Adrian's New Team: Part 3

Everyone woke up the following afternoon separately. First, Bellossom woke up, who woke up her brother Vileplume. Enny woke up a little while after. All of them waited for Adrian, who woke up a half hour after Enny. Vileplume approached Adrian when he awoke and pulled him aside.

“Hey, we need to talk about last night,” he said while walking to a small clearing off the side of the road.

“Okay,” Adrian responded.

“Don’t you think you went a little off the rails with Enny?” Vileplume asked.

Adrian thought for a bit before replying, “Maybe a little.”

“A little?” Vileplume questioned, stunned by the answer. “You were ready to fight him last night over… nothing! You really think that’s not a lot?”

“Hey, I was just getting across my honest feelings towards him. He was the one who felt it was necessary to mock me.”

“Adrian, he was trying to relate to you. To be nice to you,” Vileplume lectured. “He wanted you to know he gets what it’s like to have lost a parent.”

“I never asked for his pity,” Adrian said.

“Still, that was way too much! You’re supposed to be our team leader, supposed to keep us together.” Vileplume said.

“When exactly did I volunteer to lead you guys?” Adrian asked.

Vileplume didn't answer that.

“You're the only person in the guild I can even tolerate being around. As for Enny? I'm hoping that the dungeon pokemon eat him alive.”

“Well, you made my sister cry. How does that make you feel?” Vileplume asked.

Adrian stopped his ranting for a moment and his expression changed. Vileplume couldn't really figure out what Adrian was thinking, but he seemed bothered. Adrian shook his head.

“Tell me how that's my fault? I didn't yell at her,” Adrian questioned.

“She hates the fighting, and you started it,” Vileplume answered. “If you controlled yourself a bit more, she wouldn't have gotten upset.”

“If you guys just kept me out of your conversation, none of that would've happened,” Adrian replied. He then turned around and started heading back towards the road. “Labyrinth Cave isn't far now. We can get there before the sun sets. Then we’ll all be free to disassociate from each other.”

The group reconvened and started moving towards the cave. No conversation this time. The air was full of tension from the argument during the last sunrise. Eventually they reached the entrance of the dungeon.

Adrian ordered everyone to sort out the supplies they had for the dungeon. Besides rations, the group had a pile of geo pebbles, four oran berries, two pecha berries, and a single stun seed.

The group divided the supplies between each other. Vileplume took two oran berries, Enny took a pecha and an oran berry, Bellossom got an oran berry and the geo pebbles, and Adrian took the stun seed and a pecha berry. With everyone set and ready, the group went into the dungeon, Adrian taking the lead.

The cave was dark and very difficult to see in. Everyone's eyes had slowly been adjusting to darkness over the past week, however. That, and Adrian kept his rings glowing as bright as he could to provide some light. Enny started calling him the “Torch Bre” to Vileplume and Bellossom, which got a couple of chuckles out of them.

The wild pokemon in the dungeon weren't too much of a hassle for the group, but sometimes they would sneak up on them and get a few strikes in before being dealt with. On the third floor, right after the group got down the cavern’s stairs, a nidorino pounced on Bellossom. It got a few bits in before Enny shot it off with a use of his Disarming Voice. Vileplume rushed over to her quickly.

“Bell!” He cried. “Are you hurt?”

He pulled out one of his oran berries and gave it to her. She took a small bite from it and tried to swallow it, but she ended up coughing it back up along with a dark purple ooze coming from her mouth.

“Dammit, Enny, she's poisoned! Where’s your pecha berry?” Vileplume asked.

“I-I used it on the last floor!” Enny answered.

Vileplume started to panic until Adrian approached. He held a pecha berry in his mouth and set it down in Bellossom’s hands. She quickly grabbed it and ate it, so quickly, Vileplume had to stop her from choking. She then finished the oran berry.

Bellossom looked up at Adrian and thanked him. Adrian scoffed and moved away towards another tunnel. The rest of the team got up and followed him.

In the 5th floor of the dungeon, the group found themselves caught in a battle with a pack of wild pokemon led by a machop. Enny shot off more of his Disarming Voices and tried to keep attention on him. Vileplume and Bellossom used a combination of stun spores and sleep powders on the pack, doing their best to avoid being hit. Adrian jumped in and out of the pack, disrupting any formations and picking off the weaker and stunned pokemon.

After all the pokemon were either downed, or fled, the group checked up with each other to make sure nobody was hurt badly. Adrian was the only exception, as he just paced around and waited for everyone to be done. Enny watched him pace around for a while until he saw some pebbles land on the ground beside him. Adrian didn't seem to notice, but when Enny looked up, he saw a set of stalactites slowly crumbling.

Enny quickly shot out his ribbons and grabbed Adrian, pulling him away from the spot he was walking and landing right on top of Enny.

“What the fuck do you think you’re-” Adrian began to yell. He was cut off by the sound of a set of stalactites piercing the ground.

The whole team was still and silent for a moment until Enny giggled. “My ribbons can feel how grateful you are,” he whispered in his girly voice.

Adrian pushed the ribbons off of him and got up immediately. He didn't say a word to Enny.

On their way out of the sixth floor, Bellossom stumbled on an orb. She asked, “What kind of orb is this?”

Vileplume and Enny weren't sure, as they were unfamiliar with orbs. Adrian took a closer look at it. It was dark with a small light that kind of looked like a star trapped inside the glass. He said, “It’s an escape orb. Should get us out of the dungeon if we use it.”

Bellossom marveled at the shiny orb before storing it in her bag. Vileplume got curious, though. “How are you so good at identifying stuff from our world, but Enny isn’t? If they were in your world, wouldn't they be common knowledge?” He asked.

Adrian was caught off guard by the simple and innocent question. “I-I… uh,” He stammered. “You didn't recognize it yourself. Some people just aren’t familiar with these things, you know-”

Enny giggled before interrupted with his girly voice. “The big, tough bre likes to play kids games! That's why!”

Bellossom and Vileplume were both confused by that comment. Vileplume was more worried about another fight breaking out, though. He looked at Adrian, expecting to see him pissed off and ready to defuse an argument. Instead, he saw something he didn’t expect.

“Adrian, are you blushing?” Vileplume asked.

Despite the relative darkness of the cave, Adrian’s red face was clearly visible to everyone. That, and his rings got brighter. Bellossom and Enny both giggled, while Adrian passed them without a word and kept moving.

At last, the group reached the seventh floor. Hey scoured the caves, looking for the gem they were sent to find. Eventually, they came across a golbat holding a gem in its mouth. When it spotted the group, it quickly ran away.

Adrian and Enny chased after it immediately, while Vileplume and Bellossom tried to keep pace. The group darted through tunnels and several rooms until they came to what looked like a room with a dead end. There were small cracks of light bleeding into the room, the two eeveelutions to clearly see the golbat flying in the middle of the room.

Thinking the chase was over, Adrian ran in and got ready to attack the golbat. When he entered the room, however, he was immediately picked up by a set of large, muscular arms and thrown through a stone pillar on the other side of the room.

Enny came to a screeching halt. Standing before him was a massive Machamp marveling at his handiwork with Adrian. It then looked at Enny. Enny started to use Disarming Voice, but before he could get it off, the machamp threw a karate chop straight into Enny’s throat, sending him straight to the ground in a coughing fit.

“Oh, now this is pathetic,” the machamp laughed. “I'm sitting ‘ere, waiting for one of the guild’s finest to arrest me, and this is all they send? A darkie and a little girly-girl?”

Vileplume and Bellossom finally caught up to see the sight of Enny choking up on the ground.

“And who’s this now?” The machamp laughed harder. He placed a set of hands at his hips. “They sent two little grassies into a cave with no rockies, but full of poison boys? Gonna have to think more about your composition if you wanna take me in, mate.”

“Uh, we’re not here to arrest you?” Vileplume said while Bellossom was visibly shaking. “We're just looking for a gem that a family of gravelers lost here. A golbat took it.”

“A gem, you say? Oi, Golby!” The machamp called out with a snap of his fingers. “What’re these lot talkin’ ‘bout?”

The golbat flew over and dropped the gem into one of the machamp’s hands. It was perfectly cut blue gemstone with a strong reflection visible, even in the dimly lit room.

“My oh my, what a beautiful little thing,” the machamp admired. “Why didn't ya tell me about this thing, fly-boy? Were you thinkin’ you’d keep it for yerself?”

“N-no! I just found it! Honest!” The golbat squeaked.

“Oh, that's a crock a shit if I ever heard one!”

“Hey!” Vileplume interrupted. “Uh… do you think you could just give us the gem, and we’ll call it even?

The machamp looked at the two grass types for a moment. Enny started to get back up, looking like he was about to ready an attack. Machamp swiftly turned around and gave him another throat chop to keep him out of the fight.

“I think I got a better idea,” Machamp said. “I’m gonna keep the gem and bury you two in the ground ‘til you blossom into trees. How's that sound?”

Vileplume and Bellossom got into shaky defensive stances.

“Alright, that's more like it!” Machamp grinned, getting into an offensive stance. “Golby, keep the little lady down, would you?”

“Machamp, that's a dude,” Golbat said.

“Wait, what?” Machamp got out of his stance and looked back at Golbat. “Why’s he wearin’ a skirt, then?”

“I dunno,” Golbat replied. “It's kinda cute, though,”

“What, are you fuckin’ gay?”

“Wh- no! I just think it looks nice on him! Can't I admire a man’s fashion choices?”

“Well not when he’s wearin’ women’s clothes,” Machamp argued

“Why not? I think it’s fine for him to wear that. Nothing gay about it.”

“The fuck? There's absolutely someth- oh, forget it! We’ll talk about this later!”

Machamp leaped at Vileplume and Bellossom and started attacking them. It ended up more like a beating than an actual battle. Machamp used his two sets of arms to punch the brother and sister simultaneously while Enny was on the ground being harassed by Golbat. Bellossom and Vileplume tried to shoot spores and powders at their attacker, but they weren't having any effect besides pissing him off.

Enny still hadn’t regained his voice, so there was nothing he could do to get Golbat off of him. Enny began to lose any hope of his attacker relenting. It was around that point when, suddenly, a bright flash hit the side of Golbat’s head, causing it to freeze up and fall onto the ground. It was petrified.

Enny looked to see where the attack came from. He saw, in the shadows, a set of glowing rings and fiery red eyes staring right at him. Enny got the message clearly. He stood up, cleared his throat, and fired off a volley of Disarming Voices. Each one connected with Machamp, who was entirely unprepared for the attack.

He turned to face the sylveon, severely damaged by the attack. He started walking over to attack Enny. Vileplume and Bellossom were able to focus on an attack, though. They charged a power sleep powder together and released it onto Machamp, knocking him out instantly.

Bellossom and Vileplume walked over to Enny. The two of them were bruised from head to toe, but still conscious. Enny was badly scratched. Luckily, Golbat didn't end up poisoning him. Enny turned towards the shadows where he saw Adrian, leading Bellossom and Vileplume to look over as well.

Adrian stumbled out slowly. His whole body was covered in dust and deep gashes that the rocks he landed in left. The glow on his rings had faded. Enny went to his side and used a ribbon to support him. Adrian didn’t push him off. Vileplume came over and gave Adrian his last oran berry, which he nibbled weakly.

Bellossom went over to the sleeping Machamp and took back the gem he had. With everything said and done, she pulled out the escape orb and slammed it into the ground.

In a blinding flash, the group of explorers and the two outlaws were transported to the entrance of the cave. Adrian’s team traveled to a nearby village and had the outlaws detained. Then, they began their journey home.

The following week, around sunset, Vileplume, Bellossom, and Enny visited Adrian's room. Adrian lay on a blanket, covered in bandages. Beside him was a broken TM and a solved Rubik's cube.

“Did you figure out what move was on that TM?” Vileplume asked.

“Yeah, actually,” Adrian replied. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he reopened them, they turned blue and the Rubik's cube started to float beside him. “It teaches Psychic.”

“Kind of an underwhelming reward for being beaten by that Machamp if I’m being honest,” Vileplume complained.

“It was worth it to me. Why are you guys in here, though?” Adrian asked.

“We wanted to tell you! The guild was so impressed with our work, they asked us to remain a team!” Bellossom cheered.

“We also got moved up to ‘normie’ rank for beating the outlaws. Not sure what that means, but I assume it’s a good thing” Vileplume said.

“So I gotta deal with you three for all my future missions?” Adrian grumbled.

“Yup! Our official team name is Team Moonshine!” Enny said.

“Jesus Christ, that’s awful. Tell me something good. What did you guys do with the reward money?” Adrian asked.

“Well we restocked some of our supplies, and I got myself this twist band,” Vileplume said, presenting a braided band he had tied around his arm.

“I got a defense scarf! A real one this time!” Bellossom proudly presented her new scarf.

Enny just stood there and smiled innocently at Adrian.

Adrian glared at Enny. “What did you fucking do?”

Enny answered, “Well, if you must know, I reserved us all a little table at the Blue Claw Inn, and got us dinner and drinks for the night.”

“Why the stupid look then?” Adrian asked.

Enny just started giggling while Vileplume explained. “He started telling everyone at the inn’s bar about how much of a hero you were during our first mission, defeating Golbat and saving his life.”

“And he did it all while pretending to be a girl,” Bellossom added.

“What the fuck?” Adrian groaned. “I'm not going, then.”

“Come on, Addy. It's your celebratory feast!” Enny chimed.

“Fuck off and die,” Adrian growled.

“He’s just messing with you. Come on, it’ll be fun,” Vileplume said.

“I said fuck off!” Adrian roared. “I don't need to get drunk at Blue Claw. I’ve still got wounds from the mission, anyway. I’ll get dinner here,”

The three pokemon looked at each other, then back at Adrian. They all nodded in agreement on something.

“What are you guys-”

Adrian was cut off by a cloud of stun spores, paralyzing his whole body. Enny then went over and, with a bit of help from Vileplume, picked up Adrian. The two carried him out of his room and traveled to the inn for their feast.

After walking about halfway through the town, the paralysis started to wear off and Adrian started struggling to get free. He yelled all sorts of slurs and colorful language towards his teammates, and he even started biting at Enny’s ribbons. They finally dropped him down on the floor of the inn.

“I swear to fucking God,” Adrian continued complaining as he picked himself up off the ground. “You drag me through town like that ever again, and I’ll-”

Adrian was cut short as Bellossom presented a drink to Adrian. A dark gummi shake with a strong smell of alcohol. Adrian picked it up with Psychic and begrudgingly accepted it. He took a long drink from the glass before walking over to the reserved table with his new team.