[Silver]

The tentacle shot back into the shell and disappeared for a moment. The travelers all looked at each other. They were all wondering who would say something first. Before any of them had a chance to speak up, a bright light shot out of the darkness and right past Harbor’s head. He froze stiff and blinked rapidly trying to get the light out of his eyes. A trail of bright spots were still stuck in his vision from looking at the light.

“Signal beam!” Typhoon suggested. “I don’t think he meant to hit you, maybe he’s calling for help!”

[Silver]

“That’s not good,” Oko said. One Octillery was fine, but he didn’t like their odds against a whole pod of them. If Typhoon was right about his theory, which he could only assume he was.

“I’d rather not fight regardless,” Harbor said. He wiped his face in an attempt to regain his composure. “We probably shouldn’t stick around.”

Typhoon scooped up his journal. He tried to scribble some notes in it and run along with the others at the same time. “Worry about that later,” Oko insisted. He gave Typhoon a little push before leaping over his head and taking the lead again.

[Silver]

“A wild Octillery living in an abandoned shell is fascinating. What if this is the kind of thing they wanted us to report?” Typhoon retorted.

Neither of his friends responded. They probably couldn’t even hear him. He tucked the journal away and tried his best to catch up. As much as he wanted to know more about what was going on here, he desperately wanted not to be left behind. He had no choice but to run after them and try to remember everything well enough to add it to his notes later. He thought it was so interesting and wondered why Oko didn't seem to agree.

[Silver]

Just as Oko thought they were getting away fast enough, something new shot past the side of his head. It felt like water as it splashed onto him, but he quickly realized that it was strangely smoky and black. Had he known more about Octillery and their signature move, he might have known it was ink, but he remained unaware and confused.

“We might have to fight,” he suggested. He spun around on his toes to face the opponent. He tried preparing a water pulse attack, but Harbor smacked him in the head.

[Silver]

“We don’t want to fight you, we mean no harm. We are only travelers!” he said. He put on a huge smile so that he looked the less intimidating. Not that Popplio were particularly terrifying with their cute pink noses and curly neck ruffs.

“I really don’t want to, promise…” Typhoon said, mostly to himself. He never was very good in a fight, at least he didn’t think so.

The Octillery that had been chasing them didn’t seem very convinced. She was wearing yet another abandoned shell on her head like a helmet and she had a fierce determination in her eyes. Typhoon took a deep breath, Harbor let out a sigh, and Oko jumped into his first move.

[Silver]

Suddenly, the beach was filled with illusory copies of Froakie. Octillery blasted a few of them with water only for them to evaporate into thin air. It was working! Oko couldn’t contain his glee, and while the copies all kept their serious face, he stifled a giggle, giving himself away.

Harbor jumped in and let out a loud eerily harmonic shout. Octillery grabbed her head and stumbled backwards, clearly taken aback by the powerful wave of sound. She used both of her front tentacles to rub her face as if she was trying to scrub away the strange pain.

[Silver]

“Nice one!” Oko called out.

His copies all condensed back into one and he jumped high into the air only to come crashing down a second later. The impact knocked off Octillery’s helmet which tumbled silently into the sand. Oko looked back at Typhoon expectantly like he was waiting for him to do something.

Typhoon pointed at himself and looked around as if to say, 'who, me?' He really didn't like the idea of getting into a fight with a strange Octillery. Maybe she was perfectly reasonable and they could talk their way out of it! Well, probably not now that Oko already smashed into her head like that.

[Hunt Complete]

[Silver]

[Hunt #3 Start]

Typhoon didn’t want to fight, but he really didn’t want to let Oko down, either. Oko had so much invested in this mission that he felt like he had to do everything he could to help. He grabbed his shell and fiddled it around in his paws for a few seconds, still undecided about how to act.

Harbor looked back at Typhoon and sighed lightly under his breath. He knew that Typhoon was decent in combat if he wanted to be, but he hated to see him so conflicted about it. He was great with his fury cutter against the training dummies, but it was hard to convince him to attack if he didn’t believe in what he was doing.

[Silver]

Before Typhoon had a chance to make up his mind about joining the scuffle, Harbor started to sing. It was a low, sweet song that caught everyone off guard. Knowing what that sound meant, Typhoon quickly covered his byears, but Oko turned back toward him, confused.

Octillery and Oko both started to nod off and one after the other they fell to the sand. Typhoon looked over at Harbor as if to ask him ‘what now?’ but he didn’t actually say anything. Harbor rubbed his face with his flipper yet again.

[Silver]

He was hoping that putting the opponent to sleep would have allowed them the time to get away without doing any more damage, but he hadn’t expected Oko to fall for it too. Thinking quickly, he called Typhoon over.

“Help me drag him into the water, then he can float on my back.”

“A-are you sure?” Typhoon  looked skeptical.

Harbor gave it a very brief thought then shrugged his shoulders. “Yea, I’m sure he’ll be fine. It doesn’t last very long anyway.”

Typhoon, remembering that the sleep effect didn’t last very long and Octillery might wake up to attack them at any moment, grabbed one of Oko’s paws and waddled toward the incoming surf.

[Silver]

Harbor followed from the other side, pushing them both along with his nose. When they were finally deep enough in the water, the waves grabbed and pushed them even further away from the beach.

“Here, just… no grab… yea that’s it.” Harbor said, trying to negotiate how the Froakie was lifted onto his back where he could easily hold him up.

“Now what?” Typhoon asked, looking back nervously at their opponent who was likely to come to soon.

“Let's just float it out for now. We're finally in the ocean, enjoy it."

[Silver]

Typhoon stayed silent to reflect on that for a moment. It seemed so simple and sensible. It seemed like Harbor always knew what to say at times like this. He was thankful that they were paired up from the beginning of their time at the guild.

"Hey Harbor?"

"Hmm?"

Just as Typhoon opened his mouth to say something, Oko started to stir awake. Typhoon just shook his head and didn't say anything after all. Whatever he was going to say would have to wait.

Predictably, Oko didn't take to waking up in the ocean very well. He shouted and flailed right off of Harbor into the water. He splashed around and grabbed at his friends for help. After a few seconds he realised what he was doing and started to paddle to keep himself afloat.

[Silver]

"What the hell?!" He shouted. "What happened?"

"You feel asleep." Typhoon said rather matter of factly.

Oko didn't look pleased. "What about Octillery? What…"

"Relax," Harbor insisted. He was gently floating around with his eyes closed.

"Are you serious? We could get hurt! The mission! This is important."

"Look. We're not going to get anything done if you keep freaking out. I took care of it. Let's try to have a good time out here. No reason we can't enjoy the trip and get the mission done at the same time."

[Silver]

Oko didn't want to admit that Harbor had a point, so he just grumbled without saying anything else. He put his mind to thinking about how he could turn this situation into a positive one. There had to be something they could do from here to further the mission.

“Hey Typhoon, can you give me your notebook?” he asked.

“My notebook? Oh! … I’m sorry, I dropped it over there somewhere.”

“Of course you did,” Oko said quietly enough that he thought Harbor couldn’t hear him. “Well, that’s okay, because we can still look around and report what we find.”

[Silver]

“Yea,” Typhoon nodded. He was trying to sound optimistic despite how bad he felt about dropping the notebook. He really didn’t feel like he was the best ‘mon for this mission with all he had already messed up for them. The least he could do was be optimistic.

“I’m gonna go down and see if there’s anything cool under the water,” Oko suggested. “One of you should stay up here to keep an eye on things, and one of you can come with me if you want.” He looked at both of his teammates and wondered who would choose to do what, though he thought he had a pretty good idea.