Aberdeen Montany, Melody Hughes, Vincent Baker
joint post chapter 4 : Ruins Of Alph
"What exactly are we looking for?" Vincent said, following Aberdeen's self righteous lead. Obviously, the answer was Melody, but he hoped Aberdeen was not going to try to be sarcastic with his far blunter tongue. Vincent was the one with the wit and the ability to talk with the best of them. It was years of practice that allowed him to hone that craft. Aberdeen was younger, naive and reeked with...weakness. It was all Vincent could muster in his hardened mind.
"I mean, we are blinder than bats in here," he finally said. "We are better off telling the guides and getting some police or someone in here." Vincent's suggestion was earnest, but he had a feeling Aberdeen was going to protest. The kid did it before. "And it's not because I'm scared. It's because that is what smart people would do."
Ab still held his grumpy Honedge in front of him like an eerie torch, Blossom walking nervously so close to his feet that he almost stumbled over her now and then. At Vincent's words, he glanced back.
"It might take a while to get back and make guards come down here. Melody just disappeared and we didn't see any hole in the ground or anything..." Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "Maybe she really, really needed to pee and ran off without telling us because it was embarrassing? Uh, no, wait, she would probably have replied when we called out for her," he added quickly, shaking his head.
"Nah, she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She'd run off and do something dumb without telling us squat," Vincent said, almost trying to reassure Aberdeen. He yawned and stretched a bit. "She'll pop out eventually, but at least you are admitting that I could be right. It's about damn time ya know?" Vincent leered with a large smirk painted across his face, gloating in his empty victory.
"You really like being right, don't you?" Ab asked with a crooked smile. It seemed like, in this matter, him and Vincent couldn't be more different. Aberdeen had never really tried to fight to be 'right' about things. Maybe he should start? It seemed to make Vincent feel pretty good.
Vincent nodded with his face twisted in thought. "I guess I do. Then again, I have yet to really be wrong about anything. If you went through what I had to go through, you'd learn you were right or you were done. There was no in between," Vincent answered, offering more information than he intended. "Anyway, we ain't getting anywhere wandering in circles. Let's circle back. Maybe she turned up at the entrance. Or she's being stupid and looking for us."
Aberdeen found himself wondering what the other guy meant by those words. But he just sighed. "Don't call her stupid," he muttered, but turned around as to show he agreed on Vincent's plan.
He quickly spun around again though, having seen something in the corner of his eye. Blossom froze and hid behind Aberdeen's legs. "Something moved at the end of the corridor! Did you see that, Honedge?"
"What are you on about? I didn't see anything," Vincent dismissed Aberdeen. He was probably being paranoid. The kid clearly had a knack for it. Vincent dropped his own Honedge out of its ball, allowing Excalibur to float around next to Ab's Honedge. If Aberdeen happened to be right about something, he wouldn't let him steal the opportunity to gloat.
Seeing that Vincent let his own pokémon out, Ab nodded and dashed towards the corner in front of them. As he turned around it, he saw yet another corridor, but this one with glimpses of light coming in from holes in the roof. And right in front of him, startled by suddenly being discovered for spying, stood a pokémon looking like it was wearing a hat and a paint brush.
Vincent followed quickly behind, but Ab's sudden stop hardly impeded the movement of Vincent as he plowed right through the smaller boy without much difficulty. Vincent collasped to the ground, laying all over Aberdeen, who couldn't help letting out an involuntary scream again. Recollecting himself, Vincent perked his head up a tad and noticed the strange little Pokemon standing above them.
"What the heck are you?" Hardly budging and half suffocating Aberdeen, Vincent reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pokedex. "Smeargle? Ew. That Pokemon seems about as useful as a Chespin."
Finally struggling loose from underneath the bigger guy, with a little help from Blossom, Aberdeen ignored the comment about his starter pokémon and slumped against the wall panting just as the Smeargle began to sort of shout violently at Vincent, waving his tail about like a weapon in his hand.
"It was spying on us!" Aberdeen said. "Running ahead of us behind the corners. You..." He pointed at the wild pokémon accusingly. "You saw where Melody went, didn't you? Our friend, a girl!"
"You do realize that it can't answer you right? All it can say is its name," Vincent reminded Aberdeen. "It's not like it's going to speak to us in human speak or whatever. It's a dumb Pokemon."
Aberdeen's Honedge was now hovering in the air above her 'trainer' and at Vincent's words she narrowed one of her eyes at the older boy, clearly in disgust. Surprisingly, the Smeargle just started to laugh.
Vincent motioned for Excalibur to attack the Smeargle with his hands and the ghost Pokemon made a bold lunge for the strange Pokemon that Aberdeen so foolishly tried to talk to. The Smeargle nimbly dodged the rushed attack and bolted away from the two trainers.
"Hey. Get back here! My...friend here has some questions!" Vincent rolled off the ground and chased down the wild Pokemon, yelling vulgar insults as he jetted down the dark corridors, barely keeping the Smeargle within his vision. Aberdeen and the Chikorita followed, the female Honedge buzzing after them in the air.
Farther in the ruins, things were so dreadfully quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Melody had not budged a singe inch since she became the prisoner of the Smeargle horde. She simply sat their, tails wrapped around her body and mouth with wide eyes at the threat of having a new makeup job applied to her face. The silence of the winding halls was brought to an end however, at the sound of small, pattering feet.
Melody looked up just in time to see another Smeargle running towards her and the rest of the horde. A rather panicked expression graced its features, as it quickly skidded to a stop before its allies and began to point wildly behind it. Melody glanced up in the direction the Smeargle was pointing, a happy grunt escaping her tail-covered lips as she spotted Aberdeen, Blossom, and Vincent all running into the area. She began to squirm and fidget wildly, trying her best to get the attention of the boys and her Chikorita.
"What's going on?" Ab exclaimed, at first only seeing the many Smeargle giving him scared or angry stares and shaking their tails at the intruders. But then he spotted the prisoner. "Melody! Are you alright?"
Melody merely gave Aberdeen a small, slightly annoyed glance. She was being held prisoner by wild Smeargle, threatened by their paint-tipped tails, and she couldn't even speak. The girl honestly wondered why her new friend would even ask such a question.
Two Smeargle with blue tails started moving towards him, and as if it had become a reflex, or at least instinct now, Aberdeen reached for the pokéballs at his belt and let all of his pokémon out. Chespin, Whismur and Pidgey materialized in the small space on the dusty floor between the boy and the oncoming pokémon, making the two Smeargle hesitate. Pidgey scoffed at the horde around them, Whismur started shivering at the sight, and Chespin assessed the situation and put on a goofy smile as if he was unphased by the fact that they faced an army of paintbrushes. Meanwhile, Honedge still lurked behind the humans, not sure if she should turn and abandon this crazy group when she had the chance, or stay and watch things unfold.
"Nice group of friends you've made, Melody." Vincent wasn't too pleased with the fact that a horde of Smeargle had captured Melody or the fact they bothered to defend their idol. He wasn't about to complain though. After all, now he could fight his way through them. Vincent followed Ab's lead and released his other Pokemon with Hanzo and Brian joining Exaclibur.
"Brian, use Sand attack! Hanzo, Water Pulse! And Exaclibur, Metal Sound!"
"Wait, don't attack!" Ab called out. "We should talk to them first!"
But Brian send a massive wave of sand at the horde of Smeargle in general, filling the whole area with sand. Hanzo fired it's Water Pulse into the center of the cloud, hoping to hit something. Meanwhile, the freshest catch in his Honedge, used Metal Sound to weaken any survivors for Vincent's next attack.
Aberdeen sighed. And here
he had been called rash. Vincent could be so careless it made Aberdeen angry, he was starting to realize. Well, better let that anger fuel him if fighting their way out of this was what they needed to do.
However, it was none of the two boys Pokémon that attacked next. Rather it was the familiar, yet angry sounding chirps that echoed into the room that grabbed Melody's, as well as several of the Smeargle's, attention. Little Blossom was clearly not pleased with the state that her trainer was in, and clearly she was not about to sit on the sidelines when Melody needed her most! In an angry fury, the little Chikorita bounced forward, sending a blast of familiar, razor sharp, leaves swriling into the fray of the Smeargle horde.
Melody's eyes widened at the display. The girl had never seen her Chikorita so worked up before! Slowly glancing to her sides, she noticed that the two Smeargle which held her seemed a bit... distracted by the display before them. A small smile graced Melody's wrapped lips.
"Alright... Time for me to get in on some of the action too..." the girl thought.
She began to squirm ever so slightly in the tails which held her, managing to get one of her hands to make it to her belt where her Pokéballs were resting. Taking hold of one of the balls, Melody managed to slip it out to the ground, which caused the Taillow resting inside to be freed. Needless to say, this caused the Smeargle around her to return their focus to the girl, but by this point it was too late. Melody managed to wriggle about more, slipping past the tail which had been wrapped around her mouth.
"Hawk! Help me out of this mess with Steel Wing!" the girl managed to shout.
Hawk squawked in agreement. The bird began to sore overhead, before quickly diving towards the Smeargles which held Melody prisoner. The Taillow's wing began to shine, as if it was made from a solid sheet of metal, before he slammed it into both of the Smeargle's heads, one right after the other. This caused the grip the wild Pokémon had on Melody to loosen considerably. With one more struggle, the girl managed to break free of the tails completely.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen hadn't even noticed that Melody had freed herself. Smeargle were throwing themselves at Vincent and his gang, and Ab was determined to keep focused and not get overwhelmed.
"Pidgey, keep them at a distance with Gust!"
Just as the closest Smeargle leaped up, Pidgey's Gust forced two of them back down onto the ground. A third broke through and threw itself over Chespin though. Aberdeen stood only a meter away from his pokémon, and his first instinct was to kick off the Smeargle himself. Luckily, he didn't do that though.
"Chespin, Bite!"
Darkly teeth in the midst of the struggling ball of fur that was Chespin and Smeargle bit down onto the long paintbrush tail and made the wild pokémon squeal and release the grass type.
Suddenly, Whismur bumped into Aberdeen's leg from behind. Ab turned around and realized that Whismur had stopped two Smeargle by Astonishing them on his own accord. Giving a quick pet on the head to his little bunny, Ab quickly spun around again and saw Pidgey struggling with the two Smeargle she had blown away earlier.
"Pidgey, confuse them with Sand Attack!" Aberdeen called out, having seen the move being effective on them when used by Vincent earlier.
Pidgey obeyed and managed to splash sand from the floor up into the face of Chespin's opponent as well. That gave Chespin a great opportunity to lift the wild pokémon up in one leg with Vine Whip and slam it into the other two.
But Whismur was squeaking and tugging the leg of Aberdeen's trousers, making him turn his attention back to that side again. Four Smeargle were now approaching that way.
Too much, Aberdeen found himself thinking.
They are too many. Unless he used Uproar now, which might be a really bad idea considering Melody and Vincent and their pokémon being near as well, plus the building around them being really unstable... Pidgey hovered anxiously above his head and Chespin and Whismur backed closer to their trainer as the wild pokémon kept forcing them into a corner, some with grins on their faces and the paintbrush tails swinging threateningly.
"Vincent!" Aberdeen called out, but when he really looked out over the gloomy room they were in, he spotted another figure standing on top of some rubble, clearly not being captured. At least not anymore. "Melody!"
Aberdeen's murmurs were basically muffled as far as Vincent was concerned. He was caught in the heat of battle with the Smeargles surrounding him. He figured they did not enjoy that he barged right in and attacked them without a second thought. Not that he was complaining. Vincent continued with this very basic but seemingly effective strategy. Exaclibur continued to barrage the Smeargles as they approached. The ear grating sound waves punctured their ears, weakening them as they crowded Vincent and his team. As the Smeargles wavered in their attacks and their defenses down, Brian then buffeted them with Sand attacks, further confusing them. Any stragglers that came through the cloud of sand and dirt were pelted by Hanzo's pinpoint Water Pulses and Bubbles, having already felt the wrath of the others. One by one, the Smeargles fell. The metal sounds grow louder and louder as Exaclibur grow progressively angry in the battle. Brian's wings fluttered furiously as he kicked up enough sand to fill the entire caverns. Hanzo shot down Smeargle after Smeargle as they dove through the clouds to pin down Vincent and his team of warriors. Vincent was pleased with the teamwork that his three Pokemon displayed, but the waves of Pokemon seemed endless as Smeargle after Smeargle emerged through the defenses that Vincent and his team mocked up in a few short minutes. Despite his confidence brimming, Vincent could sense the fatigue of his Pokemon as they stood their ground.
Damn it. This is getting frustrating, Vincent mentally noted.
I'm tempted to kick my way through them and get the hell out of here. Vincent looked around for a way out, hoping to find some beacon of hope. However, what he found instead was Melody standing on some rubble, somehow having freed herself. "That's our chance, guys!" He called out to his team. "Hanzo! Brian! Make a path for us!" The two Pokemon nodded at each other, as the two friends went in sync. Hanzo used a quick attack to shift from his defensive stance near Vincent to slicing through a few Smeargle to take the lead. Brian followed suit, mimicking the frog Pokemon with his own winged variant of the Quick Attack. He kept a few feet back, giving Hanzo much needed back up in case any Smeargle dared ruin their advance. Vincent took a few strides to hang back, ducking and diving through the crowd of Smeargle as Hanzo and Brian knocked any daring Smeargles back into the arms of their follow Pokemon. Exaclibur silently floated behind them, echoing the Metal Sounds of earlier to keep the bulk of the Smeargle army at bay.
Vincent panted as he finally reached Melody. "We're getting out of here! Now!"
Not to be outdone by Vincent's own team, Hawk and Blossom did their part to work together and aid in the rescue of their trainer. Hawk continued to swoop down, slamming Steel Wing after Steel Wing into various Smeargles that happened to be scattered about the room. Blossom on the other hand tagged right behind Vincent as the boy made his way towards Melody. The little Chikorita acted as if she was some sort of bodyguard for the boy, eventually charging ahead of him to tackle any members of the Smeargle horde that tried to jump out and get in his way.
Melody smiled brightly at the sight. The girl hopped off the the pile of rubble and quickly, not to mention surprisingly, hugged Vincent tightly. Vincent was caught completely offguard, but did little to push the girl off. All he found himself doing was raise an eyebrow and held his arms awkwardly in the air, looking for something to distract himself from the whole display.
"I... I'm so totally sorry! I dunno what even happened! One minute I was following behind you guys and then the next these Pokémon grabbed hold of me and drug me off! I tried to get free so I could get back, but... but..." Melody began to ramble. Her cheeks quickly blushed as she realized she was still holding onto Vincent. The girl quickly released her grasp around the boy and looked away, a deep blush gracing her cheeks. "Um... T-That is, um... Thanks for helpin' me, Vinny... I was... really, really scared..."
The familiar chirping of Blossom caught Melody's attention. The girl looked down at her Chikorita, who beamed proudly. Clearly the little grass-type was proud of the work she had done in aiding the boys in finding her trainer. Melody smiled at the sight, bending down to pet her gently on the head.
"Good work, Blossom... I knew I could count on ya," Melody told the Chikorita with a small, sincere smile.
"Well, if we are done being all sappy and stuff, we need to get out of here. I'm tired of fighting these dumbass Pokemon and their paintbrushes," Vincent urged Melody.
Melody nodded and together with Vincent and Blossom, she began to make an escape back towards Aberdeen and the rest of their Pokémon. However, that's when it appeared. The chaos of the room quickly fell into complete silence. All the Smeargles of the horde which had yet to be taken out fell quiet, the Pokémon all turning and staring with what seemed to be awe on their usually dopey looking faces.
Before them stood... another Smeargle. However, there was something different about this one. For starters, it looked to be a bit taller than those who were already gathered in the room. The tip of its tail was dipped in a reddish colored paint. Its body had several scratches and scars, decorating the Smeargle as if it were some kind of high ranking warrior.
Melody gave the Smeargle a curious glance, before looking over at Vincent. "Um... Is that supposed to be an important one or somethin'? It seems kind of odd they just all... got quiet when that one showed up."
"He doesn't look that tough," Vincent smirked. "I take it as if I beat him up then I can get out of this dump." Vincent cracked his knuckles and snapped his neck back in place. "Brian. Knock it out with quick attack!" The Pidgey swooped in and dived directly at the Smeargle boss, aiming for an even quicker finish.
"Hawk! Follow through with a Quick Attack too!" Melody called out.
Hawk swooped down as orded, following behind Vincent's Pidgey in an attempt to completely overpower the Pokémon. The Smeargle seemed to remain perfectly calm, however. It took hold of its tail, pointing it forward at the two bird Pokémon before suddenly an electrifying blast of lightning shot forth from the tip. The bolt quickly zapped its way towards Brian and Hawk, clashing with both of the birds to give them both the shock of their lives!
"Hawk!" Melody cried out as both the birds began to fall from the sky towards the ground below. The girl quickly took her Tailow's Pokéball, withdrawing him just in time before he would have hit the hard floor of the ruins. "How did it do that? I didn't think Smeargle was an electric type!"
Vincent felt his teeth grind as he silently withdrew the defeated Pidgey, following Melody's lead. "I take it Smeargles can copy moves or something." Vincent looked at Excalibur and Hanzo. "We are going to need a plan."
All the wild Smeargle had turned their attention to the larger one, including the ones that had been cornering Aberdeen. Looking to his side, Ab realized that if he was really quiet, he could sneak away and reach the way they had come. He could escape!
Of course, he would never do that when his buddies (or whatever Vincent could be called) were still in trouble here. So instead, he decided it was time for the plan he had scrapped earlier. Hopefully it would yield more useful chaos than deal damage to themselves.
Bending down carefully, he whispered in Whismur's ear: "Uproar, buddy."
All the nerves that had kept the bunny shaking for the last couple of minutes were now rapidly released into one critical attack. With only Chespin and Aberdeen covering their ears in time, and Pidgey doing what she could to motion to Honedge to fly up and away from the horrible, resonating screeches that the tiny creature gave out, the scene was suddenly turned upside down.
The Smeargles all began to squirm and fidget as the loud, wailing, screeching Whismur began to unleash his ear-destroying, sound-based attack. Aberdeen looked quickly at the different parts of the scene in front of him. The wild pokémon were confused, but so were likely Vincent and Melody too, if not in pain even. Well, probably. The good thing was that nobody was really prepared for any kind of attack right now. But Aberdeen had pokémon who were.
Honedge seemed annoyed rather than hurt, where she and Pidgey hovered in the air close to the ceiling. How rude of the human boy to release something like this all of a sudden! But what had annoyed her the most ever since she entered the room silently behind the rash boy and his companions was the fact that a horde, a full
horde of Smeargle were nesting so close to what she had previously called her own territory. Well, she still called it her own territory. She was just in a pretty peculiar situation right now, with this boy and his magic sphere and all. The only thing she was clear of at this point was that the Whismur deserved a distinct slap later, and that the big fat Smeargle towering over the other two humans deserved a distinct slap right now.
As Whismur's uproar finally began to fade, the large Smeargle was visibly angry compared to its composed demeanor earlier, but just as it recovered, something hit it hard in the back of its head. It stumbled forward, half stunned from surprise. Behind it, an angry Honedge whirred in the air after a well aimed Tackle.
"AB! Next time you do something like that, warn me!" Vincent roared in the general direction at Aberdeen, his ears ringing. Unable to gauge the volume of his voice only added to the anger that seethed from his voice. Hanzo also leered at Aberdeen, clearly not pleased with the young boy and cotninuing to be in sync with his trainer as always. Both shook their heads and unclogged their ears and glared at the Smeargle boss, gauging the field.
Melody cupped her hands with her ears. She was grateful... and slightly annoyed at the same time. At the very least, Aberdeen had managed to get the Smeargle king's attention off of Blossom, Vincent, and herself. Taking note of this turn of events, the girl glanced down at her daze Chikorita, gently tapping her shoulder to try and get her attention.
"E-Easy, Blossom..." Melody whispered, still feeling as if she had a slight ringing noise in her ears. "I know you're a bit... well, probably a lot annoyed right now. "But this is the moment we need! Go in there and charge that Smeargle with all you got!"
Blossom shook her head, manaing to regain her most of hercomposure before chirping in agreement with Melody's command. The Chikorita began to dash forward, clearly taking advantage of the distracted state of all the Smeargle. However as Blossom dashed forward, Melody began to notice something... different about the Chikorita.
"Is she... Why is she glowin' like that?" Melody wondered.
Her eyes went wide as a bright light errupted forth, completely engulfing Blossom as she moved. The light began to slowly grow bigger, causing Melody to shield her eyes. Then, almost as soon as it had started, the light faded. Slowly, Melody lowered her arm, gasping at the sight of a larger, unknown Pokémon slamming her body into the Smeargle king with great power.
From his corner of the hall, Aberdeen witnessed the event and understood exactly what was happening at last. The smeargle around him were unsure of whether to focus on their suddenly happy enemy or glance nervously back at their king.
"W-What... What is that?" Melody whispered, staring at the Pokémon in wonder. "Wait, where's... is that... Blossom?!"
Upon hearing her name, Blossom slowly looked up and smiled proudly at Melody. She took a small step forward, turning her back to the Smeargle king to give her trainer a special little pose, as if showing off the fact that she had not only managed to deal a rather nasty blow to the leader of the Smeargle horde, but she had managed to do with class by evolving!
"...Oh... my... GAWD! THIS IS SO COOL!" Melody practically shouted in amazement.
The Smeargle king regained it's composure soon enough, picking itself off the ground and leering at the evolved Blossom with disdain. It's red painted tail glowed and glowed, gaining more and more power with each passing second. There was a fiery aura around. Vincent almost immediately figured out what it was doing.
So it can copy moves. And it knows Blossom's weakness. Just like it did with Brian and her bird thing. Vincent wasn't exactly sure what to do for a brief second, but it dawned on him. It's a foolish slip up on Vincent's part to be fair. Then again, it was a long day. Hanzo was a water type. He could easily deflect this attack and soften up the Smeargle for Blossom, the now much stronger Pokemon, to finish off the Pokemon. Vincent didn't like that fact. He'd have to train much harder to regain his pride.
"Hanzo? Where did you go?" Vincent looked around his feet and couldn't find his Pokemon. Vincent was worried. Did the same thing happen to Hanzo that happened to Melody? No. Hanzo wasn't stupid. Did he get beat? No. Hanzo was tougher than that. The Smeargle's attack flourished in a bright flame. It was ready to launch. Blossom wasn't going to dodge that. The Smeargle took aim with what appear to be some sort of small fire blast. But then, a bright flash of light seemed to strike the Smeargle with blinding speed and accuracy. The Smeargle went down on the ground, it's body limp on the ground before sitting up dazed and bruised. Looming over the Smeargle and then looking back at Vincent was a taller, thinner and more refined frog-like Pokemon.
"Hanzo?" The Pokemon nodded and copied Vincent's intense smirk. Vincent looked over at Melody. "Looks like Hanzo copied your little trick."
"Well, I always heard it was better to be a leader, Vinny!" Melody replied. The girl felt a lot more confident about their situation now. With both Hanzo and Blossom being evolved, there was no way that they were going to lose against the Smeargle king and its horde now. She returned her focus to her Bayleef, giving the Pokémon a broad smile. "Alright, Blossom! It's time to finish this thing! Blast it with your Razor Leaf!"
Blossom jumped back, smiling widely as she did so. The leaves around her neck began to spin around quickly, before they flew of in a furious storm. They cut straight towards the over-sized Smeargle, slicing at him with the same, razor-sharp edges as always!
Aberdeen's Honedge was still there in the heat of things and decided that the evolved pokémon wouldn't have all the fun for themselves. She let out an ear-piercing sound that sounded a bit like a metallic version of Whismur's trademark attack, but of course it was much more elegant. Metal Sound didn't hurt everyone in the room, but was directed at the largest Smeargle and the minions around him, making him much less defensive against the next oncoming attack.
"Let's finish this then! Hanzo, use Water Pulse!" Vincent yelled seeing that the Smeargle was taken aback from Blossom's flurry and Honedge's noises. Hanzo charged up energy in his mouth and launched an aquatic pulse of energy, colliding with the Smeargle launching into the cavern walls. Despite the fury of the battle around them, the room for a moment fell silent.
The Smeargle king stood no chance against the combined attack. And when he fell, so did apparently the spirit of the rest of the horde. In the nick of time, Aberdeen would have said. Chespin, Whismur and Pidgey had kept trying to hold back the Smeargle with various attacks, but all of them had ended up tied with tails over their mouths to prevent them from calling out for help. Not that the war-blinded Vincent and Melody would have listened to their cries anyways, Aberdeen thought as they were finally released now when the wild Smeargle instead hurried to their leader's side and carried him away through some other corridor. The humans and their pokémon were now alone in the room at last.
The three trainers made their way back to the entrance of the ruins, where they were met by security guards and an endlessly worried tour guide who talked incoherently all the way back to the museum at the edge of the Alph area. There though, he went away for a minute and then came back, shoving glittering, colorful stones in each of Vincent's, Aberdeen's and Melody's hands. Apparently they were valuable and he wanted to give them to the trainers as a reward for helping him finding the tour group again... And also sort of to bribe them into not telling the rest of the world how dangerous the ruins could actually be.
Vincent stashed the stone in his bag, content to look at his loot later. He shrugged, waved a bye/thank you to the tour guide, essentially accepting the bribe with no questions. Vincent forced a handshake with Aberdeen, somewhat thanking him for the help in the caves (as much as he didn't enjoy the small boy's company) and made his way south to the next route. After all, he was in a rush to get nowhere.