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 second the group identified themselves as Rescue Team Boulder and that they were here for Mirage, the Aipom winced visibly. He quickly shook it off and pretend to rub a spot on his shoulder to hide the nature of his reaction, but his brow was still furrowed in worry. Cracker had been dreading this moment ever since Akuroma warned him of the very real possibility it might occur. And now that it had, he didn't know what to do. If he and the Ralts told the truth, the Zorua would no doubt battle her heart out, ultimately resulting in the team taking her away to who knows where.

Cracker could see Mirage was already beginning to charge dark energy for an attack; she was in no state to take on three well-trained Pokemon. If she tried anything now, any hope of them getting out of this without a fight would vanish, and they'd all be left fighting against a known guild team. The Aipom didn't need to be a genius to know what the result of that would be; the Zorua wouldn't be the only one labelled an outlaw. And much as he wanted to help his new friend, Cracker couldn't allow himself to suffer another exile.

Before the instinct-driven Zorua could choose between fight or flight, the Aipom stepped in front of her and held up his arms submissively. He didn't want to appear like he was planning to get in their way, so his stance was effectively neutral.

"I-I definitely don't want to cause any trouble, but this--this is a friend of ours, and she's very sick right now," Crackers attempted to explain, looking quite worried. "She ate a poisonous weed by mistake, and I've been trying to take care of her." He was unsure if he should attempt to lie; he'd never been very good at it. "She's a good Pokemon, but the symptoms are making her aggressive. I don't know who this other Zorua is you're talking about, but they're no friend of ours." The Aipom tried to look as sincere as possible, hoping they'd actually consider the possibility that they had the wrong Zorua.

His counterpart, unfortunately, didn't seem very convinced. Lulling his own kind with a look of innocence wasn't going to be easy. The female Aipom bounced forward on her tail and leaned in close until the two monkeys' faces were almost touching. The invasion into his personal space made Cracker incredibly uneasy and awkward. The last time he'd been this close to an Aipom of the opposite gender, was during a dance in his village back home. Recalling such memories made his blush uncomfortably.

"That so, Mister?" she interrogated, still grinning but with a slightly malicious tone. "If you're all so innocent, then what's her name and where'd yah meet?"

Akuroma walked up to the two Aipom and pushed the female away from Cracker. His eyes were covered by his hair, but he was staring daggers at the female. He felt guild teams shouldn't try to appear threatening, they had no reason to except towards outlaws, which Cracker and himself had given them no reason to believe they to be outlaws.

"Her name's Lilac, Cracker here and I met her back in Rainfront when he and I were studying the nearby dungeons. Name's Akuroma, I'm one of the librarians back in Grassveil, and I know of Mirage. Cracker's telling the truth. We were trying to gather some herbs to try and help Lilac's leg there. She tried to show up Cracker by showing she could climb trees as well as he could and paid the price. Sadly she thought it would've been smart to eat one of the herbs we gathered before I gave her the OK. She ended up going nuts for a few moments until we were able to shove the antidote down her throat. Now unless you feel like pestering us more, we'd very much like to get to Grassveil to have her leg checked out," the Ralts said. He walked over to Mirage and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Easy now, they're a rescue team, not a band of idiots. They won't attack us without due cause, Lilac, and if they do they'll have their Guildmaster to answer to," he said, hoping the Zorua was back to her senses enough to understand his plan. The only problem would be if Team Boulder decided to escort them.

The Sudowoodo put the badge away, a small grimace forming on his face as Cracker and Akuroma spoke. He wanted to stop Akuroma when he pushed the female Aipom away, but stopped after the mention of his name.

"Akuroma? Ya mean the Ralts who's always in the library? I thought you'd never leave that place, but you've already been as far away as Rainfront?" he asked. He'd seen the Ralts pouring over books in the library the few times he's visited it, but he didn't remember the scars on his cheek.

"Where'd you get them scars from?" he asked, a bit distracted by the fact that the bookworm of a Ralts he once knew had been traveling and had the marks to prove it.

Akuroma nodded in response to the first few questions before he shook his head at the scar one, "Maybe you'll catch me at the library tomorrow, but today I'd rather get back home and make sure Lilac'll be alright," he said.

Mirage, after having realized her mistake, listened to Cracker and Aku come up with a lie for the rescue team. She decided it would be better to back it up with some evidence of her being aggressive. She unleashed a growl and shot the dark pulse attack at Akuroma, the dark pulse landing just inches behind him as she missed purposefully, but hopefully gave him a fright, to prove she was "out of her mind"

"HOOT!" the hoothoot exclaimed with alarm at the attack, it seemed that it was quick to believe the group, "Hoot-she should probably see someone right away-hoot- but we can't just abandon our post-hoot-what should we do....HOOT" it spoke.

The Boulder Team's Aipom didn't react kindly to being pushed aside by the psychic-type, Akuroma. Although she allowed herself to be escorted back a few steps, she flung off the Ralts' arm with an intensity that made Cracker nervous. He may not have been the best judge of character, but he could spot a hot-headed monkey a mile away. She was the sort he tended to avoid, even back home. Confidence and a short temper didn't mix well among Aipoms.

To make matters worse, she wasn't so quick to believe their lie as the Hoothoot. If anything, she grew more suspicious. Although she had no reason to assume otherwise, the Aipom narrowed her eyes with an obvious scrutiny. She had done her share of research on the perp they were here to apprehend, and she wasn't about to let a potential suspect slip through her paws.

The sudden assault on one of her own party members was a surprise, but she wasn't exactly convinced. Zorua were notorious for their illusions, and this Aipom was determined to catch her quarry. Of course ultimately the final decision on the next course of action would be up to her team leader, the Sudowoodo, but she was tempted to test these Pokemons' devotion to what she believed to be a lie.

"Clearly she's a threat," the Aipom declared, after the dark pulse sizzled away in a nearby bush. "Criminal or not. And it's our duty to protect other Pokemon. We can't just let them go; what if she attacks someone else?" She directed the question to her team leader, hiding the manipulation in her words. The Hoothoot was right that they shouldn't abandon their post, but priorities had to be considered.