Find that Sister!

Acro wandered into the forest after having a look at his paper, he was supposed to find a caterpie that was supposedly lost in Shadowhue after wandering in. He wondered why a simple caterpie would come to such an advanced dungeon, after all this place was teeming with strong pokemon. Though not as strong as the pokemon in places like Mt. Frostmeer, or Black Mist Moutain, thought Acro. The archen looked at the paper, he was supposed to do the mission with another team. Who is it? he wondered.

So...the Shadowhue Forest. What had brought a simple Caterpie into such a dungeon? William had been living nearby for ages and even he had only rarely ventured into these parts. Nevertheless, he knew only too well about the dangers lurking within, having had to experience some of them a few times already.
Most definitely, this was no place for a simple Caterpie.
Concerned, William made his way through the undergrowth, hoping to find the target as quickly as possible. Oh, and that other Pokémon, who had apparently taken the same job as well of course!
Now it had happened twice to him already, that there was another Pokémon with the same mission. Was the board staff asleep or something? Someone should go and smack them up the head some time...

Acro did not hear nor see William, until he turned around. Acro turned around to check the way he had come for any pokemon that might be sneaking up on him and saw William. His reaction, instead of jumping with fear and bawling like a baby as he normally would a few months back, was to call out William's name, "William!"
He was a friend of the Ghastly, or at least he thought he was. He knew he probably should have left the most likely irritated ghastly alone, but he just could not resist. He could not do this alone in a dungeon, despite how many times he had attempted to he always found some kind of friendly pokemon and went with them.
I'm just that cowardly... he thought.

Not having spotted the prehistorical Pokémon before, William was quite shocked to suddenly find Acro stand in front of him.
"A-acro! Is that you? So I assume, that the two of us have taken the same mission once again, am I correct?"
Although he felt a bit ashamed as he hadn't managed to spot a brightly-coloured Pokémon in a dark forest before, the Gastly couldn't help but chuckle at the coincidence, that the two of them had found together once more.
"We just keep running into each other, don't we? But this isn't the time for conversation. We should get that Caterpie away from here first."

"We just keep running into each other, don't we? But this isn't the time for conversation. We should get that Caterpie away from here first."
Acro nodded before running towards a tree and climbing it a bit clumsily. The bark cracked where he almost fell and shards dropped to the forest floor.
The rescuer believed that a caterpie would most likely be in the trees since it was usually where the small bugs spent their life. He wondered if it was just his brain coming up with an excuse to climb a tree because of his species' nature though.
He shrugged the thought away and voiced his thoughts of the caterpie being in the trees, and in the end he added, "Don't you think? Or am I just being silly?"

"That is certainly possible. She could be hiding under some foliage on the ground or in a bush as well, though, so I'd suggest to look everywhere."
The few rays of light, that broke through the thick cover of leaves above the two friends created a dazzling pattern of dancing dots of light, breaking through the shadows in those areas and definitely not making it easier for the duo to find anything.
Coupled with the sounds of the various creatures, that were roaming through these parts of the forest and the probable possibility, that the Caterpie had already run into another Pokémon before and would be in hiding now, it made one thing very clear. This mission wouldn't be an easy one.

Acro had to admit the gastly was correct with his words. The caterpie could be anywhere from in a hollowed tree that had fallen to cowering under the belly of a enraged and confused beast that was unaware of the caterpie's existence. The archen stayed in the trees though, maybe he could find some silk, Caterpies use string shot, right? he thought. He leaped over to the next tree, causing the branches to move and the light to be made bigger and then covered briefly as the tree branch swayed with his weight.
"So, what's new?" he asked for the sake of creating conversation to overcome the unsettling silence that had overcome the forest, aside from the rustling of the trees as he jumped from branch to branch.

"Uh...not much, I guess. This is the first mission I have taken since our little expedition in those marshes. I do feel strangely powerful, though. Maybe I'm close to evolving. And then I would finally have hands!"
Having hands had been one of William's lifelong dreams, so he was understandably excited at the prospect of getting them in the near future. It gave him motivation to finish this mission, as this might give him the final push he needed to evolve into a Haunter. And once he would have managed to do that, evolving into a Gengar wouldn't prove to be much of a problem either. The Link Cable was safely stored in a cupboard back at the guild after all.
Now where could the little insect be?

The mention of evolution made Acro look at his wings for a moment, when would he evolve and soar the skies? He had been wearing the joy ribbon for a while now, and he still felt like he was no where near evolving! He gave a disappointing sigh before leaping to the next tree, this was the closest he had to flying he would just have to be happy with it.
He responded, not really wanting the gastly to notice his disappointment, "Not much has happened for me either..things have been rather slow lately."

This dice is not existing.

"I'm sure there will be more than enough happening on this mission. After being through here, we'll probably be happy about things going slowly. For now we should focus on our search, though."
THere were just too many places for such a small Pokémon to hide in this huge, dark forest. And if William couldn't even spot Acro in here, how should he find a Pokémon, whose colouring would be much more appropriate? It was going to be a long day for sure, but the Gastly would never give up. He would finish this mission. For the good of the Caterpie, Pokémonkind as a whole and his hands!

Acro had been about to respond when he landed on a branch that seemed rather odd, as if it was already being weighed down. He looked to his side, towards the trunk, to see a taillow leaping out at him with a peck attack. Acro screeched as he was knocked out of the tree and fell through the gastly onto the ground. The taillow was tied in a strange silky substance that held its wings together tightly it seemed frightened as it too fell out of the tree along with the other flightless bird.

Surprised, William floated away from the falling Archen only to be shocked again by a Taillow falling down as well. Shouldn't at least one of them know how to fly? Or how not to fall down. Whatever the reason for their fall might be, William didn't know the Taillow, so there was a high chance of it being an enemy. But should it actually be a friend, the Gastly didn't want to reject it, so he decided to simply stay on guard, waiting for the fallen bird to make the first move. Would it even get up again? Acro was probably okay. He had fallen from trees already, so William didn't pay too much attention to him.

Acro picked himself off the forest floor after rolling onto his legs. He had fallen on his back and his wings could not bend in a way that would help him from there. He shook his head to clear out the fog of being dazed and looked to see that the taillow too had somehow managed to get up. The taillow growled at the two and backed into a tree, its wings were tied to its body with a strange silk, that Acro assumed was the caterpie's. He did not think of the kakuna and other such bug pokemon that were possibly in this area, "Did caterpie meet this taillow perhaps?" he asked. Instead of an answer the taillow leaped forward in another peck attack, unable to get off the ground and take to the skies.

"I think we should ask that question later!", William suggested as he dodged the Flying type's attack.
Luckily it wasn't used to not being able to fly, so its ground speed was rather sub-par. But even though it didn't pose too much of a threat right now, it might break free later, so the Gastly was of the opinion, that the two of them should defeat it now, before it would have the chance to do so.
Focussing the madness-inducing energies of the Ghost World into a small, glowing sphere, William launched it at his opponent in the shape of a Confuse Ray, hoping to incapacitate the bird.

The bird's clumsiness on the ground came as an advantage at that moment as it accidentally tripped and rolled out of the way of the confusing ray. Acro was enveloped in a purple aura as rocks began to float in the air, also blanketed by the same aura, and were tossed towards the taillow. The pesky bird pokemon managed to dodge all the rocks, and the battle field was now littered with large boulders and medium sized stones. Acro hopped on top of one of the rocks, searching for the taillow he had lost sight of in the mess of rocks he had made.