Pit stop

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Shara was lazily drifting on the thermals. The goggles on her eyes were dirty with sand and she didn't even want to know what she looked like.

Flying through a sandstorm might not have been the SMARTEST thing to do, but it certainly was interesting. And nearly deadly. details.

Whatever the case Shara was weak from the hard flying and even the rising air currents were hard to keep up with. Here was as good as anywhere to take a break. She dived towards the forest and fell through the canopy.

ENTER PECHA FORREST: -5E
E:11

The Aipom was more than just a little surprised when the little Pidgey tore past him so suddenly. He nearly lost his own footing and tumbled to the forest floor, before catching himself with his tail. Unbelievable. For such a small thing Aria was amazingly fast. Cracker couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for her. None of his fellow Aipom had ever gotten past him before, but none had ever opted for sheer speed over obstacle avoidance. She could've found herself knocked painfully to the ground with such a maneuver, but she did it anyway. So fearless.

By the time the monkey emerged from the tree-line, panting from his exertion, he found Aria already in the pool of water, floating lazily on her back and throwing his own taunts back at him like champ. He couldn't help but grin as he leap out of the trees and tucked himself into a ball. Hitting the water like a rock next to the Pidgey, he tore up the pond's surface. It was sort of his way of getting back at her for losing, but he wasn't sore about it. Aria won fair and square with her show of impressive speed and aerial prowess.

Re-emerging from his cannon-ball dive, the monkey howled loudly and broke into a fit of laughter, splashing playfully at the avian whose bath he interrupted. "I let'cha win, y'know," he said, making a silly face that implied he didn't mean it. "Still though, you're really fast. I've never seen a Pidgey move like that before. Where'd you learn to fly like that?"

((Energy: 22 + 1))

"Well I get a lot of practice. Been a lot of places. Then whenever there is a library in a town i'm in I usually like to check out any books on aerodynamics. I live in the sky, The ground is just a pit stop for me." Shara said, starting to clean the sand off her feathers.

The Aipoms splash didn't mean much to Shara. She was warming up to him. In another life she may have gone on a whim and said she wanted to start an exploration team with him. But in this life she knew that she needed to Be with other birds. She had a lot to learn. This all or on place or whatever it was called was her best bet if she was to settle down.

Shara made her way towards the shallows so she could stand while running her Beak through her feathers. She needed to check her wings for misplaced feathers and just generally preen while she worked sand out of her wings.

"oh, hey Cracker? would you mind washing the sand out of my goggles for me? It's kinda hard for me without hands to work with." Shara asked Seriously.

[Full page +1 Energy]
[E:12]

As the Pidgey spoke, Cracker was paddling around on his back with the assistance of his tail's beefy hand. Much as he preferred the trees, bodies of water like this little pond were an exception. Aside from being a nice way to cool down on a hot day, it was also an interesting physical experience, unlike the forest floor with all of its prickliness. Even with the calluses the Aipom developed on his feet from a life-time of traversing the trees, the tickley discomfort of grass, twigs and worst of all, pine needles, still managed to get to him.

"Sure thing!" the Aipom responded to Aria's request, scooping up the goggles with his tail-hand as he paddled by. "Y'know, I kinda feel the same way about the ground as you do. Lived in trees all my life; it's not as glamorous as the sky an' all, I know. Actually never even touched the ground till I was in my second year. Hated it ever since, so I try to avoid it as much as I can. Used to read books too, but I always found them boring. I prefer doing things instead; that's way more fun." As he spoke, Cracker casually dunked the goggles into the water, manipulating the little optical device between his paws. Hoisting them up, he tried to apply them to his face, but they were too small to cover both eyes at the same time. "Hey, I wonder if I could see under water with this."

Without waiting for the Pidgey to reply, the Aipom pressed the goggles to his face and dunked his head underwater. They did help him see a little, but it was blurry, and the lens quickly filled up with water. He resurfaced only a few seconds after, shaking his head and then the goggles while making a blustering sound. "Nope, no good!" he announced. "You have a really small head, by the way." Cracker placed the goggles on top of his head to indicate the significant size difference.

((Energy: 23))

Lumin carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

"And you have a comically oversized head. I-" Shara was cut off by a hoothoot landing by the side of the pond.

It cocked it's head at Shara. shara did the same.

"Uh are you wild?" Shara asked.

The Hoothoot hopped closer, shara stepped out of the pond to face it. It's face was unreadable. Shara's face was scrunched in confusion. Then out of no where the Bird started Pecking Shara.

"OW OW OK YOU'RE FERAL!" Shara said, pulling up her wings to block the attack.

Shara really didn't want to deal with this, She had already flown for arceus knows how long, through a sandstorm no less. Then she had to race this Aipom and she was just starting to relax. Shara Wasn't much of a fighter, There were more important things, but that didn't mean she couldn't handle herself in a fight.

She started bobbing left and right, confusing the Hoothoot, then when it was distracted she appeared behind it and kicked it into the Pond, a faint amount of dark energy on her talon. With the Hoothoot out of the way Shara started beating her wings and shaking her body to get the rest of the water off. If she could get into the air dry enough then She could be much more helpful taking down the Hoothoot.

[E:12]

At the mention of his big head, the Aipom placed his paws to either side of his face and rubbed his fur around. He then proceeded to grin like he'd been given a compliment just as a Hoothoot appeared. The grin disappeared immediately as both avians locked onto each other. Cracker watched quietly as Aria spoke to the Pokemon, a frown beginning to form on his face. He could tell immediately what the answer was going to be, even as the Pidgey exited the pond to approach the Hoothoot.

"I wouldn't..." he started to say, but before the warning could roll off his tongue, the Pokemon launched into a frenetic Peck attack.

Fortunately Aria got the picture pretty quick afterwards, blocking the wild Hoothoot's assault. The Aipom started to swim to shore as the little Pidgey bobbed and weaved around the untrained Hoothoot, but before he could get close enough, the owl was kicked towards him. Cracker tried for a moment to get out of the way, but the two Pokemon knocked heads instead, after which the Hoothoot redirected its attacks onto him.

Although he could swim just fine, battling in the water was not something he'd ever trained for. With the Hoothoot clinging to his head and pecking at him, the Aipom thrashed in the water, trying to knock it off with his tail. The true flaws of water dawned on him at that moment. No footholds! Unable to touch the bottom of the pond, he couldn't get closer to shore, while the Hoothoot used his head as a platform to repeatedly peck at him.

At this point, spluttering and splashing fruitlessly in the water, he didn't think things could get any worse. But then the Hoothoot locked eyes with him and began to use Hypnosis. Cracker could already feel himself get drowsy. "Oh bugger," he groaned.

Shara had begun to franticly dry herself even faster, The hoothoot had started assaulting Cracker while he was still in the water. This would have to be good enough. Shara Shot into the sky, slightly weighed down.

once she made it above the trees, Shara Took a dive. At the last second she pulled up, rocketing forward. With an urgency that said life or death, Shara rammed the hoothoot Tackling it straight to the other side of the pond.

She flapped her wings to come to a stop above the Aipom. Something wasn't right.

"Cracker! Are you alright!?" Shara practically screamed.

[E:12]

By the time Aria had taken flight and dispatched the Hoothoot, the Hypnosis attack had already taken effect. Cracker was drifting in a fuzzy void with a cross-eyed expression as he idly attempted to stay above the water's surface. In just another second he'd lose consciousness, by before he did, he witnessed the Pidgey, flapping her wings above him and screaming incoherently at him. Behind her, the Hoothoot was recovering from the previous assault and readying a Tackle attack of it's own in retaliation.

Before everything faded to black, the Aipom waved his tail hand clumsily and sleepily issued the word, "Buuurdy..." Then he dropped below the surface of the water, sinking in a deep slumber. Man was he beginning to hate psychic attacks. First he had to deal with being carried around by that Ralts, now he was being doomed to drown in a bloody pond.

((Energy: 21))

Oh dear Arceus. Shara Hadn't been kidding when she said he had a big head. There was no way that she could stay airborne and drag him to shore. The hoothoot must have hit him with hypnosis. maybe a sleep seed.

It didn't matter, She needed to find a way to get Cracker to shore. Shara closed her eyes and tried to think up anything that might help but she just couldn't do anything. Without warning shara was sent flying. She forgot about the hoothoot.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU!" Shara yelled. She righted herself and flew towards the hoothoot, It Tried dodging, but that was were Shara was feinting. She disappeared and reappeared behind the bird and rammed it with a full speed feint attack.. Not taking a second to loose she flew past it and rammed it from the other side with a tackle. once it was over the ground shara used sand attack and started ramming it in the dust cloud.

Once she was done with that she got back to panicking about Cracker. There wasn't time to get help. If he drowned here then it was game over. Shara Racked her brain for something. anything. Then she got something.

Once in a book about aerodynamics it referenced a basic physics book, she had read through that one too. Force equals mass times Acceleration. Shara didn't have the mass, but She sure as Reverse World had the acceleration.

She shot up into the sky, she would need a lot of help from gravity for this to work. she got as high as she could, then tucked her wings in for a dive. As soon as she was at terminal velocity she opened her wings and flapped, she was heading down faster.

A second before hitting the ground she pulled up, transferring her momentum into forward motion. Shara took a breath, with each beat of her heart the world raced by. She used all of her mental power to focus on the Aipom flailing in the pond.

Shara would have loved to say this happened in slow motion, but it happened to painfully fast. She grabbed onto the cowlick on the Aipoms head with her talons with a death grip and flapped her wings furiously. She tumbled onto the shore and into a tree, she only hoped that the monkey had made it.

[E:12]

The partially submerged Aipom was already taking in water as he bobbed unconsciously, dreaming of swinging through impossibly tall trees. He felt like he was on top of the world, able to see everything there was to see below him. It reminded him strongly of home as he passed homes and other structures built into and protruding from massive oaks and birches. Cracker was having the time of his life, seeing old faces and crossing paths with new ones, friends he'd met in this new region.

Of course, the happy moment in his dream was short-lived as the sky suddenly grew dark, and the trees became rotten and pale, like those in Shadowhue Forest. The branches around him crumbled and decayed as the sharp, prickly ground below quickly loomed upon him. He made a move for a tree limb, but it turned to ash in his paws and he dropped towards the ground. Before he reached it though, a rush of cold water erupted upwards in a geyser, surronding and enveloping him until he was deep underwater.

In a panic, he thrashed around, struggling to swim back to the surface. Just then, he felt something like sharp claws digging into his scalp and latching onto the fur on his head. An instant after, he was hauled into the air and thrown haphazardly into the ground, where he rolled and spluttered breathlessly, coughing up water. Cracker's eyes opened abruptly and he jumped upright, taking deep, ragged breathes.

The nightmare drifted back into the deepest part of his mind as he regained awareness of his surroundings. He sat a few inches from the pond's shore, his tail still bobbing in the water. Aria was nowhere to be seen and neither was the Hoothoot. The last thing he remembered was being attacked with Hypnosis. Leaping to his feet, the worried Aipom searched the ground, water and sky for the small Pidgey.

"Aria? Aria! Where are you!?" he called, turning left and right sharply.

((Energy: 21))

Shara might have blacked out. everything happened so fast. she pushed herself off the ground only to be greeted by a harsh pain in her left wing. her thoughts quickly turned back to the Aipom that had almost drowned. She breathed a sigh of relief when he heard him call out to her.

she walked over to him, ignoring the pain in her wing, too concerned with him to take a look at herself. She nearly cried when she saw that he was alive and relatively unharmed.

"Oh thank arceus, Mew, Ho-oh and all the legendaries you are Alive." Shara said. "I've never been so scared in my life! Are you ok?" Shara said, not bothering to look at her wing, which was turned at an unnatural angle.

[E:12]

Cracker whipped around at the sound of Aria's voice, his eyes lighting up to mirror the Pidgey's relief, but his face quickly cringed in horror. As the small bird approached, the sight of her mangled wing did not go unnoticed. In fact, his look of gratefulness at seeing her alive and well, dropped into one of alarm. Her wing was bent at angles that couldn't possibly be natural. Did the Hoothoot do that to her? He was yet unaware how he managed to get ashore but he could only assume she fought off that owl and saved him. At the cost of her own well-being.

"I--I'm..." he started to say, but his jaw took a moment to work up the mobility to voice his concern. "I'm fine, but... Aria, you're wing, it--Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

Overwhelmed with worry, the Aipom came closer, reaching out with one paw towards the damaged wing, not content to just survey the injury visually. He prodded it at it's bent joint, where it turned in the wrong direction, splaying her feathers in an unflattering manner.

((Energy: 21))

Shara was so woried about Cracker that when he asked if that hurt she was confused for a second, then she looked down. oh. OH.

"Oh, that. I think my wing is broken." Shara said, barely thinking. " I might be in shock. Do you know how to tend a broken bone?"

Shara's heart froze over. She couldn't even begin to fathom what had happened. it seemed so strange, so alien. Shara wasn't convinced it was even real. She looked to the sky. She was stuck on the ground. she couldn't even begin to understand what that meant for her.

Shara had never broken a bone before. She was too good to break bones. Then again she was barely good enough to save a single life. A thought flashed through her mind, a memory.

"Why arn't you scared up in the air?"

"My mom said something when she was teaching me to fly. When you stand on a thin branch, you're trust isn't in the branch to support you, but in your trust in your own wings to save you should you fall."

"What If an accident happened? what if you died because of a freak wind or something?"

"I would do it all over in a heartbeat. I love flying. It doesn't mean I'm not scared, everyone gets scared, it just means that I'm willing to be stupid because that's the only way I want to live my life."
Shara knew then that she would have no qualms with doing the same thing over again even if it killed her. Because that's just how she wants to live her life.

"I'm definitely in shock please help"

[E:12]

After seeing no response from Aria when he touched her wing, he had to agree. She was definitely in shock, unable to feel the pain of her broken limb. It also explained why she was so distant and calm about the situation. This was not a good thing at all. He couldn't help but recall his lessons from back home, regarding first aid. Of course he had barely been listening as usual, but he'd garnered enough knowledge to know that someone going into shock after a traumatic injury was bad.

Unfortunately, his recollection of what to do in such a scenario was significantly less clear to him. Cracker was visibly unsettled, growing more worried by the second. Backing away, the Aipom shifted nervously from one foot to the other, wringing his paws together with a look of increasing terror on his face. The memories of tending injuries had to be in his big fat head somewhere, but he couldn't just sit here and wait for them to come, he had to do something.

"Uhm... Broken bone, right... I uh..." Cracker rubbed his head and smacked it a few times, hoping to jar a memory loose. Even common sense was doing little to help. "I mean... well, first we should..." The Aipom bit his lip, his paws dancing around the injured Pidgey's wing like he was trying to cast some sort of spell. "I guess we should straighten it, right? It should be facing this way." Placing one paw on the joint and the other further down the wing the monkey, in all his limited wisdom, quickly jerked the limb downward, popping the wing back into place with an unsettling and likely painful crunching sound.

((Energy: 21))

Shara's eyes grew wide. He didn't know for sure? That didn't sound good. Shara's mouth stay open as if she was going to say something, but she didn't have anything to say. If shara knew that she was going to get herself hurt she would have looked up first aid. But she always thought because she didn't have hands that it didn't matter. She was so wrong. so very wrong.

"I'm not going to be able to fly for a long time" shara said. it might have been a question if she hadn't already thought so much about it. "I, I feel so lonely. my wings could take me anywhere, but now I'm stuck in one small place in such a big world."

Shara Hadn't known Cracker for very long, but in that time she had beaten him at a race, took a bath in his presence and saved his life. How could she even know if she trusted him? he could do any of a million things to take advantage of Her. She was scared. she had no escape.

[E:12]

"Maybe that was wrong..." Cracker said slowly, appearing to not have heard Aria's concerns at first. "Ugh! If I could just remember! Stupid brain!" The Aipom smacked himself in the head a few more times for good measure before quickly turning to the Pidgey like he'd just had a revelation. "Maybe you could stay with me for a while. It'd be a lot safer than hanging around in the open. There is supposed to be a town in this region somewhere, but we'd be up to our necks in wild Pokemon before we could even get close, and I don't want you to get any more hurt than you already are. I mean... it's kinda my fault you're even in this position in the first place. Plus! Plus, if you're with me, you won't be alone, right?"

Looking a little disheartened by his own words, Cracker turned away in thought. He and Aria had only just met, but his typically genial nature couldn't say no to an injured Pokemon, even one he'd initially intended on pranking for her initial rudeness. She might not feel the same way though; as it was, she was already beginning to miss her ability to fly, which must've been as important to her as the forest and the trees were to him. His desire to help her wasn't just an act of kindness, he was feeling her pain. The Aipom sighed loudly.

"I'm sorry, Aria," he said. "If we hadn't met, you'd probably be well on your way to where it was you were headed by now. I wanna make it up to you. I'll try and help you get better. Everything I need to know is in here somewhere." The Aipom gave his noggin a rap. "I just need to shake it loose, y'know? Like... Oh! I--I think I should put a splint on that. Uuuh, hold on!" Bubbling with energy, the purple monkey jumped into action, bolting off into the bushes in search of a decent sized twig and something to bind it.

He came back in a few short moments with a stiff little stick and about a foot of vine. Slinging the vine over his shoulder, Cracker reached out for the Pidgey's wing but stopped himself. He may have had a burst of recollection but he was suddenly hesitant, seeking Aria's approval before he proceeded.

((Energy: 21))