FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

      The sounds of an argument could

be heard echoing loudly as the scent of smoke drifted through the

hot, dry air. We picked up our pace and noticed scorch marked trees

and unnatural puddles of water leading up to the entrance of the

farm. When we arrived, I was surprised to see Liru there exchanging

moves and insults with another pokemon so I shouted to her. "What's

going on, Liru?" Turning around, the totodile looked at me with

rage burning in her eyes. "This jerk and his goons are trying to

take over the farm!" she growled, pointing towards her oppenent.

Standing in front of the entrance gate was a charmeleon in a fighting

stance. He had a couple of old battle scars scattered around his

body, but the most noticeable was the large one that ran from his

chest down towards his belly. Upon noticing the appearance of enemy

reinforcements he shot out a cloud of thick, black smoke into our

direction. Liru was taken by surprised and got completely enveloped

by the cloud. Jorge blew out a gust of cool air to push the smoke off

of her but she had already breathed some of it in and was coughing

uncontrollably. By the time the smoke had cleared, the charmeleon had

used the opportunity to escape into the farm.        "Where's Nyami and Ritch?"

Mishren asked as he looked around. Still coughing, Liru pointed over

to a bush that was close to a heavily damaged tree. The flaafy and I

ran over to find Ritch working feverishly on Nyami, who had a severe

burn mark on her side. Shocked and worried about the poor eevee, I

asked Ritch about what had happened. He gave me an angry look at

first but then moved his eyes back down to our injured comrade with a

tinge of guilt. "After getting the supplies from the medicine-mon,

the three of us decided to have a race to the farm," Ritch

grumbled. "Underestimating their speed, I watched as they got

farther and farther away from me until they disappeared from my

sight. It was then that I decided to use all of the stamina that I

had to catch up to them. I ran and ran, closing my eyes as the wind

hit my face and letting my guard down just to concentrate on running.

I had no idea about what was happening when I caught up to them until

I heard Liru shouting my name. Opening my eyes, I was greeted by the

sight of a large ball of fire hurling towards me. Unable to react, I

gritted my teeth and braced for impact. A sharp pain from my left

surprised me as I flew out of the fireball's path and into a tree.

After recovering from the blow to my side, I looked back to see what

had hit me only to find Nyami laying on the ground. Seeing her like

that reminded me of my failures as a teacher and I just froze. Liru

snapped me out of it by roaring and charging angrily at the enemy.

Taking the chance that Liru provided, I pushed the problems of my

past aside and ran to save Nyami."        Ritch paused, closed his eyes,

and concentrated to cast an aura of healing around the unconscious

eevee. "The first thing I did was feed her one of the reviver seeds

we bought to stabilize her condition," he panted. "I can use heal

pulse a couple of more times but we have to treat this burn in order

for my healing to work," he panted. Liru and Jorge had joined up

with the rest of us, one still angry while the other was tearing up.

"Shouldn't we use our badge to call for an emergency rescue?"

Jorge asked. I sighed and placed a paw on Jorge's head. "That would

be the smartest thing to do in our situation," I said with a frown.

"However, if we do that then our team's reputation would be

destroyed before it even had a chance to grow. We'd be known as the

team that failed on the outskirts of town and might even be forced to

disband."        "Which is why we're not gonna

call for rescue," Ritch growled. "In order for me to cure Nyami's

burn, I'm gonna need a couple of rawst berries. The good news is that

there should be some inside the farm. The bad news is that the farm

is currently being attacked." "So that means we have to go in

there and fight the bandits in order to save Nyami and the farm?"

Liru said as she cracked her paws and flashed her fangs. I smiled at

her eagerness and turned to address the rest of the team. "Alright,

here's the plan. Mishren, Liru, and I will go into the farm to find

those rawst berries while Jorge and Ritch will stay behind and

protect Nyami. Now those berries are our number one priority so we

have to focus on finding them first. As soon as we get some and treat

Nyami's burn, we'll go in as a team and take down all of those thugs.

Sounds good?" Ritch handed me three blue gumball sized pills. "Use

these to heal up if any of you get hurt," he told me. I nodded and

handed them out to Liru and Mishren before putting my pill into the

right side pocket of my backpack. With Liru on my right and Mishren

on my left, the three of us set off into the farm.

        "Something's wrong," Mishren

stated before stopping us in our tracks. Liru and I had noticed it as

well after taking a look around. "It feels like we're walking in a

mystery dungeon," I replied. "An artificial one to be exact,"

Liru added. Remembering Haless' lesson on mission types, I realized

that this mission just got more a bit more complicated. "Great...

Now we have to find and destroy the crystal causing this," Mishren

growled. "We must also hunt down the pokemon responsible and

capture them alive for interrogation." A close by explosion ripped

through the silence of the farm. The three of us ducked our heads and

turned to look at the rising smoke. "We got to go," Liru said

urgantly. "The enemy will start to swarm this area to find the

cause of that explosion and we definitely don't want to be here when

they arrive."

        Rushing away from the blast

zone, we unexpectedly encountered a trio of houndour. They were as

shocked as us at first, but then one of them began to howl. Reacting

quickly, Liru shot the pup in the mouth with a blast of water while I

covered the other two in a fog of smoke. Confused at the loss of

visibility, the pups were too panicked to notice Mishren charging up

his electric attacks. A decisive electrical shock easily knocked both

of them out before the smoke had cleared. Another howl responded from

the distance and we took that as a sign to pick up our pace. Once we

had gone far enough away from the area, we stopped to catch our

breaths. "This isn't going to be easy," Mishren panted. Tossing a

ragged scarf onto the ground, the flaaffy pointed at it and gritted

his teeth. "We're up against the Claw Biters, a vicious pack of

canines who only care about themselves." Spitting into the bushes,

Mishren sighed and balled up his paws. A faint buzzing was heard from

where the flaafy spat. "Yuck..." a high pitched voice exclaimed

in disgust. Crawling out from their hiding spot was a combee covered

in saliva. Realizing that they just revealed themselves, the combee

cowered in fear as they looked at the three of us.

        "Please don't hurt me," it

pleaded. "We're not gonna hurt you," I said calmly. Showing them

my badge made them breathe out a sigh of relief. Walking over and

gently picking them up, I carefully used a leaf to wipe the slime off

of them. "Are you one of the workers here?" Liru asked.

"Actually, I'm the next heir to the farm," the combee replied

while pointing to the red dot in the middle of her forehead. "I'm

the only girl amongst all the combee born here and my mother has

spent most of her time teaching me about being a successful leader.

Today, I was out observing my brothers when all of a sudden we were

attacked. Our mother Vespiquen ordered all of us to swarm the enemy

and although we had the superior numbers, our numbers were decimated

by their intense fire attacks. Fearing for my life, I hid myself in

this bush until you three found me. Are you here to save my family?"

I nodded to her. "Saving the farm is on our to do list, but first

we must find a rawst berry. You see, one of my friends was badly

burnt by the raiders and the only thing that can save her is that

berry. Could you perhaps lead us to where those berries grow?" The

combee hesitated in answering at first but when we turned to leave,

she reluctantly agreed to show us the way. The four of us traveled

quickly and quietly, stopping a few times for the combee to sense for

the direction of the berry fields and to knock out a few enemy

patrols.        When we arrived at the berry

field, we were surprised to see that the place was undisturbed. Rows

of berry bushes were lined up across the entire area and my stomach

growled a bit at the sight of all this fruit. "There's something

odd about this," Mishren warned. However, the combee happily

ignored him and flew in, triggering a trap. Enemies began to warp in

around the area, all glaring at us with killing intent. "Monster

house!" Liru screamed as she pulled the combee back. "I counted 8

houndours and a houndoom," I muttered to the others. Mishren

shrugged and walked forward, crackling with energy. "Winta," he

said with a hint of excitement. Shoving an arm into a bush, he pulled

out a berry and threw it to me. "You and Liru go on and deliver

that to Ritch now, alright? Just leave these punks to me." When the

entire pack began to howl, the air around Mishren started to become

charged with electricity. "GO!" he shouted, unleashing a powerful

thunderbolt towards the pack. Illuminated by the flash of light, I

nodded and pushed Liru and combee away from the fight.        "Is he going to be alright?"

the combee asked as we ran. "Yep," I replied hastily. "He's the

best when it comes to fighting and small fry like those guys will get

wrecked by his electric moves." Entering a small clearing Liru and

I could see the exit in the distance. But before we could start

rushing towards it, a blast of fire scorched the ground ahead of us.

Jumping from out of a tree was the charmeleon who gravely injured

Nyami. "You have something that I want," he said pointing at the

combee. Confused, the frightened bug pokemon hid behind me while Liru

shot out a blast of her water gun. "You're gonna pay for what you

did to my friend!" she growled after her target ducked out of the

way. Shaking his head and sighing, the charmeleon took on a fighting

stance. "If you wish to get in my way again, then I'll gladly burn

you just like I did to that eevee." Charging forward, he attempted

to slash at Liru's ankles. Liru managed to avoid it however but

jumping over the charmeleon and counter attacking with a scratch to

his back and following up with a bite. The scratch connected but just

as she was about to bite him, he smacked the side of Liru's face with

his tail. Flying away from the blow, the totodile managed to land on

her feet just in time to notice and dodge the charmeleon's ember

attack. However, she didn't expect the charmeleon to follow up with a

blast of smoke and was completely enveloped by the thick black cloud.

"You've lost!" the charmeleon laughed before unleashing a burst

of his flamethrower attack.        When the flames and smoke had

cleared, Liru was no where to be found. "Haha! She became ashes

scattered by the wind!" Turning, he looked at me with a smug grin

on his face. "After witnessing my power, I'm sure you'll do the

smart thing and surrender that combee to me. In fact, I'll even take

you along as my mate and do things to you that you'll really enjoy!"

Gagging at that thought, I glared at the jerk and growled. "Over my

dead body!" I shouted before charging him. Grinning, he prepared to

defend himself from my attack only to be surprised by my dragon rage

attack making direct contact with his belly. Falling to a knee and

coughing, his eyes glinted with seriousness. "You pack a hell of a

punch there kiddo," he spat out in anger as I jumped away from him.

No longer playful, he stood up and hissed at me. After staring each

other down for a minute, we both shot out our smokescreen which

connected into each other in the middle of the clearing. Using the

smoke as cover, the charmeleon charged through it only to smash head

first into my ember attack. Wincing, he counterattacked by blowing

his flamethrower attack at me. Instead of focusing the funnel to

maximize damage, he widened it so that I couldn't dodge it. My left

leg got caught in the flames, but I was lucky that it didn't hurt too

bad. The charmeleon was still recovering from my embers on his head

so I rushed in and scratched him two times in the chest. I almost got

a third hit in but he slashed me in the jaw and caused critical

damage to my head. Panting, we both looked at each other in the eyes

and saw the fire of battle burning within our pupils.

        He then became surprised and

jumped back in full retreat. "No... You're a monster," he said

suddenly. "Monster... laying dormant within... waiting and

watching..." Closing his eyes and shaking the shock away, he stared

at me with a fearful look. "I have to end you... to kill the

monster inside..." he said in a serious tone as he charged towards

me. Vines suddenly emerged from the bushes and tangled the charmeleon

as a couple of blasts of water struck his surprised form. "Are you

okay, Winta?" Ritch said as he came out from of the bush. Following

behind him was a grinning Liru. "Mission successful!" she shouted

while holding a paw out in a V-shape. The charmeleon looked at her

with his mouth agape. "But I killed you! Burned you to ashes!

How..." he began to say before he looked at me. "What did you do

you abomination?!" I picked myself off the ground and brushed the

dust off my scales. "She simply escaped, you moron," I said

coldly. "You see, our top priority was to treat our friend's wounds

first and Liru accomplished that goal by rolling into the bushes

right before your flamethrower landed and crawling all the way

towards the exit." Realizing his mistake, the charmeleon cursed at

himself a final time and fainted.        Turning towards Ritch, I asked

him about Nyami's condition. "She'll be alright after a restful

slumber," he beamed. After using a healing pulse on me, he looked

around before asking me about Mishren. As if on cue, the bushes

behind us shook and an unfamiliar yellow pokemon stood before us. "I

heard my name mentioned," he said looking at the rest of us.

Realizing that Mishren had evolved from his fight, the rest bunched

around and bombarded him with questions. Before he could answer any

of them, the sound of buzzing instantly grew intense around us. A

swarm of combee appeared from out of no where, but the biggest

surprise was seeing Vespiquen descend gently from the sky. With the

raising of her hand, the buzzing immediately stopped and all was

silent except for the sound of one. "Mommy!" our combee guide

shouted as she flew into her mother's arms. Vespiquen smiled and

patted her daughter on her head before returning her attention

towards us. With a sweet and gentle buzz, she bowed her head. "I

must thank you all for coming to our aid in our time of need," she

said with an air of royalty. "Not only did you defeat the bandits

who came to raid our farm, but you also protected my heir from harm.

For your services, I must give you some kind of reward. Just name it

and it shall be yours." Thinking for a little, a brilliant idea

popped inside my head. "Actually, could we ask for a favor

instead?" I questioned. When Vespiquen nodded, I gave her a polite

smile. "We're looking for a small crystal that's as dark as night

and possesses an evil aura. Could you have your children search for

it for us?" Giving a silent order, the combee dispersed and within

mere minutes one of them found it. Taking it within my paw, I crushed

the damned thing into dust and declared the mission a success.