Gotta Go Fast!

Arashi rushed into the area they were told to go on the job board. Looking at her map, she was exactly where they needed to be. The joyful Pokemon looked back at her partner, Arietta, and nodded at her.

"This is the place." The Shinx spoke up, glancing around for their client. She didn't see the Whirlipede anywhere immediately. "Hello? Whirlipede,
you here? We're Team Firefly! We're here to help you get faster for a race!"

A crashing sound could be heard a few meters away just behind a tree away from the pond. Arashi decided to walk over there, and that's where she found a purple Pokemon, rolled up.

"It's no use! No matter what I do, I can't seem to get any faster!" The Pokemon said quickly, unrolling itself. That's when it noticed the Shinx standing over it. Whirlipede stood up, and now towered over the small Pokemon. "Oh, hello! Are you the Pokemon here to help me get faster? I'm so grateful! Please, help me! I need to win this race!"

'Of course we'll help you! When someone's in need, we'll be there!" Arashi exclaimed proudly, puffing out her chest. Then she realized she didn't have any way to make the Pokemon faster that she knew of. He expression softened in sorrow for a second, but a determined look soon returned to her face, nonetheless. "Arietta! Have any ideas to help Whirlipede?"

Mission:

Arietta flew towards the pond, following her partner Arashi as the Shinx lead the way. The Fletchling would normally be the type to speed on ahead or scout from above, but considering the fact that they were to be helping a Whirlipede improve their speed, she figured she's need all the extra energy she could get.

The job had interested her when she had spotted it on the notice board as Arie was one to enjoy flying at high speeds. If anyone knew anything about aerodynamics it was her, and she she was hoping that her self taught knowledge of how to speed up during flight might come in handy for this Whirlipede.

The duo finally reached the pond and Arashi made her way over to a curled up purple pokemon that Arie assumed must be Whirlipede. The young Fletchling had never seen a Whirlipede before despite the many pokemon that she was otherwise familiar with and as such the round shape of the pokemon made her curious as to how Whirlipede hadn't been able to gain much speed. Such a round shape looked to be perfect for speeding along.

When the Whirlipede uncurled and stood up, Arie took notice of it's antennae-horns that were not poking out of it's round shape. Perhaps those were what was slowing it down?

Landing next to her partner and their client, Arie looked thoughtful for a second before she turned to the Whirlipede, "Have you tried anything specific already that hasn't quite worked for you? I have a few ideas, but if you've tried some of them before then we can skip past them and try other ones," she replied.

Arashi nodded in agreement as Arie spoke. It would certainly be helpful to know if Whirlipede had done anything she had thought of.

"Well, I tried rolling harder, but that didn't work." The bug Pokemon said, looking up into the sky, losing itself to thought. "I used to be fast, but something happened, and I don't know what it is. Nothing is helping at all."

At this, the Shinx walked around Whirlipede, studying its body. The Pokemon got a bit nervous, wondering what she was doing. Arashi suddenly stopped, and looked back at Arie.

"Well, I can't see anything wrong right now. So, what were you ideas?" The joyful electric type grinned bashfully at her partner. She didn't think it would be this hard to help someone grow faster.

The Fletchling nodded to the Whirlipede as they explained that it had tried rolling harder. Perhaps a little uninspired, but it was an attempt nonetheless. She watched as Arashi circled the Whirlipede, looking for anything wrong judging by her words a moment later, but nothing obvious seemed to be going on.

Nodding, Arie, looked from Arashi to the Whirlipede before the began to explain one of her ideas, "Alright, well first things first I guess, have you tried rolling with your antennae curled close to your body? It would make you more aerodynamic and reduce the amount of drag on your body as you're rolling, which should make you faster in theory, even if it's only by a little bit..."

She paused as her explanation ended, but as something else came to mind, she continued, "Oh! could you tell us what moves you know as well? You never know if they might come in handy!"

"I have not tried that, actually. I didn't even think of that when I was fast!" The Whirlipede stated, looking quite pleased at the suggestion. "Oh and I know Rollout, Poison Sting, Defense Curl and Screech."

After they said that, they curled back up and began rolling back to their starting position. They turned around and began to spin on the ground, not moving at first, but then pushed themselves towards the tree they had hit before. Now with their antennae curled back as far as possible, they moved only sightly faster.

"Damn it! I may have been faster just then, but I'm still not as fast as I normally am! I'm never going to be ready for the race!" The bug Pokemon said as they uncurled themselves. "Why can't I go faster?!"

"Hey, don't beat yourself down for that." Arashi spoke up, having watched the scene in silence. "You just said you were faster then! That's progress! And if you can make progress now, then you can continue to make progress!"

"Hey, I guess you're right!" Whirlipede smiled at the Shinx's motivational words. "Thanks for that! I really needed it. Do you have any other ideas?"

Arie nodded at the answer, keeping it in mind as she watched the Whirlipede try out her suggestion. Spreading her wings and taking off from the ground, she flew alongside the bug to try and gauge how fast they were going as she wasn't too confident in her ability to judge it just by watching.

She landed back down again when the Whirlipede finished moving and remained silent for a moment in thought. As Arashi spoke though, she nodded in agreement.
"Yea! Any improvement is progress. It just takes lots of smaller things to make up to the big thing that you're working towards!" The Fletchling added.

"Okay, next idea. You said you knew Defense Curl and Rollout right?" asked Arietta, hopping a few steps closer to the Whirlipede, "What about if you curled your antennae in and then used Defense Curl to make yourself as small and compact as possible, and then use Rollout as a way to propel yourself forwards?"

"I never would have thought of that!" Whirlipede said with a smile. "I'll go try that out now!"

The bug Pokemon rolled back up into a ball and made their way back to the makeshift starting line. Doing the same thing they did before, Whirlipede added Defense Curl. bringing their body even closer together. Then, when they became compact, they started rolling, and gained more speed with Rollout.

Slamming into the tree, Whirlipede bounced back from the force, and some bark went flying off behind everyone. Arashi grinned at the Pokemon, happy that they had gone faster this time.

"Look at that, you did it!" The Shinx jumped about in glee as the bug uncurled themselves. "Is that as fast as you normally go?"

"Well, it was certainly faster than before, but it's still not anything close to my top speed." Whirlipede said, worried that they might not be ready in time for the race.

Once again, the Fletchling flew alongside the Whirlipede as he tested her ideas. It seemed he had gained a decent amount of speed, but it was still not as fast as he used to be able to move under his own power.

"Well it was certainly faster than before at least..." Arie smiled, happy that they continued to improve, "Perhaps a run up next time could make you even faster?"

"Although I wonder just how fast you used to be able to move and how much faster you'd be if you could still achieve that plus these techniques we're working on..." the Fletchling mused. Surely there had to be a cause for the sudden drop in speed? But she just couldn't think of anything that it could be.

Landing back on the ground, she wondered if there were something more going on here than meets the eye.

"Have you changed anything about yourself since you have lost your speed? A new diet or anything perhaps?" Arie asked, tilting her head slightly to the side in curiosity. Even the smallest of things could be the cause of this after all, but since they didn't know Whirlipede personally they could only go off of what they knew.

Whirlipede nodded along to what Arie was saying. It made sense to him. He began to turn back up to the starting point to try again when the Fletchling asked another question.

"Uh, I don't think I've done anything like that. I've been eating the same foods as I've always been." The Pokemon looked down at the bird. "And I can't remember changing anything else."

Arashi had an idea, and started looking in her bag. What Arie had said lit a bulb in her head.

"I thought of something, but I need to find it first. I don't want to say anything in case I'm wrong." She said, continuing her mysterious search.

"Hmm..."

The Fletchling just wasn't sure what could have caused such a drastic reduction in the Whirlipede's speed. Nevertheless though, she flew alongside their mission client as he attempted to find a position to get a running start to try out her latest idea.

her attention was soon caught by her partner speaking up. Blinking, Arietta glanced over to the Shinx from where she hovered above the Whirlipede at their new starting point. She wondered what her partner's thoughts were, but trusted that she would communicate anything important if she needed to.

"Okay! Let me know if you come up with anything!" she grinned, leaving Arashi to continue searching.

ooc//:

Whirlipede nodded at the Shinx as he got into position. Instead of curling up first like before, he started running, gaining a bit of speed before he rolled up into a wheel. This time, the Pokemon was faster, but still not as fast as normal.

However, one major change did happen. He missed the tree and went crashing into the pond, where he sank down. He was about three quarters underwater, as it wasn't all that deep. The bug Pokemon could still breathe. He tried to uncurl or at least move out of the water, but he couldn't.

"Uh, a little help here? I can't seem to move at all in this water." Whirlipede called out to Arashi and Arie.

"I almost have what I'm looking for! Arie, can you get him, please?" The electric Pokemon called out to her flying partner, pulling out a piece of paper. She put it back, seeing that it wasn't what she was looking for.

Arie was flying alongside the Whirlipede as she had done the many times previous, however this time she had noticed that his trajectory was off and began to slow down. She went to call out to him, but it was too late, and the Whirlipede crashed straight into the pond.

On the plus side, the bug pokemon's hard outer shell had likely protected him from the force of the collision with the water, however now it seemed he was struggling to get back out. Arietta flew over to him and hovered above him for a moment before trying to get a hold on his shell to help pull him out of the water.

"Already... on... it!" she replied to Arashi, her voice straining as she attempted to help pull the heavy Whirlipede out of the pond water. Her small size and strength wasn't particularly helping in this situation.

"I've got it!" Arashi yelled out suddenly, looking over at the two. She held a familiar piece of paper in her hands. "This job had two specific items as rewards, but I couldn't exactly remember what they were. But if you look here on the job request, the two are items that cause a Pokemon holding them to become heavier and slower."

The Shinx was excited. She had figured it out, and that was awesome to her. She set the paper down and ran into the water, getting in front of the Whirlipede and began pushing him towards the land and up to help Arie carry him.

"Really? Could the Lagging Tail and Full Incense be what's causing my decrease in speed?" Whirlipede said softly, a bit embarrassed and upset that he didn't realize that before. "I'm sorry for wasting your time if that's the case."

"Oh, it's not a waste at all! Helping out others in need can never be a waste of time!" Arashi told the bug Pokemon with a grin. She continued pushing him out of the water, and with Arie's help, they finally got him back on land.

"Of course!" Arietta grinned, loosening her grip temperamentally so that she need not strain her voice when replying to her partner. The Fletchling hadn't looked at the rewards when accepting the job if she were honest, she had just been interested in the idea of helping someone get faster. However, it seemed that Arashi had figured everything out.

With the Shinx now helping, Team Firefly soon had the Whirlipede on land once again, with Arie landing a little less than gracefully nearby.

After a brief moment of smoothing her feathers back down, Arie hopped back over to Arashi and the Whirlipede, "Yea! We don't mind helping at all! And even if the Lagging Tail and Full Incense were the true cause of your decrease in speed, hopfully the methods we tried out will help you be even faster than before now that the items are gone!" she grinned.

"Oh, thank you so much for helping me out!" Whirlipede said with a smile, now wetter than when he started. "And I sure hope so! I would love to be even faster! I'll send the rewards Guild later for you to claim them, and I'll have to tell you how I do in my race!"

"You're welcome!" Arashi grinned at the bug Pokemon. She hopped around with joy, the fact that she helped one more Pokemon out elating her. "Good luck in your race! If you need anything else ever again, you know where to find us!"

The Shinx nodded to her partner, ready to leave. Today was a job well done, and she wanted to celebrate. She started walking back to Grassveil Town, waving and saying goodbye to Whirlipede. She loved her work!