Quest for Peace

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"So, we need to find a 'shiny Volcarona', right?" Opal asked her new teammate for confirmation as they left the Guild's headquarters to tackle their first official job, "Do you know what one of those is? Maybe we should take a moment to look through that book Faye lent us."

The pair were raring to go, but how would they complete the task at hand without knowing what their client looked like, or at least the form they had chosen to appear as? The pokemon asking for assistance had been saying they were afraid to show their true face. What could have happened to make them feel so ashamed? Opal wanted to find out and give the bullies a stern telling off for upsetting another pokemon so.

"Especially not on our first mission!" Opal cried indignantly. She then shot an apologetic look to Sponge, who was horrified at the thought of getting lost. As the trio sat down to wait, she found herself inwardly cringing once more as Cimche appeared to ponder the likelihood of Rocky appearing via magic.

After half an hour of waiting, a stubby little creature came sauntering into the miniature town square. "Ha! If it isn't the pathetic blob! And he's got some pathetic friends, too! What, you can't even face me by yourself now? You're such a loser!"

"That must be Rocky..." Opal muttered.

"That he be." Cimche said, jumping out of his seat as he stared at the Pokémon making his way towards them, seeing that the shieldon did not seem intimidated at all from being outnumbered. Cimche took a quick look behind him to see if Sponge was ready to confront his bully, Though had to take a double take as he saw sponge start to slink backwards. "Woah, woah, whoa, no you don't, now is not the time to back down, he is right there." He said, pointing to the shieldon.

"yes I am, Idiot. I'm surprised you can see straight with those eyes of yours." Rocky said, smugly smiling at Cimche.

"Well I can't hear you, you know, due to these ears of mine." Cimche said pointing to the swirls on his ears, giving an equally smug look. Then he looked shocked, jumping as he remembered. "Oh, we're supposed to be making amends, not much help doing this." he said to himself.

"Cut that out, both of you," the growlithe growled as she hopped down from her seat and marched right up to the shieldon, "And you, Rocky, what do you think you're doing? Do you have any idea how hard you've made things for this poor ditto, what it's like to be so ashamed that you can't show your face?"

"Why should I care about what he feels, mutt? Only the strong matter, and he's a weakling.
You'll ditch his pathetic rear if you have any sense. Oh, wait, you're hanging out with that thing," the bully sneered and gestured at Cimche, "You don't have any!"

That last insult somewhat got to Cimche, him frowning the shieldons way as held back a huff, collecting himself he began to calmly talk to rocky, trying his best to keep a grin. "Is that really your only reason for bullying him? Cuz that's not really a good enough reason." Cimche said, crossing his arms.  

"Like I care! Not like he will ever stop me. And him thinking getting new friends would stop me? Ha, you guys are just as much a waste as he is, and that's saying something." Rocky said. Cimche was going to retort but was pushed aside by the shielded head of the shieldon, Cimche barely able to balance himself as he fell on his behind. Undaunted was the sheildon as he made his way to Sponge, The ditto visibly shaking as Rocky stood in front of him. Thought their size was equal, Rocky intimately stared down Sponge, looking quite aggressive as he spoke. "Did you really think getting friends lower that you could help your "Bully problems"? If anything you should be grateful, I'm the only one showing how useless you are." He said with a snort.  


(Which sounds like a better story conclusion for you: Him stopping his bullying all together, or promising only to not bully sponge, therefore allowing him to continue his bullying? I think the latter.)

(I think we need to play this out a little longer before I can suggest which way this should go)

"W-Well... T-They support me... We're strong together..."

A snarling, infuriated ball of fiery fluff was between the two of them in an instant. A terrible roar erupted from the canine's wrinkled mouth, and as it did so, pillars of fire rose from the ground in a ring around the group. This brutish thug had attacked her teammate and threatened her client! This would not stand! If things hadn't been personal before, they sure as heck were now!

At first Cimche was focused on the pain from his rear, but immediately redirected his focus to the fire that showed up from out of nowhere, making him jump up immediately away from it with a very nervous laugh. After turning to everyone, he began to show a lot of worry. Having never seen opal mad before he was kind of worried what she might do to Rocky. He was a jerk, yes. Did he disserve punishment? Yes. He just hoped Opal was being lenient.

Getting close enough he held his arms to his sides, trying to get everyone's, but mostly Opals attention. "Hold up, time out. Can't we still talk about this? I feel we can still talk about this." Cimche said worryingly, but his voice was mostly masked out by the crackling fire.

Fortunately for Cimche, Opal was indeed being lenient. She hadn't moved to attack Rocky, she just wanted to scare him. Of course, she was still absolutely furious, and her companion's words only barely reached her ears. The flames died down, but the snarling did not. Her glaring gaze remained fixed right on the burly shieldon.

Rocky himself was rather surprised. He hadn't been expecting one of these losers to actually stand up to him. No one ever did that. Grassveil was full of weaklings. At least the spinda still sounded afraid as he stumbled back up like the idiot he was. "Why should I talk to-"

Rocky shut up as the growlithe growled louder. Sponge was no longer cowering so much, either. What on earth was going on? This wasn't how things were supposed to be!

Cimche  just watched from the sideline of the situation on edge as he didn't know what to do, for one he didn't want anyone to get hurt, for another he didn't want to get in Opals way. He was still worried of her actions, but for the most part hasn't done anything to have him... try to intersect the both of them.

After the flames died down he felt less tense about the situation, until he heard her growl lowder, making him jump as he tried to talk some sence into the situation again. "H-hold up! Can we just go back to trying to talk this out, we barely even got that far through." Cimche said, oblivious of Opals tactics.

"Hmph. Looks like one of you actually has a spine. I'll talk, but this had better be worth my while," she shieldon huffed and puffed, trying to still look large and in charge. This response, with some urging from Cimche, satisfied Opal enough that she stopped growling, but she was still most unimpressed with Rocky's behaviour.

Sponge, wide-eyed, began to slowly creep closer. He didn't want to get too near Opal or Rocky right now, so positioned himself next to the more mellow spinda. "Yeah. Why does strength matter so much to you, Rocky?"

"...What?" Rocky thought he had just heard the most absurd question that could be asked.

Cimche took a quick glance to Sponge as he stood next to him, barely even noticing his presence until then. Looking back at Rocky he just stood there in silence until he heard the shieldon speak as if he was confused by Sponges question, only then Cimche speaking up to clarify. "Why are you on such a power trip?" He said pointing at Rocky, which He just growled at Cimche.

"Why should I need to tell you, you're not even worth my time."

Cimche crossed his arms. "But I would be if you where bullying me, right?"  

Rocky huffed."Only to put you in your place."

"So is that your reason?" Cimche said with a grin.

"No." Rocky said, angrily staring at Cimche.

"Do I need to use Fire Spin again?" Opal growled.

"Please don't do that," Sponge answered hastily, then looked at Rocky to ask, "What is it, then? Do you get some sort of enjoyment from doing this?"

Sponge was expecting an affirmative from Rocky, but the shieldon was surprisingly silent. The stubby creature just stared at the pink blob. He'd never actually thought about it before. Why did he bully everyone? He didn't know, but he sure as heck wasn't going to admit it to the ditto.

"Because that's just who I am. I'm a bully, and you're a victim."

"Well we are here to stop you from doing that, so your reign of bullying him stops here." Cimche said pointing to the ground.

"What makes you think that just because you guys tell me to stop that I would?"

"Because..." Cimche said with a shrug.

After a long silence Rocky became annoyed, yelling out his statement "because what!?"

Cimche just rubbed at his head, seeming quite confused. "sorry there, lost my tracks, I have no idea how to continue my point."

Rocky stared at him with angry confusion.  "How dumb are you?"

"Just enough to make you confused." He said as he pointed to his swirling eye. "Now, will you promise to leave Sponge alone, or are we going to have to do more, uhh... persuading."

Rocky was getting frustrated. Not at Sponge, not at the growlithe, but at this staggeringly imbecilic spinda. How much stupid could be packed into one pokemon? He really had to wonder with this unusual, unwanted stranger. It seemed the others had been around him longer than the few minutes the shieldon had. How did they put up with it? What was wrong with them?

It didn't take Rocky long to decide on cutting this nonsense and finding something else to do, someone else to push around. He could always come back for Sponge later, after his lousy friends had gone. It seemed the ditto was starting to grow a spine, and he couldn't have that.

"Ugh, whatever. I'll leave him alone. I'm going now."

With that, the shieldon ambled off, and Opal's snarl turned into a smile.

"See ya." Cimche said as he waved to the shieldon as they left, which they returned with an angry glance before they walked out of view. Turning to both Opal and Sponge he pulled out his explorer badge before holing it in front of himself. "Mission Complete!"

Sponge looked at him confused before asking him. "Do you have to do that when you finish a mission?"

"Nah, that was just my first mission, was hyped." He said as he put away his badge. "Aren't you hyped too Opal, We finished our first mission with flying colors, and fire... mostly fire, but it worked." He said, grinning her way.

"Yeah," Opal replied, then added with a smirk, "I didn't think we'd solve things by you out-annoying Rocky."

"Thanks for everything!" Sponge exclaimed gratefully, "I'm going to go to Cheese right now and tell him the good news! We'll meet you at the Guild later with your reward, yeah?"

"Sounds good. We'll see you there!" the growlithe smiled and turned back to her teammate, "It feels good to finish our first mission. I hope Rocky keeps his word. Let's go back and report our success!"

Opal was delighted that things had gone well. It felt good to have helped another and proved her worth as a Grassveil Guild member. She was looking forward to taking more missions and spreading more happiness. Right now, though, it was time for a well-earned lunch.

(Aaaand that's it! Well done!)