To the Monochrome Ruins! The Bookworm Ralts meets the Prankster Aipom and Outlaw Zorua!?

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Akuroma peered up at the tall dark trees of Shadowhue. Though he's explored them before, he shivered a bit in fear. This would be his first time exploring the forest alone, and he had trouble exploring them with other pokemon before. The Ralts took in a deep breath and sighed it out before hefting up his bag.
"No use in fretting over it, so long as I'm quick and quiet I should avoid the wild pokemon here," he told himself before he began trudging into the dark forest. After an hour or so of exploring he stopped and dumped his bag beside him before sitting down against a tree. He gently touched the small scars across his cheek before grimacing.
"Can't believe I let a little Patrat do this to me..." he complained as he looked up at the trees above him, "I shouldn't be far now, but if I don't reach the falls soon, I may run out of luck and run into a wild pokemon."

When Cracker hit the cool water of the river, the relief to his wounded arm and shoulder was minimal. It still felt like it was on fire, but he could move it enough to stay afloat long enough for Akuroma’s Confusion attack to hoist him out of the water, but after that he was beat. The Mightyena’s single attack did quite a number on him, and had the dark-type still had its increased power, he might’ve lost consciousness altogether.

As he was carried towards the shore, the Aipom watched the ensuing fight as the biting Pokemon turned on the Cacturne only to have its attack sail right on through. After that, he was dropped back into the cold water, left to splutter and splash around until he was lifted free again and finally deposited on the shore.

By the time he regained his awareness, the Cacturne was gone and instead there stood Mirage, looking damaged but otherwise okay. Cracker’s eyes lit up and he stumbled to his feet, ready to rush over and give her a hug, but a sharp pain in his arm made him stop. The pain hadn’t gone away yet, for some reason.

He couldn’t worry about it right now, though. This needed to be a three-on-one fight if the group were to have any chance of beating or scaring off the Mightyena. Taking up position next to Mirage and Ralts, the sore Aipom looked to both of them.

“So what do we do now?”

Across from them, the Mightyena growled, clearly seeing this battle as an easy win.

"Well hm, I wonder why this pokemon is coming along and not attacking us immediately or at all! Maybe I should ATTACK it even though it might be trying to help! What a wonderful thinking process you have there oh intelligent one! You deserve a medal don't ya!" the Zorua hissed back to the Ralts with her words overflowing in sarcasm. The zorua huffed and turned back to the matter at hand, the Mightyena seemed to be over confident and taking its dear sweet time to relish whatever fear they had before finishing them off.

Mirage was somewhat relieved as she heard Cracker speak, and ask them what they should do now. Mirage huffed and looked around, trying to find something that could help them. Instead she only spotted a box, that seemed to taunt her with its useless nature. Mirage started looking up at the trees and spotted a big branch, "Hey, maybe if we can keep the mightyena from moving enough, I might be able to cut a branch lose and drop it on its head..."

The only problem with her idea, was if the mightyena moved slightly, and getting the mightyena to not see their plan. The zorua cursed silently as she realized the error of her plans soon after speaking them, but did not think that perhaps the aipom could blind the Mightyena, and the Ralts could change where the branch would fall slightly.

"You didn't look like you were gonna try to help! You looked like you were gonna start attacking Cracker from below!" Akuroma growled back at the Zorua before he looked over at the Mightyena. He looked over at Mirage as she started talking again.
"Tch, or you could just cut the branch and let him dodge, making it look like you missed and I can then whack him with it using my Confusion attack," he said, crossing his arms before firing a confuse ray at the Mightyena, not truly considering the plan that much, despite knowing it was a good one. It seems he just didn't want to go along with Mirage at this current moment.

As much as Cracker couldn’t believe the two Pokemon were still bickering over their misunderstanding, the Aipom had much bigger things to worry about. Like the large confidence-oozing Mightyena looking ready for another attack on the group.

After everything that had already happened, now was the time in which he normally would’ve implemented his special ability and high-tailed it out of here before he suffered an even worse beating than he’d already gotten. The last thing he wanted was to get anywhere near that dark-type again with his nasty teeth. Even now his body was still trembling from the injury he’d sustained earlier.

Cracker’s legs were beginning to feel rubbery and twitchy with the urge to bolt when Akuroma suddenly unleashed a Confuse Ray at the Mightyena standing its ground. It jerked its head to the side, taking the hit directly, but the effect left much to be desired. Ghost-type attacks weren’t very effective; all it really seemed to do was piss the Pokemon off.

The Mightyena had been standing its ground, waiting for them to attack, but it didn’t move from its spot. Instead, it shot a glare at Mirage and Akuroma, but when those angry eyes reached Cracker, he immediately lost his composure and squealed in panic.

“I don’t wanna die!” he cried, using his tail as a spring-board to jump off to the right.

Only mildly confused, the dark-type Pokemon locked onto the fleeing Aipom and jumped in front to cut him off, causing Cracker to slide to a screeching halt on his tail. The Mightyena, standing directly below a large tree branch, howled loudly to increase its attack power for another strike. Yelping in surprise the long-tailed Pokemon, fueled by considerable terror, lurched into a backflip and dug his tail’s hand-like appendage into the forest floor before whipping a Sand Attack directly into his offender’s eyes.

The Mightyena was immediately blinded and not pleased, but before it could retaliate, a flurry of panicked Sand Attacks obscured its vision completely.

The grey zorua with a darker mane was surprised to hear the aipom squeal about not wanting to die and attempting to flee. The mightyena cut the long tailed pokemon off, only for the purple pokemon to unleash a flurry of Sand Attacks. The mightyena screeched in surprise as the sand burned into its eyes and blinded it. The hyena pawed at its eyes in attempt to clear the sand as tears streamed down its cheeks.

Mirage saw this moment as an opportunity for her plan, with a little assistance from the ralts. A dark sphere once again surrounded her and electricity-like energy jumped around it around it in the form of dark energy. The Zorua built up the energy, the jolts becoming more and more frequent and faster, until she finally had enough to pierce her target.

The zorua unleashed her energy while she thrust her head forward with a shout, "Aku!"

a dark slice of energy erupted from her sphere, quickly gathering all that had surrounded her with it, and shot above the Mightyena and sliced cleanly through a thick tree branch. The tree shook violently as one of its limbs were sliced off of its trunk, and Mirage looked to Akuroma as the limb began to fall, it was off from the Mightyena though, but it was the biggest one that was close to the mightyena. The ralts just had to shift it to hit the mightyena, and that should knock it out long enough for them to escape.

Akuroma growled to himself, his eyes glowing a bright blue as he began to use Confusion on the branch, shifting it so the entire weight of the branch would fall on the Mightyena. Akuroma then used his confusion to speed up the branch, so that the Mightyena wouldn't have time to dodge. With a loud thud and crack followed by a flurry of dust and leaves, the branch hit it's mark.
The Mightyena laid still under the branch, though if the slowly rising and falling of it's chest meant anything, it meant the three smaller Pokemon should hightail it into the ruins before the Mightyena regained consciousness.
"Ok, time to go," Akuroma said before noticing something as he got close to the path leading behind the falls, "Hm, this should be hopefully be useful," he said, putting the item in his bag.

This dice is not existing.

The Aipom didn’t realize what was happening until the hefty branch dropped on the Mightyena like a stone, crack in half over the dark-type Pokemon’s head. A few moments after the beast fell still, Cracker ceased his defensive attacks, standing amidst several little craters he’d dug and looking rather sheepish. It occurred to him that he might’ve shouted something cowardly along the lines of I don’t wanna die.

“Oh… I—well… Y-yeah we should definitely go,” the Aipom agreed, quickly picking himself up with his tail and hopping along after Akuroma.

The long-tailed Pokemon made it a few bounces before he suddenly and abruptly cried out in pain, toppling onto the ground and rolling several times before coming to a stop. Groaning, Cracker tried to lift himself up slowly, but another wave of pain hit him as the puncture wounds in his flesh glowed with little embers that briefly burst into hot, agonizing flames.

“Nnngh… my arm,” he whined.

The spot where the Mightyena had bitten him had not stopped hurting, and with each new wave of pain he got a little weaker.

Mirage had made her way to the box she had found a while ago, she huffed in irritation at its useless appearance, but stuffed it in her self-made bag that was her joy ribbon. The zorua turned to see the aipom complain about his arm, and spoke, "We could go into the waterfall, and rest there for a bit. You probably got burned, but it should fade eventually."

The zorua sat down to adjust her ribbon so the box's sides wouldn't be poking into her. She made sure to take her dear sweet time so the aipom could catch up and the ralts would be forced to wait if he wanted to not go in alone. She had decided to stay with them this time, since without her, they would probably have become food for that mightyena and whatever pack it had if it was not one of the loners that wandered the forest.

Mirage had figured that if the mightyena had some sort of pack, that they would probably be on the hunt for her, if the impact of the branch did not damage the mightyena's memories. She would have to be cautious of the mightyena in the forest now, in case they were on the look out for her with the aim to get revenge for ruining one of their kind's hunts.

The zorua stood up once more and looked to the aipom, "You're probably going to have to walk like us until the burn has healed too," she turned to the ralts as he was walking away, if he was still walking away, "Hold up, the long tail's hurt in case you haven't noticed."

'I'm only concerned because without the long tail, I would get less treasure..' She attempted to reassure herself as the strange and mixed feelings of being kind returned to her.

Akuroma stood at the beginning of the small trail leading behind the waterfall. He sighed as the Aipom complained about his arm.
"It's a burn, you'll continue to become weaker if you don't put it under water or eat a Rawst berry. Since none of us probably has the latter, we'll have to improvise with the water..." Akuroma said as he watched Mirage put a box in her joy ribbon-bag.
"Mirage, if we soak your ribbon in water and tie it around Cracker's arm, he should heal faster. I can carry your stuff until he's healed," the Ralts suggested, seeing as the joy ribbon was the only item any of them had that could be used to soak up water.

Cradling his burned arm, Cracker cringed and groaned every time the embers flared up. He didn’t like what Mirage had to say at all. Staying on the ground went against his very nature. Trees and swinging from branches were his life; he could imagine abandoning them just because of a little injury.

As if to prove to himself that he could still do what he loved, the Aipom approached the closest tree and leapt onto the trunk, clinging to it with the intent to climb. Unfortunately, the burn sizzled again, causing him to flinch in pain and pathetically slide back to the ground. Okay, so maybe she’s right, I can’t climb right now, he thought miserably. But the second I can, I’m so outta here; this grassy stuff just feels too weird.

After giving up on the idea of hanging out in trees, at least for now, Cracker walked awkwardly after Akuroma and Mirage. The Zorua had the right idea about the water, but the Aipom was uncertain whether she’d want to give up her ribbon for him like the Ralts suggested. So for the time being, the long-tailed Pokemon crept to the edge of the path leading behind the falls and stretched out his arm into the cold water.

The instant cold met hot, Cracked groaned loudly and grit his teeth. He tried to keep his wound under the flow of water until he couldn’t stand the pain anymore, at which point he stumbled backwards and grasped at the wound.

“Nngh… That smarts,” he grumbled. “I’m sorry, you guys. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have tried to attack that Mightyena; it was way too strong.”

"It shouldn't burn THAT long, besides, how is it so different from just dipping it in the water?" The zorua huffed, showing that she obviously was not willing to use her ribbon for such a thing. It was not like the burn wound was going to kill the purple long tail, so she would rather not allow them to use it. The zorua looked at the waterfall as it crashed into the lake below, "The cave should be behind that right? Should be easy enough getting in, not so much if you're afraid of getting wet."

The zorua seemed to ignore the aipom's apology, since she was unsure of how to reply to it. She had not exactly had a good deal of experience with apologizing pokemon, since pokemon were usually demanding that she apologize to them. She was a bit surprised none of the pokemon were accusing her of working with the mightyena to get the group to trust her!

"So do you think you can make it to the waterfall or would you rather wait here as mightyena-bait?" the zorua asked the other two.

Akuroma sighed, rummaging through his bag before taking out a piece of paper and soaking it in the water then wrapping it around Cracker's burn, "There, that should work for now. Now, is there anything else you two want to do before we're snacks? Or can we get on with the exploration?"

Still standing near a rushing downpour off-shooting from the waterfall, Cracker rubbed his arm. The cold water, although hurting a lot initially, had helped to numb some of the pain. He had no idea before just how much elemental attacks hurt. It didn’t help that that had been his first—no, second—real battle of any consequence. The Aipom just didn’t have enough experience, let alone bravery, for such a life-threatening fight.

After having survived all that danger though, he was feeling a little more confident, perhaps even stronger. The throbbing in his arm however, was a sharp reminder that he wasn’t anywhere near tip-top shape yet. Fortunately, being a normal-type Pokemon, he’d recover from the injury relatively easily. Until then though, he’d have to take it easy.

Meanwhile the prospect of walking, instead of swinging through trees, was bringing his mood down. He knew eventually it would happen, since from what he’d gathered, they’d be going into a cave for the latter end of this treasure-seeking venture, but no longer having the option at all was upsetting. Of course, he had another growing concern. Caves were dark, and he was scared of small cramped places he couldn’t see in. It was like the opposite of everything he loved. No trees, no light and no open spaces.

“How’re we gonna see in there?” Cracker asked after the Ralts kindly applied a wrapping for his arm. “And what is this treasure, anyway?”

"I don't know about you guys but I'm not going to have a problem seeing..." the zorua spoke up, giving her ear a scratch as her earrings tinkled and clinked against each other. Mirage looked to the other pokemon, ignoring the Ralts's remark about being food which was pretty much a copy of what she had said before about Mightyena bait.

Mirage blinked, a bored look coating her facial expression despite the excitement that had passed not long ago. The vixen was already beginning to plan behind her expression of boredom. Inside the cave, it would be dark. It would be easy to suddenly turn on the ralts, and take it down in revenge for the big pain in her behind it has been this entire day.

She was supposed to be the irritating one, the irritating one that was having fun! That's how things were SUPPOSED to be. It was how it was supposed to be ever since she was born as a dark type. The Zorua had been ridiculed for doing anything other than similar things to that. This was against what she was raised to do, and she was about to make the ralts pay for it. He had to be the one to have caused the weird thoughts to appear in her mind...

He then looked up at the Monochrome Ruins entrance, "I never said there was a guarantee for treasure, and there are lit torches inside, but they're little more than markers for turns. But I don't know much about it, we co-" he cut himself off as he looked back at the forest to see a rather large pack of Mightyena standing near their fallen comrade, "Into the ruins!" he yelled out using confusion on himself, Cracker and Mirage's joy-ribbon bag to shoot them all into the Ruins.

(AND SCENE!)