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

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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.

"Well you quit acting like being an outlaw is your only way. I don't know what's cause you to believe that, but it's wrong, and the people who taught you that were wrong," the Ralts said, following behind the Zorua, "Some Pokemon believe the way we act is ingrained into our typing. Those Pokemon are narrow minded blockheads, they care for nothing but their belief. If you had spent five minutes in Grassveil before you became infamous around there, you would've seen all types, pure and mixed, living together peacefully. Yes, we do have dark type outlaws, but they didn't believe their typing was to blame. They believed stealing and hurting others was easier then working with others and making an honest living, and because of that they've been marked as outlaws," the Ralts said before going ahead of the Zorua, "I remember these hallways, we should reach a lit room after a few turns," he said as he made the first turn, only to be greeted by glowing eyes and growls, "Of course the collapse attracted Pokemon..."

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

When the Zorua suddenly barked loudly at them, Cracker couldn’t help but flinch. Her angry tone echoed through the empty corridor, ringing is his ears as she contested every word the Aipom and Ralts had to say. Clearly she believed quite firmly that she was meant to be bad, but the long-tailed Pokemon just couldn’t see it. For all her flaws, she just didn’t seem that bad to him. A real outlaw would’ve just battled them outright and stolen everything they possessed when they all first met.

Finally fed up with the conversation, Mirage proceeded down the tunnel, Cracker and Akuroma following slowly behind. The Aipom was still a little in shock about the whole thing. Is she really an outlaw? He thought. Or does she just think she has to be?

There was a time when Cracker had been branded an outlaw; back in his home village when he was the local nuisance stirring up trouble everywhere he went. It was all just a game to him, though. Playing pranks and messing with other Pokemon was how he socialized and made friends. Of course, it was also what led to him being banished. Since then he kept being a trouble-maker, but he was never led to believe that was all he was.

As the group continued down the long dark hallway, Akuroma tried his best to explain to Mirage that she didn’t have to be bad, that her type didn’t define her in society and that how she was raised to believe such was wrong. Some Pokemon were bad just because; they didn’t need the excuse of having to be bad because everyone expected it of them. Cracker was nodding in agreement the whole time.

After he was finished, the Aipom hopped onto his tail and bounced over to the Zorua, suspending himself upside-down in front of her.

“You know, I don’t care if you’re an outlaw,” he said with a grin. “You’re good inside, I can tell. And we’re friends, right? That’s all that matters to me.”

Springing off his tail, the Aipom landed on his feet and followed after Akuroma just as he recognized where they were in the ruins. Cracker was only a few feet behind the Ralts when two pairs of eyes glistened in the dark ahead.

“Oh no… not again,” Cracker whined, rubbing his wounded arm automatically, just to be sure the pain wasn’t going to interfere in what was to be yet another fight for their lives.

Fools, all of them! The zorua merely huffed in response, it was not easy to simply wipe away what a being was taught their entire lives. The Zorua truly believed this, and she would need a love more convincing before she fully believed anybody.

The zorua's ears perked when she spotted two pokemon, one looked to be a zubat, but the other was moving about too fast for her to register. The zorua blinked in confusion at the blur, only seconds before the fast moving shape slammed into her. The zorua cried out in pain, and her rage began to build once more.

The zorua glared at the zubat as it seemed to snicker as it struggled to keep itself afloat with its rapidly flapping wings. Mirage huffed, her sharp dark claws beginning to glow and extend as she prepared a Fury Swipes for the next wild pokemon that dared to come near her. She had not been damaged by the attack, it being a natural tackle attack rather than a powered one.

She did not feel like fighting, and really didn't want to do anything but be alone in utter silence as they would travel home.

Akuroma sighed softly, "Aw...and here I was hoping the loud noise would scare them away, not attract them," he complained quietly. He then grabbed a hold of the Zubat with his Confusion attack and began slamming it back and forth against the walls quite mercilessly. It seems his previous rage wasn't quite out of his system just yet, despite nearly killing all three of them. He drew the Zubat closer and punched it into the floor, though the bat's wide mouth made Akuroma punch inside of it and allowed the bat Pokemon to use Leech life on the Ralts.
He cried out and pulled his hand away from the Zubat before it could do too much damage to his already weakened body. Sadly before Akuroma had time to get back to attacking the smaller of the two Pokemon, the larger one slammed into him, sending him down the corridor. Or more of hims, as several copies of Akuroma broke off from the original and landed in different positions. At first shocked, Akuroma blinked, but soon got over it with a smirk.

Just seconds after encountering these new enemies, the battle commenced. It started with a speedy attack from the blue blur that was racing around the corridor. Mirage was knocked off her feet first, while the Zubat applauded the efforts of its fellow Pokemon. Although down, she was far from out. Already Cracker could see preparing an attack of her own.

His attention was quickly drawn to Akuroma though as he swiftly took hold of the snickering Zubat, slamming it around mercilessly with Confusion before dragging it closer to take a swing at it. It backfired, but the Ralts recovered, even in his weakened state. He seemed to have the situation handled, right up until that blur took a swipe at him too, sending the psychic Pokemon toppling backwards just as he burst apart into multiple versions of himself, each one landing on their feet.

Wow, Aku learned Double Team! the Aipom thought, taking his eyes off the battle for just a moment.

When he turned back, he came face-to-face with that same blue blur rushing towards him. Shrieking loudly Cracker instinctively utilized Agility to dodge, moving just as fast if not faster, than the Pokemon assaulting him. Annoyed that it missed, it turned around sharply, revealing itself to be a Golbat. An angry one. Flapping its wings furiously again, it lurched towards the Aipom.

A string of Agility attacks boosted Cracker’s own speed, making him nearly impossible for the increasingly agitated Golbat to hit. Of course, dodging wasn’t really a tactic. The Aipom was just so terrified that he didn’t want to get struck by the large Pokemon. Running around wasn’t going to work for very much longer though; he was already starting to get tired. He was secretly hoping if he kept the Golbat busy, maybe Mirage or Akuroma could take care of it.

The zorua watched the ralts take care of the Zubat, perform the strange move called double team. He split off into multiple copies, and the odds of him being struck began to shift to his favor. As the ralts performed his evasive boosting stunt, the long tailed aipom seemed to be performing his own of some sort. He was moving too fast for the large blue bat to strike him, leaving the bat's back as wide open as his mouth was.

The Zorua decided to assist the aipom, since the golbat was a much stronger opponent than the smaller one that even lacked legs to walk on.

She crept her way around the dancing duo until she could see the golbat's bare back as plain as day. The vixen launched herself onto the Golbat's back, raking her long glowing claws down the golbat's spine multiple times, each strike as painful as the last. The golbat gave a short screech before furiously flapping its wings and flying higher, to where it could not be reached by the Zorua's leap.

The golbat gave a furious look and folded its wings across its mouth, taking a deep breath, and whipped out his wings and spread them wide as a loud screeching sound erupted from its throat. Mirage screamed in agony and tried to cover her ears as the Screech attack rang through them and sent pain into her. Her guard began to drop, since she was distracted by the loud noise and more concerned with preserving her hearing at the time.

As Akuroma and his copies ran back into the battle, a sudden loud Screech attack stopped them dead in their tracks. As Akuroma covered his ears his copies began to fade away one by one until only he was left. He groaned and looked up at the Golbat, noticing cracks starting to form on the ceiling above the bat Pokemon.
Knowing they were about to be in another collapse, Akuroma used Confusion on Cracker and pretty much threw him in the direction they were going to go before running into the two bat Pokemon. With a loud groan that was nearly impossible to hear over the Screech, the ceiling gave way, collapsing onto the Golbat and quickly approaching the Zubat, Akuroma, and Mirage.

Even with all the commotion around him, Cracker was too busy running in circles for his life to realize the Golbat, which had been chasing after him relentlessly had finally been distracted by Mirage’s Fury Swipes. He’d been tracing the same path for so long now, that he was stirring up a enough dust for a Sand Attack if he had the wherewithal to consider it. Instead, he continued his mindless dodging of what was now just a phantom assailant.

It wasn’t until the Golbat released an ear-ringing Screech that the Aipom came to an abrupt stop to clamp down on his huge ears. The sound was so pervasive in the echoing tunnel that the long-tailed Pokemon, with his excellent hearing, dropped to his knees in agony. Even with his ears going numb from the intense sound waves, however, Cracker could still feel the corridor beginning to tremble with instability.

The group’s earlier introduction to the very bottom of the ruins had set the entire structure on edge, making even the slightest assault to its security a danger. With the structure so compromised, the Golbat’s vibrations were weakening the tunnel, loosening rocks overhead until it initiated a collapse.

Cracker unfortunately was unable to move, being so incapacitated by the attack, but to his surprise, amidst all the rumbling and crashing of stones around him, a glow encompassed the Pokemon’s body. Having already seen it several times before, he recognized it as Akuroma’s Confusion attack. How the Ralts was able to utilize an attack under such strain was amazing, but the Aipom didn’t have long to admire the strength before he was thrown backwards out of the collapsing corridor and into a large room, just as a huge boulder smashed into the floor where he’d been standing.

Thrown free of the attack and the debris, the Aipom hit the ground rolling before he could use his tail to slide to a stop. He looked up just in time to see the entire entrance to the tunnel buckle, a massive slab of rock above it dropping into place with a thunderous crash.

“Aku! Mirage!” Cracker shrieked, jumping to his feet and rushing over as quickly as he could. “Aku! Are you guys okay! Mirage?!”

Through the massive stone, essentially just a wall now, Cracker could hear the faint sounds of a few more stones tumbling into place, but after that it was just silence. Jumping back, the Aipom leapt into the air and smacked the solid wall with his tail once, twice and a third time, calling out for his companions until he tuckered himself out. No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening! he thought in a panic. I can’t be trapped in this place all by myself!

Not ready to give up just yet, the Pokemon gave the slab of stone one more mighty smack with his beefy tail, but to no avail. He was just about to give it another try when a nearby torch, normally suspended on the wall, tumbled to the ground, shaken loose by all the vibrations. Cracker quickly rushed over to pick it up, clinging to it like a life-line. It was now the only source of light he had in this dank, dark crypt.

This dice is not existing.

The golbat's screeching pierced the zorua's ears, she yelled in pain with the screech. The golbat was suddenly cut off as a boulder crashed onto it. The golbat managed to free itself from beneath it and watched the boulder fall, confused. It was then struck by another boulder, and this time pinned to the ground. The zubat quickly weaved about, trying to avoid the rocks, but was crushed under another rock and pinned near the golbat.

Mirage opened her eyes, her ears still ringing and unable to hear much. The zorua blinked, trying to piece together what was going on. She finally realized that the ceiling was collapsing, and tried to run. She dodged boulders as she ran along, nearing the golbat in order to escape. The golbat seemed to want to get off one last hit before it was crushed under a rock, and slammed the zorua with one of its large broad wings. The zorua screeched as she was sent flying into the side of the wall. She crashed into it on her side, and fell to the floor, suffering a blow to her head.

The zorua picked herself up, barely managing to hang onto her conscious as she hobbled over to the safety of the final open tunnel. She did not know where the aipom or the ralts was, she just knew that her paw was hurt, her head was pounding, she still couldn't hear, and overall felt as if she hadn't bathed in days. She managed to make it into the tunnel before hearing a crashing sound as the opening to her tunnel collapsed, she did not see if the ralts made it through, or even remember that the ralts existed at that moment.

The woozy vixen finally collapsed, tired, unable to hear or think clearly, and stressed from the dirt that clung to her fur.

Akuroma, having ran into the fray as the ceiling collapsed and unable to move as quickly as the Zorua, was probably in the worst shape to be there. He used Confusion on the rock that was about to crush him, creating a bit of a barrier. However, the shear amount of rocks piling up put a strain on his psychic move, enough to where he needed to strengthen it by acting as if he were holding up the pieces of ceiling with his own hands. Soon it became quiet. Deadly quiet.

Akuroma thought he heard something to his right. It was too muffled to understand if anything was being said, but the following moments of what sounded like something hitting the stone repeatedly rang through the stone and made him groan. He decided to slowly head the opposite way. Even if it was Cracker or Mirage, getting closer to them would probably cause too much strain on him and he'd lose his Confusion on the stones.

Every so slowly he began to us Confusion on the stones to his left, breaking them apart and making himself a bit of a tunnel to crawl through to the edge. It felt like an eternity, and the decreasing amount of breathable air proved he didn't have that long. After another few agonizing minutes, a rush of fresh, well fresher, air hit him, much to his relief. Holding the tunnel up with as much mental energy as he could handle, he began to crawl through the tiny tunnel. When he finally moved far away enough from the collapsed area he released his hold on the stones, causing a rather loud bang.

He panted, only being able to stand up several moments later. He saw something in front of him but had no idea if it was an ally, foe, or Mirage. He hoped to Arceus it wasn't Mirage. It could be a Darkrai for all he cared, just not that Zorua. Sadly, as his vision cleared, it turned out to be that Zorua. Go figure.

The silence after the cave-in was deafening, especially to Cracker’s ears after that unbearable auditory assault by the Golbat. I wonder what happened to it, he thought for just a moment before shaking his head to disregard it. Who cared, as long as it was gone. It could’ve been crushed by all that falling rock, for all he cared; which by the way was the Pokemon’s own dang fault.

Clinging to the single source of light in this entire room, the Aipom whined quietly. This was the first time he’d been alone since finding Akuroma and Mirage in the Shadowhue Forest. He had no idea how to conduct himself in such a scary, dark place, void of trees and fresh air. All he knew was he couldn’t stay put. That Golbat and Zubat obviously lived down here, so there was no doubt more where they came from.

What he needed to do, more for himself than his friends, was find another way back around to the tunnel that just collapsed. There had to be a connecting corridor somewhere, right? These places were interlinking mazes, surely. And before the cave-in they’d made at least one turn at a T-juction, so perhaps that other path connected somewhere.

“I-I-I can’t just sit here,” Cracker squeaked to himself.

Standing up, the Aipom slowly crept out into the middle of the room, holding up the torch to try and light up as much of the empty room as possible while he listened quietly and searched the darkness.  Aside from the occasional distant rumble of instability elsewhere in the structure, he couldn’t hear a thing past the ringing in his ears. And searching the room yielded two exits, one on the opposite wall and one on his right. Neither were in an ideal position to loop back around to the corridor behind him.

Sighing quietly, the long-tailed Pokemon continued to scan the dimly lit room when the crackling orange light glinted off the metal framing of a large chest on the left wall. Ears perking up, Cracker crept over to investigate. The box was wide open, and peering inside, he also found it to be empty. Empty except for… Leaning into the chest, Cracker shined the light on a small gummi in the corner. With the poor light he couldn’t really tell what color it was, but it looked orange. Not that it really mattered.

Scooping up the gummi, the Aipom sniffed it to test for quality and flavor, but mostly to make sure it wasn’t dirty and gross before promptly popping it into his mouth to eat. He wasn’t that picky right now, but he was definitely hungry. Upon ingesting the gummi though, he suddenly got a bright idea.

Jumping up onto his tail, Cracker bounced away to the tunnel exit opposite the cave-in. If this place really were like a maze, he’d need a means of identifying which paths he’d already taken. So, finding the perfect little stone, the Aipom promptly scratched an arrow in the direction he was going and then a crude illustration of himself with his tongue sticking out before steeling himself up for a solo journey into the darkness.

He got two steps and was quivering like a little helpless leaf. This is gonna be harder than I thought. Swallowing the rising lump in his throat, Cracker continued on foot so he could move slowly and cautiously.

Mirage had sunken into an involuntary slumber, unable to move and unable to see or hear. Today was a long day for the vixen, nearly every several of her senses had been assaulted today. Her touch with the dirt and dust of the ruins, her ears with the screech of the zubat, her eyes with the dirt and dust as well. What was going to be next? Was she going to eat some nasty food? Taste dirt? Smell some awful garbage?

The zorua, for now, only saw darkness as her limp furry body lay before the ralts. Her joy ribbon seemed to be turning brown with the dirt, as with her fur. If she was awake at that moment and had noticed she had been so filthy she would have either tried grooming herself or looking for some kind of stream to wash herself off on, but the zorua instead was trapped in the darkness of unconsciousness.

Akuroma groaned a bit as he made his way to Mirage. When he realized she wasn't moving, aside from the rising and falling of her chest, he groaned even louder, already feeling the weight of the Zorua, which was nearly twice as heavy as he was. However, he knew he couldn't leave her here or Cracker would start asking questions when the two met up.

Steeling himself, Akuroma did his best to lift up the fox Pokemon. Really he just threw her forepaws over his shoulders and began half-carrying half-dragging her as best as he could. Which was really badly, the dead weight of Mirage was worse than the mental strain he felt holding up the ceiling! He muttered something too graphic to put in this post under his breath and began walking down the other direction in the T-junction.

Using the piece of stone he’d acquired, Cracker finished scratching another crude drawing of himself making a different funny face onto the wall at a T-junction in the dark ruins. Moderately satisfied with his work, the Aipom hopped down off the fallen brick he was standing on and proceeded left in the direction his arrow pointed. This was the third intersection he’d come across in just a few minutes, leading him to believe these ruins were probably more extensive than anyone ever thought. Or maybe they did know and he was the clueless one.

At any rate, this method of his would hopefully keep him from getting horribly and hopelessly lost; at least more so than he already was. There wasn’t much more he could do but continue on, though. The dark dank depths of this place left so much to be desired. He just wished he were above ground in the biggest tree he could find, he didn’t even care if it was in that spooky Shadowhue Forest. Any place was better than this pit of darkness.

“Aku!” he called, pausing to listen quietly to his echo. “Miraaaage?”

Only silence greeted him, which was actually preferred in a way. Much as he would’ve loved to hear either Pokemon respond to his cry, he was more paranoid that the one to answer him would be some big scary wild Pokemon; something intent on causing him bodily harm for no reason. So at least for now, the silence was a blessing.

As Cracker carried on his way, he eventually entered another big, dark room. The Aipom came to a stop and listened intently for even the smallest sound of another Pokemon’s presence. Of course, if one had been present, the flame of his torch would’ve given him away immediately. Fortunately though, he was greeted with silence.

Unfortunately, however, he was also greeted with a dead-end. Not that the room didn’t have any paths to take, because it had one. However, it was blocked by a sizable pile of rubble. To make the sight worse, it was the only path present that could’ve led him back in the general direction of the initial cave-in.

Sighing very loudly and unhappily, the Aipom spun back around and returned to the junction, scratching out the arrow he’d made on the wall to indicate a dead-end and formed the other end of the horizontal line into another arrow before taking the other path.

This dice is not existing.

Mirage finally became to wake up, to see he head hanging and her hips being dragged along the dirt. She could feel the dirt clinging to her fur, and it only made her groan in annoyance and to let whoever was dragging her along know she was up. The zorua pulled her paws out of her carrier's hands and placing them on the floor. She blinked, her ears had stopped hearing, but they were making it sound like cottonees were in her ears.

The zorua blinked and looked up to see the ralts. She did not know if the ralts had saved her or if the ralts was simply dragging her along out of kindness, but either way she did not care. Her head still hurt and her paw seemed to have only gotten worse from being pulled on. The pain was dull though, a slight ache, it only hurt when she tried to put pressure on it on the ground.

The zorua gave a slight glare to the ralts, as if he was the one that did it, which partially was because he certainly didn't help, before speaking lowly, "Where's Crackers?"