Quest - Recruitment Center Upgrade

Recruitment Center Upgrade
♥ Word Count: 867 ♥

tak tak tak

The sound of hammers hitting nails rang out across the yard as many pokemon thronged around the recruitment center, working away on its newest addition. There were teams doing heavy lifting, cutting wood, painting walls, keeping inventory of supplies and even Everest was there, overseeing the whole thing.

The Pink Wasps were among the working groups, working away on a frame for a wall. Stephanie would hold the nail in place with her paws, while Lydia used her massive claw to bang it into the wood, and so on and so forth.

tak tak thump

"Ow!" Stephanie inhale through clenched teeth as Lydia's claw smashed her paw, holding it close to her body and scrunching up her face as she tried to wave off the pain. "Lydia! Pay attention!" She scolded, limping up to the seemingly distracted Gligar and giving her a swat with her tiny paw. "What is wrong with you?"

Lydia didn't even flinch at Stephanie's attempts at violence, her shell like body easily absorbing the small amount of force the fennekin could dole out. She turned her head to face her with a huge yawn. "You say somethin?"

Stephanie growled. "I said, what is wrong with you! Pay attention, you almost took my paw off!" She shouted, holding up her injured paw in the others' face. "Hit the nail into the the board. It's not that hard." She huffed and began to turn away, thinking that was that and that she'd made her point clear.

But it would seem that Lydia hadn't really appreciated her tone, and Stephanie looked up as the Gligar's face slid down in front of hers.

"Watch how you talk to me, fluffy." She said flatly in her gravely voice.

Stephanie looked her new recruit up and down with a thinly veiled expression of disgust before holding her gaze for several moments. "I'm in charge, I'll talk to you however I want." She retorted, sticking her nose in the air and turning her head away. To an onlooker it might seem as if she were putting her foot down, but part of her did feel a little intimidated by the others' massive claws and fangs... She wasn't about to say so though.

"Aw yeah? Who agreed to that?" Lydia continued, her face getting closer to Stephanie's.

Stephanie looked at her out of the corner of her eye, hesitating for a moment before continuing to push her buttons and assert her dominance. "You did? When you agreed to join my team!"

"Wait!"

"What!?" The feuding teammates said in unison as their heads snapped around to look at their third member; a little pink dwebble.

"Maybe you should take a break Steph? We could get your paw looked at?" She chirped with a smile.

"Hey, stay out of this- uh... What was your name again?" Stephanie faltered, looking at the dwebble with squinted eyes.

"Stephanie." Lydia said, folding her arms.

"What? Do you have eyes? I'm talking to her right now."

"Yeah... her name. It's Stephanie."

Steph opened her mouth in shock, an incredulous look on her face as she looked between her teammates. "But I'm Stephanie! You can't be Stephanie!"

"I, uh." The dwebble stammered, feeling a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of her head with a claw. "Well in the past some people have called me A-"

"Well her name is Stephanie, Stephanie. Hmm... Maybe she's the leader listed on the chart and you're the underling." Lydia added, looking at Stephanie with a smug smile.

Stephanie was clearly getting increasingly agitated, her cheeks burning red beneath her fur. "We both know that's not true because I recruited both of you. You're my squad!"

"L-ladies, I-it's okay, really." The dwebble pressed, walking in between the two with an awkward smile. "I also go by Annie. Like Steph-Annie? You can call me that!" She looked at Lydia. "I don't mind, really."

"Everything okay over here?"

The Pink Wasps turned in unison to see Everest, the one overseeing the project, approaching them.

"Stephanie actually hurt her paw ma'am. I think it should be looked at." Annie said quickly, probably in the hopes of stopping the ongoing conflict. "I think it should be looked at, it looks pretty swollen."

"I hurt my paw? I think you'll find it was Lydia who-" Stephanie said, but was cut off by Lydia putting her claw in her mouth.

Everest looked at her paw and the arcanine gave the group a nod. "Let's get you to the medical tent then hmm?" She insisted, flicking her head in the direction of a temporary set up they had across the yard for work related injuries.

"But I-" 

"It's okay Stephanie! I can help Lydia finish up here!" Annie exclaimed, scuttling over and putting her digits on either side of the nail to take over. "We'll get it done no problem!" 

Stephanie did not seem impressed that others were making her decisions for her, especially after being openly defied by her recruits, but her paw did hurt pretty badly. "Ugh! Fine! We'll continue this later." She added, glaring at Lydia before half stomping, half limping, off towards the medical tent, not even waiting for Everest to accompany her.