Mission 3: Negotiations

Adell yawned, stretching himself out some as he wandered down the streets of Tao Village, eyes perusing over the various shops and stores. He was quite amazed at the selection of items available. Yeah, the Merchants were the only folks in town in command of the shops, but the Smeargle couldn’t complain they did a bad job of it.

He was a bit groggy at the moment, a bit tuckered out from the fireworks display last night, and the beating he had received while trying to make it possible. Things hadn’t gotten that action packed for them before. They normally sat around doing side missions for the villagers. The main missions were big quest type things, and Cecil preferred more of a policing and investigative type role.

        As it turned out though, the two weren’t half bad one way or the other.

        There was a lot of hustle and bustle among the pokemon in the streets today, the Smeargle assuming it was due to the fireworks show from the night before. There was likely much gossip to be had. Though slowly Adell began to realize that the mood of the chatter was... different. It wasn’t like a carefree recollection of the previous night’s events, but more like the murmur of new information being passed around. Influential information. Something was going on, and most of the pokemon in Tao Village were aware of it. Rather than eavesdrop on the villagers however, Adell spied his partner in the distance, leaning against their mailbox. He was staring down at a letter which the Smeargle assumed was this new round of missions, though he didn’t look too analytical and calculating as he usually did. He seemed... worried.

        “Is... something wrong?” He asked as he approached his friend, glancing about idly to see if maybe something else was causing his friend’s bad mood, but no, it definitely was whatever was written in that letter. He could just tell by the way he was looking at it. The Murkrow sighed as he approached, extending a wing to give his friend the letter.

        “And here I thought we were such a nice little town.” He said a bit reluctantly as Adell looked over the missions it detailed “Looks like I jinxed it. Take a look at the main mission.”

        Adell blinked as his eyes skimmed over the words detailing the guild’s new primary objective. It did seem quite different from the missions which were ordered before, which were usually deliveries or other odd jobs that were for the guild’s overall financial benefit. This was different.

        “Well, they seem to have good intentions at least...” Adell said, stroking his chin a bit as he read it over.

        “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Cecil replied cynically, shaking his head lightly. “I don’t like how she says ‘nobody would dare fight over petty things.’ She says this dragon is good at working out problems, but it sounds more intimidating than anything. When’s the last time ‘dragon’ and ‘negotiation’ went together in the same sentence?”

        Adell frowned and looked down at the paper again. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand where Cecil was coming from. Yet he still felt he had to try and keep his partners mood up the best he could. He had a feeling he already decided what he wanted to do though, and once the Murkrow made up his mind about something, there was no stopping him.

        “But you trust Shroomsworth and PK right?” He asked, leaning up against the mailbox as he scratched his head, trying to come up with an argument. “Sure, she’s kinda crazy at times... but he normally keeps her in check...”

        “Oh yeah?” He responded coldly “Read over the side missions.”

        And so the Smeargle did, and his eyes widened as he saw what the Murkrow was talking about.

        “Stealing from Chill’s vault while he’s away?” He said, partly in disbelief “That’s...”

        “A bit un-merchant like?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “I asked around since I couldn’t find the guy myself, but it seems Shroomsworth has no idea how he let that mission slip into the letter. It’s too late though. The whole guild’s getting that assignment, and there are people who are taking it on.”

        “...We are going after her, aren’t we?” Was all that Adell could really bring himself to ask, glancing over at his partner, only to find he already was walking down the road out of town.

        “Of course.” Cecil insisted, sounding rather carefree. A bit odd, judging from his mood earlier. “I signed us up for the mission anyway. People would start to question if we stuck around here.”

        “W-wait, you signed us up?” Adell blinked, starting to follow after the bird, whose wings were carelessly folded behind his head, the beagle starting to follow after him. “I thought you wanted to stop her?”

        “I do.” He said rather plainly, “And this way, she won’t be getting any reinforcements.”

        “Wait... reinforce...” Adell stopped in his tracks momentarily, gazing off at his partner and blinking. “You aren’t actually planning on stopping her by force, are you?”

        “You don’t plan a lot of things in life!” He called, waving a wing back at the Smeargle as he began to fall behind, the beagle staring off at his partner for a moment, just watching him start to get smaller as he approached the horizon. He had a bad feeling about this. Not just because of Cecil’s so far outlandish plans, but because he was right.

 There was just some type of ominous air about all of this. The way the guilds seemed to be competing to get to revive their own respective dragons first... It did betray that feeling of ‘togetherness’ that the fireworks display had drummed up not so long ago, but there was more to it than that. Why were these ‘guardians’ attempting to stop the leaders in the first place? It was more than just because they had superb negotiation skills.

The beagle snapped out of his train of thought when he realized that his partner was already a significant distance away from him, shaking those thoughts out of his head and chasing right after him.

---

The plan was simple enough. They were going to head straight to the Icy Cave, and attempt to talk PK out of this potentially disastrous venture. Cecil figured, since the Rogues and the Rescuers were both converging on the same location, unlike PK, they were more likely to encounter one another, and would be held up significantly longer. Once they had PK swayed, the three plus the cave’s guardian would rush to stop the remaining two guilds before either of them succeeded as well.

“PK is stubborn.” Adell called, now chasing after his partner who was flying a short distance ahead of him, just below the tree branches of the forest “Shroomsworth is the only one I’ve seen keep her in check without using cake. What if she doesn’t listen?”

        “We try and stop her ourselves!” He called back, shivering some as the air grew colder, trees beginning to be covered in a light frost. He had to agree with the Kecleon on one thing. He hated the cold. “Coliche can go try and help the other two guardians slow down or even stop the other teams, or something.”

        Cecil glanced back at the Smeargle following him and saw the skeptical look on his face, rolling his eyes and groaning, his partner not needing to say anything.

        “Yes, I am making this up as I go along!” The Murkrow continued, “If you have any better ideas then please, be my guest!”

        Adell had no chance to speak though, as the trees soon parted, and they arrived at their destination. The impressive, gaping maw of Icy Cave, though as majestic as it seemed with its icicles hanging down from the ceiling, almost attempting to mimic stalactites, was a bit overshadowed by another scene. One of a certain Kecleon, face to face with a rather large, green creature, who was looking down at her with a very stern look upon her face. Adell and Cecil had stopped at the foot of the small clearing before the cave. It seemed the two hadn’t noticed them yet.

        “Your comrade was warned.” Coliche said, eyes glaring directly down into PK’s. “Turn back now, or I will make you do so. The power in this cave was not meant for you.”

        PK was glaring right back, equally as stern, gripping tight to the round, gray sphere she had, supposedly the key to whatever lied within.

        “And why should I believe you!” She stubbornly retorted, “All we want is peace! And that dragon in there can give it to us!”

        “I’ve heard the words a thousand times over.” She responded “But it’s not my duty to judge the pure of heart. It is my duty to guard the stone. Equally. Unconditionally.”

        “Well I’ve got duties too.” PK responded, her shadow seeming to grow larger, beginning to reach outwards towards Coliche, almost threateningly. “If you won’t let me, I’ll make you.”

        “Then I have no choice as well.” The Virizion agreed, the horns on her head beginning to enlarge and sharpen into her species’ signature blades, each combatant taking a step forwards, prepared to strike.

        “Stop!” Cecil called, both the girls’ attention being drawn to the newcomers. The Murkrow was approaching slowly, and Adell was right behind him... quite literally, as both of them were still armed.

        “Hah! The cavalry!” PK rejoiced with a smirk, glancing back to Coliche “Think ya can take on three of us?”

        “Nobody is taking anybody on!” Cecil replied, drawing their Guild Leader’s attention back to himself, looking rather confused. The Murkrow looked directly at her. “PK... we don’t think you should do this...”

        “Wh... what?” She said, almost in disbelief, though she quickly got rather testy. “What do you mean you don’t think I should do this! You aren’t taking her side, are you?”

        “PK...” Cecil continued, his wings up to show he meant no harm. His partner was sticking behind him though. The notion did seem to be making her quite upset, and he was rather scared of the Kecleon when she was angry. “There’s something about achieving peace this way that just feels... wrong. Coliche here wouldn’t go through all this trouble to guard this place if there wasn’t a very good reason for it.”

        He glanced up at the Virizion, who gave him a gaze that seemed to confirm his suspicions. She knew a bit more than she had told Shroomsworth. He wasn’t about to pry into it though.

        “I don’t want anything bad to happen to the village.” he continued on, looking back, a bit surprised that she was listening so long without a retort. “Just come with us... We’ll head up Monochrome Tower and stop the others before it’s too late, and we can just put this whole stone thing to rest... okay?”

        There was silence. The three were all awaiting a response from the Kecleon, who seemed to be almost dumbfounded. Her expression wasn’t very telling. In fact... there didn’t seem to be much of an expression to her face at all.

        “...PK?” Cecil asked, taking a step closer to her, eyes surveying her form a little bit, coming to realize what had happened. He let out a groan and pushed the Kecleon’s form over, revealing it was not really a Kecleon at all. The plush remake of PK fell to the ground with a soft thud, and the Murkrow put a wing to his forehead in annoyance.

        “Didn’t even wait for me to finish... she really is a stubborn one, isn’t she?”

        “We must chase after her!” Coliche insisted, though almost directly after she had spoken, a loud noise rattled through the woods. Some type of explosion, or energy beam, or something of the like. When the three pokemon’s attention turned, the source of the noise was obvious. Monochrome Tower loomed above the forest’s treeline, not too far away. The Murkrow looked back up at the Virizion.

        “Something tells me that your siblings need you more than we do.” He insisted, looking back towards the entrance of the cave, Adell taking a step forward. “Me and my friend will stop her. You just make sure the other two guilds don’t summon their dragons. I believe you when you say they are best left unawakened.”

        She gazed down at them solemn, before glancing back at the tower, giving a knowing nod to them both.

        “You two better not let me down.”

---

        True to its name, the interior of the Icy Cave was freezing, and coated in a floor of ice that made it difficult for Adell to navigate without having to teleport every once in a while to regain his bearings. Luckily Cecil had the privilege of gliding above the frigid floor with his wings, though the air made his whole body shudder. Thank goodness PK had no ice moves. It appeared she had done them a favor actually. On their way through the cave, all they encountered were ice type pokemon who had already been knocked out. The Kecleon had been fast, though simultaneously had opened the path wide up for them to follow.

        “PK!” Cecil shouted, seeing the pokemon in question at the end of the cave’s corridor. It had opened up into a rather large chamber, which was empty save for a single pedestal sitting in the center. PK stood at its base, stone in her paws, glowing faintly, as if it sensed the altar. She looked back, frowning and glaring at the two as they entered, Cecil merely landing, Adell needing to grab onto a wall to stop his body from sliding around. “Stop! I mean it!”

        “Or what?” She asked tauntingly. “I’m the Guild Leader here. You two are supposed to follow my orders! Not betray me for some oversized chia pet!        

        “Part of leading is listening to your peers, so listen.” He demanded, his wings balled into fists. Adell didn’t have much to say. He couldn’t help but feel like a third wheel as he watched all this unfold, though he knew if anything went wrong, it was vital that he was there.

        “You aren’t stupid, PK.” He continued, glaring back at her just as much as she was at him. “You and I both know that a dragon wouldn’t get locked away in a cave guarded by a legendary swordswoman just because it can chat up a storm. This thing has power. Power that should be feared.”

        “Nobody has to be afraid of it though!” She responded angrily “You and salad-brains just don’t get it do you?! We are going to use its power to protect everyone!”

        “From what PK?” Cecil demanded, taking a step forwards dominantly. The force in his voice was growing. He was serious. But of course PK was too. That was incredibly obvious. “There’s been nothing outside our village that the guilds haven’t been able to solve on their own. Your letter talked about people not daring to fight over petty things. What, you think that everyone is gonna just fall in line when they see you have a powerful dragon and not question it?”

        “We aren’t going to use him to force anybody!” She retorted, her glare intensifying. “We are going to use it to protect the village from whatever other threats might pop up. People like Merlot and the Slasher Gang aren’t going to mess with us ever again!”

        Adell felt something when she brought up those two entities. A bit of emotion in her voice beyond anger. He could almost sense like something had happened. Maybe she was more passionate about this cause for other reasons...

        “Regardless of the good intentions, the power will go to your head!” Cecil returned, “Once you’re the biggest guy on the block, you never want that to end. It starts out with good intentions, but it changes! Before you know it, you’ll be out for self preservation, and protection will just take a back seat! I’ve seen it happen, and I don’t want it to happen to this place!”

        “What makes you think this is anything like where you came from!”

        “You ordered your guild to steal from Chill’s vault!”

        PK blinked at that notion, seeming a bit surprised the words had left Cecil’s lips. The anger vanished for a moment.

        “What are you talking about?” she said in her normal, high-and-mighty tone. “I never so much as suggested we do something like that!”

        Cecil paused, the fight vanishing from his eyes momentarily as well, looking back at his partner, who seemed equally as confused.

        “If she didn’t...” The Smeargle started.

        “Then who...” Cecil continued, both partners equally as lost.

        The ground rattled. A sound like earlier, and though they were in a cave, the three knew that it was coming from Monochrome tower, just like the last time. Adell and Cecil turned back in time to witness PK lifting the stone above the altar, looking back at the two of them.

        “Well, it seems like salad-brains and friends aren’t doing so well out there.” She said amusedly, eyes shifting towards the origin of the sound momentarily before back to the altar. “I’m going to do what I have to do, and if you don’t like it, then you can get your feathered butt outta my guild.”

        “PK wait-” The Murkrow tried to say, attempting to run towards the Kecleon to stop her, reaching out a wing for a moment, but it was already over. She let the rock tumble from her paws, and fall right smack in the center of the large, gray altar.