A Final Moment in Time

What really is strength? Do you work for it? Do you earn it? Does it come naturally? A small feathered creature stared at the ground as he walked, pondering these thoughts. He had been told that he was in fact NOT weak...he was apparently strong. He didn't believe so, so he had began to think these strange thoughts. His old partner, someone he had thought to think him as the weakest being around, had told him he was stronger than he thought. Acro remained silent as he looked up at the mountain with swirling mists of darkness at its peak. He had never gone to the peak before, he only stayed around the base.

Memories of his travels with a friendly gengar returned to him, they had scaled this mountain in a painful search of the joy ribbon that was wrapped around the Archen's neck. Did this ribbon help him to become even stronger? He was certainly convinced so, but he still thought of himself as weak.

Voices in his mind echoed and snarled at him, "Weak, coward, stupid!" there were only two. The voices of the partner who went missing, Flint, and the one who had died and returned to haunt him, Astrid. A third used to be present, George's voice, but it had disappeared ever since the conversation he had with the buizel.

The archen shook the strange thoughts out of his mind, now was not the time to be pondering this! It would probably give him a headache from thinking about it too much was his thought process. The archen's wings flapped uselessly as he leaped onto a larger boulder, getting a higher view point of the area. Was there any friendly pokemon in this area perhaps?

A lone Buizel trudged through the mists of the mountains silently. It was a training trip, an exploring trip. The usual. She hadn't been here before, although they were very many places in this world that she had never been to. Was treasure waiting? Adventure? New friendships or teammates? She looked around quickly but didn't see anything that fit along those lines, although she did see a silhouette in the distant fog. She couldn't make it out, though. Did it know who she was?

The Water-type, who's name was Tally, stepped a bit closer to the figure. It seemed to jump onto somewhere higher. She went closer, figuring whatever it was would have to jump down to catch her first.

"Hello?" she said quietly when she though she was close enough. "Who's there?"

"Hello?" a pause, "Who's there?" a familiar voice interrupted the silence. The archen's head swiveled towards the source, seeing a shape in the fog himself. The flightless bird recognized the voice that he had so long since heard. It had to be the buizel he had traveled with George to monochrome falls. The one who acted a bit weird, but was still a nice buizel. The archen hopped down from his rock, "T-Tally?" he called out, almost sure it was the buizel he had met long ago.

The archen tilted his head as he awaited an answer, hoping that the buizel would perhaps want to travel with him. He loathed being alone, he felt he was not capable of protecting himself by himself. The burn for strength flared up once more, a feeling he had grown used to, along with the despair of reminding himself that there was no way he would become that strong. The only key to being strong was evolution, he still had not yet achieved it, therefor he had still not achieved strength.

"I-It's Acro..." he responded.

"T-Tally? I-It's Acro..."

"Acro...!" Tally repeated. Acro. That Archen from way back when. A former crush. A friend who hadn't been seen in a long time. The Buizel ran up directly below to where the Archen was perched, atop a boulder. There he was. There seemed to be something different sbout him, though. She couldn't tell what, though. Memories flooded back to her, including those of a recent conversation with her other travelling partner back when they all first met. George had claimed that they were no longer partners and that there were some rumors that the Archen was going insane. She really hoped the rumors weren't true.

"Wow, it's been so long, hasn't it?" Tally refrained from saying something like How have you been? She didn't want to stir up any bad memories.

The buizel had come closer to the Archen, and asked him about the length of time it had been since they last saw each other, "Yeah!" he nodded, happy to see an old friend. The archen remained silent as the voices screeched in a contest to see who could shout insults the loudest. Acro resisted the urge to cover his ears in attempt to save his hearing, it would have been useless anyways.
"What brings you to this mountain?" the archen asked, his voice seemed rather quiet as he was lost in the shouting of the voices that slowly eat away at his confidence.

Tally noticed Acro's quiet tone. She didn't make any connections, but still was worried about the Archen.

"Exploring. Training. Why else? Unless it's a mission I'm always out an' about. There's plenty of new things to see and learn every day," the Buizel explained. She loved getting stronger, and seeing new things was always a plus. There was a whole wide world out there!

"What about you?"

"Oh nothing much...I was just kinda curious about what was at the top of this peak...i've never really gone past the base..." The archen looked to the top of the mountain, its peak was hidden from the archen's view, only seeing the dark an ominous clouds that swirled around the mountain intimidatingly. The archen tilted his head at the clouds, they never seemed to go away, as if they were attached to the mountain, and would never let go for the life of them. Even when other clouds are absent, those clouds are still there.

Tally looked, too, but all she could see were the same clouds of fog and mist that the Archen saw. She couldn't tell how much farther up the peak was, but perhaps it would be a good idea to travel up there together.

"Me neither, Acro," Tally said, her eyes moving back to focus on the Archen."Why don't we head up together. It'll be fun." The Buizel gave a genuine smile. She hoped that if he agreed she could learn just what was going on with Acro. She was curious, and, if something was truly wrong with him, wanted to help

Acro looked to the buizel, and smiled.
"Sure! Want to lead?"
He was quite excited to explore with the buizel again, it had been so long since the akward exploration in Monochrome Falls, and he did not quite like going into ominous places alone. The cowardly little archen may have come a long way in his quest for strength, but he was still nowhere near completing it. His dream to become strong was one of those life long quests, one nobody could ever finish no matter what they did. The archen did not realize that though, he believed that there was an end, that there was a way to become stronger and stay the strongest.

"Sounds like a plan, then. C'mon," Tally said. She looked around a bit, seeing through the ominous fog as best she could. Reuniting with Acro had disoriented her a bit, but soon enough she was able to make out a nice path up the mountain's slope. She began to head toward it, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Acro wasn't falling behind.

The way up the mountain was still rough and rocky but definitely better than straight up climbing it. It looked like it had been carved out by other Pokemon who were here prior. It must not have been too long ago, what with the strange tendencies that mystery dungeons had. The Buizel wondered if the Pokemon who formed this path were still here. Maybe they would run into them!

Acro looked to the path and followed behind the buizel. The archen trained his eyes on the mountain's top. The spiraling mist's was almost hypnotic as it twirled in a clockwise pattern. The archen remained silent as they traveled, having nothing to say but feeling as if he should be talking. He walked along, his tail swinging methodically back and forth as they walked. The voices in his cranium and lowered to whispers, taunting whispers that gave him chills. It was as if two pokemon were whispering to each other and pointing at him occasionally or nodding their heads toward him, then after a bit they would both glare at him and giggle in a git of laughter as they would laugh at him. The silence seemed to make him want the voices' screaming come back.

The walk was quiet. In fact, a bit too quiet for the Buizel. As much as she wanted to spark up a conversation, Tally didn't want to seem too nosy, and perhaps she really didn't want to find out if the rumors were true. She glanced at him and sighed. "So...," she said, but drifted off. She mustered up her courage and tried to continue. "How have you been?" she asked quietly. She tried not to worry.

"Um...fine...i guess...not much happening, just doing missions...and stuff..." The archen did not mention the recent events that had triggered the voices, or anything similar to it. 'Just the simple pokemon explorer here! Nothing special!'
"I met George recently in Serene Cave...we did a mission together...but this time it wasn't as a team...since he left and all," the archen could not quite remember if the buizel knew of his past just yet. He would not be surprised since according to Sorren the torchic he was quite talked about, and his rumors apparently told of him being too strong to have a partner. This was untrue, he was actually, in his opinion, too weak to have a partner.

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

Tally nodded. He hadn't confirmed any of the rumors, but he didn't seem the same as way back when. His speech was different, that was it! Tally sighed. "Life happens, I guess... Were you still able to work together, just like those old times when you were official a team? Or have you lost your- Wait a moment."

Tally stopped and felt something under her foot. She was careful not to squish it as she bend over to pick it up. It was a shiny blue spherical object: an orb. She rolled it around in her paws a bit before holding it out to Acro. "Check this out," she said, handing it to the Archen. "I dunno what it does, but..." Tally lightly shrugged.

((Energy: 36))

Acro examined the orb, "I don't know either...but it might be best to save it...it might be something useful later on..." The archen looked to the buizel, technically she had found it, but he was wondering if he should put it in his bag, "Should...should I carry this?" he asked. The archen looked at the orange weasel of the water, or otter of the water but the buizels represent weasels more than otters in this narrators opinion, with twin tails, awaiting an answer. The archen held the orb in his wings, the orb neither activating nor showing evidence of what mysterious power it could hold within it.

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

(be a poke this time pls so we have something to do |D)