant silver. The archen darted towards the creatures of ice and slammed his tail into the smallest, luckily the Vannillite. was rather young, and inexperienced, so it had gone down first. The archen would have felt guilty about harming a young pokemon, but he hadn't noticed that it was young and had assumed it to be just as powerful as the rest.

Sorren had been running for a while, but he knew not enough, He wouldn't be able to hide from them in the snow, His footprints were a dead giveaway. Stop. Think.

If they were here for Sorren they would sooner or later spot the campsite, so should he pick up his things and leave? No that wouldn't work either, There was no other place for him to run to. He would have to face it, There was no other choice. Sorren was sure that a Twice evolved pokemon would be able to handle the three ice pokemon.

Sorren changed course and made his way to his camp, and prepared a fire. he would meet them on his own terms.

Certainly angry, that one of them had fallen already, the remaining two Ice types now battled with even greater ferocity. William got to experience this firsthand as the Vanilluxe unleashed a torrent of icicles in his general direction. While the Gengar had easily been able to dodge the Ice Beam, he was faced with multiple attacks now, making dodging a difficult thing to attempt.
Thus the Ghost type decided for something else...
"This is going to suck..."
Bracing himself for the incoming pain, William closed his eyes, charged forward to the position he remembered for the Vanilluxe to have been in, trying to ignore the sharp ice cutting his...something.
But it would all end well, hopefully, as the attack served to help William land a counterattack.
His right fist gleaming with darkest fury, the shadowy specter attempted to land a Payback attack.

The vanilluxe cried out in pain as the payback attack struck, dealing a large amount of damage. The archen, meanwhile, suddenly had doubles of a Double Team surrounding a Vanillish. He seemed a bit uneasy though, and thought about running, but the archen was forced to stay due to his concern and need for his gengar friend. He smacked the Vanillish with an Iron Tail into the Vanilluxe just after the payback had struck it. The archen landed on the ground and looked to the gengar, wondering if they should take this chance to run.

The wood caught, fire growing quickly. a plume of smoke making it's way skyward.

With the fire lit, sorren sat down and waited. Staring at the sky, he asked:
"Is it time for me to leave yet?"

Reiciving no anwser, as always, Sorren braced himself for what was to come. Were the pokemon here to help him, or just to fulfill some job? Did the guild really care for him? Whatever the case, He was done running, hopefully forever.

Sensing his longtime friend's thoughts, the Gengar just silently nodded towards the Archen before floating up high into the air again. There really was no reason to get more icicles thrown into one's face if one could avoid it and still accomplish the mission.
And while the Torchic had escaped for the moment, they did at least know, that he still was in the forest, and he couldn't evade them forever. After all they were both powerful fighters and hardened explorers, while Sorren's team still was rather young if William remembered correctly.
It shouldn't take them too long to find him again.

The archen made his escape by leaping from tree to tree, using Acrobatics to get across the tricky jumps and turns. He followed the Gengar into the trees, and the ice types had lost sight of them, looking around the forest floor for the evil doers that had ruined their sleep.
Acro looked around once he reached the top himself, spotting nothing until he saw a column of smoke in the distance, and wondering who the hell would be stupid enough to light a fire in a place like this...it would surely attract dangerous pokemon looking for a fight! Was it Sorren doing the fire? He thought it was most likely, so he turned to William and spoke, "I think that's Sorren's fire..."

"They should be here soon, I, I belive this is what you would want." Sorren told the sky.

He fluffed up his feathers and enjoyed the heat the fire was producing. The sky was mostly clear, an odd thing for these parts. Sorren took in the beauty of the forest, it's icicles glistening with the afternoon sun, It's eyes glowing with evil int- oh crud.

This dice is not existing.

"Yeah, looks like it. I can only see an orange dot and something else there though. Someone looking like Sorren would be next to impossible to make out next to  fire I presume. So either this is not his fire, or he has just been visited. I don't think we should take the risk. Let's hurry and check. The guy could be in trouble."
As silent as the night, the Gengar floated through the clear skies above the Icicle Forest, the snow-covered treetops glistening below him, and between them a brownish-orange dot hopping around.
In the boring uniformity of the forest, one question began to enter the Ghost type's mind. How would it look here, were it less cold? Maybe the place could be a beautiful landscape, just buried under miles and miles of cold snow. But without about  twenty guilds full of Pokémon using Sunny Day nonstop, they wouldn't find out too soon.