To the Monochrome Ruins! The Bookworm Ralts meets the Prankster Aipom and Outlaw Zorua!?

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Akuroma peered up at the tall dark trees of Shadowhue. Though he's explored them before, he shivered a bit in fear. This would be his first time exploring the forest alone, and he had trouble exploring them with other pokemon before. The Ralts took in a deep breath and sighed it out before hefting up his bag.
"No use in fretting over it, so long as I'm quick and quiet I should avoid the wild pokemon here," he told himself before he began trudging into the dark forest. After an hour or so of exploring he stopped and dumped his bag beside him before sitting down against a tree. He gently touched the small scars across his cheek before grimacing.
"Can't believe I let a little Patrat do this to me..." he complained as he looked up at the trees above him, "I shouldn't be far now, but if I don't reach the falls soon, I may run out of luck and run into a wild pokemon."

Swinging back and forth by his tail, Cracker swiftly launched himself higher into a nearby tree after Akuroma reply to Mirage’s suspicions of betrayal. Although he didn’t know why the Zorua thought the Ralts untrustworthy as to plant a trap in these woods, he was more than eager to relieve her concerns moving forward.

Landing deftly on a branch overlooking a rough path through the undergrowth, the Aipom waved to the small four-legged Pokemon as Akumora made his departure.

“Don’t worry! I can see everything from up here, I’ll make sure it’s safe!” Making a mock salute with one of his short arms, he giggled and chittered as he took off to follow Ralts, swinging through the trees.

The zorua looked up as the purple long tailed pokemon waved and attempted to reassure her about her worries. The zorua continued to hesitate, but figured that since the aipom did not quite know who she was, then he would watch her back with this ralts. The zorua took a step forward, giving herself a shake as some dead leaves still clung to her fur before going, and followed the white figure with a green helm.

The trees rustles and shook against each other as the aipom swung from branch to branch. Mirage imagined that it would be quite difficult to catch the aipom alone without the ability to fly or maneuver the trees like he could. 'I guess I should count myself lucky that he did not plan to run off too far with my earrings...and that the ralts took them back from the pokemon.' The thought of the ralts's psychic power made her begin to wonder why psychic type moves and pokemon could not affect her. Maybe the dark type pokemon grew an immunity for it over time, or perhaps it was just always like this?

Mirage wandered as she wondered, brushing her shoulder against a tree on accident from not paying attention. The brush snapped her back to her senses and she payed more attention to her path with the ralts, "So, you know my name, what about yours?" she decided to ask, "And You?" she called up to the trees for the aipom. She knew how it felt to be left out of things from her time in her old village. When she was younger, nobody wanted to play with her or speak with her because she was a dark type, sure there were other dark types, but she was a pure dark type, and pure dark type meant pure evil in that village. She wouldn't want to wish that feeling on anyone who didn't deserve it.

The vixen stopped, was she being a little TOO nice? Was she straying from the expectations of society? Was she going to become just like her parents and nearly starve to death? The zorua felt a brief moment of panic flow through her, "Not that I care," she added. She looked to the floor of the dark and dense forest, moments like these have been happening more and more recently.
'what is causing it?' She wondered...

"Try to keep a look out for any pokemon that may appear as well," Akuroma called out to the Aipom, though he kept his eyes forward. He then fell silent before hearing the Zorua's questions.
Akuroma glanced back at the Zorua, "You sure sound like you care, and I already told you, it's Akuroma. Try to listen next time," he said, shifting the bag he was carrying, "Just because you may not follow the law that does not mean you have to be rude."
He then turned his attention back in front of him, only to find himself facing three pokemon.
"Cracker...didn't I say to look out for pokemon?" he asked, in a slightly irritated voice.

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

As he swung through the trees by his tail, Cracker hummed merrily, glad to be in the company of other Pokemon in such a dangerous forest. He had no idea where they were headed, but it was better than standing still by himself. Wherever they were headed though, he was more eager to get there than they were, so to keep from racing ahead of Mirage and Akuroma, the Aipom came to a stop and back-tracked, circling overhead like a hungry Spearow as the two below conversed.

Still prancing around, unable to contain his energy, the purple-furred Pokemon responded to the Ralts’ command to keep a look-out with a mid-air salute as he transitioned between branches. Taking the task seriously, he jumped to a group of tree-limbs closer to the ground, so he could see through the dimness of the forest a little better, scoping the surrounding bushes.

He was glued to his duty for only a few moments before he caught wind that Mirage didn’t catch his name earlier. With a spring in his step he bounced over to her and dangled by his tail from the nearest branch.

“I’m Cracker, remember?” he reminded. “You know, you’re really—”

Before he could finish, the sound of Akuroma’s irritated voice arose up ahead. The Aipom’s grin dropped into a frown instantly as he released his hold on the branch and flipped to the ground, propping himself up on the hand-like appendage at the tip of his tail.

“Oh, right! Uh—you did, and-and…” Looking rather sheepish he held up his paws. “Aaand… there they are.”

Cracker couldn’t help but wince inwardly. He could tell from the look on the faces of the wild bug and grass-types Sewaddle, Swadloon and Leavanny blocking their path, that a three-on-three battle was in the group’s immediate future. Even with Mirage and Akuroma to back him up, he wasn’t feeling overly confident about what was effectively going to be his first real battle but he quickly hid his concerns behind a shaky grin nonetheless.

The zorua stopped, staring as the nearly four foot tall grass and bug type stood before them. The leavanny seemed to glare down at them distastefully, as if they were a dirty brown smudge on a clean sheet of a most precious scarf. The leavanny huffed as if she had not the time to deal with these pests, and reached out her arm and the arm hardened into a blade of leaves, leaf blade. The Leavanny seemed to smirk all of a sudden, as if she were about to enjoy herself despite not wanting to have to fight them earlier.

The smirk faded as her eyes laid on the small grey fox who had sat down. The fox was, whimpering? The leavanny blinked in surprise as the vixen's chin shivered and her eyes squinted and tears began to form. The tears began to flow faster and faster until it was almost a constant stream. Mirage hated using this move, but the Leavanny seemed like it would be a powerful opponent that needed to be weakened at all costs. Mirage was using Fake Tears, as the Leavanny began to grow confused and flustered.

The zorua's bawling didn't reach the other pokemon, since the other pokemon decided to focus on the other two that accompanied Mirage. Once the Zorua's bawling had finished, the Leavanny was confused, and its guard was down. Mirage took this chance to get back onto all four of her legs and began to charge a pulse of a dark energy. It was the move that she was going to use against the Aipom earlier, but this time it did not seem like she would allow the move to break so easily.

She growled as the remnants of the tears flowed from her eyes, and dark matter began to gather around her body in a sphere. The zorua focused the energy in a horizontal line and shot it at the Leavanny, who easily jumped over it. The Leavanny seemed to decide to have a change of tactics, and changed its attack from Leaf Blade to Razor Leaf as leaves began to gather around and fly towards all three of the opposing pokemon that had invaded their territory.

Akuroma didn't even pay Mirage attention as she used Fake Tears. Instead he stared at the Swadloon, who stared back at him. He slowly dipped his hand into his bag, at which the Swadloon began to growl at. The Ralt's horn twitched slightly at the Levanny's incoming attack, which he countered with Confusion with some difficulties; only able to move the leaves slightly to miss the three pokemon.
"Mirage, Cracker, focus your attacks on the Levanny, the other two might run away if we defeat it," Akuroma said, before redirecting his Confusion attack at the Levanny to hold it still.

Until the Levanny leapt to avoid a blistering ball of dark energy, the Aipom hadn’t even realized the battle was underway. He’d heard Zorua’s Fake Tears attack behind him where the Dark Pulse was launched from, but fear kept his eyes locked onto the three enemies, the largest of which was now unleashing a volley of spinning, razor-sharp leaves. The attack was aimed at his entire party, and much as he wanted to, terror kept him in place.

The Razor Leaf attack was fast and strong, hurdling straight towards him. Rather than defend himself the Aipom, still balancing on his tail, cringed and covered his face with his arms, expecting a painful impact. If not for Akuroma’s Confusion attack, he would’ve been taken out in a single hit. Instead, all the leaves were redirected into the earth around him, punching into the forest floor with enough force to stir up a cloud of dust.

Cracker opened his eyes to find himself still intact with the Ralts commanding him and Mirage to focus on the biggest threat. That seemed easy enough. A three-on-one fight would be much easier and less dangerous to his wellbeing.

Jumping off his tail, the Aipom moved to assist in subduing the Levanny while Akuroma held it in place with his psychic attack. Before he could even get close though, he was side-swiped by a Tackle attack from the Sewaddle. Clearly the smallest of the three wasn’t about to be left out of the fight.

Hitting the dirt hard though relatively unscathed by the attack, Cracker bounced back onto his tail, shaking himself off. The Sewaddle had positioned itself between him and Ralts, effectively cutting him off. Meanwhile, the Swadloon was focusing its next attack on the distracted Akuroma.

“Aku, look out!” he squeaked, barely dodging a second Tackle attack from the small Sewaddle.

Mirage had been struck by a few of the leaves, but wasn't hurt much. The zorua growled in annoyance and pain, before leaping up into the Leavanny's line of sight and unleashing a Fury Swipes upon its eyes. Her claws grew longer and glowed a bright white with the power of a normal type attack as she unleashed a good few swiped on the Leavanny's yellow head. Her attack did not last long though, as the leavanny screeched and swung its arm at her. Mirage screeched in pain as the force of the leaf blade, which she had been lucky enough to have been struck by the flat and not the sharp side, slammed her into a nearby tree. She fell into the bushes below, and did not seem to come out. The leavanny turned back to her family, the Swadloon and the sewaddle, and prepared to unleash another razor leaf attack upon them.

'Okay, focus. You have time to focus now, limited, but some time...' Mirage thought as she laid on the ground belly down. She began to call upon her illusion ability, and tried to change her appearance. If one had been there to see the zorua, they would have seen her form begin to shimmer and distort as a small and thick red haze began to surrounded her. The haze barely reached the tips of her hears, as body seemed to shrink and be replaced with stubby orange legs. and the tips of her ears became the tips of a leaf.

When she finally finished, she surveyed the area outside the bush, peaking around to see the Leavanny focusing another Razor leaf on the duo and the Swadloon getting ready to attack the ralts. Mirage then had an idea...she flung her illusion-disguised self onto the swadloon and began to use her Fake Tears to begin crying. The Sewaddle illusion looked similar to the other sewaddle, and caused the swadloon and the leavanny to hesitate, in fear of attacking one of their own, and worst, their youngest. The swadloon began to grow confused as the Fake Tears took effect, with a bonus of confusion as a second sewaddle seemed to appear before it. These pokemon did not seem to know about the Zorua's ability to change what they appeared to be and trick them into thinking they were something else, so for all they knew, the Sewaddle who had thrown itself on the swadloon was the real sewaddle, who was actually Mirage.

Akuroma blinked, but then quickly used his confusion attack to blast the original Sewaddle into a bush before the other two enemies could notice. He then grabbed at Mirage and held her by the throat, or what appeared to be a Sewaddle's throat and held a Cacnea spike he had in his bag to to her.
"You see this? One wrong move and you'll have a child to bury," Akuroma threatened.
"We'll let him go once we've rounded that corner in the trail," he said, nodding behind him, "Cracker, get up into the trees and make sure they don't move a muscle."
He then looked at the apparent Sewaddle in his arms and whispered lowly, "Try not to lose that illusion, the farther we get from the real one, the less influence my Confusion has on it. We should be far away enough from them to lose them before the real one can get out from those bushes."

After warning the Ralts, Cracker no longer had the luxury of observing anything beyond the angry little Sewaddle. The little leafy bug Pokemon launched a string of Tackle attacks, most of which the Aipom was able to dodge thanks to his Agility. For such a small thing though, it was unrelenting, and eventually it got a few hits in, which Cracker didn’t take too flatteringly.

A particularly big hit sent him rolling backwards, which he transformed into in a dexterous landing on his tail. Before he could respond though, a String Shot cocooned his body and knocked him off his self-made pillar.

Without even waiting, the Sewaddle started right into another Tackle. Before it could even move two feet though, it was promptly ejected from the small clearing and into a nearby bush, leaving the Aipom bound and confused.

Shifting his attention to the others he released pretty quickly what was happening, even if he didn’t understand it. Akuroma had temporarily incapacitated the Sewaddle while he held another hostage.

Wait, where’d that one come from? He thought.

Where it came from was of little consequence, either way. The impromptu hostage situation had put a halt to the entire battle. Both the Swadloon and Levanny were backing up trying to be non-threatening now that their youngest was captured.

Akuroma explained the terms to the offending Pokemon, to which they seems to reluctantly agree to, then he instructed Cracker to ascend into the trees to make sure it stayed that way. In order to oblige, the Aipom squirmed in his binds, using the hand-like appendage of his free tail to tear off the silk. Once he was clear of the stringy substance, he high-tailed it into the nearest tree, taking roost on the closest branch that overlooked the area.

With this new vantage point, he immediately began looking for Mirage, but couldn’t find her anywhere.

Leaning down on the branch, he asked of the Ralts quite loudly, “Hey Aku, where’s Mirage?”

Mirage was outraged upon suddenly being grabbed. She began to squirm and fight back until the cacnea spike came near her paws, which was about where the Sewaddles neck looked to be. She heard Akuroma's voice speak to the other pokemon and then whisper to her, she released an unpleasant silent growl to let the Ralts know that she was not happy with this plan at all. She relaxed, and assisted the ralts in holding up her weight with her hind paws. She was, in reality, one feet taller than him, so it must have been difficult to carry her.

Mirage let loose a few whimpers in mock fear to continue the ploy, the leavanny and swadloon looked both concerned and furious about this predicament. The leavanny's eyes scared Mirage a little, making her think that the Sewaddle must have been more family to the leavanny than she thought. The zorua winced as the spike poked her slightly, "Watch it! Hurt me too much and the disguise will go down itself!" she whispered to the ralts, making sure that the sewaddle's mouth did not move as she whispered.

The aipom suddenly leaned down and asked where she was the zorua's ears flattened in irritation, "say you saw me get knocked out or ran away or something!" he whispered to the ralts.

He kept his eyes on the two pokemon in front of him while his psychic sense focused entirely on the real Sewaddle, he was beginning to wiggle around from the increasing distance. He smirked slightly at Mirage's comment then suggestion.
"She ran off! Seems dark types are nothing but cowards when they think they're losing," Akuroma said to Cracker as he continued to back up.
"5...4...3...2...1! Now run!" he said, turning the corner and half dragging the fake Sewaddle with him, "Hurry Cracker! Get higher up so they can't see you but keep an eye on us!" he called out to the Aipom in the trees not soon after the real Sewaddle jumped out of the bushes.

Cracker was less than thrilled by the Ralts’ response. He actually felt a little… disappointed. Mirage hadn’t struck him as the type to be cowardly; that was more his specialty. There were more pressing matters to be concerned about right now, though. No doubt Akuroma was having trouble keeping the other Sewaddle contained. He still couldn’t figure out where that other one came from, though.

As the Ralts began distancing himself and the Sewaddle from the Swadloon and Levanny, the Aipom followed closely from above, keeping a keen eye on the two evolved Pokemon. Neither of them were moving, but boy did they want to. They were clearly torn between rescuing their offspring and letting the group get away.

When they finally reached the bend in the path where Akuroma promised to release the Sewaddle, instead, he started counting down before shouting for them to run, pulling his captive along with him. Not prepared to argue, Cracker followed suit, doing as instructed.

In just a few seconds, the purple-furred Pokemon was out of sight, high up in the trees, following the two on the ground, gaining on them and even surpassing them in speed. Fully in his element, the Aipom was one with the twisted network of branches, weaving his way left and right until…

Coming to an abrupt stop, he listened for the sound of movement down below, but he couldn’t hear anything. Great, now I’m lost, he scolded himself. All you had to do was follow, dummy, how’d you mess that up?

Hoping to spot his only companions in these dark, foreboding woods, Cracker descended to the lowest branches he could find, searching the forest floor in a quiet panic. Then of course he opened his mouth.

“Guys? Guys!” he screeched. “Aku? Mirage! Where’d yah go?!”

He couldn’t have been much louder if he were a Loudred.

“Hellooo—”

A sudden rustling in the bushes below caught his attention. Cracker’s raised his paw and opened his mouth with a relieved greeting on the tip of his tongue, but he quickly bit it to stop himself. What if it isn’t them? What if it’s that Swaloon or Levanny? Wincing at the thought, the Aipom clung to the tree trunk, hiding behind its mass as he watched the rustling approach.

The zorua felt the ralts attempting to drag her along, but failing due to her weight of a healthy 27 pound zorua. Once the ralts had managed to drag her to a safe distance, she ripped herself free from the ralts's grasp and took off. She managed to get quite a ways a way before stopping to allow the Ralts to catch up, "C'mon! They might be chasing us!" she growled to the ralts.

She lifted her head to search the trees, "Where's the long tail?" she asked, referring to Crackers. The grey fox's illusion faded as her focus turned to looking for Crackers. The aipom did not exactly express himself to the brightest of pokemon she's met, but like the Ralts had said earlier, he would be useful in their trip. Mirage was busy convincing herself that she was not concerned about the wellfare of the pokemon, and she was just concerned about a tool being lost.

Akuroma panted and glared slightly at the Zorua, "Do you see this?" he says, grabbing at his gown, "Not easy to run in, especially when trying to carry your fat furry butt."
When Mirage mentioned the missing Aipom Akuroma began looking around, "Ugh...he must've lost us when getting away," he said before closing his eyes, "Give me a minute to find him."
His horn began to twitch every now and then as he focused on finding the Aipom, who wasn't all that hard with all how his emotions seemed to be rising with being alone again. Akuroma then used confusion on a branch of the bushes below the Aipom, breaking it off before whacking the monkey with it a couple of times.
'I said to keep on eye on us!' the Ralt's telepathic voice rang out in Cracker's head before he used Confusion on the Aipom and began pulling him towards himself and Mirage.