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 followed along rather quickly and expertly, his practice in the trees were paying off as he maneuvered his way over to the Torchic's campsite. The archen stopped when he was close by, going slower as to not make as much noise that would scare Sorren off again. The archen dropped himself to the forest floor and looked up, checking for his friend in the skies as he neared the campsite, the snow was cold against his legs, and he half wished he were back up in the tree again. The archen stopped once more to and looked up to the gengar, looking for some kind of update on the torchic.

A Lairon. A thick metal coated beast. It's eyes were on sorren. Sorren knew he couldn't win, but the Lairon around here were vicious, he would have to watch his step and try to tire it out, then he could run.

The Metal beast charged at Sorren. He dodged just in time for the Lairon to hit a tree behind it, knocking it over, ice and snow falling everywhere.

"I'M OFF THE CLOCK BUDDY!" Sorren yelled at the feral monster.

Heraring the Torchic yell at the Lairon attacking him caused the Gengar to roll his eyes in annoyance.
"A Lairon. Of course he managed to run into one of the meanest, srtongest creatures of the entire forest. Couldn't it have been a Spheal or anything? No, it had to be a freaking Lairon. Well, let's get to it, I guess..."
Over the time of him being a member of the guild, situations like this one had happened often enough, that William could only respond to them with tiredness now. It almost was, as if the deities governing their actions and the happeneings around them were not content with the mission just going smoothly, but didn't have any better ideas than just throwing another opponent at them. Awaiting the Archen's response, the Gengar began to focus his dark energies...

The lairon had turned, to face the torchic. Its heavy feet clanking onto the ground as it widened its eyes and gave a furious bellow. It charged forth once more, but before this, the Archen had gotten closer and seen what was happening as the Gengar spoke about it.
The archen was enveloped in a purple mist along with the rocks and boulders around him. The rocks floated into the air with a high speed and smash in a circle around the Lairon, scaring it into stopping and leaving enough time for a bigger and slower rock to smash on its back. The lairon screamed in pain, and flailed its head around, looking for the new attacker.
The archen remained hidden, he stood as much of a chance as Sorren did against the lairon in his opinion. As much as he wanted to help the torchic, it wouldn't help to be a burden and be in danger.

"Uh. I don't know how to respond to th- WOAH!" Sorren yelled doging a headbutt from the angry armored pokemon.

He had seen those rocks fly, the power belonging to the Archen. He saw The Gengar charging some unholy power, and he knew what to do. staring down the Lairon, Sorren held his gaze until he was sure, then blinked.

That was all the Lairon needed, it charged forward, head radiating energy. Sorren stood his ground. At the very last second, his powerful legs sent him soaring up into the air. using the beasts own momentum, his claws glowed white as he descended onto the back of the charging pokemon, the beast moving forward as the claws digged shallow grooves in the Lairon's armor.

Kicking off sorren landed a couple of feet away from the confused beast, which was right in the line of fire from the Gengar. Sorren only hoped he had giving them the time they needed.

Annoyingly the Lairon was of the Steel type, severely limiting the power of any move William could throw at the beast. This battle might be one to take some time...
But at least the annoyance he felt at the prospect of the battle helped the Gengar to fill the Shadow Ball in front of him with more anger and frustration, causing the black sphere in front of him to pulsate in vile darkness. It was a powerful move, that had helped the Ghost type out of quite a few tricky situations already, so hopefully it would not fail him here.
Finally the sphere was completed just as the Lairon stood in direct line of fire.
As he fired the sphere of seething hatred, William began to worry about the others' safety. All of them were having trouble with the defensive properties of the Steel type, but the Flying and Fire types were weak against the Rock type as well...

The lairon was struck with the shadow ball, followed by the shadow ball was several more rocks that smashed into its face. The lairon rose to its hind legs and gave off a screech in both fury and pain, it flailed its head as it roared. The beast landed on its front legs once more and charged towards the torchic once more, although this was a blind charge, meant to just run away. Acro had assumed that it realized it was out numbered and figured that its chances of winning have decreased massively. The archen leaped into the clearing with the still burning fire, worried for torchic as the lairon charged towards it.

Sorren flinched, he was doing so well too! he was clipped by the charging Lairon, sending him spinning into the fire.

The confused lairon ran until it hit a rock. the was a bang, a crack, and then the sound of loos rocks falling into place. Sorren rolled out of the ruined fire, logs smothered and barely burning and stood up.

"Well it looks like..." Sorren paused for dramatic effect "I rock and roll."
{Terrible puns that don't make much sense!}

"Uh, what?", William blankly stared at his companion, the look on his face comparable to being hit with a point-blank Confuse Ray.
"I don't think the isolation has helped his mental stability...you think he's okay?"
While the Gengar was happy, that the Torchic seemed to be safe, he obviously was worried as well. No sane creature's first reaction to seeing a Ghost type stand in front of him would be to mumble gibberish if not in a completely terrified tone of voice.
Did he hit his head? Or did something else happen?

The pun was painful to the archen, he merely hid his beak behind his wing in a bird's version of a face-palm. The pun would have been more fitting if it were Acro since he was the one using the Ancient Power attack to "rock" the lairon. The archen looked to the gengar and shrugged before turning to face the torchic once more and spoke, "Uh....Hi....Sorren..." he waved with his wing sheepishly, wondering if the torchic for some reason thought that they were enemies still for some reason. Would the torchic even recognize him? The archen only vaguely remembered the torchic, so why would the torchic have any reason to remember him?

"Right, everyone's a critic. or at least so I've heard." Sorren said. "He-l-llo. CURSES! Ah, um... Hi, Sorry about the bit earlier, got scared. I've been working on that. Now I assume you are here to take me back to the guild? Ms. Fay send you?"

Sorren had stuttered once he got a good look at the ghost. his voice trembled slightly, but the effect on his behavior was shrugged of as best as possible. The thing he couldn't quite understand is how they would convince him to come back. he didn't know these two, wait...

"You're the guy who dragged me out of the lake around the time I first came to Grassveil. I remembered we talked a bit, your one of the reasons I even joined the guild. Sorry, don't remember your name."

Sorren Sat down in front of the remains of the fire. He Felt terribly uncomfortable now that the rush of battle was over. He did his best to overcome it though. He figured that they would be talking a while, so he made himself comfortable.

So first he sent quite a few adversaries at them and now he was just going to surrender like this?
The Pokémon, who had chased William out of town so many years ago seemed to have acted more sensibly than the Torchic did. Still, a mission was a mission and they had been tasked to drag this Torchic back.
"It's been a while, hasn't it? You probably do not remember me, but we met in the forest a long time ago. Back then I was just a little Gastly, but I remember you. And no, we are not here on the honourable guildmaster's behalf, but rather because somemon else has requested for you to be brought back. The mission did not have any signature, but it certainly was on the board. So, what are we going to do with you now?"

"I-It's Acro.." the little archen added in after the gengar finished speaking. He remained silent as his friend explained their situation and their task to bring the torchic back.
"If it were Faye that were looking for you then I think there would be a much bigger search party...I think she just may have not noticed yet, since some explorers take a few days in dungeons before returning...especially the more dangerous ones..." the archen hated to think ill of the kind Meganium who had allowed him into the guild despite being to weak and cowardly. It was actually kind of embarrassing looking back on his first day. He had improved from then, but ever so slowly was he getting better than he used to be...how? He didn't know. The archen shifted his cold feet uncomfortably, the snow biting into his skin.

"Ha, you have no idea how long i've been out here. Slipped out a couple of days after meeting you, Whinny? Anyway I haven't kept track of time since my second week out here. So, you're getting paid to drag my butt back huh?"

Sorren Felt a bit worse off knowing that they were on a job, and not here because they Were worried about him, then again he didn't make any real friends in Grassveil. He stared up at the sky, looking for answers in the passing clouds. Sorren would be more angry, but having a ghost in your presence prioritizes fear over anger.

"Paid? It's not as simple as you think. There's no reward issued on the mission. None at all. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Back then, when we met in the forest, you made me think about my existence and the role of society once more. Without you, I might never have joined the guild. I still owe you one, and that's why I have come here. Now, why would you make the same mistake I made?"
William could easily see the Fire type fearing him; it was a skill one learned if such a situation occurred that often. It was a bit sad actually. Thinking back on when they had met, Sorren had been much more fearful initially, but quickly overcame his anxiety and they had chatted for quite a while. Seeing him apparently having forgotten entirely...it certainly hurt a bit. But William was not the same Gastly he had once been. He had found acceptance, he had found friends and he had found the inner strength neccessary to shrug matters like this off.