Apprehension and Aggression

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Alkere hated the rain. Her first thought when she saw the dark clouds was that they had a thunderstorm coming, which was much to the small dragon type's distaste. But that theory was shot down when she realised there wasn't any rain falling. Or thunder, or lightening. Even the winds didn't seem any higher than usual, and the clouds looked an unnatural shade of pitch black. As she stepped into the clearing, the only sounds she heard were the soft ripples of the waterfall and the footsteps of herself and her companion. ... something told her this was way worse than a thunderstorm, and that was saying something, for Alkere's standards. Rain was by far her least favorite kind of weather. Sure, she'd never experienced hail or a sandstorm, but neither of those things would make her Ember attack fizzle out.

She sent a nervous glance back at Natsu. "So... this sucks, doesn't it." She said bluntly, walking a bit further into the clearing. "I'm going to take a shot in the dark that something's a little off here. Unless the weather's normally like this around the waterfall, or we spent all day in Shadowhue. Both of those things I kinda doubt." She paused. Well, maybe the weather acting up around the waterfall was possible, she could believe that, knowing how crazy Mystery Dungeons could get. It would still be really strange, though. She adjusted the bag slung over her shoulder apprehensively, having a hunch she might need some of the items she just collected.

Natsu opened his eyes to see Alkere collapse next to him, he didn't mind nor really care at the moment considering how tired he was, and his head really hurt that Noctowl had a really thick skull. He wanted to say something, anything but he couldn't, all he could manage was to breath and stay awake considering the amount of energy he used spamming Dark Pulse. After a bit he managed to ask. "You, Ok?" He choked out, while he was tired she was getting drowned a short while ago, Natsu didn't mind his pain, he was stronger then this, Right?

The Bagon paused, unable to talk immediately. "Just..." She cleared her throat, gathering her words. "... just peachy, Natsu." She concluded. Ugh, she felt like she was going to be sick. She sat up awkwardly, and began trying to rub the water out of her eyes. "What the hell was with those Pokemon? I must've fired ten Embers into that Noctowl and it didn't even flinch..." She trailed off, too exhausted to spend too much time thinking about it. Right now, she just wanted to sleep. Or maybe pass out. But she didn't dare that yet, maybe some more of those berserk Pokemon would pop up...

"I kept using my strongest move and it didn't do Jack shit, maybe those were just some crazy strong Pokemon, one of them didn't even belong in the forest." Natsu said just recognizing what was wrong with that situation, damn he's stupid why did he think he could win. "I want to pass out, though I'm sure they might come back, what do you think we should do?" Natsu asked having only two plans, either go farther in the cave or take turns keeping guard, both of which sounded stupid.

The Bagon shrugged. Really, she didn't have a good answer to that. "I think we need to head deeper in... I don't know if there will be anywhere safe in there, but we sure as all heck aren't safe here, either..." She tried to heave herself up to her feet, and ended up stumbling awkwardly back to the ground. Man, she must've looked pathetic. She forced herself back up again, and this time her legs held, even though the world was spinning around her. "Unless you've got a better plan. 'Cause if you do, I'm all ears." For as reckless as she could be at times... 'let's go deeper into this dark, mysterious cave and hope nothing goes haywire' didn't exactly sound like a bright idea to her. But she couldn't come up with anything better.

"No i don't have a better plan, in here is most likely safer then out there." Natsu said as he struggled to get up, he couldn't succeed and laid back down. "Plus we know what's out there can kill us, we don't know if something in here can kill us, I'd rather take the option that has a shot at us not dying." Natsu reasoned as he got up, weak but standing he looked ahead in the cave.

The dragon type sighed lightly. Yeah, that seemed like their best option... unless... well, it was a shot in the dark, but maybe it was worth a try. "Hey, Natsu. Random question, but do you know how to tell one orb from that next?" She wondered, trying to keep a neutral tone. This was about as unlikely as you could get, but maybe it was worth a try. Alkere definitely didn't know how. Every orb looked the same to her. They were all small, round, blue... seriously, someone needed to label the things. But maybe Natsu knew a trick or something that would let them tell the different kinds of orbs apart. Even if he didn't, this might still be worth it to try. It was better than trekking towards what they could only hope not to be certain doom, she figured.

Natsu shrugged, he had no idea and just normally used one orb after he found it. "Sorry i have no idea, whoever makes those things should really label them i once threw a house orb thinking it was a trawl orb." Natsu said remembering what happened, his mother was so pissed off at him. "Why you got a orb?" Natsu asked, it might be worth a shot just to try it, either way they could be facing doom so why not give it a go.

Alkere nodded quickly, scavenging through her treasure bag for a moment before pulling out a small, blue object. She nodded when Natsu guessed she might’ve had an orb. ”I-” She cut herself off and broke into a coughing fit, hacking up a few mouthfuls of water. She cringed slightly. She wished that the Zorua hadn’t needed to see that. She already felt weak enough, after being throughly beaten by those strange Pokemon. Showing that weakness in front of her new ally only made it feel worse. She cast her gaze towards the ground, somewhat ashamed, and spoke once more. ”I know this is about as close to a shot in the dark as you can humanly get... But a while back, I found this orb in a Mystery Dungeon. I know there’s this kind of orb that can transport you out of a dungeon, and I thought this might just be it... But I can’t tell one orb from the next. It might still be worth a try, though.” She explained, placing the glass ball gingerly along the floor of the cave. There was a small crack running through it's surface, but it seemed to be intact.

Natsu notice her look to the ground after her little coughing fit, Natsu let out a sigh Whatever was out there was dangerous so it shouldn't be that bad that she got hurt badly, Natsu only barely got out, and even he had to struggle to still be standing. "Well, there are orbs that can do something like that, maybe it is worth the shot, either way we will never know unless we try." Natsu said not seeing any possible way to find out what that orb was, He didn't think the Pokemon outside were going to tell them so using it seemed to be their best bet, that or run into some random cave, personally Natsu liked the former.

The dragon type cast another glance at the orb. She nodded once more, in agreement with Natsu. "Alright... I'm gonna break it." She heaved herself up to her feet, at least succeeding in standing up this time. She stepped towards the orb, hopefully it would do something to help them... if it didn't teleport them out, maybe it would restore their health or something. She took a deep breath and stomped on the tiny glass ball. There was a bright, blinding flash, forcing Alkere to avert her eyes. For a moment, she got her hopes up. Had that flash meant it did something? But a moment later, when she looked back, she realised she was still in the cave with Natsu by her side. Now all she had were some useless shards of glass for her trouble. "Damn it... guess that was a longshot..." She admitted, hanging her head. Well, she was out of ideas. All that orb had brought them was false hope.

Warp Orb used.

Natsu looked at the orb hopefully but it seemed to of done absolutely nothing. Natsu sighed knowing they were both tired and had no way to actually go anywhere that most likely wouldn't cause their inevitable demise. "The only thing i wanna do is rest, it's risky but maybe one of use could stand watch while the other slept, that way if something comes our way we can just wake the other person up and run into the cave system." Natsu said as he looked out the waterfall. "Those Pokemon seemed to of been attacking anything they saw, since they lost us maybe they left to find something else to attack instead of looking, so if we just stay here we should be safe." Natsu said voice full of hope, he had no idea if that would work or if that was even the case.

Alkere raised a metaphorical eyebrow, thanks to a lack of literal ones. Natsu's plan definitely seemed to include a lot of 'maybes' and assumptions, even for her tastes, and she was hardly a master planner. Heck, her plan had been 'throw a random orb at the ground and hope for the best'. Then again, that meant that she definitely wasn't one to talk, especially when she didn't have any better ideas. "Guess it's worth a try." She agreed somewhat reluctantly as she swept aside the broken pieces of glass from her wasted orb. She paused, though, and added something more. "But I'm only agreeing to this if I get to stay up first."

Natsu was going to offer to take the first shift but she beat him to it, she said she'd only go through with it if Natsu let her go first. Natsu wanting to know why decided to question it. "Why? You seem more wounded them me, wouldn't it be best if i take the first shift?" Natsu asked seeing no reason as to why she'd want to do that, he looked once more outside making sure he was right about the whole 'crazy Bucking Pokemon wanting to kill only what they saw' Thing.

"No... I was just underwater for a while. You're more wounded." She replied. "Plus, I don't think I'll be able-" She broke off when, all too quickly, a loud screech resounded from outside. The Bagon shrunk back slightly, clenching her hands with rage. That was the voice of the Noctowl. Who did that Noctowl think it was, trying to drown her? ... and almost succeeding, at that? If Natsu went through with peaking outside, he would see the other two Pokemon gone, but that Noctowl was stubbornly circling around the clearing. Apparently it was either drawn back to the waterfall by the flash of the orb, or it had stayed here the entire time trying to find the two of them.

Natsu saw the Pokemon circling around the entrance, Natsu waited holding his breath, while he knew that Pokemon should be Psychic it hadn't found them yet, it was because of Natsu since he was a dark type that slightly impeded the Noctowls sense, since Natsu had an affinity for not being affected by psychic. "I don't think it's found us yet, though stay on your guard." Natsu said walking over to one of the cave sides, he curled up into a small ball and tried to sleep, Natsu hoped nothing bad would happen, he can't die here, can he?