The Unlikely Trio Explore the Ruins! What Mysteries Are Hidden Within!?

Akuroma fell to his knees and panted, "I-I don't think they'll follow us into the ruins," he managed to say as he let Cracker and Mirage free from his Confusion attack, which had been half dragging them for the past few moments. He caught his breath and stood up looking around the corridor they were in.
"Well...welcome to Monochrome Ruins," he said, still a bit winded from his less-than-thought-through escape plan.

Cracker had been caught off guard to say the least when Akuroma had suddenly shouted before lifting and almost throwing the Aipom and Zorua into the cavern behind the waterfall with his Confusion attack. Although the Ralts moved quickly into the dimly lit entrance way of the Monochrome ruins, he ran out of steam rather quickly, dragging his two companions awkwardly through the air before releasing them.

Quick reflexes allowed the Aipom to catch himself on his tail, which he remained suspended upon and holding his bandaged arm while he looked around the interior of the hidden ruins. Although much of the ruin was just crumbled stones and shear cavernous walls, he could vaguely make out the shapes of unnatural structures in the darkness surrounding them.

The group stood on a rough rocky surface just before the point where it transitioned into a smoother, flat floor. Further inside, the walls grew more refined until they resembled stone-work, all of which were covered in weird etchings visible only thanks to a pair of torches bordering a single archway at the end of the long, wide corridor.

“Wooow,” Cracker said in awe. “This is soooooo… creepy! I wonder who made this place.”

Although the dark grey vixen managed to land on her paws, she was absolutely outraged that the ralts had the audacity to drag her around as if she were nothing but luggage, "Ask before you act next time, scarred moron! Try that again and your face will have more than just one little scratch" she hissed. The zorua huffed and gave a swish of her tail to further express her displeasure at being suddenly dragged like that.

The zorua could not think of a decent insult, so she had simply decided to pick on the one imperfection that was planted on the ralts's cheek. Mirage knew that pokemon were usually self conscious about their appearances, and even if the ralts wasn't, it still had the chance of knocking him down a few pegs in his mental state.

She looked into the cave, not being bothered by the darkness due to her dark typing and the Zorua's natural ability to see well in the dark. Her ears twitched and she turned to the aipom, "Your arm feeling a lot better now?" she asked.
'Just worried about the luggage carrier'

Akuroma became dead silent at the mention of his scar. He didn't even care about the "moron" part, the Zorua constantly called him similar things throughout their trip, but "scarred?" He slowly turned towards the other two Pokemon, not even hearing Mirage asking how Cracker's arm was feeling.
"You are dead," he said, using Confusion to pull Cracker behind him before using it on the walls, ceiling, and floor to try and crush the Zorua who probably forgot he could and would harm her.

Turning to Mirage, Cracker opened his mouth with the intent to lie and say his arm felt fine, but before he could utter a word, a glow enveloped his body and he was promptly lurched forward like a rag-doll. Still precariously balanced on his tail, the Aipom slid behind the enraged Ralts, only toppling onto the ground once he was released from the Confusion attack.

Cracker hadn’t realized at the time, but the insult the Zorua spat at Akuroma regarding his disfiguration, had sparked a blind fury in the psychic Pokemon and now he was lashing out at her with every ounce of his abilities. Though, unable to affect her directly he instead, in all his wisdom, assaulted the very ruin itself.

By the time the Aipom was back on his feet, the entire structure around them with shaking with the strain of Akuroma’s attempt to crush Mirage until a pile of debris. As it was, every bit of rock already loose in the ruin had become a projectile, smashing against surfaces left and right and pelting the Zorua’s position with pure malice.

“Aku, what’re you doing?!” Cracker cried, wobbling on unsteady feet as the ground beneath him began to crack and split. “If you don’t stop we’re gonna—!”

Before he could finish, the cavern floor opened up underneath all three of them, bursting into a million little shards and dropping the group into the depths of the ruins.

Success! Mirage was glad to see that she finally made the ralts tick. She merely smirked, now that she knew the weapon to use against him once the time came. She was struck with a few of the rocks and was flung by the force like a ragdoll, only just managing to land on her paws and avoid the next barrage of boulders and stone.

It came as a surprise when the floor suddenly began to rumble, roar, and crack. The zorua was only able to look at the floor in surprise while the rubble fell beneath her paws and she began to plummet into the dark pit. The Zorua cried out as she fell, trying to think of something she could do to save herself if the pit happened to be too deep.

'Would a rock break the impact? No, why would that work? The impact would just go through the rock!' The zorua began to frantically think, her panic becoming more and more over whelming and her instincts started to kick in. In her fear, a dark orb began to completely surround her. The orb was fueled by her fear, and her instincts used the move more expertly that she did forcing the move to occur.

The Zorua's eyes widened as she saw the floor rushing closer and closer, that kind of landing was definitely going to hurt her if she tried to land on her legs! That was when her instincts decided to let the move go. The force of the move being fired slowed her decent and smashed into the ground, allowing the zorua to land easier without damaging her legs and paws too much for her to be unable to walk. She was definitely going to be sore for a bit, but it would fade eventually.

Akuroma hadn't even realized the floor had fallen beneath him and the three pokemon were falling down. All he could see was the Zorua he wanted to squish and the boulders he wanted to squish her with. If there was any sense still conscious in the Ralts, it was probably surprised at how enraged he was itself, but did nothing to stop the mindless rage. Well, not completely mindless, he needed that to use Confusion.

When the floor began to break apart under the pressure of Akuroma’s psychic rage, Cracker was the only one remotely prepared for the fall. Before the ground could leave his feet, the Aipom grasped a sizeable chunk that had broken off from the rest, steering its initial descent such that it collided with the crumbling walls of the hole and debris punched through floor after floor, picking up momentum the deeper the hole went.

As the Ralts and Zorua were falling, Cracker had gotten himself into a position where he could ride the waves of tumbling stones like he was surfing. In fact, it wasn’t unlike how he used to travel in his home town deep in one of the oldest jungles where moss-covered branches wove through the trees. Even as terrified as he was, falling into a pitch black hole of uncertainty and mystery, right at this moment he felt at home with himself.

He could only reminisce for a moment though because although the Ralts was falling to certain doom, the psychic Pokemon was still glowing with energy, throwing rocks hazardously around the verticle corridor, struggling to hit a terrified Mirage glowing with a dark energy of her own in an attempt to break her fall.

She had a better chance of catching herself than the rage-blind Akuroma, so the Aipom aimed his rescue efforts at the uncontrollable Ralts. It wasn’t easy though, even skirting the hole in a downward spiral like he was. Random stones and boulders crashed every which way, breaking even more rock and causing the very hole they fell into to rapidly seal behind them.

If he didn’t incapacitate the psychic Pokemon quickly, they’d all be buried by a ton of lethal rubble, even if they survived the landing. He had to take matters into his own hands, for his own sake, not just Akuroma’s.

Positioning his tail beneath him on the slab of stone quickly shrinking beneath his feet, the Aipom aimed for the falling Ralts and sprang outwards into the void, just as an errant boulder demolished his ride. His aim was spot on as he collided with Akuroma, but the impact caused the two to spin out of control and drift towards one side of the whole.

The Ralts didn’t seem to notice the Aipom’s intrusion as the wild assaults continued, leaving Cracker no choice but to give the green-haired Pokemon a hard rap on the noggin before holding him tight and reaching out to the edge of the hole with his tail just enough that he could dig his tail’s hand in in an attempt to slow their descent.

Although Cracker’s efforts had halted the Confusion attacks, they were still being followed by a sizeable debris field. Looking down, the ground was fast approaching and he could see Mirage had already made a safe landing, but she wasn’t clear yet.

“Get outta the way, Mirage!” Cracker’s cried with a shrill squeak to his voice; he’d never been so terrified in his life.

He had no time to see whether she heard or reacted; right now he had to save himself and Akuroma before they became a couple of grease spots on the dungeon floor. Redoubling his efforts, the Aipom slammed his tail-hand into the wall, breaking off into a spin that catapulted him to the other side of the hole where he landed on his feet and struggled to slide along the uneven wall.

Just short of colliding with the bottom of the hole, Cracker slammed both feet into the wall along with his tail as hard as he could to redirect their downward descent into a horizontal one. The results left a lot to be desired as the two Pokemon sailed back across the hole and into an empty corridor just before the hole sealed behind them. They hit hard and tumbled for several feet before coming to a stop, the corridor closing up behind them with a violent crash.

An abrupt silence followed the rumbling of stone filling the hole behind them, leaving Cracker breathless as he struggled to sit up and hold his head.

“Nnngh…” he groaned before blurting out, “What the heck is wrong with you guys?! You nearly got us all killed!”

Mirage looked up to see that she was not completely safe yet as the Aipom shouted for her to watch out. The zorua had no choice but to watch out to see which of the dark boulders were heading right for her. She leaped from side to side to avoid boulders as they smashed into the floor and shattered beside her, only inches away from crushing her small body. The zorua cried out when a larger boulder fell in front of her, startling her. The vixen was beginning to struggle to see as the falling rocks kicked up dirt and dust that had collected over the thousands of years this area had been here.

Her vision obscured and her eyes watering as if she had been struck with a Sand-Attack, she could not think of what would be the best course of action at this moment. Should she keep moving? Stand Still? Either way, she couldn't see her nose in front of her as everything blurred from her tears as they attempted to rid themselves of the stinging dust and and dirt. The zorua had no choice but to close her eyes, she had heard tales of pokemon able to tell where things are from hearing alone, but there was no way she would be able to do that. Her ears were not capable of such a thing, and the echoing of the cave made it sound like the thuds were coming from everywhere.

The zorua was left with no choice but to shrink back into a wall and make herself as small of a target as possible as boulders crashed into the floor all around her. She only moved, being lucky enough to have chosen a spot not many boulders were able to make their way near, when all sounds seemed to cease and the aipom's voice rang in the echoes of the silent and ancient halls. The aipom seemed to be asking what was wrong with them and pointed out the obvious fact of them very nearly being killed.

She did not respond at first, instead only licking her paw and rubbing her tearful eyes. The vixen's eyes burned with dirt and blurred with tears, her rubbing the dirt and dust out only helping a little bit with each swipe, but it would eventually bring back her ability to see in these dark areas. The zorua blinked as she regained the ability to at least open her eyes and looked around, things were less blurry and her eyes were clearing up. She looked to see the ralts seemingly passed out and the aipom seemed to be just fine.

"Ask him, he's the one who blew up at such a little comment which was deserved after the rude behavior he's been showcasing all day," she scoffed, her tail giving a flick as if to punctuate her point. All signs of fear seemed to have been erased and her face seemed calm as ever except for the tears that were brought by the same sediments that laid in the ruins for years upon years.

The zorua looked to the way they had fallen, to see that it was blocked. She gave an irritated sigh, standing up despite her sore legs, and made her way towards the wall of boulders. She dared not to lay a pawn on any of them, in the case that she touched a weak point and the boulders would come crashing down on her. She tried to look for a small hole for them to worm their way through and go back to the top, but her search was fruitless. It was as if someone had carefully placed every single rock to avoid having any kind of aperture or crack of light.

"Looks like we're going to have to focus on getting out more than treasure now..." the zorua spoke as her eyes moved from studying the large barricade of rocks to the Aipom on the ralts, her ears perking once more in the process and her earrings tinkling and creating a loud echo in the silence of the air.

The Ralts believed the Aipom to have simply been a small boulder hitting him, which did nothing to slow his attack on the Zorua. However, with that well placed hit on his head, he was out cold, and all the boulders that had been under his Confusion's grasp were released in an instant.
'Gah, guess I screwed up...,' Akuroma thought, trapped in his mind until he recovered from whatever knocked him out or died from boulders crushing him. At this present moment he didn't even know if he was alive, for all he knew, he had no idea what the first moments of death were like, and he could've been experiencing them.
'Oh well, if I die, hopefully that Zorua will die too,' he thought, 'Oh...but what about Cracker, he doesn't deserve to die just because he was dragged into this. Well, maybe he'll find a way to survive.'
Just as he was about to accept death, he felt a sudden pain in his head, and let out an audible groan that the other two pokemon could hear. He slowly sat up and looked around, rubbing his head.
"Hm, well, looks like we're already near the center," he said, having sensed the Aipom near him. He then began to sit up, using what he thought was a small boulder to help him up. He then looked down, having noticed it's texture to be different before silently putting the item into his bag, not even bothering to see what it actually was.

This dice is not existing.

Cracker was less than pleased by Mirage’s answer. It was laced with an air of confidence, pride and a sharp distaste for Akuroma. Listening to her shrug off what had just happened like she shared none of the blame made the Aipom’s ears twitch in frustration. And to make matters worse, when Akuroma finally roused from his induced nap, he too cared not even a bit that all three of them had very nearly died in that cave-in.

The Aipom was never quick to anger, and in fact almost always had a sunny disposition; when he wasn’t in danger or someplace scary anyway. Right now though, it didn’t even matter that he was trapped in a dark corridor at the bottom of a scary, potentially dangerous labyrinth of ruined tunnels. Cracker had just about had it with these Pokemons’ attitude toward each other.

Right from the start, when he stumbled upon them and elected to hang around for his own safety, he saw nothing but animosity between the two. A special kind of hatred that branched far beyond any ingrained dislike brought about by a clashing of their types. If he didn’t know better, he would mistake them for a bitter, married couple.

“That’s it!” the Aipom howled, expressing himself with loud monkey shrieks as he bounced between both Pokemon and gave each one a sound rap on the head with the beefy end of his tail. “I don’t know what crazy problem you two have with each other, but it nearly got us all killed! You’re both conceited and arrogant and looking for ways to stab each other in the back every chance you get!

I can’t even fathom why you two decided to come here together in the first place; I mean unless you secretly like each other. Which is crazy because you keep trying to kill each other. Fact is, we’re down in this pit now because of both of you; Aku, because he couldn’t keep a lid on his temper and you because you antagonized him.” Cracker jabbed a paw in the Zorua’s direction.

“What is it you guys really want? Because it clearly isn’t to be anywhere near one another.”

Sighing loudly, the Aipom dropped to the floor looking miserable and open to whatever impending assault his outburst might’ve sent his way.

“I just wanna get outta here…” he groaned quietly, rubbing his still sore arm.

The zorua blinked, having not expected to be struck by the long tail. The zorua listened to the monkey speak about the relationship between her and the ralts, and suggestion of the two liking each other romantically. The zorua snorted in disgust at the notion, but began to wonder why this aipom was even going on like this. What did they THINK a dark type like her was going to do? It was her duty to bring troubleand then to make it double!

Mirage seemed to grow and agitated face of her own, "I'd be fine, if flea-brain over there stopped being such a jerk, but really though, what were you GOING to expect? I'm SUPPOSED to cause trouble this much trouble wasn't what I had in mind since I usually stick to being an annoyance, but really now. I'm an OUTLAW, kid, i'm not to care for you, i'm here for the treasure," The zorua spokem but although she said such things about her "job" she seemed to be trying to tell herself that more than anything.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to find a way out of here that doesn't involve being crushed by a load of boulders. Obviously there isn't going to BE a treasure now, since the more important issue at hand is getting out of this place!" the zorua huffed before turning around and surveying the area, whether or not it was luck or misfortune was unknown, but a single tunnel was open, the others blocked off. The tunnel could either be the way out or the way deeper into the cave, either way the Mirage saw that she had no choice but to go that way.

Akuroma held his head silently as he listened to Cracker. He didn't see how they were fighting like they were romantically involved, but he didn't feel up to arguing the point now. He went over and placed a hand on Cracker's shoulder before he turned and listened to Mirage. Even though he couldn't sense her emotions, he could still read her voice, and was shocked at what he found.
"What's wrong? You're conflicted whenever you talk about you being an outlaw. You do know that just because you're a dark type you don't need to be an outlaw right?" Akuroma asked. He had no clue to the Zorua's past, but just the sheer amount of conflicting present in her voice was enough for him to believe she was raised on that type of prejudice.

Although secretly grateful that neither Pokemon felt the need to retaliate, Cracker was shocked to hear Mirage announce that she was an outlaw, and that it she was supposed to cause trouble. The Aipom quickly jumped to his feet just as Akuroma placed a hand on his shoulder and responded to the Zorua. For once he actually sounded sincere when he asked her what was wrong, picking up on the trepidation in the dark-type’s voice.

Perhaps what Cracker said got through to them. He could only hope so, because he literally needed these two for his own survival. More importantly though, he hated to see friends fight. Of course, they probably didn’t consider each other friends, but the Aipom did. Much as Mirage didn’t want to admit to caring, he’d only sensed good in her from the start, even despite her roughness.

He never expected to find out that she was an outlaw though.

“You’re… You’re really an outlaw?” he asked, tilting his head. “But you seem so nice. I mean—to me anyway. You two are always fighting though. You don’t really think it’s your job to be mean do you?”

Mirage stared at them as if they were the idiotic ones, "Of COURSE I am to act like this! How else am I supposed to act!? Now instead of sitting around and babbling like a bunch of chatots, how about we actually get moving before we end up as old and rotten as these ruins?" the Zorua growled irritably, she turned with a irritated flick of her tail and began her way into the sole tunnel that offered a path to the lost travelers.

The zorua's eyes still watered slightly from the dust and dirt, she couldn't believe the naivety of these pokemon. They would surely lead her down a path of starvation and rejection, well at least the rejection would not change. As a dark type she was rejected from her village, even when she was finally forced to conform to what they desired her to be. Everywhere she would go, rejection.

The only pokemon who didn't seem to reject her was that strange sneasel, the odd spiritomb, and the sneaky ring-tail. The sneasel must have been as naive as these two, the spiritomb was also a dark type, so she must have known how a dark type such as her felt as well. The ring-tail was an outlaw, just like her, but by his own will. He also was not a full outlaw as well since he only seemed to steal from those who have stolen themselves, a Justified outlaw. The zorua snorted at her own memories, not desiring to recall them just now and desiring to just leave this place and have things go back to normal.