Search for that Treasure!

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[Energy: 57 - (25+5) = 27 Energy]

Soaring in the skies above the fiery chasm below, a prehistoric pokemon gave a screech as he circled a portion of it. His wings were spread as he slowly descended onto the ground below him. He finally landed after finding the best place to land, which was pretty much everywhere there wasn't any lava.The archeops landed a little clumsily, not quite perfecting his landing due to only just recently having evolved. He waited for his passenger to hop off, as he surveyed the area.

They were here in search of the treasure that the Xatu had seen. The being that stared at the sun had come around town and even to the guild, spreading his riddle of this new treasure that would surely bring them riches.

"You shouldn't just throw yerself' about makin' assumshions!" the hound growled, his fur bristling as he became more hostile towards the eevee for being accused. The growlithe remained silent, watching the two and wondering why the eevee was being so accusing all of a sudden.
Acro glanced at the eevee, wondering what he was doing. Sova certainly had been having a rather rough time around here it seemed, and he wondered if this was a build up of emotion that was about to explode. He didn't quite favor that happening however, for last time it had happened was with a strange abra that seemed to expect him to answer and make everything all better with a few swift words. He didn't quite handle the pressure well that night.

Sova glared at the hound, not breaking eye contact. "I do not like pokemon who solve things with fighting just because they can, and if you like solving your problems with fighting, it's probably either because you don't feel like putting in the effort to talk things out or because you don't think you're right to begin with, neither of which I like." He paused for a moment to look at the growlithe then back to the houndour.

"So, if you want to prove me wrong, how about you try to be civil and talk this out?" He spoke calmly, despite being very agitated at the opposition's willingness, perhaps eagerness, to fight. If the houndour were still to decline the offer to be civil, Sova would be more than happy to jump to the growlithe's aid. He wondered if Acro felt the same.

Acro felt rather indifferent, he wished he could help both sides. The archeops looked to the houndour, he seemed to be ready to growl, but merely threw his head to the side with a puff of smoke emitting from his nostrils, "Fine."

The growlithe seemed to be growing a bit uneasy, "So, if I can just have the box I'll leave thou alone," his paw reached for the box, ready to pull it towards him and pick it up in his jaws. The hound growled, stopping the growlithe.

"The brown-thing wants a civil talk so we're goin' sit here and have ourselves a sivil talk, you can't just run off wit' it!" the hound spoke.

Sova felt relieved that the houndour decided to be sensible instead of starting a fight. "He's right, you've both got good reasons and it's not fair if one of you just takes it." He said, sitting down as the last bit of hope for this problem to be solved quickly faded from him. He was thinking they'd probably be there a while and couldn't just leave them to fight each other over a box and not feel bad, so he felt his only choice was to sit with them until they settled it.

"Ok..so.." the archeops spoke, "Houndour has a family to feed, but growlithe is going to end up being disowned if he doesn't get the treasure. There has to be someway to come to an agreement..." He tilted his head, attempting to think of another solution.

"My ma's pups need to eat somehow..." the hound commented.

The growlithe seemed to shake, the archeops and houndour stared at him for a moment causing the growlithe to look away and burst, "Alright fine! I give up, my father isn't actually going to reject me he's just going to be a bit disappointed is all."

The houndour looked surprised, while the Growlithe's ears seemed to lower a bit and used his paw to slowly and shakily push the box towards the houndour.

Sova sighed, a bit disappointed but relieved at the same time. All of his talking did nothing to solve the situation, yet a few swift words from Acro completely resolved it. How could he not do that? Perhaps he just wasn't meant to be a mediator. Either way, at least that was settled. "I guess that's that then." He said, trying not to show his disappointment that he was not the one to resolve the conflict.

Acro blinked in surprise, and figured that the guilt must have gotten to the growlithe. So the growlithe had been lying about his father, and the mention of the lives at stake must have gotten him to submit to the pressure of being responsible for what could possibly be the death of young pups in his paws for not turning over the treasure.

The growlithe seemed to look to the ground, his ears were back as he refused to look at anything else other than his own paws.

The houndour seemed to perk up however, happily taking the box into his jaws but not before speaking, "Than's! My ma'll love the extra cash!" He began to happily trot away with a grin and a hop in his step.

Sova noticed the growlithe's disappointment and began considering letting him accompany them, perhaps they could find something to give him so he could bring SOMETHING back. Then he noticed something off about the houndour's words and looked towards him. "What do you mean "Extra" cash? You acted like you didn't have any....like it was a big deal...."

He stopped speaking as he darted in front of the hound to stop him momentarily for a short....talk. "And you barely even thanked him for being willing to give it up. If your family is in such financial trouble, shouldn't you be more grateful?" He continued, once again suspicious of the houndour. How could one supposedly in such need of money be so nonchalant about someone giving it to them, as if it wasn't a big deal?

"Eh? I thanked 'im didn' I? I said we could use the 'xtra cash," the houndour spoke after setting the box down. His fur seemed to be bristling a bit, angry at being accused once more.
The growlithe finally looked up, looking at the houndour and eevee with confusion. He had just said he was lying, why was the eevee going after the houndour again? What about the pups?

Acro only continued to merely stand there, feeling very awkward and out of place. He noticed the houndor's fur bristling, and began to prepare himself in case the hound was going to be stupid and attempt to battle them. He watched the two carefully, ready to slam the hound with an attack if it tried to attack Sova. He felt rather useless along with the awkwardness, he wouldn't have caught the nonchalant tone of the houndour, having being a bit lacking in his social skills. He really didn't have any purpose of being here other than being Sova's escort it seemed.

"You didn't say you could use the extra cash, you acted like your family would starve without it...." Sova said, taking a step towards the hound and showing no signs of fear. He didn't have a reason to be afraid even if Acro wasn't there, knowing he could certainly take on an arrogant brute. "Now you're acting like it's no big deal." He continued, still making sure to block off the houndour's path and taking another step forward. The houndour's story was certainly inconsistent, to Sova anyways, going from dire need to preference in seconds.

"We would!" the hound barked, his shape suddenly deforming as multiple houndours began to surround the eevee, all of the growling, "Wouldn't we?" all of them seemed to speak in unison. The box quickly disappeared as the hound snatched it up, more and more duplicates of the houndour appearing as he continued to stack up his Double Team effect.

The growlithe stopped shakng, his eyes growing wide with surprise. The houndour had been lying? The growlithe began to growl, "You flithy bag of sludge!" he exclaimed.

Acro made a move once the houndour began to move, his tail glowing as he darted forth in attempt to hit him before he could do much, however he had failed. His tail struck the ground, only upturning dust and dirt while making a small indent with a few crushed rocks. Iron Tail was one of Acro's more powerful moves excluding Fly, but the double team had stacked up far too much for the archeops to be able to hit the houndour with the Iron Tail.

Sova couldn't help but smile at the clear challenge, he'd been wanting to get into a fight with something he could actually hit without being incinerated for a while. Though for the time being he'd have to focus on figuring out how to hit the enemy. Clearly Acro wasn't having any luck, as brute strength really wouldn't be doing any good, so the eevee felt it fell to him to find the real houndour.

"Man, you finally show your true colors just to hide again....what fun is that?" He said, still holding the smile.

Quickly, Sova spun around a few times, kicking and scraping at the ground to kick up a cloud of dust and sand. He then stopped and looked at the houndour clones carefully. His plan worked just as he'd hoped, he could see the dust passing right through the clones. He then noticed one of the many images approaching him with another behind it and kicked up some dust, which passed through the one in the front and landed on the one behind it, who proceeded to growl as he attempted to get the dust out of his eyes.

"Hello there!" the eevee shouted as he darted forward, right through the clone and slid under the houndour, tripping him. "Acro, here's the real one!" He shouted to his ally as he got back up.

The archeops had been looking desperately around, his head swiveling towards the eevee when he heard Sova call out the real one. The archeops darted towards the two, his tail glowing once more as he turned and allowed it to slam into the real houndour, barely missing Sova by an inch. The hound howled, dropping the box as it was sent tumbling across the dirt.
"That is something only an outlaw would do!" the archeops hissed at the hound, referring to using the excuse of starving pups to get what they wanted.

"Gotta do what you gotta do in the wild!" the hound responded, it seemed to be weak from the direct hit, but charged the eevee once more anyways. Acro gave a cry before charging towards the hound to intercept him, his tail glowing once more. The archeops didn't notice it, but a strange shadow like bullet bursted across the ground and into his own. The small shadow-bullet was too small and quick for the archeops to notice when he was so focused on attacking the houndour, but nothing seemed to happen once it hit his own shadow.

Sova seemed absolutely thrilled to be able to fight this pokemon, who lazily went against everything he had tried so hard to uphold his whole life. To be honest, he was a bit jealous of the hound's apparent lifestyle, not having to be good, not following laws or caring about others....For a moment, he found himself thinking of how fun that lifestyle must be, but was quickly forced to focus back on the battle as the enemy charged him again.

He stepped back as the enemy lunged forward with a mouth full of flames in an attempt to bite him. Again the enemy lunged for a bite, but this time Sova ducked under the enemy's head and tackled him, knocking him back onto the ground once more. Quickly, before the enemy could even get back up, Sova ran forward again, stopping in front of the hound, lifted his front paws off the ground and slammed them down on him. He was then forced to back away before he could do it again as the houndour attempted to bite at his legs with his still flaming mouth.

The archeop's assault was interruped as a sudden spike erupted from the ground and struck his side. Acro resisted the urge to cry out, and stopped his movement to discover what had just hit him. A spike erupted from the ground once more, in perfect sync with the eevee's blows to the houndour. This time the archeops unleashed a small cry and looked around some more, noticing that the spikes were coming from his shadow. In attempt to outsmart the spikes, the archeops took off into the air at full speed, hoping to get high enough so the spikes wouldn't be able to strike him.