Scarecrow For Higher! (Quest)
Sundae watched as Breeze let loose a leafage with a growl. The sudden barrage of leaves and petals startled the skwovet fusion that managed to get a little too close to a pile of food sending it running out of sight. Satisfied Breeze leisurely sat on the ground keeping his eyes peeled for any more fusions trying to approach.
“That’s 23 for you.” Melt yawned dramatically, stretching and leaning so far back as to almost fall over completely, though he caught himself in time. The pokemon he’d brought along, Aria, still hadn’t lost any energy this entire time and patrolled the food storage by hopping and running laps around it. “And 27 for me.”
“You’re keeping count...?” Sundae, noticing movement in some underbrush nearby, signaled for Breeze to go check it out. The pokemon didn’t even hesitate to pounce on the movement, scaring off a nicket fusion that thought it could take advantage of the distraction from the skwovet fusion before.
“24. And yes I’m keeping count what ELSE am I going to do right now? Ugh.” This time Melt purposefully fell back and lied on the ground. Usually he avoided trying to get dirty but, if even he didn’t care at this point, he really must’ve been getting bored. “These pokemon are so jumpy it’s not that hard to scare them off. Even if a good ‘Boo!’ doesn’t startle them a single decent strike will.”
Sundae scanned the area and, not catching sight of any more movement, he relaxed and decided to leave the searching to Breeze. If something started to approach he’d surely let out a warning for them. “I don’t think the point of this job is to find a challenge, we’re just supposed to make sure wild pokemon don’t eat all the food. If anything we should be glad it’s so easy... but...” Sundae looked at Melt, meeting his gaze. “Why are you here anyway? I don’t remember asking you to come and help.”
Melt looked away suddenly finding something very interesting to look at in the cloudless sky. The silence told Sundae he was trying to come up with a good answer, though the result proved somewhat disappointing. “I dunno, I saw you walking somewhere and decided to follow. It’s not like I have anything better to do I guess.”
Sundae folded his arms. “It’s not like you have anything better to do. So, what you’re really saying is that you’re procrastinating and finding excuses not to do your division assigned jobs.”
“Ugh...”
His response was all Sundae needed to confirm that’s what Melt meant. Of course he’d noticed that, recently, Melt had been willing to do a lot more odd jobs than ever before... but finding reasons to procrastinate seemed to explain that behavior pretty well. Melt rolled over onto his side with his back facing Sundae.
“Can you blame me? I don’t know how to come up with a festival activity! I had a manager to do that kind of stuff on the mainland. And having to BUILD the thing is a whole different matter.”
“Uh huh... I think you should probably just play to your strengths. And that talent show?”
Melt fell silent for an even longer time. The only thing that could be heard was the wind and the sound of Aria’s footsteps until he decided to speak up again. “I’m working on it. That’s nobody's business by my own right now.”
Was he working on it in the middle of the night or something...? During the day Sundae usually saw him running around doing other things. He wasn’t really sure how that applied to the talent show, but Melt sounded serious at least. Still, he seemed like a bit of a perfectionist, so Sundae only hoped he wouldn’t be “working on it” until the last minute.
Before he could offer a response the sound of a twig cracking and rustling in the bushes caused both Breeze and Aria to stop what they were doing and get defensive. Breeze began to growl with his hackles raising while Aria hopped over putting her paws up in a fighting position. Melt, for his part, got up to see what the noise was about though he seemed mostly unconcerned given the precedent before.
“What now?”
Just as he finished the sentence a Pokémon far larger than ones they’d seen before emerged. Surrounding it stood a handful of smaller fusions clearly using the bigger one as a shield. The larger fusion, Sundae realized, was a Thievul and Greedent fusion; likely the leader of the pack that had been trying to steal the food today he guessed. Melt looked unimpressed but stood up all the same stretching as he did so.
“Someone tougher wants to play then? Maybe if we beat this one we can take a break for the rest of the day.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.” Sundae sighed, “But again… you can leave at any time there’s nothing keeping you here.”
A howl from the leader pokemon interrupted them. At its command the smaller fusions that surrounded it made a mad dash towards the food storage while the leader attempted to draw their attention by charging at them. Aria, itching to do something other than just run around, was prepared and gave a heavy high-jump kick to the Thievul/Greedent knocking it off balance and stunning in. At the same time, seeing the leader being dealt with, Breeze let loose a powder snow on the approaching fusions in an attempt to scare them off. The fusions were stunned, sure, but feeling empowered by the stronger pokemon nearby they shook off the cold and continued their charge.
“They’ll leave if they see their leader get taken out.” Sundae said. “Aria’s probably better equipped to deal with it, so Breeze and I will stop any of the others from escaping with food.”
“Hah, sounds like fun to me.”
With that the two of them focused on their specific tasks. Sundae and Breeze mostly tried to stall the smaller fusions, making sure they couldn’t easily grab something and run off with it, while Melt turned his attention to the leader who was beginning to get up again. Another high-jump kick or two would probably send it running, but he had to make sure they wouldn’t miss.
“Try getting close to it.” Melt instructed Aria. She seemed to understand the game plan and hopped from side to side trying to get the attention of the leader. It worked and the fusion began to charge with Aria jumping out of the way just in time. When the leader turned to try another charge, though, Aria suddenly conjured up a searing fireball. She juggled it around a few times before launching it with a kick towards the Thievul/Greedent. The attack landed, though only just barely.
“Oooh look at you.” Melt said. “Learning a bit of a Pyro Ball huh? You’ll need to practice a bit more though, you almost missed it.”
Aria, once again hopping from side to side, lifted a paw up proudly. “Bun~”
The Thievul/Greedent wasn’t quite done yet, though. It staggered to its feet and let out another howl. Aria gave an angry cry in response, conjuring up another fireball. This time, though, seeing the fire and the ball begin to get larger the leader fusion started to back away. Before Aria could launch the attack the fusion whimpered and ran into the distance with a cry. Clearly it didn’t think the fight was worth it anymore. This didn’t go unnoticed by the smaller fusions who, upon hearing the whimper and cry, scattered themselves as well.
“See that wasn’t so bad.” Melt said. “And it probably won’t come back for a while at least.”
“Yes yes, thank you for your help.” Sundae walked over with Breeze following behind. “Though a couple managed to grab something and run, I’m afraid to say. Just some smaller berries but still...”
Melt shrugged. “Maybe Vivian can replace them. If any food was going to be left over it’d probably be given to the pokemon anyway. Still if no one tells then no one will notice.”
“I... am pretty sure reporting any incidents is part of the job. I won’t hide that a couple of things got taken.”
“Suit yourself. Anyway we’ve been here awhile and Breeze is probably tired yeah? You should get someone else to cover the rest for you. I’m leaving for the day, either way.”
Aria bounced over to Melt, likely ready to go home herself. Though she still seemed a little excited about everything previous.
“It is getting late...” Sundae noticed. “But I’ll stick around until someone comes by. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of daring pokemon stuck around hoping our guard would be down after that fight.”
Melt just shrugged at his response. He didn’t think it would be a huge deal if he left a pokemon or two to watch over it, but it wasn’t his responsibility either. “Don’t you have another kind of job coming up soon too though?”
“Yes... but I’ll make sure Breeze gets rest until then. Provided I even take him along. I do mean it though, thanks for coming to help.”
“Mm. Well you might have to ask Vivian next time. I’ll be busy for a little while. You might not even see me until the talent show next, who knows.”
The small talk continued a short while longer before they both went their separate ways. Sundae stayed behind just to check the area but, eventually, someone else came along to take over the watch. He didn’t really look forward to writing up a report though...