The Beginner's Mission! Expedition into the Pecha Forest!

Missions:

Jet glanced down at the papers in his paws that he had taken from the Grassveil Guild's bulletin boards. At first, he had considered taking an Outlaw mission so that he could better train himself to physically get stronger than he currently was. However, upon more careful consideration, he had decided against it. After all, if he was going to take on an outlaw, he would not want to do it by himself. If he were to fail his mission and get defeated, there was no telling what would be done with him by the outlaw himself. For all he knew, the outlaw would capture him and demand a ransom from his teammates or something similar. The thought might be a bit extreme perhaps, but it was a possibility nonetheless. And he would much prefer to play it safer. So, he decided instead to take simpler missions. He was to keep an eye open for not only some lost Vulpix who needed help, but also a Meowth's "beloved." A side note had been placed on the latter mission's note saying that this "beloved" was actually a bag of money that needed to be returned.

The awkwardness of the second mission aside, Jet knew that these would probably be the perfect missions to take for now. Not only was he slightly familiar with the contents of the Pecha Forest, due to a previous excursion into these woods once before, but it was a very straight-forward mission with very little that would interfere with him, as far as he was aware. Sure, the layout of the woods was sure to change due to its nature as a Mystery Dungeon, but that didn't concern him. He was always good at mapping terrain in his head anyway.

The only thing that worried him was this gang of Pokémon that had supposedly taken the Meowth's bag. Hopefully, he would not have to deal with them directly...but was he actually that lucky...?

In any case, he made his way between the trees, finally entering the Pecha Forest, and started hunting for his mission's objectives. He was slightly nervous to be heading off on a mission by himself...but he wanted to get stronger for when Team Mizuchi took on their first mission together as a full team.

[Remaining Energy: 21-5=16]

[Energy - 16 - 5 = 11]

Scuttling along like the small poisonous rabbit he was, a Nidoran Male approached the entrance to the forest, carrying along his own copy of the missions that happened to be the same as the buizel's. A bag seemed to kind of drag along with him, already dirty from the journey here due to being dragged in the dirt, the small pokemon havng no way to have it comfortable be placed on him without it being ripped apart by his numerous spikes. Zephyr approached the forest, keeping his eyes ahead of him and darting here and there to stay on alert. His scarred leg had been whining once more, but the Nidoran ignored the leg's complaints and forced it to move on with the rest of his body. It may have been rather petty missions, but they were missions none the less. They were designed to help him become stronger, it was like they were practically made for him!

He noticed a rather odd looking pokemon with two rails and a strange golden object around its neck. Two tails..didn't espeon have two tails? Was this thing what others called an "Espeon"? The nidoran stopped, staring at the buizel. He hadn't expected a psychic type to appear this way, sure they were rather odd, but they were also dangerous. Psychic types weren't his typing's cup of tea, but Zephyr wondered that if he could best the type, that it would mean he could best all of that type.

"Hey...you...Espeon!" he called out to the "espeon", "What are you doin' out here?" he asked.

Jet had been making his way calmly through the tree, looking around the area for any sign of some kind of life, discounting the trees and grass and the like. Until this point, he had not seen hide nor hair of anyone or anything that was of particular interest. Just as he was about to glance back down at the papers he had brought with him to double check his objectives, he suddenly heard a voice shout from directly behind him. Not expecting the sudden break in silence, Jet nearly jumped right out of his skin. At first, he didn't even think that the voice was talking to him, since he had addressed an Espeon of some kind. But then again, there were no other Pokémon in the nearby area. So even though he had no idea what an Espeon looked like, his situation wouldn't change. There couldn't possibly be anyone else that he was referring to.

And so, Jet slowly and cautiously turned his body around so that he could actually look directly at the source of the voice. When his eyes fell upon a small, rabbit-like Pokémon, he immediately recognized the figure as a male Nidoran. He remembered taking a special interest in that species back at the library. Pokémon with different forms and evolution lines depending on their gender was not very common. He looked the Nidoran up and down once more, taking everything in. There were two abnormalities that set him apart from other Nidoran: A bite mark on his leg and a bag wrapped around his body, dragging in the dirt.

"I...I'm sorry, are you talking to me...?" he asked, trying to sound more confident and strong than he was feeling. The answer was probably obvious enough, though, so he decided to continue rather than wait for a response. "I'm not an Espeon, though...whatever those are. But I...I am here so that I can get stronger and help my teammates out. I-if you must know." He quickly added the last bit onto the end in an attempt to make him sound tougher. The last thing he needed was to be attacked and taken out before he could even get anywhere in his first mission.

"Not an espeon? But you have two tails.." the nidoran found himself to be rather confused, what other kind of pokemon would have two tails? So this wasn't a psychic type...well that was boring! Zephyr huffed his disappointment, before realizing that the buizel had said team mates, "You're with the guild?" the nidoran spoke, assuming that teammates meant he was with an exploration team.
He studied the twin-tailed pokemon, it didn't look all that strong to him. It looked like one of those cutesy pokemon that mothers fawn over, not tough at all! It probably wouldn't even be worth it to challenge him.
"I'm Zephyr, of Team PinPan, one of the newest recruits, my apologies about that," he spoke without waiting for a response from the buizel. He figured that he should at least be somewhat formal with someone else from the guild, he wouldn't want to get kicked out now would he?

Jet nodded back to the Nidoran as he seemed to understand the fact that he wasn't actually what he thought he was. However, he looked slightly concerned about that huff that he couldn't help but notice. Was he disappointed that he wasn't an Espeon for some reason? He listened to the Nidoran continue, asking if he was part of the guild before finally apologizing. But for some reason, he couldn't help but feel vibes of a weird mixture of disappointment, insincerity and perhaps a bit of condescension from him.

"N-no, don't worry about it," he finally answered now that Zephyr gave him room to talk. "It's, uh...nice to meet you, Zephyr. I-I guess. M-my name's Jet and I'm actually a Buizel. Buizel also have two tails like this. The split end actually helps me propel myself forward in the water." As if he was certain that Zephyr would want a demonstration, he spun his tails in place like a propeller, as though he were underwater. He smiled a little bit at that; he was always more comfortable when he was doing something he could feel confident in: his own intelligence and explaining things to others. His micro-lecture had bolstered him for the moment.

"A-anyway," Jet continued. "I am part of Team Mizuchi and we are somewhat new to the Guild as well. I came out here with the hopes that I could get stronger for my team...and if I can help other Pokémon through these missions, then that's all the better."

The nidoran stared in disbelief as the two tails spin like a propeller. He was certainly surprised that the tails could even do that! Did Espeon do that too? The nidoran thought for a moment, the buizel had spoken about swimming in the water, that must have meant that this was a water pokemon. Was Espeon both a water and a psychic pokemon then? Zephyr shoved the thought from his mind as he heard the buizel speak of missions, "Missions? I'm on one of those too, two actually. Something called a Vulpix needs help and some cat-thing wants his 'beloved' back."

The nido's ears twitched, he usually wasn't the one for conversation, but he figured he should play nice with the other guild members so that giant plant-flower-dinosaur thing doesn't end up throwing him as far as the old creep tyrantrum from his herd had. It didn't exactly feel very lovely being bitten, thrown, and almost bled to death.

Jet couldn't help but smile a little bit more when the Nidoran bore an expression of disbelief at his tails. He had to admit, he wasn't entirely sure how this worked either. All he knew was that it came naturally to him and no matter how much he did it and no matter how unnatural it appeared to be...it was simply something that Buizel were able to do virtually from birth. He was starting to feel a little bit more comfortable talking with this Nidoran. He didn't seem like such a bad guy, despite that first impression he had received.

"Wait, what did you say...?" Jet asked when the Nidoran said something that caught his attention. "You don't...you don't happen to mean these, do you...?" As he spoke, he pulled out his copies of the notes that he had taken from the Guild bulletin board. He showed them to the Nidoran, showing the exact same missions that Zephyr had just so happened to pick as well. "...Did...did we really end up getting the same two missions...?"

The longer he spoke with Zephyr, however, the more Jet began to get another feeling about him. udging from the scar on his leg, he got the feeling that this Nidoran must have been through quite a lot. However, he knew that there was no reason to ask about it. He certainly did not want to put the Nidoran in an awkward position....

The nidoran looked at the papers, and was surprised to see that it was the same mission. He looked to the buizel, "Same mission..." he stated. He blinked then looked to the buizel, "Strange..."
Zephyr's ear flicked before he stood onto his hind legs, "I guess we accepted the same mission...does this mean we do it together?" the rabbit asked, wondering what this meant. He was never exactly explained to how partners would work. Was this buizel now his partner? Was it temporary?
The nidoran returned to all four of his legs and waited for an answer.
((Short pooooooost Ibe brain dead ;A;))

Jet nodded. "It...it is strange, isn't it?" he murmured lowly, as though deep in thought for a moment. "It almost seems like too much of a coincidence to really be one." For some reason, he could not shake the feeling that there was some kind of greater, more influential power at work. But whatever the case, he could probably take this as some kind of sign. After all, out of all of the missions on the board, the odds of two people picking two identical missions were rather out there.

"...Well, I suppose that we should work together on these missions for now," he replied more concretely. Jet looked over at the Nidoran, watching as he stood onto his hind legs for a short while. "It will probably make things easier on us. But...it's not like we're teammates or anything. M-more like...temporary allies, I suppose. Although since we both work for the Guild, that must mean that we are on the same side anyway, right...?" He looked over at the Nidoran again, hoping that he wasn't mistaken.

{Heh. That's alright. It happens all the time. xD}

"There's sides?" the nidoran asked rather bluntly. He had not quite known that there were different sides to the guild. The only "Sides" he had ever known was those in the Herd, and those that weren't. He wasn't a part of the herd right now, therefor he was on the bad side. He would have to fight his way back into the heard, and hopefully show that Tyrantrum that it wasn't his business whether he was a male or not. He began to wonder if he was in the same situation other male nidorans were in that had been born in the herd. Were there more like him, did he have brothers?

"Either way, we need to get going. Sitting around waiting isn't going to get these missions done."

Jet looked at the Nidoran as he spoke up again. Something seemed to be on his mind, but he still probably didn't really need to know. The last thing he needed was to give his only help a reason to leave or possibly even trigger something in him to cause him to attack. A little bit far-fetched an idea for a possibility, that. But he didn't care. It was always far better to be safe than sorry.

"H-heh...well, not in the traditional sense I suppose," he replied. "I just meant that I'm not entirely sure why somebody who wasn't a good guy would be in the Guild in the first place. So the 'sides' I mentioned were more or less just the good and bad division, vague as that may sound." Then again, he was probably just as new to the Guild as Zephyr was. But this topic probably wasn't all that important. Zephyr was right. If they wanted to get these missions done, it would probably be for the best if they got moving as soon as possible. And so, he nodded. "Y-yeah, I mean...if that's all you wanted to talk about, then we could get moving if that's what you want..."

The nidoran found himself moving ahead of the buizel, not bothering to wait. The nidoran was confident that he could handle the pokemon in this forest's petty pokemon. Its not like there would be Tyrantrums stomping about around here, ready to bite his other leg and dislocate it this time, or worse. Zephyr didn't seem to really care that the buizel was joining along for the mission, as he had accepted two missions with the full confidence that he could take on both at once. The buizel might just make things easier if it continued sticking around at all. The odds of the buizel fleeing in battle were slim, but Zephyr just hoped that it wouldn't end up hindering him in battle.
"You're in a team you said, right?" he asked, "So you saw the green-plant-dino thing they call Faye?"

When Jet saw that Zephyr was already making his way forward, Jet decided to remain silent for now and simply follow his footsteps. As he walked, though, he could not help but lower his gaze to the Nidoran's hip, where he bore that scar of his. He continuously glanced down at it, since it was practically right in front of his face. And since he didn't mind Zephyr taking the leadership role between the two of them, he preferred to stand in the back anyway. He had to admire Zephyr's level of confidence, though. He seemed to have an air of certainty in his steps that he almost felt jealous of. He almost reminded him of Lee in that regard. But this admiration only made that scar all the more distracting. That wasn't going to be causing any problems if they had to fight, was it...?

Zephyr ended up interrupting Jet's thoughts there as he started up another conversation. At first, the questions didn't even register in his mind since he had been thinking about something else entirely. But once it did, he had to stop and think about it. "...Green...plant-dino...thing...?" he asked. "Y-yeah, if you're talking about the Guildmaster, my teammate and myself did meet with her to create our team. Why do you ask...?"

"What pokemon is he? He's got kind of a weird voice..." the Nidoran spoke, this question had been haunting him for the past twenty-four hours ever since he had met the Guildmaster. He figured the guildmaster had to be a powerful pokemon, but he didn't quite seem like one. He seemed a little too kind and caring, no real restrictions seemed to be placed as if he could go and do whatever the Nidoran had wanted.

"When I came to the guild I was thinking the guildmaster would be a bit bigger or more ferocious looking, then again i've only ever seen the more bigger pokemon," the nidoran spoke, referring to his life with the Tyrantrum and Nidoqueens as if the buizel already knew. He hadn't taken the time to think that maybe the weasel didn't know about his way of growing up.

Jet took a mental note about Zephyr's lack of knowledge about the Guild. He supposed that he could assume that the Nidoran was not really the studious type and never bothered to learn about the things that were unknown to him like he did. He supposed he couldn't really blame him. Besides, this was his chance to shine...to show off what really made him different than most. He smiled slightly, glad to get the chance to pass on the knowledge that he had taken the time to learn about around Grassveil.

"Well, I learned somewhat recently that the Guildmaster is a Grass-type Pokémon called Meganium. And, erm...I noticed that you aren't aware of the fact that Guildmaster Faye is actually a female Pokémon. That might explain the 'weird' voice that you're talking about." He let out a nervous chuckle at that, hoping that he didn't somehow offend him. He didn't want him to think he was calling him stupid or anything like that. He quickly tried to shift the focus of the conversation before Zephyr could comment right away. "B-but yeah, I know what you mean. I expected much the same thing, given the rumors I had heard about the Guild and how its members were often very strong when they left."

He was willing to leave it at that, but the Nidoran had added something extra that caught his attention. "Erm...a-and I hope you don't mind my asking, but I'm curious. If you've only ever seen big Pokémon, what kind of place did you live in and what kind of Pokémon are you talking about...? Where I come from, the largest Pokémon I usually saw was a Buizel's evolved form...."