Rollin’ into Trouble

Purity Forest 1f: upon entering the forest, the sounds of pokemon ring through the trees. Not all of them are seen immediately but its clear they are there. Just then, a foongus comes rushing towards them as an eevee persuer is following right behind. The foongus looks terrified and tries to run as best as it can.

What does the team decide to do?

- - - - -

The outlaw board was not something Alex wanted to frequent. He didn’t really have the fortitude to resolve disputes or to stop fights, not like Armando at least. The Pidgey thought he was too small to be taken seriously but... as leader of Grand Canopy, it wouldn’t do for him to decline anyone’s plea of help. So here they were in Purity Forest, tasked with retrieving a stolen Wild Orb for a Deerling.

In their hunt for the thieving Bonsly, the avian duo spotted a running mushroom with its pursuer not far behind. Not wanting anyone to get hurt since they don’t know the full story, Alex quickly told his friend to grab the Foongus while he landed on the ground to block the Eevee’s path. He lifted his wings in a stop gesture.

“Okay— I don’t know what’s going on but whoever you’re chasing is scared so let’s all just take a deep breath. Surely we can talk this out... right?”

The Pidgey winced as he ended that sentence. Mental note for next time: be more confident in your delivery.

- - - - -

The foongus timidly and fearfully huddled against Armando, not daring to look at his pursuer. The eevee meanwhile looked so confused and asked why they stopped him. He was just playing chase with his friend. The foongus, while scared, was not very shy in speaking out.

"Liar! You are just chasing me to eat me!" it cried. The eevee shook his head and told him that they agreed to play a game of chase earlier. But the foongus looked confused himself when the eevee mentioned an agreement.

- - - - -

Alex furrowed his brow, really confused now. He turned to Armando but the blue bird shrugged as well, the Foongus still holding on to him for dear life.

“Uh,” Alex started eloquently.“So you—” he pointed at the Eevee “thought you were playing a game, while you—” he directed a feather at the Foongus then “thought this guy was going to eat you.” The brown bird scratched his head. What a strange situation to be in.

“Um, sorry but I think the game may be getting a little too real if the Foongus is so distressed.” He smiled at the Eevee, hoping he wasn’t too offended. “Think you can tone it down a bit?”

- - - - -

The eevee looked confused still, tilting his head. He seemed to be looking over the small mushroom pokemon, even letting out a careful sniff. Then his ears flipped back and he backed up a little.

"Oh. You arent my friend. He mustve gotten away from me... he looks just like you. Im so sorry i mistook you for my friend. Is there anyways i can apologize for scaring you?" he looked at the foongus, truly sorry for spooking him.

"You can find me 10 berries and make it up to me." the little foongus commanded, scooting out from his spot.

- - - - -

Alex’ brows go up and and he sighed relieved. “Oh you were just chasing the wrong ‘mon, that makes sense.” He grimaced a bit at the Foongus’ demand but doesn’t comment on it, he understood how traumatizing it would be for a stranger to chase you.

Wanting to do more, a lightbulb lit up in his head and he smiled, clasping his wings together. “Oh hey, I’m glad you two came to an understanding! Why don’t we help you look for those berries? We’ll have a birds-eye view of everything so they’ll be easy to spot, right ‘Mando?”

Armando grinned at everyone. “Oh yeah we can, we’ll get those berries for ya in no time flat!”

- - - - -

"Oh you will? Thanks you two, that means a lot. The sooner we can get this done, the sooner i can go find my friend." the eevee said, looking quite relieved. At this, the foongus seemed to get an idea.

"If thats the case, then get me 20 berries. The more of you there are, the faster you can get it done."

"Hey, thats hardly fair now. We agreed 10 berries." the eevee protested. "Im not going to look if you want 20."

At this, the foongus realized he probably went too far and thought otherwise. Not too many minutes passed before the pokemon decided to make it only 10 berries, as originally promised.

- - - - -

Armando was so ready to give that shroom a good ol’ stink eye when it raised the berry amount just because they offered their help, but he calmed down when it back-pedalled and went back to ten.

The two birds made short work of this little side task and soon enough, they returned and placed their spoils in front of the Foongus. “Eight, nine aaaand ten! Here we are, ten perfectly ripe berries for you!” Alexander said with a smile. He turned to the Eevee, a slight look of worry on his face “I hope your friend’s alright, do you need help looking for him?”

- - - - -

Even the eevee came back with berries, but only gave a few to the foongus. The rest he gave to the team, saying they were for the trouble he put them through.

"if it wasnt for you two helping me find these, id probably be searching all day. Carrying berries isnt easy all by myself. So i wanted you to have some of these. I think ill be able to find my friend, but thanks for offering." the eevee gave out a smile and wagged his tail a little.

"7...8...9...hey, theres only 9 here! I asked for 10!" the foongus cried. The eevee turned his gaze tot he berries, and sure enough, there were only 9 there now. "you were supposed to give me 10!"

The eevee sniffed for a moment before he padded up to the little mushroom, a look without emotion on it, almost scaring the pokemon again. But instead he moved him tot he side and revealed the 10th berry. The eevee wrinkled his nose at the foongus and left, only saying bye to the team. It seems he had had enough for the day.

- - - - -

Alex smiled at the Eevee, appreciative of his generosity. “Oh wow, thank you so much! I really am glad we could help!”

His demeanour soured slightly at the Foongus’ actions but he ignored him as he waved at the Eevee. “Bye! Hope you find your friend soon!”

Armando was more reactive to how the mushroom acted and was already closing his distance to him when the Eevee left. “Why you little—” The Pidgey opened his wing to block his friend’s path.

“‘Mando please, not worth it honestly,” Alex said with a sigh before turning to the Foongus, his smile smaller than usual but he wanted to be supportive all the same. “Do you need help with anything else?”

- - - - -

"hrmph. nothing anymore." the pokemon huffed. how rude of that eevee, to embarrass him like that. "hrm. do you think you could take out that eevee for me? He was rather rude to me, and i still feel traumatized!"

As he said this, he made an exaggerated pose. it was a little clear he was into dramatics. He also moved the berries closer to him, protective of the gains from his 'traumatized loss'. The pokemon would try to get more out of these two, but he wasnt aware of how short their attention span was now that there was little to do here now.

The pokemon had closed his eyes, but opened them when he didnt hear much and saw the two birds were still there. "H-how come you arent going after him? He mentally scarred me!"

- - - - -

The two birds just looked at each other before looking back at the Foongus. Alex frowned “A scare like that doesn’t warrant *taking him out*.”

Armando gestured at the shroom. “Come ooon that’s gotta count as a threat, we gotta take him in Al.”

The Pidgey shook his head. “No we shouldn’t, we should just go.” He addressed the Foongus again, mood dampened now. “Sorry, but we’ll have to decline as we have more important things to take care of.” Alex started lifting himself off the ground, berries gifted by the Eevee held in his claws. He gave the Foongus one final smile though this one was definitely fake. “Hope the rest of your day gets better!”

- - - - -

Foongus was dissapointed, but gave up. Sometimes pokemon were jerks but you cant expect all of them to be nice.