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

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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]

"He is a she!?" the Nidoran spoke, disbelief in his voice. He was rather surprised about this, obviously, as his life in the herd consisted of the old coot-tyrantrum that had thrown him out, which meant males being the leader. He had figured that the females took on a more defensive roll, so to defend their young. Was the guild master more defensive than offensive?

Before the Nidoran could question it, the buizel handed him a question to answer on his own. A description of where he had come from was required for the answer. The nidoran spoke, continuing to walk along, "I came from a herd of Nidoqueen and Tyrantrum. I don't know why there weren't any Nidokings there, my Ma said that's what i'll grow up to be, but I had a friend there who thought I was a girl with weird colors. Once I explained that I wasn't a girl the old-coot got mad and threw me out."

Jet couldn't help but chuckle slightly as the Nidoran replied with clear shock in his tone. Otherwise, he simply nodded to confirm his claim and didn't bother to say anymore about it. He had already changed the subject and going back on that now was sure to be rather counterproductive. Of course, if Zephyr brought the subject back, then he would probably be willing to go back to it. But for now, he was fine with dropping the subject altogether in favor of a progressive conversation. He had never prided himself on his conversational skills, so keeping things straight-forward was best.

"So where you come from, there's no such thing as a male Nidoran besides you...?" Jet asked, curiosity suddenly piqued. He gave Zephyr a questioning look, almost as though he didn't believe him. But...did he have any kind of reason to lie? He supposed that it might be possible that he was simply trying to mess with him. That was something he was quite used to. But...not a single male Nidoran where he came from? How could that possibly be? "...S-sorry for being blunt, but...I'm not exactly sure if such a thing is even possible...."

{Remaining Energy: 16+1=17}

"I didn't see any others there," Zephyr shrugged as if it were no big deal, "The old-coot didn't like me when I said I wasn't a female, threw me I don't even know how far and left that scar on my hip."

The nidoran didn't quite seem to be bothered by talking about his past, he figured it was okay so long as he didn't tell of his intentions when he grew stronger. He wanted to evolve into the "Nidoking" that his mother said he would become, and go back and show that bag of dust that throwing him out was a big mistake. His "best friend" was going to be another on his hit-list, right when he needed the tyrunt most, it had abandoned him just because he wasn't a female.

The nidoran seemed to be growing in bitterness as he continued to speak about the past, old scars of memories resurfacing and causing anger to swell within him. He didn't care that he was getting moodier because of this, he felt that it was an appropriate response anyways.

No other male Nidoran in his entire home? Was such a thing even possible? Jet had never known any place where there was only one gender of Pokémon. Even his old home had a fair mix of male and female Pokémon; roughly fifty percent actually. The very idea of there even being such a place was rather curious. Now he couldn't help but want to see this pace with his own eyes. But his curious mood did not last long. Instead, he looked down at the Nidoran again when he heard what the Poison Pin Pokémon had to say next. "...S-so...you were hurt like that and kicked out just because you were a boy...?" he asked him. "That's...that's rough. It doesn't really seem very fair if you ask me."

As he spoke, Jet stepped closer to Zephyr. "W-well, you probably won't have to worry about that as long as you're training at the Guild. From what I can tell, the people there are really good." He smiled and lifted his paw for a moment...before hesitantly bringing it down lightly onto Zephyr's side, careful to avoid the poisonous barbs on his body. The last thing he needed was to poison himself, after all. As he did, he looked away slightly, scanning the area around him. He didn't want to seem apathetic or anything...but he also should be keeping his eyes open for any sign of the Pokémon that they were after. If they couldn't find them, then there was really no point in coming all the way out here.

Digizel carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

The nidoran looked back to the buizel when it had placed his paw on his back. What was he, some kind of mother? Well, counselor was a more appropriate term, but the Nidoran held no knowledge of the existing occupation. Zephyr, a bit shocked by what had been considered to him as a "motherly" action, stepped to the side and out of the buizel's reach.

"Thanks I guess?" he spoke, trying to understand why the buizel had done that. His mother used to touch his back all the time, him and his sisters. It was like being petted, but she didn't seem as hesitant as the buizel. Perhaps it had acknowledged that it was a bit awkward, and done it anyways, thinking that he needed it.

"Either way, yeah I was kicked out because I was a guy, don't know why, but that was how things were apparently. My mother tried to hide me, but she never exactly explained anything to me."

((Woo for cultural differences turning into awkward moments |D))

Jet felt the Nidoran quickly pull away from his touch. This instinctive reaction caused Jet to blush slightly in embarrassment. Clearly, it was an uncomfortable position for Zephyr. On top of that, the awkward response definitely seemed to indicate the fact that he did not much appreciate his voiced concerns. Thinking about it, though, he supposed it was a bit odd for a complete stranger like this to care about him at all. In actuality, he could not really call him a friend yet. They barely knew each other. Would he react in a similar way? Well, there was certainly no telling for sure without it actually happening. If he had to guess, however, he supposed that he wouldn't mind it too much, although he might get nervous and cautious about the individual.

"I-I see," Jet replied at last after an awkward moment of silence. He brought the same paw up to the back of his head to rub slightly. He was merely trying to play off the patting and return to the subject matter at hand. "W-well, I-" When he spoke up, however, his foot caught on something. He felt his foot connect with something that wasn't as solid as the rest of the ground and he fell forward as a result. "Oof...!" he grunted as his entire body fell onto the ground with a very audible thud. For a few extremely slow moments, Jet just laid there on the ground. When he finally started moving again, his face flushed slightly, showing his embarrassment at his clumsiness. He hadn't been watching where he was stepping and he must have stepped on something.

Jet looked behind him and saw what he had stepped on: a Pink Gummi that had been laying out in the grass, largely hidden by the tall grass around it. But even though it was hidden, he mentally berated himself for not paying enough attention to see the bright pink on dark green. With only slight hesitation, Jet scooped the gummi off of the ground and slipped it into his own bag. "S-sorry about that," Jet apologized to Zephyr as he stood back up again. It didn't take a genius to figure out just how embarrassed he was about his not-so-glorious fall. He was even avoiding eye contact for the moment....

{Heheh. Indeed. Always interesting~}

Zephyr watched as the buizel tripped and fell...over a gummi. Zephyr began to wonder if he was put with a rather weak partner. He figured that it would make more sense to pair the strong with the weak, so that the weak could learn from the strong and not die mid-mission. He stared as the buizel seemed to just lay there for a moment.

Well, its seems as if he was put with not only a weakling but a socially awkward one, at least to his standards of "social" which he had learned from interacting with his sisters and his "best friend" back at his herd. The "social" life he had been led to was a rather rude one it seemed as he spoke, "Do you want to keep eating dirt or get this mission done?"

He had abandoned being "polite" for now, the buizel hadn't exactly proven its worth for his respect in the past few minutes. He felt himself surprised that this buizel was even allowed in the guild, it probably would get itself killed.

Jet's embarrassment was only made worse as Zephyr addressed him in such a way. His countenance brightened in color and he looked downward, trying to hide his face. He acted as though he were quite ashamed of himself and, for a moment, didn't even answer Zephyr. "Y-yeah, I'm done. I-I'm sorry..." he murmured lowly. He was silent for a moment longer as he stepped closer to the Nidoran again.

"B-but...I guess you can see wh-why I joined the guild now, huh...?" He tried to show his companion a small, nervous smile complete with matching awkward laughter. "I...I want to get stronger, and I figured that by being with other Pokémon like you and getting to go out on adventures like this, I could become strong." He then hesitated for a moment. "Uhm...and...and if you don't mind...could you tell me...how strong are you, exactly...?" He then looked over at the Nidoran. It was rather difficult to speak through his nerves, and this was perhaps a bit of an awkward question to ask, but he wanted to know now. "I-I mean...if you're pretty strong, then maybe...you wouldn't mind...erm...helping me train sometime...?"

As he asked the real question he had wanted to ask, he looked away shyly, unable to look Zephyr in his eyes. Asking such a question after making a fool of himself.... Hopefully he wouldn't get even deeper on his bad side.

Great, he was the strong one apparently. Zephyr couldn't say or even think that he was happy about this situation. He listened to the buizel ramble none-the-less and began to answer the stated question, "Well," he began, "My first real battle involved my hip being torn open and tossed I don't even know how far and nearly dying," he paused as if it were obvious what his answer had meant, "other than that I won a lot of mock battles, but then again it was assumed that I was a girl so for all I know they were going easy on me."

"they" in his words, meant his so called "best friend", the tyrunt that had played and battled with him. The tyrunt that he had trusted so much, only to have their back immediately turn on him once it had found out he was mistakenly deceived.

When Zephyr's opening response to his questions was to tell him about how his first real battle had resulted in his injury, he mentally flinched. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so bold with his statements after all. However, when the Nidoran kept talking, Jet figured that maybe he could push the conversation into a more...bright direction. "W-well, if thee mock battles of yours are anything like the training matches I've been having with a few Pokémon I know, then it sounds like you are actually pretty strong to me." He then hesitated for a moment. "...Well, if whoever it was was going easy on you, then I suppose that might be a problem too...b-but even still, viewing such things in a positive way has always helped me." That was a somewhat ironic statement from the Buizel who looked down on himself more often than his adversaries. But it was somewhat true, at least.

"B-but, I think I understand what you were trying to say..." Jet murmured a in a bit lower of a tone. "S-sorry for suddenly bringing it up. I was just hoping that maybe we could have a training battle sometime or something... I-I've had a few with some friends of mine, but I've lost every time." He then let out a small sigh. "But I suppose you probably wouldn't want anything more to do with me after these missions are done, huh...?"

"Oh so you're challenging me?" the Nidoran's mood and tone suddenly began to change. A battle? That could help him become stronger. He was ready for a battle right here and now if need be. Even if he battered the buizel around like a punching bag, it would still be training none-the-less.
"I'm sure the vulpix wouldn't mind waiting, and its not like the sableye are going to move fast with fat sacks of poke," he wasn't being sarcastic, he really meant that he was willing to put aside the current missions for a quick battle. A certain bit of challenge was set in his own eyes, like if the buizel wasn't challenging him, then he was challenging the buizel.

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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[Energy = 12]

Jet was slightly taken aback by the Nidoran's sudden eagerness to fight him at the mere mention of a training battle. "Wh-what, you...you mean right here and r-right now...?" He suddenly seemed more nervous about the potential fight that he was about to get into at this very moment. He hadn't expected it to happen in the middle of their dungeoneering while there were still missions to be accomplished. However, he had to give Zephyr credit where it was due: he had a fair point about the missions being of only minor importance. His only real concern was that of the Sableye getting too far ahead if he had to rest after inevitably being defeated. But...he simply was not sure that he could refuse the Nidoran when he was acting like this. He seemed to be a rather...persuasive Pokémon as far as he was concerned.

"W-well, I...I guess we could have it now..." he replied thoughtfully. "I mean...if...if you really want to. B-but, erm...if one of us loses too badly, we may have to stop and rest and let them get some of their stamina back before we continue. Are...you sure that's okay with you...?"

Digizel carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, , , ,

{Energy: 16}

The Nidoran nodded, "Of course that's okay with me, i'm not a fool, the sableye probably think they've got everything in the bag and are likely lounging about by now."
Zephyr turned to look at the buizel directly in the eyes, ready to charge forward and smash into the Buizel with Head Smash, even if he took massive damage himself. No pain, no gain as they always say. He waited, waiting for the Buizel to get into some kind of fighting stance and fully accept the challenge and begin the battle between the two temporary teammates.

(Sorry for short post)

Jet nodded at the Nidoran. "That's...fair enough," he replied. He had to admit, from the picture he had been given in his mind of the Sableye gang, it was likely that they weren't making their getaway right away. Especially not if they happened to live somewhere around here.

Finally, Jet nodded again. He crouched slightly and brought his paws up, readying himself for the opening move. He wasn't sure whether it would be his move or Zephyr's that would come first. But sure enough, the Nidoran was more than capable of starting them off. Before he could even consider what his first attack would be, his temporary teammate was rushing in his direction. He wasn't sure what kind of attack he was doing, but he wasn't about to let himself get bowled over less than two seconds into the match. And so, he jumped away, backwards and to the side, avoiding his charge altogether. But he could not afford to sit still. He needed to fight back. And so, as soon as he had his footing again, he jumped backward yet again. This time, however, he whipped his body around, slashing his tail through the air fast enough to send a sound shockwave through the air, aimed right at the center of the Nidoran's body, utilizing his favorite move: Sonicboom.

{And I would like to say sorry for the extremely late post. xD}

(Nah, its fine, take your time. I have a crap ton of threads to post in and I get to the point where I don't feel like posting at all a lot.)

The Nidoran, not having noticed the buizel had jumped out of the way due to his reckless nature, had continued straightforward, avoiding the Sonicboom by sheer accident. He continued forth until he finally bashed into a rock, "OW!" he backed away to see the boulder, having expected to run directly into the buizel. He looked behind him to see the buizel and growled before charging towards the buizel once more, this time his horn glowing as he began to use Peck.

(Inspiration is lacking, x_x)