Never Trust A Mime

Mission Info:

Team Sentima's third mission... their first outlaw capture. Twilight was beginning to fall as the sun set, and the edge of the sky began to darken as the sun started to tuck beneath the trees. A yellow glow poured from the west as the night sky began lifting to the east. Leif has walked across the plains and cringed in terror, "We... are here." His foot sank into the marshy water, and he cringed forcing himself to push through his fear. He would not let his own shortcomings stop the team from being successful.

A mime had cheated their client, and had to be punished. This was not to be their first fight, but being an outlaw, it would certainly be a more difficult fight than many of the previous ones they faces. And to make matters worse to get to them they would have to trudge through Arceus knows how much swamp... But he had to distract himself from all the horrible water. "So... nice... weather we're having." What he did not take into account was night was nearing, and it was the middle of Fall, in a wet marsh. In fact, it was nearly as bad as the time it rained at Pecha Forest. But Leif was more focused on not thinking than thinking about what he was saying.

Sova was much more calm then his partner. He was a bit worried about the enemies in the area, but he had been to this particular place before with his parents. He knew what happened at night. He was actually looking forward to it. "Relax, Leif. It doesn't look that good right now, but this place gets much better." He said, not wanting to spoil anything. "Though you might want to watch out, there are a lot of poison types here. You might be able to handle them well, but if you get poisoned it'll make the mission a lot more difficult, we'll probably have to retreat." He said as he took a step into the water, then another.

He wasn't too worried though. Leif could handle the poison types....hopefully. Walking through the water for him wasn't too bad, as he wasn't afraid of water and he was more focused on other things. He was paying a lot of attention to the sunset, waiting for the sun to go down.

Leif didn't know much about the area. He just decided that he would be done with blindly picking missions. Next time he was going to be sure the area wasn't water filled. Never again. Of course, he didn't realize how wrong he was. There would surely be more water-related missions, and he would continue to suffer or get over his fear. "Relax... relax... relax... easy for you to say. You don't know how bad water is." he heard about the poison types, "Oh, sure... let's just make matters worse, why not..." he sighed, cringing with every step.

Leif knew that with shadow ball he could take care of the poison types from a range, but Sova didn't have any ranged moves to protect him from such poisoning. The sun was in his eyes. He was wet, and it looked like the pokemon here would be a threat. Perhaps one of the only upsides is that shadow ball could get range on, and do super-effective damage to, Mr Mime. All in all, however, Leif missed being back in boring old Pecha Forest. "Did we have to go somewhere new?"

Sova just giggled a bit at Leif's complaints, just waiting for the night. He figured his friend's opinion of the area would be different in a bit. "Just wait, it really is quite a sight at night. Besides, Pecha Forest was getting old, don't you think?" He looked around for some kind of ground to stand on so Leif could get out of the water, but there wasn't much in sight. The sun would probably be down in 10 minutes and he was so hyped for it.

"Whatever you say..." Leif was convinced that the lighting wouldn't make a difference of what he thought. If anything night was going to be colder and more miserable. "I just think we should have gone somewhere with less water... like a desert." Leif pushed through the water, kicking the cattails and plants as he went. "Let's just move fast. As far as I'm concerned the faster we finish this mission the better." he looked at his bag, now getting soaked, along with the band, ribbon, and defense scarf he was wearing. "Really, or it could be like, 20 degrees warmer today. Even so, being warm doesn't make water like this any less terrible."

The sun needed to hurry up and set. Sova was sure it would lighten the mood. So close, yet so far away. He pushed through some cattails growing out of the water, not feeling like going around them. Despite wanting to at least be there until nightfall, he didn't want to stay any longer than necessary. He figured he could make a path for Leif through the plants growing too, just to make the trip less agitating to his friend. His bag was also getting soaked, but he hadn't brought any food items with him, so it wasn't a concern.

"Yeah, it could be warmer. But either way, there is one upside to being here...." He said with a reassuring smile. Moments later, a blue light flickered in the distance. He wondered if Leif noticed it, but didn't want to point it out, it was too late now anyways. No matter, in a few minutes or so, there would be too many of those lights to ignore.

Leif grumbled, following in the path that Sova was making. He had his arms crossed for warmth and his head down from the glare of the sun, giving him the appearance of a grumpy child. With his head down, he hadn't seen any of the lights Sova hoped he had. But as more lit up, and the sun dipped low enough below the horizon for the glare to leave his eyes, and as a result probably lifting his head, there would be almost no way he wouldn't notice. Without having seen the volbeat and illumise, he had no idea what Sova was talking about. "yeah, and what would that upside be?"

He felt the cold water sloshing over him, the sky darkeneng. Just great. Once the sun was done blinding him, there wouldn't be enough light for him to see. At least, that's what he thought, not knowing what Sova did. He figured having Sova clear the cattails wasn't the upside he was talking about, but he wasn't about to take it as a loss. At this rate anything positive about being here was what Leif was ready to focus on, and ignore the displeasure.

Another light, and another.  Blue and red lights became more and more abundant all around as the area grew darker.  By the time the sun's last rays were flickering away, Sova wondered if Leif had noticed the lights yet.  "What's the upside?  Well, it can be hard to see the UP side if you're looking DOWN."  He said, looking back at his friend who seemed to not be having a good time in the slightest.

Even if Leif kept his head down, he would probably at least notice some reflections on the water.  The lights were now too abundant to ignore in the night.  Sova, for one, loved seeing the Illumise and Volbeat light up the area.  He'd hoped the whole mission could just go like that, but he knew that probably wouldn't happen.

(6 energy)

(9 energy)

The sun had quickly sunk, the glare leaving Leif's eyes before he could object to looking up being too bright. He looked up, and blinked a bit. For the first moment he was trying to decide if his eyes were playing tricks on him, then if he had gotten something in his eye. After confirming that this was, in fact, not the case, he stood there dumbstruck for a moment. He struggled for words, but eventually gave up.

The cold, the water, they left his mind, and the sun had already dipped below the horizon and the sky turned dark and starry. He ran out into the field, spinning around, seeing the lights and stars from every which direction. He looked briefly to Sova, still with no words in his mouth, but his expression was a cross between awe and, you knew about this the whole time? He looked away, again gazing at the bugs lighting the area, some far and some near. Even on a night with no moonlight one could easily navigate through from the Volbeat and Illumise lights.

Sova sighed in relief, he was worried the sight wouldn't be enough to make the trip pleasant for his friend. "My parents took me out here once on a mission. I liked it so much I asked them to take me every time they went here. It's not nearly as fun during the day though." He said with a smile. He knew they still needed to be on their guard for enemies, but at least they could stop and relax for a bit. He decided to look around at the lights as well, it was completely dark out and the lights reflected off the water, making a beautiful sight.

"So, how 'bout that upside?" He said, just letting Leif have some fun for a bit.

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Cattail Marsh :

"Yeah, it's incredible! ...I can see why... it's not... as good during the day..." he shivered, cringing a bit, as he was momentarily reminded of the water. He took a deep breath and looked back at the lights that danced around him, "It was worth coming here... but it wouldn't have been if it were day. As you put it, ' "bout that upside,' it's pretty grand." Leif wanted to just watch the lights from somewhere less wet, but he didn't see anything that looked promising. Just a small dead tree that would surely collapse under his weight. He sighed, trudging on, trying to focus more on the lights.

Sova pushed through more cattails, a bit distracted by the lights. He usually would have noticed the goopy....thing....following them earlier, but he wasn't being as cautious as usual. As he reached an open area of the marsh without any cattails directly in front of him, he noticed the Sliggoo's head poking out of the water, it was just a few feet in front of him. He couldn't tell if it was going to attack or not, it just looked at him. He wondered if Leif had noticed it. "Um....hi...." He said in an attempt to break the silence. It didn't say anything, it just looked at him. He was starting to get a bit creeped out. "Do you need something....?" He said. No response. He looked to Leif, hoping for assistance.

Leif had already passed by the goopy pokemon, not noticing it when he darted by through the large flat marsh. He took note that he could no longer hear Sova following, and saw that he seemed to be preoccupied with another pokemon. He got Sova's glance, looking back to the Goomy, and back to Sova. He shrugged and trudged back. "Yes? Hello?" No response. Maybe this pokemon was mute. Leif watched closely to see if it made any gestures with its hands. He waved to it. Nothing. It almost seemed like it was in a trance. He nudged Sova, whispering, "Let's just get out of here, I think this pokemon may be eating the wrong kind of mushrooms."

Sova was strangely creeped out. He knew they could take the Sliggoo in a fight with ease and he wasn't easily scared, in fact nearly nothing scared him at all, but this thing was creeping him right out. "Yeah, let's just get on with the mission...." He whispered back to Leif before walking along again. He looked back every few seconds, the Sliggoo just stared at them, but it didn't seem to be following. What a relief.

After a few minutes, he looked back again to notice the Sliggoo following them still. It stopped as he turned to look at it, but he caught the water rippling around it, showing it was just moving. He tapped Leif on the shoulder and pointed to the Sliggoo. It was still mostly submerged in the water, with about half of its head sticking out. "Remember that Sliggoo? It's....following us." He said, hesitantly.

Leif followed Sova as they moved onward. At first he felt relieved to be free of the bizarre pokemon, before Sova prompted him to look. It was true. The Sliggoo had seemed to moved relative to the distance they had try to put between themselves. It seemed as though it had no plans to leave these two alone. Leif waved his hands at it, "Shoo. Off. Go find your mommy. You're gross. Eew. Bye." He had tried to chain a string of uninviting words and hand motions that didn't seem to deter it at all.

He looked back to Sova. "This is a marsh we are in... on the up side, I could use an ice punch to freeze it into the water. That could keep it from following us..." He had given his partner an expectant gaze, almost as though he was asking permission from a parent.