The Fox in the Forest (Open)

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If one would go East of Grassveil, Lumina has noted, they would come across a tall, dark forest, where light barely seemed to touch the ground. At first she had thought it had been just that; a forest, nothing more. But now the Vulpix knew she was wrong. This was a Mystery Dungeon, and apparently, quite a challenging one at that. Perfect.

Lumina had always called herself an explorer, even though she didn't have a shiny guild badge or a treasure bag. She liked exploring, and had a strong interest of the warped way the world worked in these Mystery Dungeons. Therefore, she was an explorer. In her eyes, it was easy enough.

She wasn't a strong fighter, still being a low level, but she was a skilled one, and that had won her many battles in the past. That was why the Vulpix felt sure of herself, she could handle this. Whether she would actually be met with success this time, well... that was still to be determined.

(Energy: 7)

With a small nod, Lumina followed after Ira. She wasn't sure how she felt about this Zorua yet; energetic Pokemon like her always threw the Vulpix a bit off beat. She could deal with it, of course, since she was her guide. Lumina doubted she'd stand much of a chance here without her, if half of the things she'd said so far were true. Hostile feral Pokemon, outlaws, even that box thief just now, she had definitely underestimated this place at first. Well, she didn't plan on making that mistake twice. With a silent reminder to stay on her guard, she turned back to Mirage. "Mind if I asked what kind of things could be in boxes like that? I've seen them before a few times, where I used to live, but no one knew how to open them." Might as well see if she could get some information.

Energy: 9

The zorua listened to the vulpix, she halted and reached into her Joy Ribbon's pockets and pulled out a smaller bag. It was a rather dark bag that contained a substance known as Dark Dust, she introduced the item's name to the vulpix and continued to speak, "I got this from one, it contains a mysterious power that gives me and other dark types the ability to withstand attacks a bit more. Boxes contain items like these, and even items that are exclusive to the species of pokemon and do greater things!" Mirage smiled and placed the bag back in the pocket.
"Sometimes they can be duds though and carry useless things, but the boxes are the only place to get them!"

The Fox Pokemon observed the small amount of Dark Dust. That did seem rather useful for a Pokemon like Ira. She couldn't help but wonder if any of the boxes she used to find contained anything valuable like that, maybe even something exclusive for a Vulpix or Ninetales. Although Lumina supposed that didn't really matter now. No use in dwelling on the past. "That's interesting." She murmured, listening as the Zorua explained. So it was something of a gamble to have one opened, that was good to know.

Once Mirage was done displaying and bragging about her Dark Dust, she turned back to traveling, the forest was silent except for the pawsteps of the vulpix and zorua. Mirage had a skip in her step as if she were rather carefree, she figured that either this pokemon was gullible or she had a better acting skill than she originally thought she did. She was a bit disappointed though, it would have been more fun to have some challenge. She supposed that she may as well take the gullibility and run with it though. After all, she had a distraction now, it would be so much easier to steal from the residents of the forest.

Lumina wondered what this Monochrome Falls place was. It sounded mysterious, almost nonsensical, how could a waterfall be in black and white? She assumed it was a waterfall, at any rate, but perhaps 'Falls' referred to a cliff or a plateau? That would definitely be interesting. She considered asking Ira about it, but decided against it. She would prefer to see for herself, anyways. Her ears perked warily for any sort of noise as the two of them walked, silently listening for clues that any feral Pokemon might have been around.

Lumina kept walking, enjoying the seemingly tranquil forest. Her dark orange paws made a soft, almost inaudible sound as they pressed against the grass. It was nice, especially seeing how it would be easy to hear anything out of the ordinary in the silent, dark forest. The Fox Pokemon paused, her ears perked. She stopped walking and turned around to hear another soft, rhythmic noise. Footsteps? They almost sounded as though they were coming from behind them, but the sound was so soft that she couldn't be sure. "Ira? I think there's something following us." The Vulpix noted, her brown eyes narrowing.

Mirage turned sharply to look behind them, seeing nothing but shrubbery. Her ears focused on the shrubbery behind them, waiting for another sound. The zorua heard a sound of rustling leaves, and before she could react a bright flash emitted from the bushes, the zorua being blinded and damaged by a mysterious power. She gave a cry of pain as she attempted to shield her eyes from the Dazzling Gleam attack, she retreated into the nearest bush, trying to hide from the Super-Effective fairy type attack. She could hear the giggle of a fairy, as a Flabebe ceased its attack and looked to the Vulpix, "Your turn!" it called.

Lumina glared, her six tails brushing out behind her. Fairy was a tricky type, but she knew that she resisted fairy moves. "Bring it on." She murmured, half to herself. The Vulpix steadied her stance, preparing to dart at the Flabebe as she readied a Flare Blitz. She would've been hesitant to use her egg move, seeing how Flare Blitz often left the Fox Pokemon winded, but she doubted that Ember would be powerful enough to deal worthwhile damage to her enemy. A faint orange aura surrounded her body, and faint wisps of fire stuck to her fur as she dashed towards the feral Pokemon, trying to slam into it.

The flabebe squeaked in terror of the startlingly powerful attack, but instead of trying to flee, it dipped its flower towards the vulpix as it had done with Mirage earlier. A bright light blasted from the pistil, as the Flabebe attempted to blind the vixen.

Mirage, meanwhile, was dealing with the singes from the fairy attack on her fur. She felt like she had been melting in that strange and powerful light. She shivered and shook herself, attempting to recover from the unexpected assault. Once she felt ready, she crawled out of the bushes, this Flabebe wasn't quite sitting on good terms with the zorua now. Payback, Mirage figured, would be best served fresh, and in the form of taking that petty little fairy's flower from it.

The Vulpix had the slightest hint of a smirk on her face as she saw the Flabebe react with a startled squeak. But as it lowered it's flower, in a similar fashion as to how it did before when it aimed that blinding light at Ira, Lumina couldn't quite react quickly enough to prevent a blinding, almost burning light that suddenly illuminated the forest around her. She let out a yelp, her eyes tightly shut, the sudden blaze of light causing her to loose her focus and break her stride. The Fox Pokemon stumbled, the wisps of fire vanishing from her fur as her momentum died down. She silently cursed the Fairy type, it had stopped her Flare Blitz attack, and pretty effectively at that.

Lumina stumbled back clumsily, reeling from the bright light that almost directly hit her eyes. It wasn't the worst that she'd been through, since she resisted Fairy moves, but this Flabebe seemed powerful. ... or maybe she was just weak. She spat out a few Embers at it, trying to keep it at a distance while she regained her bearings.

The flabebe squeaked as it was struck by the embers, blinded too much by its own light. It seemed to tear up a little from the pain, but resumed glaring at the vulpix. It was about to repeat the glaring light, but something seemed off, it looked to its side to find that its flower was gone! It looked around frantically, to find a mysterious fox not too far off with a strange red flower within her jaws.

Mirage chuckled and leered at the Flabebe, "You okay?" she called to Lumina, not wanting her bait to be handicapped so early. The flower remained in her jaws, making the flabebe seem to flail and become more upset.

"Perfectly fine." She confirmed, glaring at the Flabebe. She would've felt bad for it, flailing around with it's flower, had it not tried attacking them a moment before. It had lost any sympathy she might've had for it then. She turned back to Ira, a question lurking in the shadows of her mind. "So, what do we do with the flower?" If they gave it back right now, the Fairy type would probably just attack them again, with even more anger than before. But destroying it seemed a bit harsh, too... she had never seen a Flabebe without it's flower. It must've been important to them, at the very least.

Lumina looked over at Ira for her say on the matter. Judging from what she knew about the Zorua, she was surprised that the seemingly cheerful, easily impressed dark type was having some trouble with the dilemma. She had been sure that the Zorua would've insisted that they gave it back, perhaps after threatening it not to attack them again, at the worst. Though she barely knew Ira, her silence confused the Vulpix a little. Though just as she seemed like she was about to decide, a Pinsir came more or less out of nowhere and grabbed her.

Shoot. The Fire type took a quick glance at the flower. There wasn't the time to prevent the Flabebe from grabbing it again, and she wasn't big on destroying it, either. Instead, she focused on the Pinsir, using Flare Blitz to crash into it and hopefully free her ally. It wasn't her most powerful attack, since she didn't have enough room to run and gain momentum, but it would hopefully be enough to get it to let go of Ira.