Mapping up the Mountain. Akuroma tricks Cracker into joining him!?

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Akuroma walked up to the foot of the mountain before turning to look at Cracker, "C'mon, there's a nice big forest full of berries and nice Pokemon near the top," Akuroma said. To must Pokemon, that lie would've been obvious, but Akuroma knew how gullible Cracker was, and decided the monkey would've been the best Pokemon to watch his back while they climbed the mountain. Well, not exactly, he just knew Cracker wouldn't dare leave Akuroma alone with how dark the mist would make their surroundings.
The Ralts's true goal was to collect several items from the mountain while also mapping out a relatively safe trail to the supposed Black Spiral Staircase.

After acquiring the small seed, Cracker stared at it blankly. Akuroma called it an X-Eye Seed, warning him that it would cause hallucinations. He certainly wasn’t feeling anything just holding it. Maybe he had to eat it to feel the effects? The Aipom sighed and tucked the seed in behind the band tied around his forehead, seeing as how he had no other means of carrying anything at the moment. Man, I got gipped, he grumbled inwardly. It was pretty obvious that the long-tailed Pokemon wasn’t excited about his treasure. Honestly, he was far more interested in what the Ralts had acquired.

“Whatcha gonna do with that pretty ribbon?” Cracker asked, looking a little anxious as he stared at the bit of gold peeking out of Akuroma’s bag. “It looks really nice… maybe I could have it? Maybe? Possibly?”

Following closely behind his companion, the Aipom couldn’t take his eyes off the Ralts’ bag. The second he’d laid eyes on it, he knew he wanted it, and it was quickly becoming something of an obsession. Images of himself prancing around with the ribbon tied on like a cape were flashing through his mind.

Akuroma glanced over at the Aipom, easily sensing his growing obsession over the Gold Ribbon, "If ya got enough poke I might sell it to ya," he said as they walked along. He doubted the Aipom had enough money for the Gold Ribbon, but who knows? If the monkey liked a Gold Ribbon so much he must love all the little golden coins that were poke.

Having been bouncing along on his tail, the Aipom promptly faltered and the mention of Poke and dropped onto his feet, moving his legs double-time to keep up with the Ralts. Truthfully, because Cracker didn’t have any pockets on him, he didn’t have a single coin in his possession. It was all locked away in the nearest town’s bank. So he had no idea exactly how much there was to offer. With that beautiful ribbon taunting him so, though, how could he refuse? Maybe he could barter for a price to pay later.

“S-sell? Yeah—uh, yeah, sure! Um…” Cracker shuffled awkwardly from left to right behind the Ralts. “Thing is, um… I don’t have any on me but—but! Maybe when we… when get back into town? How much would you—I mean, what’re you asking?”

It would’ve been quite a surprise to anyone who knew the Aipom well, to see him willing to give up a sizeable portion of his wealth for a gold-colored ribbon. Cracker did in fact have an unhealthy obsession with shiny things, and so hoarded his Poke, but he also didn’t make a whole lot with which to hoard, so every coin was precious. Needless to say, it was creating in the Pokemon a significant struggle.

Akuroma feigned as if he was thinking about it, deciding to take the ribbon out of his bag and spin it around in his hand, "Hm...How about 800 Poke and that X-eye seed?" Akuroma asked. He grabbed the Gold ribbon and held it up for the Aipom to get a good long look at it before slowly starting to put it back into his bag. Who know the Ralts was skilled at bartering? Well, it probably wasn't hard to barter with someone practically drooling over the item in your hand.

Already having enough trouble deciding what to do, Cracker’s eyes locked onto the ribbon as it was pulled free from the Ralts’ bag. He suddenly felt a lot more agitated and desperate and, honestly, if he had been just a bit more obsessed, he probably would’ve been foaming at the mouth and ready to fight to the death for that precious bit of cloth.

As it was, the Aipom didn’t have the nerve in him to assault a psychic Pokemon, no matter how much he wanted that ribbon. Instead, he paced back and forth frantically, hopping from one foot to the other indecisively. If he gave up almost every Poke coin he had, he’d be back to square one with his collection, but he’d be up one beautiful, gorgeous ribbon. But if he kept the coin, he might never see that ribbon again.

The turmoil within the long-tailed Pokemon was so great, he didn’t even notice the pleasure Akuroma was no doubt getting out of causing him such a struggle. Go broke or get pretty? He’d never had such a difficult choice to make in his life. Even with how great the struggle was, it didn’t take Cracker long to, well, crack.

“Okay, I’ll—!” he started to say abruptly, but before he could finish, his foot punched though the ground he’d been trampling, nearly causing him to topple head-over-heels.

Completely distracted from his obsession mere moments ago, Cracker struggled to pull his foot out of the hole,falling backwards in the process. Standing back up, he peered into the hole. It must’ve belonged to some sort of burrowing Pokemon at one point before getting buried and—wait, was there something inside? Kneeling down, the Aipom reached into the hole with his short little arms and pulled free whatever had been buried.

This dice is not existing.

Akuroma looked back at the Aipom, "You alright?" he asked, a little disappointed that Cracker was now distracted by the smooth little Geo Pebble he found in the hole.

"Looks like a Geo Pebble, they can cause a good amount of damage on an enemy, and it ignores type, so even a rock type could be hurt badly by it," the Ralts explained, letting his Gold Ribbon and hand rest on top of his bag. He noticed another item protruding slightly out of the hole the Aipom made. Using Confusion, he pulled the item out of the ground and put it in his bag, not even bothering to check and see what it was.

Suddenly his horn twitched, "Ugh...we got company," he said, looking over to their right.

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

“I’m okay,” he mumbled distractedly.

When the perfectly smooth little stone emerged from the hole, Cracker was immediately so fascinated by it, he didn’t even noticed the more valuable treasure, a Max Elixir, being lifted from the ground and deposited into the Ralts’ bag. The Aipom had never seen such a perfect little rock in his life. It was like a master craftsman had forced it to be the perfect projectile. And he couldn’t be sure, but it almost felt like it pulsed with a secret power.

Of course, Akuroma described its purpose and use to the ignorant Aipom, which only made him even more intrigued by it. Cracker was already tossing it up and down in the air, testing it’s heft as a projectile, and just as he suspected, it was flawless. He had a feeling he could make this thing break the sound barrier with the right application of force. But at least for now, he couldn’t bear the thought of using it so soon after acquiring it. This Geo-Pebble was special; he needed to wait for the right chance to use it.

That chance wasn’t going to be right now, though. Even though Cracker had taken to bouncing the stone up and down on the end of his tail, he had no intention of assaulting their new encounter with it. Instead, the surprise of spotting the Archen perched on the remains of a dead tree some short distance away, made the Aipom freeze, dropping the little stone to the ground.

Quickly swiping it back into his little mitt, the long-tailed Pokemon tucked it behind the Special Band with the seed he’d acquired and struck a defensive pose. With another stone attack out of the question, and yet another aerial sleuth readying for a battle, Cracker would have to think of something else. Running away into the mist and getting lost was definitely not an option.

“Why won’t these guys leave us alone?” Cracker groaned. “I hope you got a plan, Aku, cuz I’m all outta stones and I’m not wasting this bad boy!”

Akuroma snickered a bit at how much the Aipom treasured the Geo Pebble, "No need to worry, Archen are terrible fliers, he'll probably only be able to fly a few feet before he needs to land," Akuroma said deciding to watch the Archen.

At first the Archen did nothing, but soon it jumped out of the tree, only to rapidly flap it's wings to help it land on it's feet. With that it began to charge at the two Pokemon, wings flapping and glowing white, signaling it's wing attack.

Watching the Archen closely as well, he was grateful to hear they were poor fliers. At least the duo wouldn’t have to worry about attacks from the air. Of course, any Pokemon in this region could be just as difficult to battle even on the ground, right? After all, they had to share this place with creatures as huge and dangerous as Onix. Cracker had to treat this Archen like a viable threat, so that he didn’t screw up, like he had in nearly every other battle he’d been in to date.

He was always either too scared to fight, or too careless. In this instance, he didn’t have to be afraid because the avian actually looked somewhat comical in appearance with all those crazy colors thrown together. It almost looked like a clown, which made it hard to take seriously and thus left him open to being foolhardy.

Shaking his head, Cracker refocused as the Archen leapt out of the tree and began charging in with a Wing Attack. It was surprisingly fast, crossing the distance in no time, with a clear intent to attack the Aipom with its glowing wings. Ready for the attack though, Cracker bounced up into the air using his tail, easily avoiding the attack.

And without fail he made a mistake yet again. In the air, the Aipom couldn’t attack, leaving him wide open for a second attack as the Archen skidded sharply to a stop and whipped around, digging its sharp beak into the ground and throwing up a flurry of stones in the form of Rock Throw that struck Cracker. The sudden assault distracted the Pokemon enough that he couldn’t stick a landing and wound up smacking face-down in the dirt.

The Archen was already on the war-path with yet another attack, but Cracker was still lifting his face out of the dirt, trying to gather his bearings. Man did he hate landing on his face; where was a tree when he needed one?

Akuroma sighed as Cracker yet again ended up screwing up what would've been an easy battle. Perhaps that moment with the Spearow was a complete fluke? It didn't matter at the moment. Akuroma used Confusion on Cracker to get him out of the way of the incoming Quick Attack. He jumped into the mist along with floating Cracker in there and releasing him from the Confusion.

He quickly placed his hand on the Aipom's mouth and gave a small "Shh" as he tried to lead the Aipom away from the Archen. However, a sudden gust of wind blew away the mist.

"Wh-what? It knows Defog, wonderful," Akuroma growled to himself, firing a Confuse Ray at the Archen, which thankfully was unable to dodge it since it was so focused in revealing the two Pokemon. The small bird began to walk around dizzily, which Akuroma stopped by holding it with a Confusion attack.

"Go ahead and attack it, I'll hold it for you," he said to Cracker, deciding the monkey might like to defeat a Pokemon himself for a change.

Cracker couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about once again fouling up what should’ve been an easy task. Normally he wouldn’t have felt so bad, but hanging around with a Ralts almost twice his level made him very self-conscious about his own lacking battle skills. Honestly, before he’d met Akuroma, the Aipom had never battled in his life. Instead he’d always utilized his special ability Run Away to do exactly that; run away. It was no surprise he’d gotten this far in life and was still only level six.

When the Ralts hoisted him into the air with Confusion, Cracker couldn’t help but pout as he was carried into the fog and dropped back onto his feet. He wanted to apologize for being such a screw-up, but when he opened his mouth, Akuroma quickly covered it and hushed him. He then attempted to lead the two away into the fog, but before they could move two steps, the dark grey soup surrounding them quickly dissipated, revealing the two and the Archen.

Clearly Akuroma wasn’t pleased, using a Confuse Ray to disrupt any further attacks, but rather than utilize his Confusion to pummel the bird into a feathery mash, he held it in place and offered Cracker the opportunity to redeem himself. The Aipom’s eyes lit up, growing teary with emotion.

“R-really, me? Are you sure? Do you really think I—” Cracker quickly shook his head and put on a hardened expression. “I mean—of course, yeah! Um… okay.”

Turning to face the frozen Archen, struggling to free itself of the Ralts’ psychic trap, Cracker poised himself for attack. There was really only one attack he could utilize that had any sort of damaging effect, but it was the best he had. Raising his arms offensively, the Aipom charged headlong at the Pokemon, thinking in the back of his mind that this was kind of a cheap-shot, attacking someone who literally couldn’t defend themselves. It was really his only chance at any sort of victory though, so he had to try; if for no other reason than to avoid disappointing Ralts further.

A few feet shy of the Archen’s position, Cracker jumped into the air, and powered up his strongest Scratch Attack. He swung down hard, striking the Pokemon directly, but he didn’t stop. The Aipom kept throwing one attack after another at the incapacitated bird, not even looking where he was swinging.

Swing. Swing. Hit. Hit.

Cracker had no idea how many hits it would take, but when he began to run out of steam, he stored up strength for one final attack, this time utilizing the hand on his tail. Spinning sharply, he walloped the Archen so hard it broke free from Ralts’ Confusion and toppled several feet away, clearly out for the count. Meanwhile, the Aipom stood panting and worked up.

“Wow, that was awesome!” he chittered before promptly falling on his face.

Akuroma nodded a little, even though it was already midnight cause Cracker took so frigging long hoping that Cracker won't need him to hold the Pokemon still next time. He simply stayed quite as he went over to the Archen's bloody unconscious body and began searching it.

After a few moments he found two items, "Cracker, I found us something," he said, standing up and tossing Cracker one of the items.

This dice is not existing.

Still panting from the exertion of his overzealous assault on the now unconscious Archen, Cracker watched with a satisfied grin as the Ralts approached the fainted Pokemon to search it for items. While he waited, the Aipom basked in the aura of his first ‘victory’, staged though it might have been. He’d never felt so enthusiastic about a win before. That felt… really good.

For once he hadn’t been limited by his fear of defeat or injury, but of course it had just been a little flightless bird. Should the two come across an Onix or other fearsome adversary, Cracker would no doubt clam up again. But at least for now he could revel in this little victory.

Cracker was about to ask if they could battle another Archen or a Spearow when Akuroma revealed what he’d found on their fainted opponent and tossed one his way. His eyes immediately locking onto it, the Aipom dove and snatched the item out of the air, rolling across the ground several times and holding tightly onto whatever it was he was given.

This dice is not existing.

Akuroma tied the joy ribbon around his upper left arm before picking his bag up and beginning to climb back up the mountain. He didn't really feel anything from the ribbon, the flimsy fabric waving past his back from the wind. He shrugged, guessing the effect wouldn't start until later.

"That's a sleep seed, don't eat it," he said as he looked back at the monkey, hoping he wasn't too late on telling him.

Of course, after discovering what he caught was just a seed in his mitts, the first thought to cross Cracker’s mind was yummy. Holding it up over his mouth, the Aipom was about to stupidly ingest the Sleep Seed when Akuroma’s warning reached his ears. Pausing just short of plopping the treat into his mouth, the long-tailed Pokemon promptly retracted his tongue and hopped back to his feet.

Boy, that would’ve been embarrassing if he’d swallowed a Sleep Seed and knocked himself out in such a dangerous region. In fact, the Ralts probably would’ve never forgiven the delay such a dumb maneuver would cost them. Fortunately, his warning came in time, so rather than eat the seed, Cracker tucked it away safely in his Special Band with the X-Eye Seed and Geo-Pebble.

Hopping onto his tail, Cracker bounced hurriedly to catch up to Akuroma as he continued on up the hill.

“How much farther we gotta go before we can sleep? I know we can’t see the sky and all, but it must be pretty late by now, right? And—” Cracker abruptly noticed the new addition to the Ralts’ attire. “Oh wow, you got another ribbon? Cool!”