Chimera Chronicles: Errands
X: Cuffin Cart Carnage

“I don’t see the point in doing all this, Sapphira,” grumbled a certain Dewott with a sleeveless, navy blue vest with a lapis lazuli stone sewn onto the chest area, “These carts are supposed to be for the dungeon exploration, not a street race!”

“Oh come on sis, Cuffin said it’s a stress test,” her little Oshawott sister said, “besides, it’s not that often we get to race down the streets of Andalusst!”

Such eagerness to have fun while risking supplies valuable to the upcoming dungeon exploration bothered the Dewott and the other members of their small little group, for if anything were to happen to any of the carts none of them would hear the end of it, especially if Lazuli and Sapphira’s mother got involved. To make matters worse, Lazuli was rather suspicious of the white-eyed, blue newsboy cap-wearing Furret named Cuffin and his motives of pulling this stunt, and it didn’t help that her last encounter with him left a rather bitter taste in her mouth. Still, not even the pleas of her sister’s Rattata teammate, Ralph, or Lazuli’s ally Delilah could deter the young Oshawott, and so they all joined in what they feared would be a complete disaster and made their way to the stone tower at the center of the city.

“Well, look who’s here,” shouted a voice once the quartet arrived at their destination, “Nice to see you again Sapphira!”

Swooping down from above riding atop an Altaria was the organizer of the cart race himself, his usually scruffy fur had been smoothed over by the wind blowing past him during his flight. At first, he was rather pleased to see another group of Pokémon had come to participate in his little “performance evaluation”, but the moment his white eyes caught sight of Lazuli the smirk on his face became a nervous frown.

“Oh, hello Lazuli, nice vest you’ve got there,” Cuffin said, cautious as to not trigger the Dewott’s bad temper.

“You’ve met my sister before?” Sapphira asked.

“T-that’s your sister?!” the Furret gulped, “Yeah, uh, we’ve met before, same with Delilah.”

“Alright, enough with the introductions,” Lazuli snapped, “The sooner we get this over with the less chance we’ll get in trouble!”

“She’s got a point, Cuffin,” the fringe-jacket-wearing Delibird concurred, “By the way, if we’re gonna be a part of this here race, we gotta have someone ‘ta pull them carts.”

The white-eyed Furret turned around and whistled towards exterior of the stone tower, summoning a pair of Pokémon to his side to present themselves with their future teammates. On his right was another male Furret named Monty, who tipped his brown, broad brim hat in acknowledgment to the quartet. On the other side of Cuffin was a Mightyena with a black vest who went by the name of Cloud, who slowly responded with a nod and a rather bashful smile on his face. After taking a moment for the quartet to introduce themselves, Cuffin allowed them to decide which of the two they’d use, but before Cuffin could even declare a coin toss to decide which of the two teams picked first, Sapphira laid claim on Monty’s services, much to the ire of her older sister.

“Well, somebody’s eager to get things going,” Cuffin chuckled, “Well, give me a few moments while I rally the other racers together. You’ve got five minutes to get your teams ready.”

As Cuffin and his Altaria assistant flew back behind the stone tower, Sapphira turned towards her older sister and gave her a mischievous snicker, confident she had chosen better of the two choices. The Dewott grumbled at her smug sister in response, leaving Ralph and Delilah to sigh in disgust, knowing the gauntlet had just been thrown…


“Ladies and Gentle’mon,” shouted Cuffin with the help of a megaphone made of paper, “welcome to the 1st annual Cuffin Cart Challenge! Today we’ve assembled five of the best cart racing teams in Andalusst in a sprint from this stone tower in the center of the city all the way to the Subseed Forest! Let’s meet the competitors!”

The small crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle cheered in response to the Furret’s rousing introduction, only to be hushed by Cuffin’s frantic motions to keep it down, reminding the crowd that this was supposed to be a secret, and upon getting the crowd under control he cleared his throat and began announcing the starting lineup.

Starting from the far right side of the line of carts were the members of The Sapphire Chimeras, Sapphira the Oshawott and Ralph the Rattata, and their puller Monty the Furret. Though Sapphira and Monty brandished confident smiles on their faces in eager anticipation for the race, Ralph could only nervously smile and wave, the sense of dread still filling his mind.

Next to them were the Hunter duo of Soul the Sableye and Blu the Amaura, who together formed Team Dark Glamour. With Blu focused on pulling the cart, Soul was in charge of dueling with the other competitors with his kunai, something he was greatly looking forward to.

In the middle of the group were the familiar duo of Ciela the Fennekin and Cerveau the Hoppip, the two members of Team Bramblestar, and their puller, Emily the Espeon. Though the duo had badly wanted to participate on their own, they fear Cerveau’s flying abilities would be considered cheating, and so called upon the friendly Espeon for help.

Further down the line were the Fire-type duo of Alexis the Growlithe and Daniel the gold-colored Vulpix, who made up Team Inferno. As the puller of the team, Alexis hopped up and down in an excited manner, taunting the other competitors and vowing to win the race. Daniel, on the other hand, cowered inside the cart saying whatever prayers while he could, knowing that Alexis’ competitive spirit would likely be the end of him.

Last but not least were the trio of Lazuli, Delilah, and Cloud, who all nervously smiled and waved much like Ralph, but whether this was a tactic to throw off the other competitors or a sign of genuine concern for getting caught doing this remained a mystery.

With the intros all settle, Cuffin climbed back on top of his Altaria assistant and together lifted off the ground to give the competitors one last reminder of the rules of this race, which while attacking other competitors is acceptable, they are to make sure not to destroy the carts or cause significant harm to the other competitors. They were also to stay on the streets at all times, no flying or teleportation whatsoever. Last but not least, all members of the team had to be with the cart when they cross the finish line, which would otherwise disqualify the competitors.

“All right, now that that’s all settled, let’s get things started!” Cuffin shouted, pulling out a green flag from one of the Altaria’s cloud-like wings, “Cart race all set! Ready, GO!!!”

With the wave of the green flag, the five carts rocketed past the starting line down the narrow streets of Andalusst, with Team Dark Glamour taking the early lead while being closely followed by Team Bramblestar, Inferno, and Team Rushing Waters. The Sapphire Chimeras had a little trouble getting started, however, for their wheels ended up stuck in a hole in the pavement and it took the combined might of the two passengers to push the cart out, but by the time Monty had gone up to full speed, the competition had already disappeared from sight.

“That was just so unfair!” Sapphira slammed her scalchop in anger, “Now we’ll never catch up to everyone else!”

“Don’t sweat it, Sapphira,” Ralph said, patting his teammate’s back as he formed an idea in his head, “I just happen to know my way around this part of town from when I helped rebuild the city. Besides, Cuffin didn’t say we couldn’t take a few shortcuts along the way now, did he?”

Sapphira’s mouth hung in awe at how quickly her teammate was able to come up with a plan so quickly, and it was only when Monty made a sharp left turn that she was able to snap out of her daze. This was the first time she saw Ralph in action since the two became an Explorers team, and she already liked what she was seeing…



“Get a move on already, they’re getting away!” shouted Lazuli as she deflected a kunai thrown at her face with her scalchops, “If I’m getting caught using guild equipment for a joyride, then at least let me get caught as a winner!”

The competition had proven to be fierce as they reached the halfway point of the city portion of the race, with Team Bramblestar holding a narrow lead over teams Inferno and Dark Glamour as they repeatedly slammed their carts together, much to Daniel’s displeasure. But not even the clash of the two carts was enough to stop Soul’s relentless barrage of kunai, and with Cloud being forced to sidestep the unrelenting attack, Lazuli’s team slowly found themselves losing ground to the other competitors.

“Hey, Delilah, can’t you give me a hand and throw a couple presents at these guys?” she shouted to the Delibird reclining behind her, “We can’t win this race if we have to keep dodging these kunai all day!”

“This ain’t my race ‘ta begin with,” the Delibird casually waved her wing at her friend, “Sapphira’s too far behind ‘ta catch us, so what’s the point? ‘Sides, it ain’t like the road’s gonna turn ‘ta ice any time soon…”

A chilly blast of cold air blew through at the instant Delilah had finished her sentence, followed quickly by the screams of the other competitors and Soul’s snickering just before the traction suddenly disappearing underneath their cart’s wheels. Blu had managed to use his Icy Wind attack to freeze the road ahead, and the other competitors ahead them were having a difficult time adjusting to the sudden change of condition, even causing Alexis and Daniel to crash into a nearby stack of cardboard boxes.

As Cloud slipped and slid over the ice, Delilah hopped out of the cart and began skating in front of the cart, ordering Cloud to grab a hold of her sack-like tail so that she could help the cart navigate the treacherous terrain, and together with Lazuli’s well-timed shifts of weight on the cart they were able to narrowly avoid crashing into the same stack of boxes Team Inferno ran into and steadily regain control of their cart.

As Team Dark Glamour surged into the lead past Team Bramblestar thanks to Blu’s natural control over icy terrain, Ciela pulled out an ocarina made from an apricorn from her lime green scarf and began playing a pleasantly soothing song, sending several green sound waves through the area around her cart, and the moment the sound waves graced Soul and Blu’s ears, they slowly came to a stop and drifted into a deep, peaceful slumber.

Thinking quickly, Delilah shook Cloud off her sack-like tail and hopped into the air just as the road turned back into its normal state, firing a stronger blast of ice cold air at the duo to help them stay awake through the sound waves and nearly freezing Lazuli in her place. Upon clearing the sound waves and catching up to Team Bramblestar’s cart, Delilah hopped back on the cart and waved towards the flabbergasted Cerveau and Ciela.

“Ya see that Cielia?” she boasted, “Purty impressive manuverin’ if ah say so mahself.”

The golden furred fox’s ears puffed a bluish-white burst of flame, startling her Grass-type partner as an angry scowl quickly emerged on her face, for if there was one thing she couldn’t stand it was someone mispronouncing their name.

“For the last freakin’ time, THE NAME IS CIELA!!!!!” she screamed just before unleashing a mighty Flamethrower attack, nearly singing Lazuli’s precious vest in her anger.

“You idiot, you almost burned me and the cart to a crisp!” the Dewott shrieked and aimed her scalchops at the hot-tempered Fennekin, “This’ll cool you down quick!”

The Dewott fired a pair of bullet-shaped blasts of water from her dual scalchops, only for another Flamethrower attack to evaporate the bullets and nearly singe her again, triggering a series of back and forth attacks between the two carts until they emerged out in the wide open outskirts of the city, where upon hearing Cerveau’s yelling at the two to stop fighting, they noticed Sapphira’s team far ahead in the distance and less than a mile away from the finish.

“How the heck did those guys get so far ahead of us?!” Lazuli embedded her right scalchop in frustration, “Come on guys, let’s catch up before—“

“BOOOOOOOOST FIREEEEEEE!!!”

The sudden battle cry followed closely by a terrified scream drew the attention of the dueling teams as a cart being pulled by a rolling ball of fire  suddenly emerged from the city streets carrying a hapless golden Vulpix clinging to the rim of the cart for dear life. Somehow, Alexis and Daniel had managed to recover from their crash and had now come from behind in a literal blaze of glory, and before either team could comprehend what was going on, the cart barreled in between the narrow gap between the two side and flung both carts into the air, knocking the passengers into the ground and snapping off of the pullers’ grasp as the carts quickly crashed back to the ground…



If the sight of a rolling wheel of fire pulling a cart roaring towards them didn’t frighten the members of the Sapphire Chimeras, the way said cart flung the other opponents’ carts from the collision certainly did the job, and it didn’t help the rolling embodiment of Hell itself was quickly charging towards their cart with Cuffin and the checkered flag in his hand in sight.

“What do we do now?” Sapphira panicked, “That crazy Growlithe is going to run us over!”

“Sapphira, when I yell ‘now’, we need to jump to the right and shift our weight,” Ralph ordered, “Right now we need to focus on keeping this cart in one piece, okay?”

With a nod from both Monty and Sapphira, the team positioned themselves to jump out of the way at a moment’s notice, and upon giving the signal, the three leapt to the right as told, narrowly dodging the cart as it passed by and striking the hapless Vulpix passenger in the face with one of the wheels.

By the time the Sapphire Chimeras replaced the left wheels back on the ground, the maniac Growlithe had already crossed the finish line and emerged from the ball of fire with a huge, victorious grin on her face.

“YEEEESSSSS, VICTORY IS MINE!” she yelled, “I’m the best cart puller in Andalusst!”

“Can’t argue that,” Cuffin sighed, “but your friend didn’t make it across the finish line, so that means you’re disqualified…”

The Growlithe’s jaw dropped to the ground in shock, noticing her friend unconscious just mere feet before the finish line. All that hard work to make up for their early mishap had gone to waste, and all because Daniel had fallen off their cart at the last moment.

“…which means the winner of the 1st annual Cuffin Cart Challenge is the team of Monty, Sapphira, and Ralph!”

The three jumped in celebration, happy that their strategy to use an early shortcut had paid off, but before they could continue, the white-eyed Furret was quick to remind them that he saw a dark blue uniformed Dewott much like Lazuli in the area, and that she looked like she “high-ranking”.  Knowing that Sapphira’s mother was nearby, the gang quickly gathered up the unconscious Daniel and quickly scurried back to Sapphira’s home, their long marathon finally over…



This was not the way she had had hoped to end the race. While everyone had miraculously avoided injury beyond a few grass cuts, Lazuli knew that any hopes of winning the race were as demolished as the carts. As she sat slowly rose to her feet and gazed upon the nearby area and all the unconscious Pokémon scattered throughout, however, she was rather shocked to find that the carts had somehow survived the crashes in one piece and on their wheels.

“Let me guess, this was all some sort of ‘stress test’ for the carts, right?” growled a voice from behind, startling the female Dewott and causing her to slowly turn her head towards the angry, dark blue uniformed Dewott glaring at her.

“Oh, hi Mom,” Lazuli nervously chuckled, “yeah, we were testing to see how the carts would, er, handle a Flame Wheel attack, and, uh, see, everything’s A-OK!”

As the cornered Dewott leaned her elbow on the cart behind her, the cart suddenly collapsed into several pieces, one of which tapped the other cart behind it and caused it to also break apart in the same fashion. The Dewott could only curse in her throat before getting a scalchop aimed at her face and an order to wake the others up so they can all be brought in for questioning.

Somebody was going to answer for the destruction of guild property…