Hunt for a Thief (Crytic)

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A chilly, postwinter wind whistled through the bare, thorny branches of Pecha Forest.The sky was gray and overcast, and Jeremy could feel it in his bones that by later tonight, rain would pour down. Heck, it might even snow or hail if it got cold enough. With the weather's fluctuating patterns the past few days, the male snivy could believe it.

Now, he was here at Pecha forest with a female sneasel. It was a different female sneasel this time, but the similarities and the simple presence of this area was enough to bring back less than happy memories.

His first mission with Kuro almost became a disaster. Both pokemon came close to losing their lives, and the Grass Snake Pokemon spent a week cooped up with injuries before he could take missions again or even just leave his room without wincing in pain. The medicine provided by the guild and his natural regenerative processes allowed him to make a relatively quick recovery. However, the danger was still very real... Jeremy still had the scar on his tail from where a goon bit him, and no outlaw hunters have reported the bandit leader's capture.

They had a job to do though. Jeremy needed to see how well he could work with Crysel and THEY also needed to find the trapinch and retrieve what was stolen. Still, the tension was obvious in his rigid form, amber eyes never leaving the forest's entrance.

Distract while forcing him to look at the one he is supposed to be distracted by... It made no sense to Crysel just yet. However, she nodded and did a quick look around. Ground, leaves, trees, branches... branches would work. She nodded to Jeremy. "I'll make sure he focuses on me." Crysel went for another faint attack, but only did one swipe at the Medapod's weakened area to make it hurt and put it in pain Then she did what seemed to be a display of her agility and speed before swiping at a branch and grabbing it to hold as she landed.

Predictably, that speed showed the Metapod it needed to slow her and bring her in for a hard blow. It narrowed its eyes and shot out the sticky silk to cover her. However, Crysel used the branch and smirked. "Come now, you can do better than that. All you do is swing about. You have no strength in your attacks. All armor, no bite. Try to overpower me runt." The enemy clearly took the bait and started pulling in the silk. Crysel dug her heels in and pulled with all her might to stay where she was. It was facing Jeremy who was right behind Crysel. Now was a good time to get that plan going.

(Sorry for the wait. Things have been hectic here. Will try to get another reply in later)

She was... Agile, that was for sure. The snivy could honestly say without a doubt that the female sneasel was cunning and powerful enough to put this bug type in his place. The use of the branch to snag the cocoon Pokemon was clever and proved to be a good way to keep their recent antagonist in his place. This was all well and good, and Crysel's taunts kept him focused on trying to overpower her versus moving around. Good. With the chink in his armor done, they only needed one more maneuver.

The metapod gave a raspy, insect-like hiss to Crysel as he tugged back on his silky strands. A sharp whistle from Jeremy caught his attention momentarily though as the Grass Snake Pokemon stared at him over Crysel's shoulder.

Jeremy's reptilian eyes lidded as their amber depths were slowly flooded over with black and flecked with crimson. An eerie glow surrounded now slitted pupils as the male snivy lifted his upper lift, baring ivory fangs as he let out a guttural hiss. He locked eyes with their foe, his own gaze boring through and mentally inspiring paralyzing fear into the feral bug... Like the snake stares of legend.

Suddenly, Crysel would feel the line go slack... Just frozen as the metapod made no move to fight back. It could not, eyes containing a 100 yard stare as it let out kriis of distress. Still and rigid, it would make for an easy target now.

"Alright, now is your chance! Hit him and hit him hard!"

Crysel was quick to press her advantage. She yanked the branch back and lept forward, both she and the Medapod being pulled toward one another. She once again moved in a strange way to jab hard at the weak point with a Faint attack. It finally broke through the tough shell of the bug type and stabbed in. This really frightened the pokemon, its defense being its strongest asset. Panicking, it shot out string and swung away in fear. Crysel almost went after him to finish the job, but held herself back. There was no purpose to chasing him. She let the bug type flee.

She turned back and nodded. "Hmm... that felt strangely nostalgic, but I can't remember from where... Anyway, thank you for having my back. However, that fight probably attracted more attention than we wanted. The best idea would be to move on before anymore possible hostile pokemon show up. We have to save some strength to complete the mission after all." Concise and to the point. Crysel was not one to waste words, that was for sure.

It was a success. The Grass Snake Pokemon could feel the dark energy flood his eyes when he locked on to the metapod. Could feel its fear as he planted terror deep into its mind. And just as quickly as it came, it was gone. Immediately, as Jeremy's vision cleared so did the exhaustion that flooded his body. With a slight gasp, he stumbles to his knees somewhat before he stands up again, shaking his head to clear the disorientation.

By this time, he saw the dark blur that was Crysel as she lunged toward her prey. The metapod, after being brutally beat down some, retreated like it should. Once the feral cocoon was out of sight, Jeremy sighed in relief. What was with the caterpie line being so bloodthirsty in this cursed forest? With a shaky ascension, Jeremy tried to regain his senses as he turns to the female sneasel.

In a tired voice, Jeremy comments, "I agree... Just give me a bit. Still not quite used to pulling that off yet apparently." Like the first few other times, the family technique had not yet fully adapted to his form. In time, it would feel natural like his vines... In time.

"And your welcome. That actually went by fairly quickly. Not half bad." Still panting, he pauses at the sight of something partially concealed in the grass not far from where the metapod impacted. Yellow eye lids blink as the male snivy realizes it is something valuable.

"I think our friend dropped something." He points to the area.

Guest carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

Crysel could understand how it felt to use a move one was not used to. Her Avalanche worked the same way. Taking out the temperature effecting her, she could use it two to three times a day before she would be exhausted and unable to keep fighting. But there was more than how much power it had. She had this fear that she'd hurt others she did not mean to if she used it. That was something she had felt always, even with her lost memory. It was why she wasn't using it until it was completely necessary. It was bad for her physically and mentally.

At the mention of an item, Crysel went over and looked. "Pecha berry. We'll be fine if one of us get poisoned... You should take it. Poison types are strong against grass types like yourself. You will be more likely to need it if we run into one." Another feeling Crysel had was a conflicting feeling that being within a 'pack' was right and the feeling that it was bad for her to to not stay alone. Again, her lost memories confused her.

The Grass Snake Pokemon nods in appreciation as he takes the peach colored berry, carefully putting it into his pack once again after slipping it on. Jeremy sighs as he stretches idly, though doing his best to keep his slitted, amber eyes out for trouble. "Yes... Unfortunately my kin and I seem to have trouble with poison types... And fire... And bug... And bird... And Ice types like yourself. At the very least, I can claim to hold sway over water, ground, and rock. When we find this trapinch, there should not be much of a problem."

He then glances at Crysel carefully. "IF we find him." He glances back around the forest. "Hopefully he is still in the area enough for you to track him... But I take it you haven't hunted much in Pecha Forest before?"

He had no illusions about Crysel's potential appetites... Sneasels were carnivores after all. Built to be hunters. Frankly, Jeremy considered it uncouth, but it wasn't his place to judge. Plenty of his family partakes in flesh after all. Now he hoped those refined senses would just prove useful.

Finally limbered out, Jeremy turns to the female sneasel. "Not bad by the way... There earlier. I don't say that often, so take that on how it is. Now... Whats our next lead?"

Crysel shrugged a little at his query on her area experience. "I have been around the area here and there. A lot of berries to eat and not a lot of especially dangerous pokemon around here. If I still lived in the wild, this would be a place I could live in... maybe with a bit more cold it would be perfect. My kind prefers quite a cold climate. Our gems help us cool down while our feathers push out heat. Helps with our attacks as well."

At the question of what to do next Crysel didn't even hesitate. "Same as before. We follow the wild path to the water source and search around it for the Trapinch. It will need water since it can't burrow into the more tightly packed dirt so easily and hide." It did not take Crysel long to find the natural path again, following it. She could however feel an uneasiness in Jeremy, directed at her to be honest. Every time he looked at her, there was something. "Is there a problem Jeremy? Is something bothering you?"

Jeremy took in this information with mild interest as both teammates got themselves ready for the continued hunt. He didn't know that about sneasels. If he was a more a scholarly sort, he probably would have been more fascinated. Expel heat and cool down? Was their natural body temperature that high? Huh...

However, he had other things to ponder and wonder about. Namely, finding this trapinch.

The pair had gotten back on track, with Jeremy keeping his amber eyes out for trouble or any kind of... Issues while Crysel focused on tracking. Jeremy couldn't quite tell where they were going. They seemed to be following a barely noticeable rut of grass through a line of trees... But the Grass Snake Pokemon could only assume it was important and the female sneasel knew where she was going. Jeremy certainly did not.

Suddenly, Crysel's gravely, yet feminine voice interrupted the male snivy and he blinked his amber eyes in surprise at the question directed at him. "Hmm?" He blinked again. "Something wrong?"

Outwardly, he was calm and inquisitive... Inwardly, he was somewhat shocked. Was he staring? That was embarrassing... Hold on... Time to fix this.

"No. No problem..." He pauses and stops, pointing to the small body of water nestled deep within the tree line in front of them. "Just noticed we are here..." He trails off as he takes in the moss covered pond, the water cloudy and murky. Around the entire clearing and bank was what looked like dirt... Odd to have in Spring. Should have been overgrown. Frowning, Jeremy stoops over and grabs a fistful of some of the soil.

It was wet... With fine, coarse grains that rained from the spaces between his clawed digits. Frowning, Jeremy's amber eyes flick back to Crysel, voice merely a whisper. "This soil has been recently stirred up... All around the pond and edges here..."

Jeremy had not been staring. You got a feel for these things when you lived in the wild. When someone was uneasy or nervous, you could always tell. The evasion did not fly past her without notice. He had something obviously bothering him, but didn't seem to want to talk about it. Crysel could let it go... for now. She may not have been one to show much emotion, but that didn't mean she did not care about those she considered friends. She would bring this up at another time, when there was no chance for distractions and she could get answers from the grass snake.

At the mention of the soil, Crysel went over and took a sniff to gauge it. "Hmm... you are right. I'd say at the most minutes before that it was disturbed. There is a chance that the one we are looking for is here." She brushed the dirt off her hand and stepped away from Jeremy. She took care to stomp into the ground, sharpening her claws against each other to create as much noise and disturbance as possible. She was making herself bait and counting on Jeremy to watch her back for her.

Crytic carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

Crytic carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

Jeremy didn't say anything to Crysel's last statement, already fixing the large patch of ground in front of him with a paranoid glance.Type advantage or not, this whole setup was an obvious ambush. It was a good thing they did not just barge in here and had a plan. Somehow, the male snivy could tell a mission with Kuro of this kind would end up fairly disastrously.

He continued to gaze around cautiously, amber eyes finally locking on to something odd in the distance. Laying on a stump heard the edge of the pond was what looked like a large, colorful ball and a small, glittering seed next to it. A small exhale leaves Jeremy as he recognizes both objects. A watmel berry and a reviser seed. Strange that it was laying out in the open like that... On the edge of all this sandy ground. Were trap inches herbivores? Somehow Jeremy very much doubted that. It looked fresh too... Almost recently picked. So if it was bait... Then their target was expecting some recent arrivals...

Only feral, maybe wild pokemon would fall for such a trick... And only the less cunning ones that would not expect this obvious danger. As Crysel steps out into the sandy clearing and starts stomping her feet and making a general ruckus, it comes to the snivy's attention that she is reversing the roles of being bait. She was going to draw out their target on her own terms. Clever. Dangerous, but clever.

Understanding her intent now, Jeremy takes extra pains to be quiet As he follows the line of the clearing in the female sneasel's general direction. All seemed quiet for a while, and Jeremy kept his amber eyes on the loose soil. Each step Crysel took would sink in some before she wrenched it back off... Very fine. Almost like the beach. None of it seemed compact. But nothing was happening after a good few minutes of this... Perhaps he had moved on? Or perhaps he was hiding somewhere else? Jeremy was about to say something until he felt a tell tale tremor in the ground that Crysel may or may not have noticed.

For snake pokemon like Jeremy, vibrations, reverberations, and other fluctuations were particularly noticeable. His kin were very sensitive to such things. So when the ground beneath Cryel's feet rumbled and slowly started to swallow her form, Jeremy was ready.

"CRYSEL!"

A *Thwip* sound was heard as a strong, green tendril suddenly shot out from Jeremy's leafy collar. with quick precision, it wrapped around the female sneasel's waist, the lifeline going taunt and rigid as it prevented her continued descent. Gritting his teeth upon feeling the weight, the snivy throws out another vine to wrap around a branch on the far side of the clearing to act as an anchor for both of them. His vines were tough, but sneasels weighed more than snivies, and even he could feel the pull of the sand trap.

Said sand trap was actually a large, deep sand pit. It was a depression several yards across and big enough to swallow much larger pokemon. The sides of the pit were steep, with constant rivulets of sand and grains pouring into a barely visible slit beneath at the bottom. It would nearly be impossible to climb out of, the intent of the trap to exhaust potential escapees until they fell to the bottom... Being swallowed by the ground itself.

Crysel had her lifeline though. Even though she was waist deep in the side of the wall, her vine would keep her from going in any further. Visible to her, a large, orange head would eventually poke out from the bottom of the pit, the sand naturally coursing around its form. The entire head itself seemed to composed of massive, crushing jaws and dark, beady eyes that stared at the female sneasel as they narrowed...

Crysel had felt the ground sink under her and quickly tried to back off. The ground was quick however and would have pulled her down if not for Jeremy's quick vine wrapping around her. The sand trap had no traction, but the line held her from going lower. The sight of the Trapinch was a welcome one. Currently it would have been stupid to try to use her claws to attack. The only possible mobile action would be up and down via the whip. But that would leave her in the mercy of those jaws due to slow down pulling her away. She needed a range attack. Luckily she had one such attack.

The sneasel gathered all of her cold inside, trying to focus it in her mouth. She looked straight at the Trapinch, aiming carefully. Then, she opened and a light blue beam of energy shot out, blasting the Trapinch itself. Thanks to its typing, the ice attack was very effective and chilled him to the bone. With great luck, it even froze the Trapinch solid along with sand around it. To stop it from sinking, Crysel quickly froze all the sand around her that she could. The move was still new and she barely got enough before it petered out.

Crysel sighed and called out. "Jeremy, he is not going anywhere. Though we will have to carry him and thaw him out later. I need to pull him out now. Can you lower me so I can get him loose?"

Jeremy couldn't really see anything from his position save for the top back head of the female sneasel. He could tell though from the tightness of the vine and the occasional sensation of movement on the other end that Crysel was secure. Supreme relief washed over his form, but not only for a second. The simple fact was their target was here and was trying to get on the offensive.

The male snivy knew he was sort of stuck right now. He had to keep himself anchored for Crysel and it wasn't like he could see the enemy right now either. Gritting his teeth, long fangs bared, Jeremy tried to consider his limited options. Luckily, he did not have to.

The trapinch had stuck its head above ground, its beady eyes narrowed as it tried to make out the intruder. They didn't have the best of eyesight, and he knew he caught something... Somewhat perplexed that either the prey, bounty hunters, or both haven't fallen in yet. He could see a distinct, dark blur on the side of the sand wall... But a bright, ice-blue light caused the trapinch to let out a squeak as it tried to dive back under. It didn't get a chance to do so.

The ice beam was quick, causing a sudden flash freeze within the sand pit. From his position, Jeremy could feel the intense cold on the end of his vine and see the flurry of snow flakes of the beam being thrown into the air as it impacted something... The snivy thought he knew cold... Heck, even thought the current weather was chilly... But this was something else that put the snivy at great unease. This was the type of cold that paradoxically burned. Were it not for his composure, in panic, the Grass Snake Pokemon might have dropped his partner in the swallowing silt below.

He kept hold though, and it was Crysel's voice that helped him relax enough to keep a calm mind."I don't know what you did..." He declared loudly. "But thank goodness I wasn't at the end of that. At least you have a ranged attack now too..." He didn't sound entirely convinced of his words.

Unwinding the vine that connected himself to the tree, Jeremy carefully dragged himself forward as he reached the edge of the sand trap. Crysel would notice that the rivulets that drained below had stopped, just leaving a loose wall of silt and dirt... It would be difficult climb out, but doable now that the walls were not receding.

Peeking into the pit, Jeremy blinks his amber eyes at the sight of the trapinch, its expression literally frozen in terror and eventually smirks. "Yeah, I can do that... Just tell me if he starts moving again or if you feel loose." Furrowing his brow in concentration, Jeremy carefully unwinds more vine as the sneasel slowly lowers into the icy slope.

Crysel nodded and came down to the frozen Trapinch. In order to make it less heavy, she began clawing at the ice and slicing of the extra. Once she had clawed off what she felt was a safe ammount without letting it melt easily or chopping at the pokemon itself, Cry dug her claws in to get a grip and held the ice to her. "I got it at the dojo. Since I am an ice type I figured I needed an ice type attack. I'm still uncomfortable with Avalanche and not very practiced at using it. Ice beam is a lot easier to control than that. Anyway, pull me up. I sheared off as much ice as possible to make it lighter for you."

Jeremy watched the female sneasel carefully hack and cut through the ice, sparing a glance around their surroundings to make sure no one else tried to sneak up on them. "You don't say? Well I'm glad you were able to pull it off now. Didn't want to go through the effort of a plan on THAT encounter." He nods. "This just makes things easier."

At Crysel's last statement, the male snivy nods as he pulls back, muttering about how he isn't used to doing this grunt work. He pulls her up though eventually, the ice stature of the trapinch landing with a dull thud in the loose sand and dirt at the edge of the pit, its frozen body glittering in the low light.

"He isn't going to die is he?" Jeremy asked. "Pretty sure we aren't supposed to kill him. That would complicate this."

He turns to Crysel and raises a yellow brow.

Crysel shook her head. "No... I have this gut feeling. Perhaps it is from my memories. Like I've seen this before. I just know that as long as he is slowly thawed and not shattered into bits, he will be alive." As Jeremy rested, Crysel went to a near tree and looked up in the branches. Seeing something, she climbed up and took a minute to gather vines to take down. She then went to work tying them around the frozen Trapinch and made two simple harnesses with plenty of slack. She placed one on and wrapped a bit around herself. She handed the other harness to Jeremy. "The slippery ice will make it easier to pull. Time to get pulling." Crysel started stretching her muscles, getting ready for the long trek back to turn this pokemon in.