Session 1: The Spying Shrine

Team Helping Paw is a newly form rescue team from Windmill City's Rescue Association. Their first mission was to capture an outlaw who was hiding in the Spying Shrine. This is the story of how that turned out.

The Spying Shrine is a mystery dungeon composed of a set of small ruins just outside Windmill City. The stone walls have many overgrown plants clinging to them. Pokemon who enter these ruins say that there is something like a presence inside, always watching.

Sky and Pooch arrived at the ruins, their bags empty, the Association didn't give them any supplies. Hoping to get what they can from the dungeon itself they look at each other, nod and go in.

Spying Shrine 1BF

As they enter the ruins they quickly start a fight with a Ratatta. Pooch quickly grabs a nearby wand and uses it on the Ratatta. Its a Slumber Wand! The Ratatta is taken off guard and falls asleep, ending combat.

Sky seems pretty relaxed in this dungeon, Pooch on the other hand is a little scared. The sounds in the walls, the rumours. It's a spooky place.

Pooch looks around the room and finds an Escape Orb. It may come in handy if things go south.

Sky finds a single Poke in a hole in the wall "At least we are not poor anymore" she says. They both laugh, this helped Pooch to calm down a little. The team quickly finds the stairs and go to the next floor.

Spying Shrine 2BF

Just as they get to the second floor, they are ambushed by two ratatta and two pidgeys. Pooch quickly manages to sleep one of the ratatta with the slumber wand. Sky uses Iron Tail and knocks down one of the pidgeys, only two more pokemon to go.

Sky looks a little smug "this is easy" she thinks, maybe the association underestimated them. She easily knocks down the other ratatta, but as she turns back she sees Pooch being knocked down by the last Pidgey's Peck, a critical hit. Pooch tries his best to remain concious, if he doesn't then their badges would teleport them back to the guild and the mission will be over.

Sky quickly strikes the pidgey with Iron Tail, it gets knocked into a wall, unconcious. Pooch is unable to move, but if Sky can find an apple or an oran berry he should be ok.

Sky goes to a nearby room, there are more pokemon there, 3 to be exact. They quickly overwhelm Sky, she starts running back. If she can get to Pooch and use his Escape Orb, they will at least keep the items they have found.

She gets back to the room Pooch is in, she runs towards Pooch. But just as she gets to him, one ratatta lands a quick attack on Sky. Sky is unconcious, their first mission ending in failure.

Back at the Association

Pooch wakes up in the infirmary, he looks around but Sky is nowhere to be found. He gets up and goes to find her. After looking around he spots her in the Training Grounds, hitting a dummy over and over. She seems visibly frustrated.

Pooch gets closer "Hey... are you ok?" he says, she stops hitting the dummy but doesn't respond. "I'm sorry" Pooch says, Sky turns to him, surprised. "I'm sorry for holding you back on the mission." Pooch continues "It's because I can't fight I-"

"Stop" says Sky "I'M the one who should be apologizing! I only had eyes for what was happening in front of me. I didn't realized you got in trouble." "That's enough." a voice is heard from behind, a pikachu with a long scarf approaches. The team both recognize him as Pike, one of the instructors at the Association.

"You guys are reacting like this just because you failed your first mission?" Pike says in an incredulous voice. "If you're going to react like this everytime you fail then just quit. Being a rescue team is not for you." he continues. Then turns back "Go pack your things."

Sky stands there in shock, heartbroken. This was her dream, she traveled all the way to the City and passed the rescue team exam. Was this really the end?

Pooch looks at Sky and then at Pike, who is walking away. He quickly runs in front of Pike "No!" he says. "We'll go back there right now and finish the mission!" Pooch says in a defiant tone.

"Too late." says Pike, "I already assigned it to another team.". Pooch immediately responds "Then we will finish it faster!" he screams. Sky looks at this scene still in shock.

There's a moment of silence, then Pike finally speaks "Then hurry up" he says and walks away. Pooch looks at Sky with a determined look "Lets go!" he says. "R-right!" she replies, she has never seen Pooch act like this before, and would never forget it.

The team quickly made their way back to the Spying Shrine. As they look around there seem to be some fresh footprints going into the dungeon. They quickly enter the dungeon again.

Spying Shrine 1BF: Take Two

The team storms through the first floor, Pooch starts taking more distnace and using the dungeon items more. Sky focuses on taking attention away from Pooch. Things quickly start to go better, as Pooch finds two Oran Berries and a new Slumber Wand.

By following this new strategy the team easily clears the first floor.

Spying Shrine 2BF: Take Two

The team finds a Totter orb which quickly comes in handy. They find a room with 3 enemy pokemon, but the totter orb manages to confuse one, giving Sky time to take the other pokemon down. Pooch starts supporting Sky from a distance, using some Iron Thorns he found.

Suddenly, in one of the combat encounters a pidgey lands a critical hit on Pooch. Time seem to stop for a second, but this time Pooch manages to stay up. After this Sky quickly knocks down the pidgey with a critical Iron Tail.

"Are you ok Pooch?!" says Sky looking worried. Pooch turns to her "I'm fine I think. I can still walk". That was close, but the mission is still on.

They quickly find the stairs after that. Both of them take a deep breath, eat the Oran Berries they found and go in.

Spying Shrine Lower Floor

As Pooch and Sky get down to the end of the dungeon they spot the Outlaw they came to aprehend. A Shroomish who's been stealing from pokemon on the road, taking shelter in this dungeon. "WHO'S THERE" the shroomish shouts, but before Pooch and Sky can say anything they hear steps from behind.

"WE ARE TEAM SHADOW BLADE" exclaims someone from behind "AND WE ARE GONNA-" they pause. A Pawniard and a Riolu stand at the entrance of the lower floor, the Pawniard seems to be the want that talked, while the Riolu looks a little tired. "WHO ARE YOU?" the pawniard screams at Sky and Pooch.

"We are Team Helping Paw!" Sky says "And we are here to take down Shroomish". "No WE are here to take down Shroomish" the pawniard replies. The riolu puts his paw on the pawniard's shoulder "Hey Slash, don't worry" they say "we can take them down together, we are both reacue teams."

"NO" says Slash, "He is ours, this is our mission." they then turn to Sky and Pooch. "If you get in our way, then I'll ahve no mercy for you." Slash says as they get ready to fight. As they say that, the shroomish charges towards the teams "GET OUT OF MY HIDEOUT".

Sky and Pooch are quick to act and they both attack the Shroomish, Pooch with an Iron Thorn and Sky with Iron Tail. The Shroomish responds by using mega drain on Sky, but she dodges out of the way. Out of nowhere Slash attacks Sky with slash and hits her "I TOLD YOU." they say in a furious voice.

Pooch reacts quickly and uses sand attack to blind Slash. Slash spends the rest of the battle stumbling around trying to hit Sky and Pooch. Meanwhile, the riolu throws iron thorns at the shroomish from a distance.

Between the efforts of Sky, Pooch and the riolu the shroomish falls unconcious. "NOOOOOOO! THAT WAS OUR MISSION!" Slash exclaims, as they attack Sky again, hitting her even though they are blinded. Pooch uses his Slumber wand on Slash and they fall asleep.

"What the heck is wrong with them?!" Sky says, the riolu gets closer "They were just pretty nervous" he says. "Slash wants to be the most legendary explorer ever, and in their eyes that includes a perfect record." the riolu continues, "so yeah, sorry about that." Sky turns to the riolu, still angry "Well that is not an excuse to attack other rescue teams." she says.

The riolu sighs "Yeah..." he says as he looks at Slash, "Pleas try to forgive them though, this is our first mission and they wanted it to be perfect.". "Oh! This is our first mission too!" Pooch says, "By the way, what is your name?" he asks. "Just call me Riolu." the riolu says, "Ok Riolu!" says Pooch.

"That's odd" Sky thinks to herself, its normal to call other pokemon by their species, but most prefer to be called by name. It's weird that this riolu wants to be called Riolu.

After a small silence Riolu says "It's weird that the association assigned us both to this mission. We were told another rookie team failed and that's why they sent us.". "Oh yeah! We are that rookie team!" Pooch exclaims, "Don't tell them that!" Sky says from behind. Riolu turns to Sky "Well, I guess what matters is that the outlaw is defeated. Let's take them back to the guild." he says as he picks up Slash.

The rescue amullets from all four of the rescue team members shine bright. And in a blink of an eye they are back at the Association.

Aftermath

After the mission the reward was given to Team Shadow Blade, as they were the ones it was formally assigned to. Slash took every opportunity they could to rub it in Sky's face. Sky and Pooch moved to a more quieter place in the training grounds, the sun was setting as they got there.

As they entered, they spotted a familiar Pikachu "Oh hey! How did it go?" Pike says. "We..." says Sky a little annoyed because of Slash, but then she pauses for a second "We did it." she says. Pike looks at them both, "Congratulations" he says smiling.

Pike pats the two on the back "Also I got assigned to train you two from now on." he says. The he begins to walk away and says "Get some rest now. See you tomorrow."

Sky and Pooch look at each other, they smile. They just finished their first mission! And it was just the first of many.