Mission: Berserk Mecha

On opposing sides of a familiar dirt arena, two foes prepared to face off. One of yellow, the other of off-white, but both with matching looks of determination.

"3.... 2.... 1.... Go!" Their voices rang out, both moving into action in unison. While the yellow, Louise, immediately came charging in at breakneck speeds to land her attack, Millie, the blonde, instead focused on putting more distance.

However, Louise was much too fast with her chosen starting move, landing a hit on Millie. She let out a hiss, but it was still nowhere near enough to take her out yet. Instead, she powered up her own attack, a dark energy forming that filled the air with unease. It was a direct hit, making Louise flinch briefly, but she was still in it to win it.

Back and forth the two tussled, constantly trading blows with no one pulling in the lead for more than a minute. While Millie was strong with her special attacks and battle knowledge from books, Louise was fast and powerful with her physical hits. It was exciting to watch, but exhausting for both parties involved.

Their mother, Monnie, was equally dedicated to teaching them both her combat skills after agreeing to do so after the Rat Gang incident. She was luckily knowledgeable in both fields, her trainer having enjoyed her pokemon being well-versed in both skillsets.

Occasionally, a passing pokemon would stop to watch if they were brave enough, but one close call would send them scurrying away. Most others were too fearful to go even that far, preferring safety over entertainment.

Finally, after a long fight, both proceeded to collapse from exhaustion at the same time. Millie was covered in scuff marks and mentally exhausted, while Louise was dirty from running around and showing evidence of Millie's more long-range attacks.

"Ugh, what a bummer! I was totally expecting you to go down," Louise sighed dramatically, disappointed to lose her one sided victory. "It was fun at least, so I forgive you."

"Same here. You kept dodging, should have just laid there and let it hit you," Millie joked back. Louise guffawed and flung a little dirt in her direction, but there was no true animosity.

Since they were both tired, the two padded off a short distance after catching their breath. The arena was bordered by a large oak tree, granting a lovely shaded area. They curled into each other, forming one giant cuddly pile of fur with Louise resting her head on Millie's back. There they snoozed, a couple nearby pokemon such as a Furret and Skiddo napping under it with them.

The peace seemed destined to be short-lived, as everyone would soon learn. Further into the forest one could hear a flock of Pidgey getting startled and taking off, followed by a series of loud bangs. Louise and Millie groggily arose in confusion from the ruckus, the other sleepers already booking it back to their dens in fear.

"Huh? Wha? What's going on?" Louise yawned with a stretch. Next to her, Millie was standing, moving off to get a better view of the chaos.

"I'm not sure, I don't recognize those noises..." Millie answered, just as unsure on the situation.

The two weren't given more time to deliberate when the booms got closer, shaking the ground beneath them this time. That got Louise up real quick, her eyes wide and confused just like Millie's.

Millie seemed to calculate what to do in her head before realizing Louise was already taking off towards it, following her tails poking up over the bushes.

Together, they saw it, a strange robot with sparks flying off of it as it whirred and spun. Wires were splayed loose around it, parts wonky and appearing unfinished. Overall, it looked like a mess, not at all a polished product. Even worse, it seemed to be the source of the loud sounds, crashing into various trees and beating the landscape with its arms.

"What the heck!! We need to stop it!" Louise urged, Millie nodding in agreement.

"It seems to be malfunctioning, based on its erratic behavior and appearance. It'll just keep destroying things if we don't."

Able to easily move into combat-mode after their recent training session, Louise moved in with embers growing between her fangs. Behind her, Millie charged up a green orb, already calculating where to aim to avoid hitting her sister. In one hit from both parties, the robot was downed, only letting out one last whirr before all the lights on it dimmed and it stopped moving.

"Heck yeah, that was easy! Wouldn't even call it a challenge!" Louise boasted, chest puffed out in pride. Millie instead focused on looking it over, examining the dead remains.

"The question is, what was it doing out here and why? We should probably investigate," Millie spoke, ears perking as she encountered writing under one of its internal doors. "'If found, push this button and return to Percy.' Who is Percy and how--"

Wasting no time, Louise pushed the button, to the trepidation of Millie. Her ears fell, face taking on a laughable look of horror. "LOUISE! Think things through for once would you?!" Louise merely shrugged, and their attention was quickly reclaimed by a clunking sound from the robot. One of the compartments had opened up, an electric compass showing a direction to head nestled inside the dead machinery.

"Should we follow it?" Louise asked, doing nothing to hide the sparkles of curiosity in her eyes.

"Actually, I think we should. We need to give the robot back and make sure this doesn't happen again," Millie said, ever the responsible one.

Fastening the compass around her neck with a nearby vine, Millie took up being navigator while Louise used her superior strength to drag the robot behind them. At first, she grumbled about it, but that quickly changed when Millie brought up the fact it was essentially like extra training. That put more gusto into her.

It luckily wasn't too far of a hike, only taking about thirty minutes of walking. Once they were close it was hard to miss, loud sounds of metal on metal clacking through the trees. They followed the sound to find a hut in a small clearing, a garage next to it and a massive collection of contraptions scattered every which way.

"And Mom says my room is a mess," Louise huffed.

"Our house isn't even big enough for you to make a mess like this. Otherwise, you'd probably manage."

"Hey!!"

Ignoring her sister's outrage, Millie went further into the labyrinth of machinery surrounding them. "Excuse me! Excuse me!!" It seemed her goal of grabbing attention was a success, the clunking sound going silent. It was quickly followed by the creaking and groaning of parts before a head poked out from the garage. They seemed confused on what they heard before noticing them standing there, continuing the rest of the way to reveal their whole body.

"Oh, guests! Haven't had those in a while. Actually, that's a lie, I had a rude one the other day. What can I help you two with?" As they spoke, they came closer, revealing a body that both resembled and didn't resemble them.

Like them, multiple tails bobbed with their movements, but instead theirs were extra fluffy. Various insect like appendages stuck out from their fur, especially an extra pair of arms on each side of them, and dragonfly/butterfly wings on their back. To top it off, goggles were fastened around their eyes, transparent enough to see through. They were predominantly dark with red highlights.

"Um, uh, we found one of your robots running amok near the river," Millie stumbled, catching herself faster than Louise who continued to dumbly stare. A harsh nudge of the shoulder drew her from her stupor, blinking and smiling in embarrassment.

"Oh! 398BF4! I was wondering where he went!" The bug fox explained, skirting past them to examine the robot Louise had been dragging. "I got an alert there was an error with its programming, but by the time I went to check it was gone."

"Sorry about the sorry state of it, we had to...put it out of its misery," Louise awkwardly apologized, the fact it was beaten obvious to whoever saw it.

"Oh, that's alright! It wasn't a fully finished design anyway!" They waved off, before turning to them with a wide smile. "The name is Percy! I owe that at least for having you guys bring it back before it got into too much trouble!"

"Millie!"

"Louise!"

"Nice to meet ya! Would you guys like to come in for a slice of oran berry pie? I have a small field of wild ones nearby, makes the best fruit flavored pastries!"

A pair of stomachs growled in unison as an answer. Both blushed slightly, nodding and eager to try such a sweet treat. Percy let out a laugh at their shenanigans, leading them along after her with a gesture.

The inside of the garage was just as wild as the outside, pieces covering the walls and even parts of the ceiling. "Humans leave their junk everywhere, I just pick it up and turn it into something useful for us pokemon!" he explained to them about how he had so many as they ate. Millie ate gracefully, trying to keep her fur clean, while Louise had the berry juice all over her face, dying it blue.

Millie wouldn't lie, she was fascinated by every word coming out of Percy's mouth. She was so smart, so educated on such a topic that most pokemon couldn't even grasp the idea of fully. For the first time in her life, she found herself just blushing at his words. It was so attractive! She could sit here until morning just listening to them talk mechanical.

Louise knew her sister well, and enough about romance from the local couples and the wisdom of their mother. Millie was too focused to even notice the expressive face of disgust and quiet gagging of Louise at her behavior. Gross, she didn't want to watch her sister make heart eyes at some hermit in the woods!

"My latest work is a security unit for protecting my other inventions! There's this local group, Rat Gang, that like to try and steal from me from time to time. With this, I wouldn't need to worry anymore!"

"Rat Gang?!" The sisters shouted together in surprise. They occasionally ran into them getting into trouble after their first chaotic meeting, but they weren't expecting to hear about them over here!

"Yes! I take it you know them?"

"We run into them too. They kind of have a grudge since our Ma beat them up really badly once," Millie shared, realizing who she was talking to after a moment and becoming a bit more shy again. "That sounds really cool, though!"

"Yeah, she wiped the floor with them! If they spent as much time training as they did being mad, they'd be the strongest around!" Louise added, laughing. She stopped when she realized Millie wasn't laughing with her, too occupied with Percy again. Ugh. Love sucked.

"Wow, sounds like you all are a tough family! Would you like to spar with my defense unit to see if its up to snuff?" A mischievous, challenging glint came to Percy's eyes. She wasn't sure how it would go, but he couldn't pass up a chance to test out her biggest project to date!

"Heck yeah! We'll show you how strong we are!" Louise chirped, already beelining for the door. Millie just nodded along, slowly following her sister with a slightly dreamy look. 

Once they were all outside, Percy led them behind her hut to a large robot that had been hiding behind it. It was taller than even the trees, painted in camouflage colors, and seemed to be made of a thicker metal. It was a bit intimidating of a sight, but one that made Louise vibrate with excitement!

"This is W1L13, or Willy as I like to call it! He's programmed to detect threats, and get them off the property in record time! Let me get him booted up!"

Percy went up to the behemoth, tinkering with it a good minute while Millie watched and Louise got ready off to the side by practicing on a stump. However, similar to the first robot, sparks began to fly and the robot came to life with wild beeping.

"Huh? That's not right! What's going on?" Percy said, startled by the unpredicted activity. The robot moved to take a step, unknown to Percy, who was shoved out of the way by Millie before it could step on her. With its path empty, it continued forward, lasers beginning to blast crazily and sending pokemon from the forest escaping as fast as possible.

"I don't know why it's doing that! It worked fine before!" Percy said in confusion, eyes darting as her memory tried to make sense of what was happening.

The situation was enough to distract Millie from her lovestruck state, focusing on the robot making its way through the forest. Louise was exclaiming expletives next to them that she was lucky Millie didn't notice.

"Percy, it needs to be taken out! Do we have your permission to do so any way necessary?" Millie asked, face serious. Percy hesitated, reluctant to let this one get ruined, but ultimately nodded.

"Do what you must. I don't want to destroy the forest."

All on the same page now, Millie and Louise nodded at each other before chasing after Willy. Like earlier, they went into combat mode, focusing on working together instead of against one another. Louise got her Fire Fang ready, Millie charging up Dark Pulse and surrounding herself with the dark haze. Together, they unleashed, and waited for the dust to settle.

To their horror, the robot was untouched, still beeping and whirring in its path of destruction.

"Millie, you're the smartsy one! What do we do if it's not effected by our moves?!"

Said sister stopped, trying to focus on a method that would work in their favor. At first, she was fruitless, before remembering the robot was made of metal. If they could reach the melting point with their fire, maybe they could stop it!

"Louise! Avoid the trees, try to make the hottest flame you can! We're gonna melt it like cheese!"

"Works for me!"

Twin balls of fire formed in their jaws, building up longer than normal before being unleashed on the robot. It seemed to do nothing at first, but the more they held it, the more red the metal turned. After a good minute, it started to shrink, the metal melting like they hoped it would. They didn't stop until it was a pile of goopy metal on the ground, silent and unmoving.

"We did it! Woohoo! I count this as winning the spar!" Louise cheered, hopping around like a rabbit in excitement. Millie panted, happy her quick plan worked and no further damage was caused to the forest.

"Thank goodness!" Footsteps were heard from behind them, Percy running up and visibly looking relieved. "I was worried a high ranking guild would have to be called in!"

"No, it seems two Vulpix-in-training were just enough," Millie said, turning to give Percy a smile. Percy was already looking through the wreckage, a bit disappointed, but understanding the sacrifice was necessary.

"Wait a second..." he said, something coming to attention to his keen eye. Using one of his extra arms, he held up a wire. "This looks chewed on. That's probably why it went berserk, my other robot too. It seems to match with that no good Rat Gang!" Exasperated to have her hard work temporarily ruined because of them, she threw the wire and groaned in annoyance. Millie put a paw on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"Oh well, I guess I'll have to keep a better eye out and start over..... I did have some new ideas I wanted to implement." Percy put her own paw on Millie's as thanks, giving her own smile.

"I didn't mention it before, but I also have some Pecha Danishes. They're harder to find around here, so I was gonna save them for a special occasion. I'd say saving the forest is one!"

"I agree! Fork them over! My stomach is empty again!"

"Your stomach is always empty, Louise!"

"Shut up, Millie!"

Giggling and joking around, the trio made their way back towards Percy's hut.

Mission: Berserk Mecha: Success