Search and Rescue

"That kid has to be around here somewhere." Nox hummed as he glanced down the cliff to the ocean below.

"I-i hope w-we find them s-soon." Wildfire trembled as she huddled closer to Jewel. The poor fletchling was clearly terrified and Nox felt kinda bad. Wildfire had seemed panicked when Nox had told his team about the desperate request he'd gotten from a worried trumbeak. Her child had apparently gone near the cliffs to play and hadn't come back when they were supposed to. Nox, being the kind of pokemon that he was, was happy to offer a helping paw. By extension bringing the rest of his team into it too. After seeing Wildfire's reaction Nox had said there was no shame in staying back and waiting for them, but Wildfire had been adamant she go with them. He could respect that, but still made sure she knew she could head back at any time.

Right now though, Nox was feeling the effects of having a team ill suited to checking this sort of environment. If the kid was somewhere in the water below well... Nox wasn't sure what any of them could really do about that. Out of all of them Wildfire would have the best chance, but Nox didn't really want to put her in that position if he didn't have to. For now he just hoped the kid was somewhere on land.

The team scoured the cliff above the water and the longer they went without finding the kid they were looking for, the more Nox got a sinking feeling. He glanced more frequently at the water below and noticed the others doing the same. Eventually Rumble pulled him aside as the others were checking some trees and bushes. "We both know that kid is somewhere in the water." Rumble didn't pull any punches.

Nox frowned. "I mean, we don't know for su-" He was cut off by Rumble's growl.

"Save it mutt. We haven't seen anything from them. If the kid had gotten lost up here I doubt it would be taking this long to find them. Either they're somewhere in the water or someone took them. Either way there's nothing we can do." Rumble crossed his arms.

Nox narrowed his eyes. Was Rumble really suggesting they give up? "You can't seriously mean we should just leave." Nox asked quietly.

"I'm saying just that. Even if we found the kid in the water how are we supposed to help them? In case you haven't noticed we don't have any aquatically inclined pokemon with us." Rumble narrowed his eyes back. "We would just be putting ourselves in danger too."

Stepping closer Nox got into Rumble's space. The fuecoco seemed surprised by this and Nox's cold glare. "If we have any shot at helping someone we're not leaving them behind." Nox's voice was calm, but it was a thin cover for the anger boiling beneath. Nox would dare say he was starting to trust Rumble, despite how the fuecoco treated him. For him to just suggesting they leave like this really hurt.

Although Rumble appeared unsteady he didn't back down. "This isn't even our job. We're just a group of people who all happened to come across that trumbeak. We should leave something like this to a professional team."

"What separates us from them?" Nox felt himself go stiff. "Some official recognition and some fancy badges? We don't need that stuff to help people Rumble." Nox growled and Rumble blinked in surprise. "So are you going to help or not?" Rumble was quite for a moment, searching Nox for something. He didn't care what his... partner was looking for. All he cared about was the fuecoco's answer. Finally Rumble gave a stiff nod and walked back over to the others, who seemed to have at some point started watching the exchange with worried expressions.

Their search continued to show no results and Nox was starting to feel the unwelcome weight of failure settling into his chest. He didn't want to give up. There was a kid out there who needed help and as far as he knew there was no one else out there trying to help them. Though he had to face facts eventually. They couldn't find them, and despite him getting upset at Rumble before he was very aware they weren't a team suited to water rescue. With a sigh he took another over the cliff and caught a glimpse of white and black. He perked up and ran as close to the edge as he could get without falling. His team gave various shouts of concern but he ignored them. "The kid... they're down there!" Nox gestured with a paw, eyes laser focused on where the pikipek was struggling to keep their head above water. 

Soon enough his teammates were by his side, taking in the sight as well. "What do we do?" Jewel sounded a mix between concerned and terrified.

"We..." Nox trailed off. He didn't know what to do. They'd found the kid sure but what could they actually do to save them? 

As Nox's thoughts raced he heard Wildfire. "T-there's another pokemon down t-there."

Nox shook off the unwanted thoughts and refocused on what was happening in front of him. There was a large, blue figure making their way towards the struggling pikipek. All Nox could really do was hold his breath and hope that it was someone trying to help. They all watched as a feraligatr rose out of the water underneath the pikipek. It took them a moment to stop flailing but once they seemed to realize they were being helped they settled down. Nox felt the tension leave his body as he watched the feraligatr bring the kid back to shore and up a more climbable part of the cliff. Their wings were probably too waterlogged to fly. Nox silently walked over to where he could intercept the two and his team followed along. 

Once he caught sight of the feraligatr he waved them down. They smiled kindly at him and walked over, pikipek still sitting on their back. "Hello there!" The feraligatr called out. Her smile still intact. "Were you all looking for this little one?"

"Yeah." Nox gave a small smile of his own as he sighed. "Yeah we were."

"Well I'm glad to have been able to help." She eyed the rest of the team. "Especially since you don't appear to prepared for a water rescue."

"Yeah well this one jumped at the opportunity to offer our help before really thinking through the hows." Rumble walked forward and huffed. Nox glared but didn't say anything against it. It was true after all.

"It happens." The feraligatr waved it off. "Some just have a heart bigger than their brain sometimes. Not that there's anything wrong with that." She rubbed the back of her head. "It's nice to know there are still pokemon like that around."

Nox nodded. "Well I suppose introductions are in order? Name's Nox." He put a paw on his own chest. "This is my sort of unwilling partner Rumble." He gestured at the fuecoco, who only rolled his eyes. "And these are Jewel and Wildfire." He gestured at the two as he said their names. They waved.

"It's a pleasure." The feraligatr nodded. "I'm Aqua."

"Pleasure's all mine." Nox nodded. "Well since you were so kind as to rescue the kid for us we can at least lead you back to where their mom is waiting."

"That would be appreciated, thank you." Aqua nodded. The walk back was nice now that the tension had been lifted from the group. As expected the mother was overjoyed to see her kid again and thanked them all profusely. The two happy bird pokemon went off after that and Nox felt a warmth in his chest. He always loved to see things work out at the end of the day. Speaking of... he turned to Aqua who was also watching the duo go with a smile on her face. 

"Say, you seem to be pretty good at all this." Nox gestured widely. "If we run into more rescues or things that involve water we could use the help..." He let the unsaid invitation sit in the air.

"Are you inviting me to join your team?" Aqua turned to Nox.

"Yeah I suppose I am. If you're interested of course. I don't know if you have... other obligations or whatever." Nox waved a paw around. 

"I've never really considered joining a rescue team before." Aqua hummed.

"Well we're not really an official team or anything. But we have a name and a drive to help other, so I feel like that's close enough." Nox grinned.

Aqua chuckled. "Well I suppose not every group would want to go through the process of getting register huh?" She was silent for a while, her gaze traveling back in the direction of where the mother and her child had gone. "I think I might like that. Having a team." She turned back to him. "Count me in."

Nox's grin widened. "Welcome to Team Fate."