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)

Mirage was released upon impact between the vulpux and the pinsir, the horns gave enough room for her to be dropped. The pinsir didn't seem to appreciate the fiery tackle, and attempted to snatch the vulpix in its large powerful horns. The zorua seemed to still be a bit stunned by the attack, as she failed to move fast enough to prevent the fairy from reclaiming its flower.

(Written with phone, please excuse any errors)

Lumina backed away, gasping for breath - Flare Blitz always left her winded. But at least Ira was fine now. She sent a glance over at the Zorua, who still seemed a little stunned, but she didn't look hurt. From the corner of her eye, she swore she saw the Flabebe make a move for it's flower, but she had other things to worry about. Like the giant bug attacking them. She looked back at the Pinsir, just in time to see it's horns before they grabbed her. She spat a few more Embers rapidly at the bug type, trying to get it to drop her. She fought the urge to panic as she realized how powerful the Pinsir's horns were, they could probably break one of her bones. And if it tried to crush her... she couldn't do much to fight that.

Energy: 10

Mirage looked to see that the vulpix was being trapped in the Pinsir's grip, she COULD go intercept the Flabebe, and prevent it from getting its flower, or she could attack the pinsir before it did any serious damage to her bait. She knew that an outlaw would have turned for the Flabebe, after all she didn't really need the bait anyways, who cares if it broke? She, however, ended up turning and sending a rather quickly charged Dark Pulse towards the Pinsir, the pulse striking its horns in hopes of having it break off or loosen the grip.

The small fireballs didn't seem to phase the Pinsir, but with the Dark Pulse, the top half of it's right horn snapped off. Lumina fell back to the ground as a result, her flanks stinging where the thorns on it's horns had dug into her. She backed away hastily, trying to get some distance between her and the bug before it tried to grab her again. If only she could get it off her for a second, she could try using Roar, but she wasn't sure if it would work anyways when the Pinsir was this riled up.

It charged towards her again with a rage-filled battle cry. Unlike the Flabebe, it didn't seem very fond of speech, perhaps it didn't even know how. Thinking fast, Lumina shot an Ember between them, lighting up the ground directly in it's path. That would force it to either stop or burn itself on the flames, both options that the Vulpix would be okay with.

The pinsir stopped, but seemed to stop a bit too late as it only stopped itself in the flames. It gave a screech and hopped from foot to foot before finally jumping out of the flames. Its feet seemed to be singed, as the bug type was now burned. It gave a groan of pain before looking to glare at the fire type, only for a ball of shadows to strike behind it and shove it face first right back into the flames. Mirage had decided to take its distraction as an advantage, and used Shadow Ball to attack it, not quite meaning to push it over into the flames again though. The pinsir quickly shoved itself out of the flames, squealing in pain before fleeing, its eyes burned and its face dark and burned as well.

"Good riddance." Lumina let a small smirk cross her face, finding something about that darkly funny. She walked up to the small fire she had created and quickly stomped it out, her Flash Fire ability helping to drain the flames before they spread onto the trees. She didn't want to burn down the entire Mystery Dungeon, after all, especially with the two of them in it. Then she looked back at where she last saw the Flabebe, wondering if it had reclaimed it's flower yet. It probably had, but who knew? Maybe it wasn't in the mood for a fight anymore. Though knowing feral Pokémon, that was unlikely.

The flabebe and the flower seemed to have disappear, "It probably realized we were too tough a team for it to take on!" Mirage piped up, trying to keep up her optimistic and energetic appearance. One slip up would result in the plan falling apart. One small hint that she wasn't what she was would ruin the build up. What to do? She had been struck by a rather nasty fairy type attack, she felt a bit weak after such a harsh and critical blast. Maybe she should just kick the vulpix and leave it, go back home and rest for a bit?

Lumina would nod simply, looking over at the Zorua. "I hope this won't come off as too nosy," She began, "But you seemed hesitant when you held the Flabebe's flower. Is something wrong?" Perhaps this was nothing, but it didn't seem like the energetic, cheerful Pokémon she was getting to know to seem unsure of herself when there was someone's life in her hands. She definitely seemed like the type who would give back the flower. Maybe there was a problem? Or she was being reminded of some past event?

"No! Absolutely not!" The zorua sang happily, a bit annoyed that the vulpix was beginning to question her. The Zorua flicked her tail, "Is there something you want to talk about?" she turned to the vulpix in a bit of a friendly manner. However, the zorua's irritation with both herself and this vulpix were distracting her from her performance, having her come off as a bit too friendly as her attention to her acting dropped. Her tail flicked and she took a seat, as if she expected the vulpix to give an answer that would result and sitting and talking.

Why did she seem so happy about that...? Lumina momentarily reflected on this. Granted, she was never the best around overly energetic Pokemon, but it seemed hardly seemed like something to be cheerful about. Her guard slowly rose, feeling slightly unsure of both herself and this Zorua. Maybe she was just naturally cheerful and it showed in her tone just then. That was likely all that it was, and that would add up with the vixen's personality perfectly fine.

"Well... no, I guess it's fine. Although I am curious about something. If this forest is as dangerous as you said it is, why would you want to live here?" She wondered, and some part of her was genuinely curious. The Dark type had said before that the feral Pokemon were vicious and outlaws took shelter here. It hardly seemed like somewhere Lumina would want to make her home, personally. Even if she despised the noisy town she now lived in, Grassveil, at least there were no feral Pokemon who wanted her dead over there.

"I'm a dark type, dark types live in dark places. I wouldn't be able to survive long anywhere else!" she spoke, half speaking the truth. Her original purpose for living in this strange and dark forest was solely because she was a dark type. Dark types, are dark pokemon, dark pokemon are bad pokemon, bad pokemon live alone in dark places, therefor, she was to live in a dark place. There would be no other way to survive, nobody would trust her if she were to attempt to go to someplace like Grassveil. She would probably be thrown into jail upon being spotted there.

I don't think that's quite how it works... The Vulpix thought, sitting down herself as she followed the Zorua's lead. "That's just a stereotype, isn't it? Are dark types banned from living in Grassveil?" She wondered. She had only moved there a day or two ago, so it would be possible that she wouldn't know that yet... but although she didn't like her town, she hoped that it wasn't a biased one.

"It's not banned but it may as well be," Mirage piped, keeping her friendly face despite wanting to huff in annoyance, "If I go there I'm just going to be driven away, I wont be able to make a living, so its better for me to stay out here where I'm semi welcomed rather than not welcomed at all!" The zorua's tail seemed to cease waving and instead stayed deathly still. Her act falling as the zorua began wondering why she was wasting time with these questions. She should really just knock the vulpix cold and run before the Vulpix pieced together that she was an outlaw herself.

Lumina considered this, her brown eyes slightly narrowed. "So you wouldn't want to live in Grassveil, I guess that makes sense... but what about Rainfront? And why wouldn't you want to live in Pecha Forest or a different mystery dungeon, where the feral Pokemon aren't as vicious? Didn't you say that outlaws lived here, too...?" The Vulpix half-trailed off, slowly piecing things together. Ira herself couldn't be an outlaw, could she? That would just be jumping to the conclusion. But why else would she want to live here over another Mystery Dungeon or town? Still, maybe she had a good explanation for all that.

Okay, she was cornered, there was no way to give an excuse for that without sounding like she was purposefully blocking every answer the Vulpix gave. She was getting sick of this kind of acting anyways, she was growing impatient, her ears flattened and an annoyed pout came to her face, and spoke "You're such a pest you know that?"

The zorua stood up quickly after finishing her sentence, a sphere of shadows quickly gathering at her jaws before shooting towards the Vulpix, using Shadow Ball to attempt to make quick work of the Vulpix. However, she had misjudged the amount of power needed, and made it too weak to do any big damage against a vulpix.