A Sickeningly Sweet Smell

First topic message reminder :

Akuroma quietly walked into Pecha forest. Even if Ned the Nincada didn't have his amazing sense of smell, the Ralts would know exactly where to go. He turned twords the small bug type with his arms outstretched, "Welcome to Pecha Forest. It's also known as Trainee forest by a few pokemon, as this is where most new exploration teams come to train and complete their first missions," he explained. It seemed that nearly every tree in the forest had more pecha berries than leaves. Most weren't ripe yet, though, the smaller sickly green looking pecha berries would do nothing but leave a bitter taste in a pokemon's mouth until they matured.

"Well, excuse me, that there is only this much one can do at this siz-whoa!"
As the Nincada was trying to drain the Parat's blood both to weaken the enemy and to strengthen himself, he suddenly felt himself launched into the air, landing in a nearby tree.
The Patrat was a bit heavier and thus collided with the tree trunk, almost shaking Ned out of the twigs and leaves again.
Slowly the dizzy Nincada crawled down again, finally on solid ground once more.
The Patrat meanwhile faced the Ralts again, this time trying to use a Bite attack.

The Ralts sat up and brushed off the dirt from his gown before he turned his attention to the Patrat. Akuroma didn't give the Patrat much time to recover before blasting it with a Confuse Ray and just attacking it without a move. He was too focused on the Patrat that he didn't notice Ned appearing to be confused from the Confusion attack, which could spell trouble for them both.

Luckily for both of them, it had just been the impact, that had broken the Nincada's concentration for a moment. His thoughts clearing again, the Nincada's head was shaken to finally think clearly again.
However, as he was much smaller than the Patrat, it would take him a longer time to reach the field of battle again. Hoping for the Ralts to be able to fend off the enemy, which was simply clawing at the Psychic type for the moment, Ned crawled towards the two of them as quickly as he could.
Why did he have to be this small again?

As the Nincada approached, Akuroma threw one more Confusion attack at the Patrat, slamming the rodent into a tree. The Patrat did not stand after falling to the ground from the impact. Akuroma stared at it, panting, his horn, which had been glowing a slight red during the battle, dulled, and his anger disappeared almost completely.
"You alright?" the Ralts asked, looking over at Ned a bit worriedly.

"Guess so. Why did I have to be this useless again?", Ned asked both the Ralts and the cosmos in general.
"At least we managed to get rid of that Pokémon. Why do half the Pokémon in this world have to be this aggressive again?"
That was the problem. Either there would be no problems and everyone would be semi-happy.
Or there could be problems with some Pokémon suffering, but there would be the chance for heroes and true friendships to be created.
Which one would be better?
And was there anyone in this world fit to decide that?

"You weren't useless," he said, brushing his gown off as he listened to the Nincada.
"No idea, being in a dungeon must make them much more territorial than normal, I've been pouring over books trying to figure out when, how, and why the dungeons started to appear, and I've found nothing but legends and omens, a few connected to the supposed disappearance of humans from the world, though I believe that's ridiculous, creatures that didn't speak our language and had no powers yet they ruled the world and disappeared from it just as quickly," Akuroma said before he checked his injuries. Believing they weren't too bad, he began to press onward into the dungeon.
"Besides, if there were no evil or aggressive pokemon, then there'd be no good or friendly pokemon. Everything must have an equal and opposite component. Without fear there is no bravery, without life there is no death, without something there is no nothing. It's disheartening, but it's also good, because that means every pokemon is capable of both great good and great evil, and most tend to be within the neutral range of that."

"So if that's the case, you must be my equal and opposite component! Y'know... not at all fabulous and pretty ugly! Also totally not as cool as me!" A voice emanated from behind the Ralts. "Fancy meeting you here, BRBK!" A snickering Meowth came into view, a plump Pecha berry in his paw. "I'm sure you remember me, Keyami, ruler of all."

"Thanks, I guess, but I didn't really do much. Guess you're right about that though. There is nothing good without the bad...but-"
As Ned spoke, an unfamiliar scent rose up to his antennae.
Where did it originate from?
"Who, what, why and how are you here?", he addressed the intruder.
"And why hasn't your ego taken down those trees already? Must be more than big enough for that."
Why was this creature so vain?
While Ned wasn't really one capable of comparing appearances, he already knew, that Akuroma was much better company.

Akuroma froze in place, visibly becoming paler, if that's possible, being mainly white.
"Th-there's no way that could be you..." he said turning around slowly only to be greeted by the sight of Keyami, the annoying Meowth.
"Wh-what are you doing here!?" he said, doing his best to not make the trees crush the cat pokemon, "Last we met, we parted ways after exploring Monochrome Cave!"

"Heh, it's me alright~" The Meowth's face was adorned with a large grin. Keyami's gaze slipped to the Nincada. "The name's Keyami, I'm a Meowth, duh, and this is, like, practically my home. Anyway, I don't think it's any of your business!" He paused a moment to take in Ned's remark about his ego. His face fell. "W...What? Am I.. am I unbearable? Intolerable? DOES MY VERY PRESENCE DRIVE YOU TO ABHOR ME?? WHAT HAVE I DONE?! HOW CAN I FIX IT?? ARCEUS ABOVE H E L P!!" The Pokemon fell to his knees, weeping, paws grasping at the sky.

If his neck would allow him that much flexibility, Ned would have bashed his head on the ground now.
Repeatedly.

"You know this...this creature?!"
How could this Meowth not yet have recieved some severe slapping from something much bigger than him already? How could anyone be able to spend more than five minutes in his presence?
His honesty compelling him to ignore politeness in this case, Ned found himself blurting out a simple:
"Yes."

Akuroma pressed the Nincada's head into the ground to quickly silence him before he finished saying "Yes."
"If you don't want it to get worse, do not say that word," Akuroma said before releasing the bog type. "No, no Keyami, we just didn't expect you, of all pokemon, to be in Pecha woods," Akuroma said, his voice returning to it's usual calmness as he ignored the Meowth's loud rambling, which was probably attracting feral pokemon from miles around.
"So why are you in Pecha woods, and could you please speak a little quieter?" the Ralts asked as nicely as he could manage.

"OOOOH WHHHHHYYY- Oh. Okay!~" The sobbing stopped in a split second and the Meowth climbed back to his feet. "I'm sure it's pretty intimidating being in a presence, you must've merely been a bit apprehensive," the Pokemon reassured himself, voice as loud as ever. "Anyway, what are you two doing here? Seems a little too adventurous for two losers such as yourselves."

"Yemmmphhh.."
Not only did Ned suddenly find an abnormal proportion of his field of vision being taken up by dirt, but that Normal type had just called them "losers" for no reason at all!
And the Nincada shouldn't even be allowed to object to that?
Why did Akuroma defend this...this imbecile?
The Bug type felt the urge to beat the everloving tar out of this Meowth rising.
But...no...he couldn't do that.
Didn't he come here to avoide becoming like the clan's members?
It was going to be more difficult than he thought.
With his face still in the ground, the Ground type mumbled a few curses, that would have made any Ghost type proud.

Akuroma ignored the "losers" remark as he released Ned from the ground.
"Ned here wants to train some before he tries to join the guild, and I'm showing him around since I've explored Pecha Woods a couple of times," he said.
"I suppose you'll be on your way back to Grassveil now. Oh well, nice seeing you again," Akuroma said as he turned around, throwing the Meowth a small wave as he began to walk off.
"C'mon Ned, let's head in deeper before it turns night, there should be some good items and slightly stronger pokemon within that we can use to our advantage," he said, trying to get away from the Meowth before he decided to follow them.