Healing Mirage the Zorua! A Temporary Hideout In Pecha Forest!?

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Akuroma looked around carefully for any Exploration Teams that might be passing through the forest. He twisted his head this way and that before waving for Cracker to come closer. The Aipom was carrying a currently unconscious Zorua on his back. The Zorua, Mirage, was badly injured back when the three had explored Monochrome Ruins. Akuroma himself was injured, but not as badly as the fox was.

After a few more tense minutes of trying to find a safe place to go, the Ralts finally saw a rather large and hollowed out tree. Upon further inspection he found it unoccupied and signaled the Aipom to come inside.

18/22 Energy

The zorua unleashed a feral snarl when the aipom tried to pry her paw off of her eyes. Her mind was clouded and she could hardly recognize the two as friends or even as what species they were. Everything was an enemy, but she could not move. The sun was too bright, her mind was too tired, and her misery and pain would have been off the charts if there had been one.

"se awah.." her speech was becoming incomprehensible as her body slowly began to submit to sleep. On the fortunate side, her snarl had left her mouth open as she growled. It would be easy to slip the seed into her mouth and force her to eat it, at the risk of being bitten of course.

(Running out of things to say about this situation since Mirage is out of it |D Sorry ;A;)

The sudden toothy growl put the timid Aipom on edge as he backed away sharply, nearly dropping the seed in the process. It occurred to him that an enraged confusion might be one of the symptoms brought on by the advancing effects of the weed. But if she was going to get violent with him now, so close to losing consciousness, getting the seed into her would be tricky.

Holding the seed nervously, Cracker stared at the weakening Zorua. She didn't react beyond snarling at him, and in fact seemed as though she couldn't move at all. Did the weed also cause paralysis? Or was the pain just too excruciating to move? At any rate, if she couldn't move, her ability to attack him would be limited. That knowledge gave him a much needed boost in confidence. He was still wary though as he crept closer again.

Mirage's mouth was hanging open now, making the task of getting the seed into her mouth a much easier task, but he'd still risk his paw getting bit if she decided to clamp down. Maybe if he moved fast enough she wouldn't be able to react. Well... here goes, he thought with a wince. Wielding the Swift Seed, Cracker gingerly tried to slid it into her open mouth, but his first attempt failed. He tried again, but as it started to fall out again, he quickly snatched it up and jammed it into her mouth.

His paw immediately got wedged between her teeth and he yelped loudly, snatching his paw back. "Ow, ow, ow! I think she bit me!"

"Better her bite you than continue suffering. Arceus, my head..." Akuroma groaned as he sat down, hoping the Zorua's emotions would die down enough for him to at least move them to the shore. He sat there silently. Well not entirely silent, he still groaned every now and then from his headache.

(Short post cause idefk what to do until Mirage begins to recover |D)

The zorua's jaws had attempted to snap onto the aipom's hand, but she had been to slow in the reaction and the seed slipped down her throat and into her stomach. She did not feel the effects instantly, but her head was slowly but surely becoming clearer as the energy of the seed flowed through her. If she had been normal, the nutrients of the seed would have energized her, allowing her to move faster than she normally could.

Due to the effects of the plant she had consumed that had caused this entire mess, the seed served a different purpose. The pain began to fade and was replaced with numbness as her body became more controllable. Mirage finally let her paws slide off of her snout and the sunlight to strike her eyes, they were no longer pained by the light.

Unfortunately, the zorua was still not in her right mind. She looked between the two blurred shapes that were slowly coming to focus and gave a slight snarl of a beast. It would still be a while before she was completely normal.

Furrowing his brow at Akuroma's comment, the Aipom nursed his minor wound as he watched the Zorua. He was almost certain the seed had gotten into her, but the effects were not as immediate as he could've hoped. Clearly the Swift Seed didn't work the same as an antidote as it did an energy booster. Hopefully her sour mood would at least dissipate enough for the Ralts to carry them all to safety. Cracker didn't trust the stability of the stone, placed so near to the precipice of a waterfall. It already felt like it had begun shifting slowly under all their extra weight.

As it looked right now, though, Mirage was still in no state to hold her own weight, let alone cross the distance that would be required to return to their hide-out. And even a forest like Pecha would be teeming with wild Pokemon, or worse, Exploration Teams on the lookout for outlaws. So getting back to the tree was imperative. Which meant, unfortunately, that Cracker would have to cart the weakened Zorua's weight once more, assuming Akuroma still hadn't recovered enough to carry her with his mind instead. Of course even that weren't the case, the Aipom probably would volunteer anyway, since this had all been his fault in the first place.

"I... I think she's starting to look a little better," Cracker said, crouching next to the dark-type. "She's still growling though. Are you okay to get us to shore, Aku? I really don't want to--" As he spoke the rock creaked and sank several inches, confirming the monkey's previous concerns. "Reeeeally don't wanna hang around out here anymore!" After a few more stuttering shifts, the rock began to groan and list towards the edge of the cliff.

Akuroma's own headache soon faded as the Zorua went into a numbed state. It was just in time for the rock to suddenly shift as well. Almost instinctively the Ralts began to use Confusion on the Rock to steady it. It was too heavy for his mind to move it, but thankfully it hadn't come loose enough for him to be unable to hold it.

"Cracker, can you jump to the shore with Mirage?" he asked. Releasing the rock could very well cause it to fall, and Akuroma had no idea if he could switch to them enough to avoid being hit by the rock if it tumbles over with them. He hoped the Aipom had enough strength to carry himself and Mirage to shore safely, as Akuroma would be able to focus on getting himself out of this precarious situation.

With the rock shuddering beneath him, Cracker was wobbling awkwardly. He still wasn't quite used to flat ground, especially when it was moving, so when Akuroma used Confusion to steady it, he was immediately relieved and sure-footed again. However, he then asked of the Aipom a very tall order. Jump to shore? he thought. With a Pokemon heavier than me?! I can barely lift her as it is! But if he didn't try, they'd all go over the edge, accompanied by a very big rock.

Pacing worriedly, the Aipom looked to the river, gauging the distance to be at least two meters. He could make it himself if he jumped, that would be a much easier task than it was to get out here in the first place. But with Mirage in tow... The crude image of him plopping into a river like a lump of coal crossed his mind. Shaking his head he tried to think of something else. Maybe he could throw her. It would still be quite difficult, and if he missed she'd be a goner. The monkey scratched at his head in frustration.

"Why do you have to give me the impossible tasks?" he groaned. "Ugh... Keep the rock steady... Oh boy, here goes..."

Stepping over to the Zorua, Cracker wrapped his tail around her limp body tightly. Rather that put further strain of the base of his spine, he grabbed up his own tail in his little arms and, summoning up all his strength, started dragging Mirage in circles, slowly building up momentum. The idea was to throw her across, but the effort in getting her moving was ridiculously hard. Eventually though her had her swinging through the air like a ball on a string.

Spinning on the spot on his heel, he aimed for the shore and tossed. But... his tail went taut and didn't let go. "Oh bugger," he yelped as he was hurled along towards shore as well. Fortunately tagging along for the ride didn't dampen the Zorua's momentum. Both Pokemon hit the shore and toppled unceremoniously for several feet before coming to a stop. By this point his tail had come free, but he was upside-down now, staring at the Ralts on the rock. He gave an awkward salute and flopped face-down on the ground. Man, does my tail hurt.

Akuroma watched as Cracker began to spin around, as if he were playing a game of hammer throw. He waited until Cracker gave him a salute until he let the rock go. As the rock shifted and began to fall, Akuroma began walking on top of it until he got to the edge, where he used confusion to float himself across the river and onto the shore. He turned and watched as the rock fell down the falls before looking over at Mirage and Cracker.

"Well, let's get back to the tree and wait for Mirage to get her mind back in the right place," he said, turning to walk towards the tree.

Mirage was frozen in fear as she was flung through the air, she landed ever so gracefully on her chest, her scarf like fur giving some kind of cushion, with her legs balancing in the air before falling over to the side. She forced herself up, her mind clearing slightly but not enough to resist her instincts. The zorua turned and leaped into the bushes, the feral minded zorua feeling a slight sting in her paw as the pain began to return, but it was not nearly as bad as it had been before she ate the herb.

Mirage ducked under bushes and branches as she took off, her still clumsy mind leaving an obvious trail of pawprints, crushed plants and twigs, and bushes with small openings in them from when she had shoved her way through. The zorua's now clean fur was coated in leaves, as she tried to flee from the monsters that had suddenly appeared before her out on the waterfall.

((Mirage Energy: 29(Start) - 5(Dungeon Entry) + 2(Pages completed) = 26 Energy))

Kat carried out 3 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, ,

Lifting his head slowly, the Aipom spat out the gravelly bits of dirt that had gotten into his mouth during his short, face-down nap. The terrifying flight through the air had left him feeling light-headed and just a little dizzy. It hadn't gone unnoticed what would've happened had he been even a little bit off in his throw. And getting pulled along with her hadn't been part of his plan. Things could've gone horribly wrong, but fortunately, he was still here and so was Mirage--Mirage?

Cracker jumped to his feet, shaking off his adrenaline. He searched frantically for the Zorua, just catching sight of her tail as she slipped into the underbrush at a surprising pace. She couldn't possibly have recovered that quickly, could she? And where's she going!? There was only one real reason why she would've taken off on her own.

"I think she's still confused, we gotta go after her!" the Aipom called to Akuroma worriedly. He didn't wait for an answer before leaping into the trees overhead. "She's not well enough to be on her own, I'm gonna try and get ahead to cut her off!" Cracker took off running and jumping from branch to branch, picking up the Zorua's haphazard trail pretty easily before proceeding to follow as quickly as he could. There was no way she could outrun him, but he was more worried about what she might do if he tried to get in her way. Although as he swung through the trees, his worry began to shift as he felt like he was being shadowed, and not by the Ralts.

As Akuroma turned towards the Aipom as he yelled out about Mirage's confusion, he noticed both Pokemon gone. He looked up as Cracker told Akuroma of his idea. Akuroma sighed and shook his head, the ground below him splitting off as he began to float in the direction Cracker ran off to, noticing Mirage's trail again.

"First it's constantly being attacked, then it's cave in's, now it's a confused Zorua. What next? An army of drunken Mirages!?" he complained to himself as he began to speed up, following the Zorua's trail. This day was not going very well.

(26/29 energy)

The confused Zorua blitzed her way through the forest, going as fast as her injured leg would allow and attempting to ignore the growing pain as the mind began to grow less numb to it. The zorua attempted to look to the side of her, a strange purple shape coming along the side of her. She assumed it to be one of the strangers chasing her, and tried to swerve away from the shape before smashing into a tall tree. The zorua groaned and subbed her now hurting head again, her senses having cleared much more as she was brought back to reality from the force.

Mirage blinked, rubbing her head with her paw and looking up at the tree, only to see that this strange tree had eyes and rather strange branches. It was a sudowoodo, and on the twigs upon its head perched a Hoothoot that seemed to glare down at the Zorua with its large eyes. An aipom dropped from the tree beside them, giving a mischievous giggle, "Look what I found!" it snickered, the voice revealing the aipom to be female...

Still steadfastly determined to catch up to Mirage, Cracker swung through the trees as quickly as he could, with Akuroma steadily bringing up the rear on his floating slab of land. He was already beginning to worry that she'd run into another Pokemon, and when he arrived, his fears were confirmed. Coming up on the Zorua, the Aipom quickly spotted a Sudowoodo, Hoothoot and... another Aipom? Leaping into the air, the purple monkey wrapped his tail around a branch and swung himself sharply downwards toward the ground, hitting with a roll before propping up himself on his tail.

Eyeing the group, Cracker dropped down onto his feet, despite his mixed feelings about touching the forest floor. He gingerly tiptoed over to Mirage to see if she was okay, but his main focus was the three Pokemon that had suddenly appeared, inadvertently doing what the Aipom had meant to do, which was stop the Zorua's confused instinctive flight.

"Who are you?" he asked, looking somewhat intimidated. He glanced from one Pokemon to the other, unable to decide which one was the ring-leader of this little party, much less whether they were friend or foe. "A-and what do you want?"

Akuroma hopped off his rock and let it fly off to the side. The slab nearly hit the group of Pokemon as he walked up beside Cracker. He wasn't really concerned about them. He was more concerned about Mirage attacking them in her current confusion. He kept silent, focusing on making sure the three Pokemon didn't begin to attack.

(sorry for short post, don't know who's gonna rp the three NPCs and Aku's not really in the mood for talking atm |D)

"Hoot, just came for the zorua, hoot, don't cause any trouble please, hoot!" the hoothoot spoke, his hoots a bit distracting from the sentence.
The sudowoodo reached into a bag that had been slung around its shoulder and pulled out a shiny badge, "Rescue Team Boulder, we're here to arrest the one known as Mirage the Zorua."
The aipom gave a giggle and let go of her branch, letting herself fall to the floor before jumping back up and balancing herself on her tail, "Yep Yep Yep!"

Mirage's ears flicked forward and a snarl formed on her face as she realized the danger of this trio. She wasn't about to go down without attempting to get away again! A dark aura began to surround her as a Dark Pulse began to charge up and be prepared to fight back.
(everyone claim a Pokemon to control, i'll take the last one standing)