Team Contractors M1: Keeping Focused

A cloud of dust tore down the side of the cliffs some ways outside of Rift City. Just about below where Helmstok's farm was, actually. Just above that cloud of dust was a smaller cloud of sparks. 

A smaller cloud that could be heard to be screaming at the tops of its lungs in terror.  

"Look out below, look out below, LOOKOUT BELOOOWWWW!!!!" 

That little ball was an Emolga. One in great distress, in fact, if his screams were any indication. What could be causing such distress? Perhaps it was the 5 huge crates of vegetables secured by long ropes to his harness that were dragging him down the slightly-inclined area of the cliff. 

"I DON'T WANNA DIIIIEEEEE-!"

That Emolga was none other than little Lime of Team Contractors, on the job by himself. Darian had been heavily injured during the bout with the Diggersby, and so Lime had been tasked with representing the Contractors in their first big Mission. 

Which was to transport half-trampled vegetables.


"Oooohh, that's a boulder, that's a boulder-!" Lime panicked, trying to flap his arms as if his patagium were wings. The boxes he was carrying-- or, rather, being dragged by-- were careening downwards towards a large bump in the cliff face. If the boxes were to lose their contact with the small slope of the cliff wall, he'd plummet the rest of the, eh, fifty or sixty meters to the ground. The friction from the rocks was the only thing slowing him down to a reasonable pace. If you could call this reasonable, that is. He felt like his arms were going to be ripped off by the force of the air that he was trying to use to slow him down. 

You see, Lime had opted to take the shortcut and take the vegetables down the mountain's sheer cliffs rather than walk around. He was one of the Flying types, and it was a luxury he intended to make use of. He had found a part of the cliffs which was not so sheer, but instead had a slight incline that he intended to slide himself and the boxes down. He figured that the slope was just barely slanted enough that he would be able to get them down without too much trouble.

That was not the case.

SMASH, the boxes crashed into the protrusion and jumped up and away from the wall. Despite his desperate flapping, the force of the bounce pried him away from the wall and jerked the boxes out into the open air, sending a few loose vegetables tumbling down from the cracks in the boxes' sides. 

Within a few seconds, he was already starting to get some good distance from his makeshift slide. He accelerated a good deal faster downwards as well. "Wah-! Oh, no, no, no, no-!" Fast as he could, he jerked the strings of his load back towards the slope. He stopped his own body from colliding with the surface with a quick burst of Acrobatics. "Woo, nailed it!" he said, punching the air in his sense of victory as the collision slowed their descent. 

This sense of accomplishment was torn away from him almost immediately as his load's weight caused him to start picking up speed again. "Yipes-!" The sudden jerk on his body caused his patagium to fold outward like a broken umbrella for a moment. It didn't hurt, but it sure almost made him pick up enough speed to completely lose control. 

He strained against the weights as he continued trying to use his body as a parachute to slow the boxes' descent. 

He groaned inwardly at himself. "Darn it, Lime, you're smarter than this!" He scolded himself, "What was so distracting that it clouded your mind enough to think that this was a good idea-!" He blinked in realization. And maybe to clear some of the dirt from his eyes. "Oh, yeah..." 

----------


Lime sighed as he went about hooking drag lines up to the boxes of vegetables. Six huge containers full of berries, carrots, and other sorts of things-- he didn't quite remember, all he knew now was that they were reeeaallyy heavy. And he was gonna be taking them down the cliff side all by himself pretty soon. 

A lot of the Cinders were still hurt or demoralized that they'd lost the first Job. Darian didn't seem to care much--that guy always just seems to shrug things off-- but Lime was pretty disheartened. Compounding the fact was that the Contractors' pay was withheld because of the fire damage to the part of the field that they were tasked to defend. Now, that part, to Lime, was the most unfair. What they had set alight was already-dead plants in a part of the field that was too trampled to grow anything. Had Darian not been there to hold him back, Lime would have ranted for an hour about how unfair that was. 

But, No-Fun was right. Sort of. Arguing with them wasn't going to get them anywhere. Helmstok agreed to pay them for the next mission, anyway, and it was a lot easier. It made no sense to Lime to just walk away from there, but being paid later for an easier job was better than nothing. They needed to eat, after all, and the farm was sucked dry of all its wealth.


And now, with Darian hurt, there was just that much more work for him to do.

Lime hooked up one of the boxes to his harness and lifted himself into the air to test his ability to carry its weight. "OK, that's not so bad..." It definitely put a lot more weight on him than he was used to, but he could power through it. He tried hooking up another one. And then another, and-

"Oooh, yeah, no, that's way too much-!" he said to himself, straining against the weight of four of the boxes. "Yeah, I can't do any more than, like, three." He looked over the edge of the cliff. "...maybe just two." 

He looked back at the stack of boxes that was still left to bring downhill. There must've been enough boxes there to build a whole other mountain. It's not like he had to carry all of it by himself, but, there was a lot for the Cinders present for the job.

He just remembered that he was bragging to someone a few minutes ago that he was strong enough to lug most of it down the cliff on his own. Who was he talking to again? 

"Oh, there you are, Mr. Lime!" 

Lime's heart fluttered in his chest as he turned around. Suddenly he remembered. 

"Ms. Madeline, hello!" He said with a huge, almost goofy smile. He was quick to correct the smile into a smaller, more reserved one. Even so, his tail was waving a bit with excitement. He stretched boredly. "Yeah, just, uh, gettin' ready to bring these down the mountainside. 'dja need somethin'?" 

He wadsn't really sure when he started crushing on the Miltank nor why. He'd known her for such a short time. Maybe it was how dreamily she acted. Maybe it was the sweetness that emanated from her even against those fighting with her. Maybe he just found everything about her really cute. 

Or maybe he just crushes on pretty girls way too easily, but why cheapen the moment? 

"No, no, it's nothing like that. I just wanted to say thank you again for your help with those bandits. Everyone was so sure that they would scatter without their leader that I suppose we got a bit complacent." Madeline said. "If you didn't make those explosions that you did, Darling would've near had his legs chewed off. Poor thing had nowhere to set his boxes down when they came up behind him..."

"Ah, shucks, it was nothing!" Lime said, looking confidently to the side and folding his arms. "I do the same thing for my partner all the time." He cleared his throat. "Of course, last time there were, uh, too many for me to protect him from..." 

"That's right, he was hurt pretty badly in the Job, wasn't he?" Madeline said, putting her hoof to her chin and giving Lime a concerned look. "How is he doing? Is he going to be OK?" 

Gosh, she looked cute like that. Lime snickered lightheartedly. "Darian's fine." He said with a dismissive wave. "Old no-fun's shrugged off worse before. The doc just said he needs to stay off his legs for a little while and he'll be up and sucking the life out of the room in no time." 

Madeline looked at him sadly. "What a thing to say about your teammate! And when he's so hurt! Lime, I'm surprised at you!" 

Lime choked. Wuh-oh. He needed to do some damage control. "N-now I don't mean anything serious by that." He said, waving his forepaws out in front of him. "We're just kinda...vitriolic with each other." Wait, was he using that word correctly? Madeline tilted her head with the same sad look. No, no that's the wrong word. He really hated when he didn't have time to think things over. 

"I mean, um, jovial. We're just kinda-- we joke with each other like that." He said bluntly. "I don't mean to make fun of his situation. I guess I kinda did." He rubbed at the back of his head. "I'm sorry, I just like keeping things light. Darian's fine, he just wouldn't want anybody worrying about him."

He sighed. "Truthfully I regret not being able to do more for the guy. Those Bunnelby really came down on him." He said. "He wanted to be here, but, I told him I could handle the Mission alone and he shouldn't exert himself."  
  
Madeline's disappointed stare turned into a soft smile. "Then it's very kind of you to take your teammate's burden." 


An oddly irregular, soft thumping noise drew their attention away down the soft slope of the mountain. There was Darling coming around the ridge of one of the small hills. "Oh, Darling, there you are!" Maddy said, smiling happily at the Golurk. Lime worked to suppress his jealousy and smiled with her. 

He didn't have to for long. Something about the way they moved attracted his attention. His ear flicked and he cocked his head as he stared at them. His senses weren't quite as good as Darian's, but, he could pick up something wrong from a distance. 

They seemed tired. Their steps were just barely irregular, like they were limping. Come to think of it, how much exactly did the Bunnelby manage to get them before he intervened? 

"Hey, um," Lime began, "Where exactly were they after that attack?" 

"They were still running boxes for the other Cinders that got hurt. They're very powerful, though, I'm sure that-" 

Madeline was cut off as Darling stumbled to their knees. Now that they were close enough to the others, Lime and Maddy could both clearly hear that their breaths were labored. 

"Darling!" Madeline raced over to her friend. Lime glided over behind her. "Darling, are you all right!" She yelled in concern as she came over to their side. 

The Golurk stayed on their knees, but gave a look to Maddy which Lime couldn't quite understand. They gently put a hand on her shoulder. 

"No, you most certainly are not OK! You're pushing yourself too hard!" Maddy said. 

Darling looked over at the boxes that remained in the pile, and the small number of Cinders still well enough to do the heavy lifting. 

"I know there's a lot of work left to do," Maddy replied, "But it shouldn't be at your expense! You've taken a lot down already."



"...I can take their load." Lime said. Both Maddy and Darling looked over to him. 

"Now, that's quite a lot of work for one 'mon, Lime." Maddy blinked. "Are you... certain that you can handle all of this?" She asked. Darling, naturally, remained silent, but looked at him inquisitively.

"Y-yeah, of course!" Lime sniffed. "This is nothing! You should've seen the stuff we were doing back in our home region. I can handle a little hard labor. You two have been working all day already, and there's plenty of help still around here. They shouldn't be doing this while they're hurt, and you shouldn't have to worry about 'em while you are." 

Maddy smiled. "Then I think I speak for both of us when I say that we appreciate your kindness."

Darling gave a firm nod.

"Aww, anything for you, Ms. Maddy." Lime said shyly with his hands behind his back. 

...was that the right thing to say? 

Maddy stared at him for a short second. "...OK!" She said sincerely. Darling had a look that Lime couldn't interpret. Confusion, maybe. 

The Miltank helped her Golurk friend stand. It looked like she was trying to support them by holding their waist, but their sheer size difference was making it hard. Still, Darling tried their best to lean on her without laying on too much weight. It was hard to tell whether it was actually working or not, but the sentiment behind the action was clear. "Let's get you home." 

Team Rich turned away and down the hill and didn't seem to be looking to interact with Lime anymore. He turned around to look upon the boxes that lay by the cliffside and sighed. He'd literally doubled his workload. Even with the other Cinders doing their share, Darling was easily carrying the most out of anyone. 

"Great. So." He asked himself, tapping his foot against the ground. "How do I deal with this?" 

He could think of nothing short of doing it the hard way-- which normally he didn't really feel that bad about, but this was a really big shipment. He could carry two or three at a time, if he pushed himself, and probably with frequent breaks. 

He peeked over the edge of the cliff. A sheer two-hundred-and-some meter drop. There was no way that he was going to be going down that way. 

...or was there? 

Lime looked around and noticed that one of the parts of the cliff face had a slight incline. It wasn't enough that someone could, say, walk all the way down, but it (looked like it) could handle something being slid down it. And if Lime used his patagium as a sort of air brake...

"Yeah...yeah, that might work!" 


-----


Well it wasn't working well. 


Around maybe twenty meters from the ground, Lime hit another large bump. He no longer had any time to recover from his fall as close to the ground as he was. 

"No, come on, please-!" 

He tried using his Acrobatics again to get things back under control, directing his bursts straight upward. It seemed to work a little bit, and finally the boxes landed with a loud CRASH to the ground of the plaza where the deliveries were being placed. 

The boxes splintered and cracked but remained mostly in tact despite a few loose berries flying about and rolling along the ground. Even more were scattered around his landing zone, probably some that he had lost coming down the cliff not even a few minutes ago. 

Lime groaned and lowered himself down to one of his boxes, planting his face and upper body over the lid in exhaustion. His body was still shaking from the adrenaline.

By now, many of the Pokemon in the plaza had noticed the commotion and were coming over to see if he was OK. Or, more importantly, whether or not his stock was. 

"Hey, buddy," an Ampharos farmhand asked him as he came over to inspect the scene. Lime didn't move. "You all right?" 

The tired Emolga just lifted his left forepaw and gave a thumbs up without a word. 

Two boxes at a time it is.