Chase Through the Spiky Mountains

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(Energy - 11)

The Black Spear mountains looked menacing as expected. The cloud cover was thicker than usual, showing signs of a possible storm to come. That certainly didn't help with the overall menacing image portrayed. Who would ever want to venture to this place? Sova, having had a bad experience in this area in the past, didn't fancy coming back. But if he stayed away, that would make him a coward. That was something he just couldn't handle being.

Besides, he had a mission to do and he wouldn't have to go all the way to Black Mist Mountain. And there was a torchick with him, since it was an escort mission, so it wasn't really lonely. Though he was pretty sure the torchick wouldn't be a very capable fighter. At least the mission seemed easy. Find Staraptor and get her to stay and chat.

Now this was...impressive. There really was no other word to describe the situation.
Sova really seemed to be more competent than it seemed. This battle had been far too close for comfort in William's opinion, but at least it had been won without the Ghost type to intervene.
William was quite surprised however that the Torchic Sova had been supposed to be escorting hadn't even tried to be of assistance in the battle. Either it was a horrible combattant or quite lazy and unhelpful.
For a moment William was contemplating to show himself, but he decided against it for now. Showing up now might make Sova believe for his own abilities to be even higher most likely. And there still was the chance of Sova getting into trouble later anyway.

Savato carried out 1 launched of one Black Spear Mountain :

(E=9)

No longer having to be on edge and on his toes, Sova decided to take a moment to collapse. Not out of exhaustion, but out of relief....and laziness. "That was too much work...." He mumbled, not expecting to be able to hear it. But to his relief, his hearing was coming back to him. Took it long enough. It would have been difficult talking to the torchick otherwise. Speaking of which - where did the torchick go? He immediately jumped up and looked around for his client. Where did that little bird go....

He recalled telling the torchick to head back down the mountain a bit but stay where it could see him. So it was probably still in the area. Unless the Boomburst scared it off.... Then he heard something....like a voice....but muffled. Oh yeah, still half-deaf. He looked in the direction he thought it came from, which happened to be down the mountain, to see the torchick. It was saying something....that he couldn't quite understand with his still damaged hearing. "WHAT?" He yelled.

The torchick ran up closer and spoke again, this time audible to Sova's poor ears. "I said, is it over?"

"Oh. Yeah, we should be able to get to the top now. Lets go." Sova replied as he continued the trek up the mountain.

Once more William found himself cringing at the loud noises shattering his eardrums.
Of course neither Pokémon were at fault for this as they did not know, but still the Gengar now was in quite the mood to yell at them to keep it down.
Still, this was not bad an achievement at all. Even William would most likely have had a difficult time to take care of all these adversaries and so it was no shame at all for the Normal type to simply rest for a while. Almost anyone would be exhausted after having to go through something like this.
Maybe the Eevee really did not need his watchful eye anymore.

Savato carried out 1 launched of one Black Spear Mountain :

(E=8)

Up the mountain a bit, near the top, a staraptor came into view. Perched on a large rock, and lucky for Sova, she was looking the other way. He figured just asking her to talk would result in her flying away as the torchick claimed to have tried many times....so he'd just have to be sneaky. Maybe he could get on the bird's back and stop her from flying away long enough to talk. "Is that her?" He asked, hoping for validation. The torchick gave a nod. "Alright, then you stay here. I'm gonna see if I can get her to stay." He whispered before beginning a quiet and slow walk towards the staraptor.

Right when he was about halfway to the oblivious bird, something unexpected happened, completely ruining his plan. A few Tyrunts just so happened to come right through the path he was on, one headbutting him and lifting him over it in the process. He managed to count three dinosaurs in the little stampede before he fell with a thud, alerting the staraptor, who promptly took flight off to another nearby mountain. "No, wait, come back!" He shouted to the bird as it flew off, but to no avail. "Uuuuhg." He moaned as he got up. It seemed this was going to be a long chase through the spiky mountains.

After bearing witness to the unlucky coincidence the Gengar would just have loved to jump up in frustration. Sova had been so close. But - he had to restrain himself lest he be caught and his entire plan could have quite the opposite of the intended effect.
He just had to remain patient and wait until the Eevee would manage to find the Pokémon they were looking for again. However the Poison type was unsure whether the Eevee had brought the neccessary patience and endurance for a chase such as this one.
Sova had always been quite hotheaded so it was a possibility for him to just lose his cool, snap and abandon the mission or do something of similar nature.

Though recent events were disappointing, things weren't all bad. Sova knew for sure where the staraptor was now. Hopefully, the next mountain wouldn't hold a very difficult battle....he would have to ask for his client's assistance or run. He simply would not be able to win another battle like that alone. He'd gotten lucky the first time, with one enemy willingly knocking its allies unconscious....even then he barely won.

"Well, no use sitting around moping, I guess. Now we know where she is, so lets try to catch up to her." He said with a perky attitude as he began the trek back down the mountain, followed by the torchick. These mountains certainly weren't difficult to climb in comparison to Black Mist Mountain.

So now Sova was moving again. On the one hand this was much less worrying for the Gengar than to see him battle, but on the other hand that meant that William would have to move to keep watching him as well, making him more easy to spot.
Then again him being spotted might not be this bad a thing. If Sova actually managed to find him, it would prove, that the Eevee was quite the observant Pokémon and thus more difficult to surprise, which in turn would make ambushes more difficult to successfully spring on the Normal type.
A new question arose in the Poison type's mind. What should he do should Sova not need his help?
Should he tell him about following him or not?

After the boring walk down the mountain and through the valleys, Sova and his client reached the base of the mountain the staraptor had flown to. As they began yet another climb, he made sure to keep a good watch. He didn't want to be attacked again. They would just have to ignore any pokemon they came across other than the staraptor....Hopefully they would get the same treatment. Or maybe they would get attacked again. Probably the latter. But at least they had a general idea of where to go to find the mission objective now.

"If this staraptor's not popular for any real reason, why are you so interested in her?" He asked, trying to make conversation.

"She's a member of a rescue team!" The torchick replied. Apparently "famous for being famous" made more sense than than "famous for being on a rescue team" to the torchick.

Contrary to Sova, William believed to understand the concept of being famous because of being famous quite well. He himself had fallen victim to its counterpart long ago - he had been feared because he had been feared. A tiny seed of doubt could and had easily grown into a giant panic in the search for a pariah. So why shouldn't it be possible for a tiny seed of undeserved admiration to grow into full famousness as well?
But...the Gengar was not here for debates or social sciences. As silently as possible, he floated from shadow to shadow, always hoping to remain hidden from Sova's hopefully watchful eyes.
How long would it take for the Eevee to complete this mission? Hopefully not too long as staying hidden wasn't the most comfortable thing to do...

On the way up the mountain, yet another obstacle presented its self. Sova sighed at the sight of two pokemon blocking the path. A primeape and a scrafty. They seemed to be fighting. Over what, he didn't care. Two hard hitting Fighting types who were already clearly hostile enough to get into a fight were not something a normal type such as Sova fancied trying to go through. He and his client would just have to go around them.

"If we take a detour, we'll be able to get around those two without being spotted." He said in an annoyed tone. The torchick with him nodded and followed him as they walked in a crescent path around the two battling pokemon.

A smart choice. While William shouldn't have had too difficult a time doing battle with these adversaries, they already were distracted, making it a perfect opportuinty to avoid them.
Hopefully the Eevee would really be successful in avoiding them, as two Fighting types would be a death sentence to a Normal type such as Sova.
Thusly it was a good thing to see that the Eevee was at least level-headed enough to avoid this one confrontation. As he sat there in hiding and watched, the Gengar began to wonder what exactly the two Pokémon were fighting about. Considering the Pokémon's tempers it most likely was something completely insignificant.

After a boring detour to avoid a very dangerous situation, Sova was a bit annoyed. Hopefully there wouldn't be any more unlucky events between him and the staraptor. Seriously, what was up with his luck today? First an uncalled for attack leading into a close battle, then a random stampede, then two pokemon fighting over who-knows-what for who-knows-why blocking the path. What could possibly happen next?

Then things started looking up. He spotted the staraptor, perched on a rock yet again, looking in their direction. Since it would be very difficult and suspicious-looking to try to sneak around behind her, he decided to just be straightforward. Approaching the bird, he spoke. "Hey, do you have a moment to talk? Please?"

....
........
................
After a bit of a delay, the staraptor flew away. Sova felt like giving up now, this bird was such a jerk. How could anyone idolize someone like that? At least she stayed on the same mountain this time, probably too tired to fly farther.

Silently William gave a wry chuckle to himself.
On the one hand it was oddly satisfying to find Sova humbled so easily by the Flying type Pokémon but on the other hand this would mean that there was yet more uncomfortable following and hiding to be done for the Ghost type.
Hopefully they'd at least be done before the sun would set. Darkness would mean that Sova could accidentally fall down the mountain and furthermore it would be a time for more Dark and Ghost types to become active, types William certainly would be having trouble with.
But then again maybe Sova would be sensible enough to give up and go back should night fall.
Okay, this was Sova he was thinking about. There was no chance for him to do that.

Why was the staraptor even avoiding so much as a short talk? Was it that big a deal to the bird? Did she just not like company? Regardless, Sova's job was to change her mind....easier said than done. Maybe he could just force the staraptor to stay long enough to talk to her. But if she flew off before he could reach her, how was he supposed to ground her?

He'd worry about that if all attempts to talk the antisocial bird down failed. For now, there were still a few ideas to be had. He began walking in the direction of the bird yet again, feeling like they were going to be doing that for a while.

There were quite a few reasons why the Staraptor was avoiding the duo. Maybe it had had enough of overly zealous fans or just wanted some peace and quiet for itself. Maybe it was here to visit relatives it didn't want to suffer from the same attention it was subjected to. Or it believed to be fleeing from feral Pokémon. There were many reasons for which the Flying type could be this evasive and unless the one in play here would be cleared up, this chase would most likely continue until someone would fall unconscious from exhaustion.
Would Sova do something to stop the Staraptor's flight or would he stubbornly hadhere to chasing the Flying type?