Something about Anything

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Silverdawn slithered through the shaded grasses of Shadowhue Forest, her tongue flickering out to taste the air. She used her senses of smell and the vibrations of the earth to tell where she was going, since she was blind. She had no real reason for coming out to Shadowhue Forest, but she was rather bored this day. Her shop hadn't had many customers, and she was finding herself spending more time wandering around the town or exploring Shadowhue or Pecha Forest. She wondered if she would meet any new pokemon this day.

Bouncing on ahead, the Aipom waved his arm to her. "Okay!" he replied, not arguing the fact one bit. "You are pretty slow though, come on, keep up!" As he hopped along on his tail, Cracker turned around to keep an eye on Silverdawn. He could tell she was still bitter over the whole ordeal, and not just their initial tumble into the brush. Sure she had him in a position to be devoured earlier, and just thinking about it made his shudder, but the fact she chose not to spoke volumes to him.

"I live in Pecha forest, you know," Cracker carried on, slapping the ground with his beefy tail-hand. "Made a nice little home there too, outta this big hollow tree I found. I've been living there for a while now and I've only had a few scuffles. Maybe you just got unlucky or something. Bad luck; happens to everybody once in a while. This place though, gives me the creeps. I've never seen trees this ugly anywhere else in my whole entire life. And it's so dark, I feel like I'm swimming in a dark, inky soup half the time. Yuck. I can't imagine why you'd wanna go for a walk--or a slither--in a place like this. I'm only here for the fruit."

Lumin carried out 3 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

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Silverdawn rolled her eyes at the Aipom's insistence, and followed him relunctantly. Why couldn't everyone just leave her alone? Why couldn't she just go one day without being swept up in some adventurer's "AWESOME QUEST"? Her luck was just ridiculous.

She sighed as she felt the Aipom's excitable footsteps draw further away from her. At this rate, he was going to get himself into a sticky mess, tromping around the forest like that. It was like he was being purposefully loud, as if he WANTED to draw out any enemies lurking in the shadows.

Sure enough, she soon detected the tell-tale vibrations of something else moving. She hissed a warning to the Aipom and tasted the air carefully. The enemy was downwind -she couldn't smell a thing.

Before she could make another move, though, something fell out of the sky and landed on top of her. She hissed and twisted away, realizing that a slakoth had dropped from the trees above. It snarled, clearly upset at being disturbed from its nap. Silverdawn hissed menacingly and struck quicker than an eye could track, sinking poisonous fangs deep into the Slakoth's arm. It shrieked and pulled away, now becoming warier of the hissing snake pokemon.

Cracker came to a stop when he heard the Ekans hiss. At first he though she was just verbalizing her displeasure regarding something he'd said, but when he turned around he was surprised to see Silverdawn tussling with an unhappy Slakoth that had evidently fallen out of a tree overhead. It looked confused at first, but when the snake bit into it, it suddenly became more active, retreating a short distance while it nursed the poisoned wound.

It only took a moment to regroup before it launched into a flurry of Scratch attacks. The Aipom was unfortunately too far away to assist the Ekans properly so he dropped down onto his feet searching the ground for anything he could throw. When he found an ideally sized rock, he scooped it up in his tail's hand and spun around sharply, launching the projectile at a fair clip. He scored a direct hit on the Slakoth's head, stunning the Pokemon for a moment before he hurriedly rushed back down the path towards Silverdawn.

He couldn't move very fast on his short legs; it occurred to him just how much he relied on trees for speed. Snatching up another stone, he promptly launched himself into the trees overhead with his tail, whipping another stone at the quarreling duo. This time though, instead of hitting its mark, the rock flew into the bushes several feet away, striking a Shroomish as it was idly walking through the forest.

((Energy: 8 + 1[page] = 9))

Silverdawn ducked when she heard the rock whistling through the air. Thankfully, it sailed right over her and onto the attacking Slakoth. She bared her fangs at it and slammed her tail into the ground, causing several large rocks to rise up and fly toward the slakoth. Two of the rocks missed, but the final rock slammed right into the slakoth, sending it flying backwards into a tree and knocking it out.

Silverdawn then cast around to see what the Aipom was doing, only to notice another enemy approaching -a shroomish. Silverdawn hissed in dislike. She hated those things -they always liked to use Stun Spore and paralyze their victims before sucking them of all their energy. It was her personal greatest fear, though she would never admit it to anyone.

Having finally arrived, Cracker dropped out of the tree next to Silverdawn, balancing on his tail as the Shroomish emerged from the bushes. There was a large welt on its head and it looked very unhappy. Without even a moment's hesitation it struck an offensive pose and immediately began dousing the duo in Stun Spore. The Aipom may not have had much experience with grass-types, but he knew well enough that he didn't want to breath in those spores.

Digging the digits of his tail-hand into the earth, Cracker backflipped onto his feet, kicking up a cloud of dust to counteract the attack. He continued to furiously dig at the ground, throwing up a Sand Attack until the Shroomish was completely obscured. At the very least the spores had been pushed away, but before either Pokemon could react, a Leech Seed emerged from the cloud of dust, striking Cracker and immediately growing vines to constrict his entire body, leeching away his energy with every pulse.

Silverdawn hissed angrily when the shroomish tried to spread its stun spores, but the Aipom quickly put an end to that plan by retaliating with a quick sand attack, which blew away the spores. In his distraction, though, a leech seed struck him and the shroomish began to suck the energy from the Aipom.

Silverdawn spat in anger. She really, REALLY hated these kinds of pokemon. She struck quickly with her poisoned fangs, biting the shroomish over and over until it backed away, whimpering. She hissed menacingly, and it skittered off. "Coward," Silverdawn sniffed.

Still bound up in the leafy vines, Cracker clawed at them until he could shake himself free. Their effect had worn off when the Shroomish retreated, but they still clung to him. Pulling off the last of the vines, the Aipom shook with contained excitement before leaping into the air and catching himself on his tail.

"That was... nnnngh--Awesome!" he cried, throwing his arms up into the air and bouncing up and down. "Dear Arceus, I never felt so alive! Wow! Is this what winning feels like? Boy, if I knew battling was this rewarding, I'd be doing it all the time!" In all honesty, nearly every past battle he'd engaged in, Cracker had been cowardly, seeking flight over fight. This was the first time in a while he'd felt compelled to defend himself, let alone someone else.

Swaying about on his stem-like tail, the Aipom hugged himself, enjoying the fleeting joy of victory. It made his wonder what he used to be so afraid of. But then again, in the past he'd been up against more threatening Pokemon than a Slakoth and a Shroomish. Their outward appearance didn't scare him in the least.

Bouncing over to where the Shroomish had been, Cracker bristled with excitement. "Yeeeeah, you run away! Oh hey... what's this?" Dropping back down onto his feet, the Aipom picked up a small Cheri Berry. "Aha!" he cheered, holding it up and turning back to Silverdawn. "See?! I told you there were Cheri Berries here! I bet that wussy dropped it when he ran away. Heehee. Mine now!" Tossing it into the air once, the Aipom quickly stuffed it into his backpack made of leaves, twigs and grass.

"Wasn't that fun?" he asked, looking up at the Ekans. Adjusting the shoulder straps of his pack, he walked back over to the snake, looking pleased. "You were really something, y'know. Terrifying even. You totally knocked those two for a loop!"

Silverdawn rolled her eyes at the Aipom's antics, but she wasn't feeling as much animosity for the monkey pokemon as she had earlier. "Heh, yeah... Battling is fun... as long as you're on the winning side," she stated cynically.

She listened to the Aipom's praises of her battle prowess and rolled her eyes as per usual, but she couldn't help but feel proud that someone appreciated her strength for once, instead of attacking her for battling with unorthodox methods. "Yeah, I suppose I was pretty good." she admitted.

Energy: 19 - 10 (enter) = 9 + 1 (page) = 10 energy

Silver carried out 3 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

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Still looking rather pleased, Cracker started back down the trail they'd been following, humming a little off-key tune as he walked on his feet instead of using his tail. After the excitement of the battle, he hardly noticed or cared about the prickly ground under his feet. He turned back around and waited for Silverdawn, waving a paw at her.

"C'mon, we should keep moving. I bet there's a lot of stuff out there to discover. Berries and fruits, and butts to kick if anybody gets it our way, heehee!" Striking a pose, the Aipom entertained himself by miming a make-believe battle, complete with sound effects.

As he played out his fantasy, a rustling in the bushes quickly produced not one but two Shroomish, one with a welt on it's head and both looking quite angry. Cracker was mid-swing of a fake punch, when he noticed them, eyes widening in surprise. "Uh-oh, I think we got a problem." Wasting no time, both Pokemon immediately unleashed a simultaneous Stun Spore.

Silverdawn rolled her eyes again -it was becoming her signature move around this pokemon! She slithered off a little bit away from the excitable normal type to search for items. She quickly found a cacnea spike and a reviver seed. She froze at the aipom's warning, and when she tasted the air, she realized that there was two shroomish approaching -one obviously the shroomish that she had sent scurrying, and the other seemingly its friend. She hurriedly scooped the reviver seed into her pack and picked up the cacnea spike between her teeth. She flung the cacnea spike towards the sounds of the approaching shroomish and hoped that it would hit one of them.

The hurdled Cacnea Spike struck one of the Shroomish with enough damage to knock it over and halt it's attack for a moment as Cracker raced back into the fray, but it quickly jumped back onto it's feet and resumed the assault. By now though the Aipom was in position and desperately fending off the spore cloud with a shower of sand and dirt, but to his dismay it wasn't as effective as it was last time. With two Shroomish pouring their paralysing powder into the air, Cracker's attempt to disperse it and push it back was only causing it to mix with the air and spread further afield to either side.

Worse still his arms and tail were quickly getting tired, while the clouds of spores were slowly engulfing the area, creeping around the sides to create a ring around Cracker and Silverdawn. His Sand Attack was the only thing keeping them from being consumed it paralysing spores.

"Any--hah--Any ideas?" he asked breathlessly, glancing in the Ekans' direction. "I can't... keep this up much longer!"

Silverdawn hesitated. There was so much noise going on now, it was extremely hard for her to tell what exactly was going on. She could just barely pinpoint where the shroomish were in comparison to her and the Aipom. How exactly did she get herself into these situations again?

"I suppose the only option left is to..." she began softly and then yelled the last word. "RUUUUN!!"

She grabbed the Aipom around the waist with her tail and lifted him onto her scales, and shot off through the undergrowth, dodging and weaving in between the trees, trusting that the Aipom would at least have the sense to dodge any obstacles that could hit him from his position atop her scales.

Cracker was still frantically shoveling sand into the oncoming cloud of spores when he felt the Ekans' tail wrap around him and hoist him off his feet. His defensive barrier of debris dispersed almost immediately as the spore cloud pushed its way through. Clinging to Siverdawn's back though, they quickly departed before the swirling haze could overtake them. It wasn't a strategy the Aipom expected, but he was grateful. The tuckered out monkey clung to the snake's rapidly slithering body as they pushed through the underbrush.

"That was a close one!" Cracker said breathlessly, ducking a low-hanging branch as they pushed on off the beaten path. " I'd rather not go through that again any time soon, but boy, what a rush! I can't imagine doing that sort of thing every day though, like those exploration teams; I don't think my tender heart could take it! There sure are a lot of angry Pokemon in this forest though. I wonder why."

They'd been traveling for a short while when Cracker suddenly said, "Hey, hey, hold up!" Without waiting for her to stop, the Aipom jumped off her back, stumbling for a few feet before hurrying over to a bush. He'd caught a glimpse of colour amongst the branches, and sure enough, when he inspected it closer, Cracker found a torn scarf caught up in the bush. The blue piece of fabric wasn't anything special, but it certainly didn't belong here. Tugging it free from the branches, he looked around for its owner before turning to the Ekans.

"Look what I found," he said to Silverdawn, holding up the scarf. "I wonder if somebody lost it. It looks pretty." Casually, the Aipom wrapped it around his neck. "How do I look?"

Silverdawn shook her head. "I'm not sure you should take that. What if its owner comes back for it?" she warned, knowing that it was a fruitless endeavour to warn the impulsive Aipom. She desperately hoped that she wasn't anywhere near the Aipom when the scarf's owner eventually came back for it.

She looked around warily. "We should keep moving -I'm not sure we left those two shroomish behind completely. They may still be on our tails."

Energy: 10 - 0 (Stamina Band) = 10 ^^'

"Mmm... Nnngh... I guess you're right," Cracker said slowly, removing the scarf grudgingly. "It really is pretty though. Not as pretty as my ribbon, but with a little cleaning... I mean--I'll just... put it back." Manhandling the delicate scarf, he tossed it back onto the bush. He stared at it for a moment longer before turning back to Silverdawn. As he began to move away though he heard a sound, like water splashing in a well. Tilting his head, he trained his ears, waiting but not hearing it again.

With a small shrug, he walked away again, but another sound halted his steps. This time it was louder, and it came from somewhere behind him. When he turned to look though, he didn't see any water, let alone anything else that could've sounded like it. He turned back to the Ekans. "Did you hear that or am I going crazy?" Before she could answer though, there was a much bigger splash, followed by a gurgling cry for help that echoed like it was in a cave.