Frost & Found

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This had better be worth the long hike and mean ol' icy Ninetales, Osiris thought to himself. The dratini had trudged all the way out to Icicle Woods in hopes of combating the local ice-types to gain experience and had done a little bit of that before finding something even better—a partner for a rescue team. Now he had put on the hat of the detective, trying his nonexistent hands at solving a long-standing rumor of strange scents in the frozen woods. Up 'til now, it had been a very cold (hue) trail, but the dramatic and theatrical appearance of a frosty (huehue) guide had changed those things.

He was still a little bit salty, though.

Or, rather, he tried to be. But that all fell apart as Osiris slithered through what was the mouth of the cave, having followed the light at the end of the tunnel and finding himself at the foot of... a beach? It seemed like a beach, but it also seemed unlike the beach back around Rainfront. The sand beneath his scales was obsidian black, painting a gorgeous contrast to the crystal blue water of the ocean down a ways, alongside the arrangement of emerging ice piercing the water. Osiris found himself transfixed by the sight, stopping as soon as he exited the mouth of the cave and staring listlessly at what they had discovered.

"Man," he uttered in awe a moment later, trusting Maxie had followed him. "Talk about pretty, huh?"

51 energy (no entry fee due to discovery)

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Maxie stepped back out into the open air. She turned to locate the direction from which the sound was coming from, but by the time she had determined that, it dyed down. ”Huh. Sounded like… Crying.” she mumbled to herself. No similar sounds immediately followed. She was tempted to return to the cave, finish her preparations. But a greater part of her was telling her to further investigate that noise.

So she did. She started off in the direction it had come from. If this were a typical beach, she’d probably be able to see Osiris and the situation he had gotten himself into immediately. But this wasn’t your typical beach. This one had obstacles in the form of ice formations of various formations scattered about. So she took her time.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IIIIIT!"

Osiris scrambled away from the scene of the crime, turning on his nonexistent heel and slithering through the obsidian sand with a speed that surprised even himself. Maybe if the three beartics had come out of their ice shelter looking less crusade-y, he might have stuck around to explain himself better, but in this case, he felt like a hit-and-run was appropriate.

At least they weren't all three coming after him. Turning his head as he made a mad dash for the direction he'd last seen Maxie head in, he saw two of the large bears stop next to the cubchoo, checking on the baby intensely. The third stayed in pursuit, not even pausing its vengeful stride across the beach. It wasn't exactly running, but seeing how much larger it was than Osiris, even a busy speedwalk carried it at a speed that alarmed him.

He hoped Maxie could help. The dratini scanned the beach left and right, looking for his new teammate, but all that popped out to him was the ice popping out of the sand. Had he lost the cave already?!

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the sunset hero carried out 1 launched of one Glacial Beach :

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That was Osiris, she was sure. It sounded as though he’d gotten himself in trouble, based on the panicked tone of the shout. Was this going to become a regular thing for her? Was she going to make a habit out of teaming up with people who would inevitably bring her trouble? She really hoped not, she was pretty certain she couldn’t handle another Black Mist Mountain situation.

She picked up the pace, adjusting her course in accordance with the direction she had heard Osiris from. It took some maneuvering around several ice structures, but she eventually caught sight of the dratini. ”Over here!” she called to him before she saw what he was slithering away from. That was a big, strong looking ice type. And unlike the others they met at the water’s edge, this guy didn’t look particularly friendly.

”You’re really hit or miss with the friend making, huh?” she said with a humorous albeit uneasy tone. She reached for her bag to find something that might make dealing with the beartic easier, only to discover that her bag wasn’t there. She left it in the cave.

There she was—Osiris was never so glad to see a steel-type pokemon in his life than when Maxie called out to him. "It's an occupational hazard!" he called back at her, shifting his direction and slithering right toward her. The beartic was a good ways behind him, and he made sure to run through as many icy stalagmites popping up out of the ground to make it lag behind. It really wasn't his fault that he ran into trouble so much; when you made a habit out of playing around in mystery dungeons, it was simply a matter of time until something tried to beat you up and eat you.

This time might have been a teensy little bit his fault, but hey, odds were this beartic would wanna beat him up even if he didn't make the cubchoo cry. It stopped crying by the time they got to it, anyway! "I spooked a baby bear and now I think it's got evil relatives trying to get me back," Osiris said as he drew closer, coming to a harried stop a few paces away from the mawile. He wasn't super fatigued from the run, but the impending conflict instilled a shortness of breath in him that was all-too-familiar. "How do we handle this? I think I can run around it pretty well—it's having trouble keeping up." he went on, turning and inspecting the beartic as it hauled butt toward them.

It would only be a matter of moments until it was upon the exploring duo, but those precious few moments could mean a world of difference if they utilized them correctly. Osiris looked to Maxie for direction; she didn't seem too perturbed by the fact that he had drawn a beartic back to her. Maybe she had a plan for dealing with hostile juggernauts?

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She caught a glimpse of the beartic on approach—it was larger than many of the ice formations. A big, strong ice type. Probably stronger than her, with an advantage against Osiris. A sound strategy would be necessary if they were going to defeat it. Stopping it from moving would be a big help, but she wouldn’t be able to freeze it. But Osiris was here, so she didn’t need to; he could paralyse it. The Freezing Pokemon was on approach. Maxie quickly formed a plot.

”Alright, here’s the plan. You’re faster than me, so you’re going to play the distraction. Hit it with a Thunder Wave and keep its attention, and I’ll hit it with a sneak attack. It might be stronger, but that won’t matter if it can never get a hit in.”

The majority of her combat techniques revolved around unrelenting attacks and never giving the opposition an opportunity to strike back. That was her strategy with just about every fight. So much so, in fact, that she often struggled when that fell through.

Osiris nodded intently as Maxie rattled off a quick battle plan. It was simple, but in his experience, all tactics formed on the fly were. He was just glad that Maxie had enough wits to conjure up a plan at all; this kind of thing wasn't his forte, really, as insofar he'd always relied on whoever he had with him to direct him through conflict in mystery dungeons. The few times he trusted himself to outthink a problem in front of him, he usually let himself down.

So he didn't hesitate in doing as Maxie said. Iris focused on the incoming ice bear and hunkered down in the snow, inspecting it carefully. He had to time this well. When the beartic was within twenty yards and half-way finished following through in its step, one massive leg coming down hard on the ground, Osiris exploded into action. His blasted off the ground in a show of Extremespeed, snow wildly flying up into the air all around where he had just been. It parted around his straightforward trail toward the ice-type similarly, and when he came to a frenzied stop in front of the creature, he cut a hard left and drifted to its side, showering it with a curtain of snow and smoothly circling around it.

As it had been in the midst of making its way toward the two smaller pokemon, it had been quite unprepared for the sudden and unpredictable show of aggression. The ursine beast raised its arms up instinctively and warily as snow pelted it, eyes narrowed in focus as if it was trying to peer through the flying curtain of whiteness to get a glimpse at the pokemon it was chasing. It'd been caught off guard by Osiris' daring maneuver, the snow flying up blinding him to the dratini's location.

It would've been a simple matter to track the parting snows around him to spot the little blue noodle, but this beartic seemed to favor caution now that its target had switched up its behavior. It swept one massive leg through the snow in front of it, parting it and sending it flying even more—it was clear after a moment that it was attempting to uncover it in an attempt to decipher the dratini's location. But Osiris was already behind him, sparking with electricity. With a flash of light and loud, ominous crackle, he blasted the ice-type with a wave of thunder, enveloping the creature in static electricity. It grunted in surprise, turning its head toward Osiris, but its body refused to move any further.

That was the easy part taken care of, Osiris thought. Now he just had to run circles around the massive bear and not get murdered while Maxie picked her spot to ambush it.

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As Osiris drew the beartic’s attention, Maxie made her way around the icy terrain to get a better attack angle. She trusted the dratini would be successful in his part of this strategy. She was fairly certain that he was superior to her in both speed and power—not unlike their opponent—but he seemed to lack a knack for large scale strategy. She, on the other hand, had a keen interest in the subject. They complimented each other.

The dragon was on the bear before Maxie reached it. Oh, what she would give to know Quick Attack or Extreme Speed like everyone else she knows… Still, she found herself in a good position by the time the literal sparks began to fly. The beartic was stunned, attention fully dedicated to the serpentine dragon type. A perfect opportunity that Maxie would not waste.

She rushed from the cover of the ice. Just before she came into the beartic’s range, she leaped and swung her horns, carrying all the momentum from her sprint into her Iron Head attack. She landed back on the ground gracefully, while the Freezing Pokemon fell backward behind her. It was a good start. She glanced behind herself, watching to see if the beartic was still wanting to fight. She was ready if it was.

Osiris looked up at the previously angry, now furious beartic with a wary expression. One good hit from the powerful ice-type would probably send him flying, but luckily for him, paralyzation set in nearly immediately and he was spared from any immediate retaliation. That didn't mean he was meant to be safe, though, and so it was with caution that he and the ice-type regarded each other, both of their attention totally focused on the other.

That was yet another mistake on the beartic's part, as it was then subjected to a surprise Iron Head courtesy of the mawile on the sidelines. It hit the floor hard, shaking the ground beneath them as it collapsed awkwardly and suddenly. The poor thing hadn't even seen Maxie coming, and Osiris knew from experience that those were the hits that hurt the most. A low, strained growl rumbled from the bear who struggled to pick itself up, glancing between Osiris and Maxie with something almost like distress.

When it hauled itself to its feet, Osiris was ready for another exchange, but the beast started to back up instead, not taking its eyes off them. Once it was a sufficient distance away, the bear pokemon turned on its heel and staggered off, paralyzation and pain giving it the strangest-looking strained limp. "Ha!" Osiris called out triumphantly, almost leaping up into the air in excitement. "Yeah, that's right! Go and tell all your jerk bear friends that Team Tenacity doesn't play games, ya bully!"

Eiscue (x2), Weavile, Prinplup, Crabrawler

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Maxie watched the beartic as it fled. She didn’t feel as triumphant as Osiris clearly did. She was never opposed to settling things with a fight—she liked fighting, really. But normally she’d try for a dialogue first. Not this time, though. She jumped to the assumption that the behemoth of a Pokemon wouldn’t be open to such a method. Seeing it back down now, though, maybe she was wrong to make that assumption. It didn’t matter now, though.

”Hey, maybe don’t taunt the very large ice type who definitely has friends,” she suggested to her new partner. She wasn’t the type to gloat. She had some smug tendencies—not that she’d admit as such—but she rarely gloated. Nothing good would ever come of it. ”Good work though. That was a lot easier than I thought it’d be.” It was a win. She needed a win.

”I’ve set up camp in the cave. Let’s recuperate there.”

Exhaling a long, satisfied, relieved breath, Osiris wordlessly followed his companion. He felt much the same as her; it had been a while since he got into a slugfest with a foe that daunting—the cryogonal almost didn't count—and taking the victory, even if it came in the form of a quick surrender, felt nice. Iris felt it more and more every day just going about his business, but confrontations against strong enemies really reminded him just how powerful he'd grown as a result of his spree of dungeon runs.

"Yeah," he echoed after a moment of thought. "It was a lot easier, huh. Shame that's all that's around though, you know, big beartics and walrein and stuff. It's pretty and all, but I was hoping to find something with more substance..." the dratini admitted, slithering side-by-side with the mawile back to the camp she'd set up. For the umpteenth time, Osiris scanned the horizon from one edge to another, seeing nothing but black sand, bright ice, and blue waters.

... Well, almost. Now that he was facing the opposite direction since the last time he scanned the area, Osiris spotted something new. Nestled far, far away on the beach on the cave mouth's left side, there was an outcropping of painted wood and lumber in the suspicious shape of a... house, kind of. A house-and-a-half, since from what he could see, the second floor was near caved in. He couldn't get a good look at it from where they were now, and if they went back in the cave, he definitely wouldn't be able to.

The encounter with the beartics had tempered his curiosity, though. "Hey, you seein' what I'm seein'?" he prompted. Maybe if Maxie was interested as well, they'd go give it a look-see.

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She didn’t at first, but with the indication that there was something to be seen, Maxie followed the dratini’s gaze. A structure of some kind—something like a house—stood off in the distance. The disrepair was evident even from this distance, and implied that the building was either shoddily built or very old; or both.

”A house of some sort,” Maxie replied after a moment of taking in the site. ”If it wasn’t for the fact that it looks like an utter death trap, I’d propose we relocate camp there. But, seeing as it is clearly a death trap, I recommend we don’t try and camp there.”

Still, she was curious—she was sure Osiris was, too. She glanced at the sky. The constant overcast weather made it a bit harder to tell the time of day by the daylight. The same phenomenon also made the days seem shorter, since the weaker sunlight of evening struggled to pierce the clouds at all. Irregardless, it was evident enough that the day was wanning. It would be night in an hour or so.

”...You wanna check it out?”