Lilith let the information sink in. It was all rather standard and easy to follow all things considered. The helper noticed her attention drawn away from him and excused himself. That left her to stare at the screen for a while. Information like the Company who put in the request were also added, but those didn’t really matter to her. She looked more for strength than political connections.
Most jobs were documenting wild Pokemon in the area, but some were as simple as using Pokemon as physical labor. None of her Pokemon were suited for such a task, with Absol being a quadruped and Sableye on the weaker side.
Looking for natural items were also jobs but the skill gap was too large to consider. Most items had recognizable names and would be quite useful.
Lilith shook her head and returned her attention to jobs that were already in line with her goals. It would be counter productive to try and reach for something unattainable. This way she could simultaneously train while getting paid.
‘A good plan, if I can find the right jobs…’ She thought.
The concept seemed smart, but the idea wasn’t anything groundbreaking. Others had the same idea.
The best jobs were already picked clean during the day and left the ones unfilled. With such constraints, Lilith focused her attention towards the League sponsored jobs to survey areas or find certain Pokemon.
One was particularly attractive, asking the location of some wild Magby to go and catch. Not many people traded Pokemon, with the custom of going out and catching it themselves. You couldn’t just order up a Pokemon and have someone go out and catch it for you. They were basically paying her so some rich kid didn’t have to wander around too long. It seemed like a natural fit, she would wander around and then if something popped up, she would get paid.
There was no accepting the job, as the first person to hand in the information got paid. It seemed like a dangerous prospect, but one worth chasing. All that was needed was a picture of said Pokemon with the geolocation attached.
“What do you think?” She asked the bored child at her feet.
“Sol…”
“Haha, okay lets go.”
The group set off for their first money prospect. Once arriving at the Complex, Sableye was released from his ball and informed of the plan. From there, they decided to skip anything that wasn’t totally necessary and focus on the goal. She read up on the Pokemon on her Pokedex while the group walked down the main aisle. It seemed like most, if not all, jobs were for the given area.
The document went into thorough detail, but as a rule of thumb, Magby’s bodies were incredibly hot. Enough to feel the difference in the air. A chill went down her spine as she thought back to Growlithe. Even they weren’t strong enough to invoke such a change.
Sableye jumped about, looking forward to a hunt. Reconnaissance was much preferred to a battle. Absol sniffed the ground, hoping to relieve her boredom. Anything to fight at that point would be welcomed. The more she looked, however, the more scents that presented themselves. There were too many in the area to identify anything worthwhile.
Lilith knew immediately that she would have to go off the beaten path, so large buildings that looked thoroughly explored were skipped. Because the job had an aura of difficulty, it made sense that it wouldn’t be so simple as a walkabout.
The group walked until they came across a narrow path similar to the one they took previously. Grass sprouted from the ground taller than herself. It looked disturbed, but not by humans. The relative lack of human presence gave hope to a new discovery.
“Burn it down?” She wondered aloud.
Tall grass in general was always dangerous due to the hidden threat that a strong Pokemon could be lurking about. Ambushes from them were considered common and taught to watch out for.
Sableye and Absol got the hint. Will-O-Wisp formed around their bodies, sending hot ghostly ash forwards. It didn’t seem like a good option to start a forest fire, but with all the brick and concrete around, she doubted it could spread any further than she wanted.
The orbs flashed, setting the sea of grass before them alight. The narrow path burned hot and fast, pushing out smoke and ash towards them. The group scrambled backwards and it wasn’t long before nothing stood in their way. They waited a few seconds, but the path before them was now ‘safe.’ Absol took the lead as small flames lit the way.
They took careful steps as the path led to the rear of the buildings. The dirt and gravel beneath them steamed from how hot it had become. Neither building connected to each other, leaving a narrow ally between them. Once further in, small patches of grass still burned.
“Opps…” She mumbled.
There was no real way for them to stop the spread other than kicking dirt into the smoldering mass. The group worked tirelessly until the fury was smothered.
“That could have gone better… Note to self, don’t recklessly burn things down.” Lilith commented.
“Sol” Absol chuffed at her comment.
“Who knows, maybe Magby likes fires?” She smiled slightly at her own joke.
With the situation handled, they had a chance to take in their surroundings. The Pokemon were long gone, scared off by the group of fire setting maniacs, but their surroundings were much different than expected. Trees sprouted from the dirt as the grass shortened into a sanctuary of sorts.
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It was a field of green, not like anything else in the Complex. Everything stood still, the wind was covered up by the surrounding buildings. Lilith felt a little bad about the singed ground, however. It hadn’t spread far, but now the area was much easier to access. With the grass gone, people would be more inclined to follow the path.
“It’s almost like Central Park in New York…” She analyzed.
The open air was about as big as a football field. The end could be seen, but was too far away to make out anything definite. It couldn’t be the only entrance into the place, as the group spread out to look for any goodies. They had no expectations on what could be found so they would not be disappointed.
Lilith followed the brick wall, hiding amongst the bushes. She and Sableye pushed past the underbrush as quietly as possible. Pokemon tracks littered the ground and they stopped to analyze them further. She pulled out her Pokedex footprint database and tried comparing. She marveled at the organization of data. The Complex had a list of known Pokemon, and from there she could scroll to their footprints.
Some sets had simple dots while others had the more traditional pads. One even had claws for toes and resembled birds.
Some Pokemon like Magnemite didn’t have any, but most were in the database.
“Hmm, those look like Patrat… And the talon-like ones must be Pidove. Strangely, they landed in the dirt rather than staying in trees.” Lilith mumbled aloud.
“Eye! Eye” Sableye motioned lower.
“Hmm you’re right, it could also be Magby’s, but these have a back toe, while the print here doesn't.'' She pointed back towards the Pokedex.
They argued for a while before they decided Sableye had a point. There was no reason not to try and follow the set of tracks. If he was right, then it would lead them right to their target. If not, it was a minor setback.
“Let's head back.” She whispered.
The duo reconvened with Absol as the entrance, hoping that she had better luck. Initially , everyone had gone in opposite directions hoping to double their chances of finding anything of interest.
“Anything?” Lilith asked once her partner emerged from the underbrush.
Absol shook her head, leaving only one path forward. They retraced their steps while informing her of their discovery. Absol perked up in a hopeful manner before finding the clawed steps once more. She gave them a sniff, hoping to follow a scent. Unfortunately, the tracks were too old to follow. They visually followed the dirt path as it moved towards the center of the park.
“Where did it go?” Lilith asked, slightly annoyed.
Any markings simply disappeared, giving credence to Lilith’s theory. Magby couldn’t just fly away, while Pidove could quite easily.
A rustle broke, stopping any of her Pokemon from responding. They all grew quiet, knowing something was converging on their location. Everyone tried hiding, hoping to not get into a fight if it wasn’t what they were looking for.
The group made it behind a tree just in the nick of time, turning towards the commotion. A very familiar Pokemon jumped out from behind a fallen branch. She was doughy, just like all others of her species, and was probably the most well known Pokemon in the Region, only confounded by the high population density.
The group all stared at the Pokemon from afar. Lilith knew it was wrong, but all she could see before her was the fat bag of experience proven to be right under the surface.
The wild Audino walked out into the open like she didn’t have a care in the world. There was no spatial awareness at all. Ambush plans formed in her mind as the doughy Pokemon trounced about. The experience from the fat pink Pokemon in the games was just too much to ignore. She hadn’t even realized they were in the area, or she would have hunted them down as her first priority.
Lilith poked both Pokemon beside her and whispered to both before pointing in the direction they should head.
‘I really need to figure out how to give orders through our Pokeball connection…’ She thought.
The inefficiency of her commands was confounding when there was a better, more silent opportunity.
Sableye materialized in a treetop, while Absol stalked the ground as they waited for the perfect opportunity to take down Audino. It wasn’t yet a two star, only hanging around the middle of its first. Ideally they would have liked to challenge one of the next rank to maximize their experience, but she would have to be enough.
When the unaware Pokemon bent over to look at a flower, Lilith knew it was time to strike. Why she was out and about during the night was a mystery, but the team took the opportunity. The connection rippled, signaling the opening shots. Tugging on the string and using it to talk were very different expectations.
Absol wasn’t very good at her status moves, so Sableye started out with his first Will-O-Wisp, which was his best opening move considering the Pokemon should only know Physical moves. The orb landed on her body, decreasing her offensive pressure. Right afterwards, Absol took the chance to lower her defenses with Leer.
With both attack and defenses lowered, their prey was a fish in a barrel. Audino staggered away, finally recognized she was under attack. At that point however, it was already too late. Her body sparkled as the purple flames seeped out, right after having been infected. Refresh restored her health, casting away the burn.
“Focus on attack, she can heal status conditions!” She shouted.
‘Damn, totally forgot about Refresh…’
The change wouldn’t do her much good. Absol was closing the distance even before the verbal command, ready for an offensive. Her body blurred and dealt massive damage. Quick attack was the only viable move she could use, with the assumption of their opponent being a Fairy, all her dark type moves wouldn’t work quite as well against their nemesis.
The Pokemon proved to be as tough as advertised. The damage was minimal, probably the least she had ever done to a weaker Pokemon. Absol recovered quickly trying her best to back off. Sableye found his arsenal lacking as well, so he tried his best to make up the difference, casting Disable so his next move would actually work.
Before Absol could get out of range, Double Slap smacked her in the face and then the body one after the other. She was sent flying, justifying their initial caution. Sableye sent his second Wisp out towards Audino as Refresh was currently disabled. This time, she tried dodging while understanding she couldn’t restore herself to a healthy status once more.
The pink Pokemon did a backflip into the air, dodging the ghostly flame. Absol was surprised, but fast enough to recover. She repositioned herself using Quick Attack, enough to stand right where she was about to land. Her own Pink energy formed around her, Play Rough at the ready.
The move was notoriously hard to hit, sometimes missing the mark. Absol set up the situation perfectly, with the two colliding hard. It was a solid hit and chipped off most of her shields. Sableye jumped in once more to try and place a burn but Audino dodged and retaliated. Baby Doll Eyes came out late, lowering Absol’s attack harshly.
It wouldn’t make a difference in the end, as the second burn finally landed and sealed her fate. Absol brought her fangs out, as her most powerful attack was unleashed. Bite chomped down on her arm, immobilizing the pink blob. The Pokemon was left staggering, having a flash of purple flames bottom her out.