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.

Akuroma had made a few turns during his trip with the unconscious Zorua half across his back. When she finally began to awaken he let her get off, almost immediately plopping down on his back and panting. It took him a minute to process her question, the strain on his mind from holding up Arceus knows how much stone was still present.

"Um...I was able to get him in the right direction. We're going to have to go the long way around and meet up with him in the center..." he managed to say, closing his eyes for a minute before continuing, "I should be able to lead us out from there."

After several more minutes of walking through the darkness of Monochrome Ruins, with little more than the intermittent torch sconces and his own dwindling stick of fire to light his way, it seemed like Cracker had gotten further and further away from where he needed or wanted to be. After the seventh branch in the hallways, one being a four-way intersection, he’d completely lost his sense of direction. The only way he knew he wasn’t backtracking, was by making markers on each path he chose.

It was beginning to feel like he was never going to get out of here. So in the face of his fear, the Aipom had begun calling for his friends more frequently and loudly, hoping they might hear the echoes. So far there was nothing though, and the more times he called out, the greater the risk of being discovered by an unfriendly presence became.

Only after his next encounter with another intersection, did the consequences of my prior actions begin to become known. At first Cracker thought he was just hearing something; a distant rumble or a bit of lose stone falling from overhead. But as he continued along the path, he had the sneaking suspicion he was being followed.

The deeper into the darkness he went, the more sure of it he became, until he finally jumped and turned around, waving his torch in a threatening manner at nothing. Cracker frowned; he was certain someone was following him. Maybe it was just his overactive imagination. Shrugging, he turned back around, only to come face to face with the glowing gaze of a Sableye.

Shrieking in surprise, the Aipom leapt backwards onto his tail, launching an impromptu Sand Attack without even thinking. The sudden burst of dust startled the Sableye as well, causing it to lash out in response with strong Scratch attack, which Cracker was too terrified to defend against. He took the attack directly, tumbling backwards across the ground.

The Aipom had heard stories about Sableye, some very particular ones that had given him nightmares before. So coming across one in a place like this, he only had one thing on his mind.

“Oh please oh please, don’t eat my soul!” Cracker cried at the top of his lungs, bouncing up onto his tail and making use of his special ability to get the heck out of dodge.

Of course, in Cracker’s flight, he dropped both the torch and his scrying stone. And to make matters worse, the Sableye continued to pursue him into the depths of the ruins.

"Lovely..." the zorua sighed in annoyance, now she had no choice but to follow the ralts. She huffed, her hopes of attacking the ralts had been ruined by this entire trip. Not only had she been injured in the paw, but she could not risk her only map being unwilling to lead her out of this wretched place.

The vixen sighed and picked herself up, keeping off of her fore-paw so as to avoid injuring it further. She was going to be a lot slower, and considered herself lucky that the ralts was slowed by the outfit he wore as well so she wouldn't be left behind. At least...she thought it was an outfit, it certainly LOOKED like an outfit. It would be a bit odd to have skin drag behind you when you walk.

The zorua placed one paw forward in a bit of a hop, keeping her injured paw in the air, and walked her two back legs forward normally. She slowly made her way forward, getting a bit ahead of the ralts, "What are you waiting for then? Lead," She demanded, giving the ralts a taste of his own rude nature.

This dice is not existing.

The Ralts sat up and blinked staring in the Zorua's direction. He groaned a bit at the sight that beheld him; a Mawile and her little Zubat minion, neither of which seemed happy about the two intruders.

"Well, why don't you ask them?" Akuroma said, pointing at them as he sat up. First being knocked out by Cracker, then having to quite literally hold the roof up and finally having to drag the fat fox had put a large strain on his body and mind. He didn't even know if he could use Confuse Ray and Confusion.

Akuroma flopped back down on his back and groaned, "The universe is really throwing us some U-turn's today, eh?" he asked Mirage before he stood up, "I suppose I don't need to tell you that the Mawile looks a good bit more powerful than us."

Lvl. 16 Mawile: Play Rough, Sweet Scent, Iron Head, Bite
Lvl. 10 Zubat: Hypnosis, Leech Life, Supersonic, Astonish

By the time Cracker managed to lose the pursuing Sableye, he was completely and hopelessly lost, not to mention unable to see. This section of ruin was without any sort of light whatsoever, and he didn’t have the same benefit of night-vision that the Zorua had. All the Aipom had was his exceptional hearing and a sense of smell and touch. Otherwise, he was completely blind, which was something he did not care for one bit.

After he slowed to a stop from exhaustion, the long-tailed Pokemon froze in abject terror of his predicament, unable to move an inch. Lost in the dark, deep underground, far away from the only two Pokemon he could call friends. It was like a nightmare come to life and he had no idea what to do. Certainly, it would only be a matter of time before something sinister came along to dispatch him from his horrified existence. I don’t wanna die! I just want to—wait… What was that?

Quieting his thoughts, Cracker strained his ears to listen and there it was again. A distant sound echoed through the stone around him. It sounded like a scuffling, or rather, more like a battle. Some sort of commotion was occurring further down the tunnel, and it sounded bad. Was it Akuroma and Mirage? Were they still alive and kicking? If it was, the Aipom couldn’t just sit around here and wait.

Steeling what little bit of a spine he had, he ran wildly into the dark, swinging his arms blindly as he hurried towards the distant sounds, hoping and praying it was the Zorua and Ralts and not just some brawl between demon Pokemon already living down here.

The zubat's wings flapped viciously as it kept itself in the air, while the mawile seemed to flip its head so its giant maw was between its main body and the intruders. The mawile seemed angry, as did the zubat, the duo must have been trespassing on their territory of the ruins, and the two seemed to be quite the good friends.

Mirage flinched when she saw the mawile, the zubat she didn't care much for, but the mawile seemed to be the biggest threat. The zorua swallowed nervously, "Um..Aku...I don't think we can act-" just as the zorua had been speaking, the mawile suddenly seemed to rush forward. The zorua barely had any time to even flinch as the mawile began to pummel the zorua with its large maw, the mawile glowed a bright pink aura as it did so, using the move play rough.

The zorua screeched in both fury and anger, as she was thrown farther back the way she had come. She slammed onto her side, unfortunately it was on her injured arm as well to prove that her luck was outstandingly bad that day, and didn't get back up. The zorua had blacked out once more, leaving the ralts alone with the mawile and the zubat.

Mirage was not completely unconscious though, her eyes were open and watching, but no matter what she did she could not seem to move. She also did not seem to register the danger the ralts was in, and appeared to be stunned rather than knocked out completely. Mirage struggled to move, panicking at the inability to move, until her body finally realized what was occurring and kicked itself into gear. The zorua stood up, a bit shaken, but her eyes seemed a bit dull. The panic of the situation having her see no hope in this moment.

She could not think of anything to get them out of this, other than begging for their lives and hoping that the mawile and zubat will let them go easily. For all she knew, she was doomed to die in a cave alone, well with a ralts but she did not quite consider him company as of yet, and to a little mawile and zubat before she could even do much with her crime infested life.

((tl;dr: Mirage is losing hope |D))

Akuroma was about to stop the Mawile's attack with a Confusion when the Zubat suddenly popped up in front of the Ralts and hit him with an Astonish attack. He stumbled backwards and shook his head, unable to focus for a second. As he looked back up, Mirage was still standing, but Akuroma, even without his emotion sensing capabilities, could see she was losing hope.

It shocked Akuroma greatly. Even though Mirage was an outlaw and lived in Shadowhue Forest with Pokemon that were plenty more dangerous than herself, she was far from hopeless in his eyes.

He growled to himself, "So this is what it takes to make you give up? Someone with a fairy type!?" he yelled out, turning his attention back to the Zubat who's fangs were glowing as it tried to use a Leech Life, which Akuroma was trying his best to block by holding the bat Pokemon back, "I don't know if you didn't notice, but I am part fairy type!" he yelled out to the Zorua before turning around and kicking the Zubat into the wall. However, he made himself wide open for the Mawile, whose giant maw began to glow a metallic color before ramming into the Ralt's side, sending him flying into the wall behind Mirage.

Driven to urgency by the sounds of distress ahead, Cracker was running as fast as he could, not sure what to expect. Even though his bond with Akuroma and Mirage was mostly one-sided, as was often the case in friendships with the Aipom, he was always quick to defend those he cared about; ill-equipped to do so as he usually was.

Racing towards the fray, what he came upon caused the long-tailed Pokemon to come to a screeching halt just shy of entering the dimly lit battle. Only a single nearby torch provided enough light to identify the Zorua and Ralts, in the midst of a struggle against two powerful Pokemon, a Mawile and its Zubat companion. Both looked angry and ready to attack again, but the steel- and fairy-type was clearly the stronger.

From what Cracker saw of his friends, neither looked capable of winning, not in their current state. But the sight of these two strong, scary Pokemon had the Aipom’s heart tap-dancing in his throat. Could he just sit here and watch them get defeated? As he struggled with the answer to that question, the Mawile focused on Mirage and swung her mouthy appendage with the intent of landing a Bite attack on the Zorua.

Before he even realized it, the Aipom’s tail coiled beneath him and launched him unceremoniously into the air, forcing him over the two offending Pokemon only to land in front of them. Specifically, he positioned himself in front of Mirage, who was in no shape to defend herself one bit.

“Aku, Mirage!” he called out before whipping his entire body into a spin.

This idea, which had just sprung into his mind, must’ve been the product of that gummi he’d eaten. Perhaps it was the source of his unusual bravery as well. Normally he would never throw himself in-between an attack. He had no intention of taking a hit though.

Spinning on his toes like a top, Cracker dropped his tail into the dusty ruin’s floor, kicking up a strong Sand Attack that he launched directly at his foes, halting the Mawile’s attack and blinding them both temporarily. It was the best he could do, being such a low level, and he had no plan of attack to follow up. Honestly he hoped they could just escape before the Pokemon recovered, but that was incredibly unlikely.

She was done for, even as the ralts tried to snap her out of her fear, she knew he was wrong. They were finished, the ralts did not stand a chance, she certainly did not stand a chance. There was no way they could make it out of this alive. Her thoughts were flooded with pessimism as she was able to do nothing but watch as the reaper came towards her in the form of the mawile's jaw.

She hardly noticed the aipom running along towards them, only seeing him when the aipom had bounced itself between the mawile and her and flung sand in it's face. The mawile screeched in anger and annoyance as the sand stung its eyes like the dirt had stung Mirage's eyes not long ago in the cave after the ralts had collapsed the room.

"Wait a minute..." she whispered, her wide eyes looking to the ralts as a plan began to form in her clever little brain. She closed her eyes and shook her head, her fear being replaced with a more spirited and sneaky look. She forced herself onto four paws and shouted as loud as she could to the aipom, "Crackers! Get back!"

She turned to the ralts, and took a deep breath, "HEY AKU!" she shouted, "That scar on your face is so deep and ugly, that I bet your own family wouldn't recognize you, Plants probably die when you walk by, everybody probably looks at you, and wonders where you got that ugly and pathetic little mishap on your cheek, that's probably only going to stretch and grow uglier and more morbid as you grow. These pokemon probably attacked because they couldn't stand such a thing being on this very land!" The zorua panted as she finished the insult, the pain of her wounds making it difficult to talk let alone breathe. She figured that the ralts was self conscious of his appearance, and was worried about the scar ruining him, so she attacked that part of him verbally as much as she could, If her plan worked, they wouldn't have to worry about a zubat and mawile any more.

On the flip side, which she had not thought about, the aipom and the ralts might not have to worry about the zorua any more either. She would be too weak and slow to run away from the ralt's attacks if he decided to focus his attacks on her. She would be finished if the plan went wrong.

Akuroma blinked when he noticed Cracker suddenly using Sand Attack on the Mawile. However, before he could even say anything Mirage suddenly flung her very descriptive insult at him. In a flash his mind was blank and all he could think about was crushing the Pokemon in his field of vision, which was thankfully just the Mawile and Zubat.

All though not as showy or violent as the first collapse he caused, him being weakened and the three Pokemon being in the lowest level of the ruins, it was far from subtle. Clapping his hands together, the walls and ceiling around the Mawile and Zubat suddenly began to creak and glow blue. With a dusty shake and a loud groan from the section of the ruins Akuroma had taken control over with his Confusion attack the walls and ceiling broke, crushing the enemies, only giving them enough time to look at the oncoming rocks.

As quickly as Akuroma's rage appeared, it disappeared. His eyes suddenly stopped glowing and he collapsed onto his front. For a moment he was silent, deathly silent, until he turned his head to look at Mirage.

"That was smart, but you could at least apologize," he said a bit shakily and quietly, sounding as if he had just started talking after years of silence.

By the time Cracker had stopped swirling up clouds of dust, he was completely dizzy, having not quite accounted for all of that reckless spinning. Finally coming to a stop, he wobbled around unsteadily as the world spun around him. Although he was pretty sure his attack had been effective, he couldn’t initially confirm it, which put him at a huge disadvantage should the enemy Pokemon recover before he did.

Fortunately for him though, the distraction he’d created gave Mirage the time to formulate a quick if crude plan of attack. However, said plan involved a very colorful insult thrown at the Ralts and his disfiguring scar. He wasn’t quite able to move yet when the Zorua shouted for him to get back, but he could tell the insult was already beginning to work its magic. The whole tunnel was glowing and shaking violently as Akuroma’s rage lashed out at the two Pokemon who were in his fiery vision.

It took a sizeable stony brick crashing to the ground inches from the Aipom to snap him out of his dizzy dance. With a yelp, Cracker leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding a second brick that crashed down in his place. Akuroma was much weaker this time around, so his ability to obliterate the tunnel wasn’t as potent as it was previously, but that didn’t stop the floor from being pelted by a hail of stones and debris in the Ralts' attempt to destroy everything around him.

With stones landing left and right, the long-tailed Pokemon dodged them deftly, barely escaping getting clocked on the noggin every time before he decided to actually do as Mirage said and get away. Back-flipping over the Zorua, who was still as much in danger as he was, Cracker wrapped his tail around her body on the ground and hoisted her into the air as soon as his feet were back on the ground. He then quickly pulled her back and away from the crumbling tunnel just as it finally caved in on top of the offending Pokemon.

Releasing Mirage, Cracker rushed over the Akuroma with a worried cry. He gave the Zorua a compliment and was about to collapse before the Aipom caught him. After everything the Ralts had been through he wasn’t looking so good now.

“Aku! What’s wrong, are you hurt?” he asked, not seeing nearly so much physical damage to account for the Ralts’ near collapse; Cracker didn’t understand much about psychic-types.

Helping Akuroma sit down, the Aipom rushed back over to Mirage. She had significant physical damage, so he knew for sure she’d taken a major beating from this journey into the pit of darkness. He didn’t, however, know how to deal with this situation. Were they above ground in the woods, he could’ve attempted to search for healing herbs, but down here he’d have no such luck. So all he could do was pore over her with worry.

“You’re both so hurt,” he whined, “This is really bad, what’re we gonna do? How’re we gonna get outta here? You two can barely stand!”

The zorua did not whine when Crackers picked her up without her permission as she had with Akuroma, both not minding it and being too exhausted to do so. She felt herself be lifted and carried away from the danger as she listened with satisfaction to the cries of the mawile and the zubat as they were either crushed or separated from the trio.

The aipom finally placed her down to speak with the ralts, the result was her lying down with a thud and having to listen to the ralts compliment her and yet ask for an apology. She waited for a moment, as if pondering the thought before smirking faintly and responded with the question, "Why would I be sorry for something I don't regret?"

The vixen's ears stood as she listened to the aipom babble and whine about their conditions. Mirage huffed, forcing herself to stand up, "I don't know what you're talking about! I'm fine!" She had figured it would be better to make herself seem better than she actually was, for the sake of the sanity of the aipom. Crackers seemed like he was a balloon being filled with worry in the form of liquid that was about to burst, it would not help to have an insane with worry monkey with them.

"You going to need a tepiggy back ride or something?" the zorua looked to the ralts, silently wishing the ralts was able to stand or walk or something so she would not have to walk arceus knows how long with her pained paw and extra weight on her back. She was not sure if she would be able to make the walk the entire way and keep up the act of her being fine. She had no idea how long they would be walking, but it would be easier and faster if everything seemed to be just fine.

"Because it's the nice thing to do," Akuroma responded to the Zorua, wincing a bit when the Aipom tried to sit him up. As Cracker began to, "Yeah, I'm hurt, but it's not as bad as the headache I've got from the enraged Confusion," he said, only being able to sit up for a few moments before he flopped onto his back with a groan.

As he watched the Zorua make a show of being fine and chuckled a bit, "You're far from fine, but there's no need to worry, Cracker. We'll heal up soon, it's just Mirage's paw that needs any actual attention. Which'll be difficult since we can't simply take her to a healer in town," he said before the Zorua offered him the tepiggy back ride. He chuckled again, though groaned a bit as the movement gave him a bit pain, "Sure, why not? We should be able to get to the center fairly quickly, even with our injuries. We should be able to rest there with no danger of attack then we can get out of here and figure out what to do with that paw of yours," he said, looking over to Cracker to help him onto Mirage's back.

Still worrying over the wounded Zorua, Cracker cringed as she disregarded his concerns and stood on her own. She may have been able to play down her injuries, but she looked like the earth had just got finished chewing her up and spat her out. The most distressing was how she tried to stand on her one paw which had suffered significantly from their sojourn into this miserable place. The Aipom couldn’t help but fret over her well-being.

At least Akuroma didn’t ignore his pain. His headache, coupled with physical damage meant he wouldn’t be able to move much, let alone walk right now. But that wasn’t the worst of it. As if Cracker wasn’t stressed enough by having the only two Pokemon who could get him out of here safely being severely wounded, they were already talking about Tepiggy-back rides like this was some little game. This attitude the two had towards one another was what got them into this mess in the first place, but clearly near-death experiences weren’t enough to resolve things between them.

You gotta be kidding me, Cracker groaned inwardly at this display of bravado. Mirage couldn’t carry a Joltik, let alone Aku.

Crossing his arms and looking displeased, the Aipom hopped over to the Ralts, wrapping his long tail around him to pick him up, but instead of placing him on Mirage’s back and therefore worsening her condition, he plopped him on his own back. Having only suffered a Fire Fang bite and a scratch attack since coming down here, Cracker was far more capable of bearing the Ralts weight. Heck, he’d carry both of them if he could, but he wasn’t nearly that strong.

“You guys couldn’t work harder to get us all killed if you tried,” Crackers grumbled, shifting his position with his new load. “I never considered myself to be super smart, but putting two wounded Pokemon together is dumb and just begging for trouble if you ask me. So I’m carrying you instead, Aku!” To reconfirm his commitment, the Aipom started to walk down the corridor before turning back with a somewhat forced grin. “C’mon, Mirage, gotta keep up!”

The zorua huffed, "I'm not wounded," she insisted on her act even though the pokemon she traveled with were no fools to her obvious trick. She would have given her paw a lick and brought it behind her ear in annoyance if she had not been covered from top to bottom in dirt and her paw had not been injured.

The zorua tried to force herself to walk on her paw, but did not last long in their travels as she eventually could not bear the pain anymore, and began to limp again. She did not know what was wrong with her paw, but figured it was just something that could heal with time. Her body seemed to be more low than it usually was, not perky and energetic as she had once been like when she began to first meet the ralts. Her body was screaming for rest, but she ignored it the best she could.

Even if she decided to pull the curtains on the act, it would not do any good. The aipom could not carry them both, and it was likely she would feel guilty if she pretended-no...just be turned in if she were to pretend to pass out in attempt to force the ralts to walk instead. 'Great...the thoughts are returning...' she thought with despair.