[Silver]

The bulletin board was overstuffed with various requests. Most of them were pretty boring little tasks. Amie used her bows to push a few aside that she didn’t like the look of until she came across one that had been there a long time. It looked interesting, and she wondered why nobody had claimed it yet.

“This is the one!” she said confidently. She held it up high in the air as though it was a triumph simply to pick a task, nonetheless complete one.

“What does it say?” Quark eventually said. He waited a little bit to see if she would volunteer that information, but it had become clear that she wouldn’t.

[Silver]

“We’re meant to find some missing ‘broken antlers’  it says. I think. It’s kind of smudgey.”

“Why did you pick a smudgey one?”

“Because! It sounds exciting. Don’t you think it’s exciting?”

“I’m not sure. Can we look at the other ones, maybe?”

“No way! I like this one. We’re going with it.” Amie hopped away from the bulletin board so that Quark couldn’t bully her into picking another one. He couldn’t do it without her, and she was fully willing to take advantage of that fact.

“It’s in the Fe’gan Mountains,” Amie said. She tilted her head and brought one of her bows up to her chin. “Where’s that?”

[Silver]

“Are you sure you want to do this one, Amie?” Quark said. He was already shivering thinking about how cold it was up there, and he had a disadvantage against ice types. “It’s dangerous! The Fe’gan Mountains have some of the highest peaks in all the lands! It’s frigid cold and fraught with grumpy ice types.”

“Hey! That’s a great idea. I know just the grumpy ice type to help us out, actually!”

“You can’t be serious.” Quark knew as he said it that she absolutely was serious. That was the problem. He had a feeling he knew who she was talking about, and that didn’t sound like a very good idea at all.

[Silver]

Quark reluctantly followed Amie through the guild to the living quarters where an Alolan Vulpix and a few others stayed. Just their luck! Keo was at home, laying in the lounge doing nothing in particular. He glared up at the new visitors for having the audacity to charge into the room unannounced.

“Just the fox I wanted to see!” Amie said. “We need a third for a super cool and awesome mission, you’re in aren’t you?”

“Why in all the lands would I be?” Keo snorted. He had to admit that he admired her no-nonsense approach to the invite, though. It wasn’t enough to get him interested, but it was ballsy which he had respect for.

[Silver]

“We need your ice beam on our side! You’re the only one who can do it!” Amie put on her best puppy face, but that wasn’t working either.

“How about… nah,” he said, rolling over so that he was turned away from the other two.

“This one has been waiting a long time, I imagine whoever finishes this quest will be met with quite some esteem…” Quark finally chimed in. He thought that, maybe, if he flattered him Keo might be more cooperative.

“You’re not going to leave me alone until I agree to go with you, are you?”

“No, absolutely not.” Amie chimed in.

[Silver]

“Ugh, fine, where are we going anyway?” Keo finally stood up and shook his hair back into place.

“Fe’gan!” Amie cheered.


“She’s kidding, right?” Keo looked over to the Zubat, who seemed to be the cleverer of the two.

“No, she’s not, that’s why we asked you. Your ice typing will help us considerably, we think.” Quark didn’t love the idea of the mission, either, but he was resigned to give it a shot. He’d never hear the end of it otherwise.

“Right,” Keo said, looking down at his paws.

[Silver]

He really wasn’t into a crazy tough mission in one of the coldest places in all the lands, but he had to admit that his particular skills were well suited to such a thing.

“Well, let’s go, before I change my mind,” Keo walked past Amie out of the living quarters to pack his gear for the mission.

“Eee! Thank you.” Amie bounced after him and Quark flew in the back, somewhat reluctantly.

They quickly gathered together some supplies and sorted them into packs. Quark wasn't able to carry as much, so Amie filled her pack with enough to cover both of them and Keo did his own thing.

[Silver]

Even though Amie was the team leader, Keo took charge through the beginning of the mission on the way to the mountains. It was quite a hike to even get to the area they were meant to  be searching, and he wanted to get that part over as quickly as possible. He frequently rolled his eyes at the inane prattle that the Sylveon insisted on the entire time.

“Sure is getting cold,” Quark said as they approached the top of the mountain. He was visibly shivering with his thin wings and lack of significant fluff.

“I don’t know what you expected,” Keo muttered under his breath.

[Silver]

“It’s not so bad, just keep moving! The more you move, the warmer you’ll be!” Amie said chipperly, hopping from one paw to another.

“There’s a cave over there, we’ll duck inside and take a breather,” Keo suggested.

“Great idea! I knew we made the right choice inviting you,” Amie said.

“Do you think we’ll freeze to death out here?” Quark asked, his voice shaky.

“Don’t be dramatic,” Keo snorted.

“Hey now, Quark is weak against ice, be nice to him!” Amie said sternly. It was the first time that day that she had said anything even resembling negativity.

[Silver]

“Thanks,” Quark muttered. He didn’t want to say anything else and risk pissing Keo off again.

“Now, what’s the game plan? Do we have any ideas about where the antlers might be?” Amie asked.

Keo put his paw on his snout and breathed a heavy sigh. Why did he agree to this, again? “You mean you don’t even know where to look?”

“How could I? The message was all smudgey! I don’t think anyone wanted to do it.”

“Gee, I wonder why.”

“Guys,” Quark said while flapping his wings frantically. “Guys!”

“What!?” they both shouted in unison.

“We… have a visitor.”

[Silver]

Whether it had followed them into the cave or was already there when they arrived wasn't clear, but there was a Glalie glaring menacingly at the trio of little adventurers. Quark was the first one to notice it, so he was the most prepared. He wanted to make peace, but he knew that wasn't a possibility once a huge chunk of ice came hurtling his way. Thankfully he was able to dodge it.

Quark's first reaction to a fight was to fire off his confuse ray, which he did as soon as he was in the clear from the ice shard. The beam of colorful light filled the cave and was a solid hit right to the Glalie's face.

[Silver]

Unfortunately, confuse rays didn't always sink in and the Glalie shook his head and the confusing effect didn't take place. Quark was a little unsure of what to do next, but Amie had a plan. She leaped to the front of the team and used her ribbons to draw a light screen to protect them. She grinned at her own cleverness as she did it.

"You idiot," Keo muttered.

"What?" Amie said, turning away from the enemy to look at him.

"Glalie prefers physical attacks, which your light screen doesn't protect against."

"Well if you're so smart, you fight him then!" she huffed.

[Silver]

"Don't mind if I do," Keo said under his breath. He couldn't trust these two bozos as far as he could throw them. Though the Zubat did have a good plan with that confuse ray. Had it worked, they'd be in a much better position.

Keo closed his eyes briefly to remember his training. He bolted forward and planned to use his speed as an advantage. How fast were Glalie? He wasn't sure but he hoped he was faster. He ducked his head and called on his psychic powers, knowing that ice wouldn't do any good against a big ball of the stuff.

[Silver]

Extrasensory clearly affected the Glalie as it grimaced and pulled back from the attack. Like most psychic abilities, it wasn't that visibly of a strike, but it clearly did some damage. The Glalie was angry and tilted his head down for a headbutt.

He smashed into Keo's side, clearly quicker than he was expecting. Keo flinched but managed to keep himself standing on all four paws. It wasn't pleasant, but he could shake it off. He had to.

Quark was scared, but he knew his friend was in trouble if he didn't act quickly. Glalie was a large, angry, fully evolved Pokemon, but there were three of them. They could do this!

[Silver]

Quark stiffened his wings and charged forward for a wing attack. He felt himself bounce off of Glalie's hard icy body, but he knew he had made an impact, however small it might be. He was so not good at this part, but he had to help protect his friends.

Amie realized that her plan not to make any contact had flown right out, so she came up with a new plan. It was time for an assault. She fired off the distinct star shaped rays of swift and watched them hone in on their target. She glanced over at Keo and hoped that he would be alright after such a tough blow.