Treasure or just A LOT of sand?

Silverdawn sighed. "I don't like the feeling of being a coward, and running away feels like cowardice to me, Sova. I grew up in a fight or die village; where to run away was to lose your honor. And to lose your honor meant you were seen as lower than the dirt beneath your scales. But it isn't dishonorable to protect those smaller or weaker than yourself, therefore our fleeing was not dishonorable," she explained. She cast around, the temple still nowhere to be sensed.

(XD love that funny, Sofa)

Sova felt a bit torn. He understood honor, but also valued having a brain and using it. "Well, in a choice between honor and intelligence, I'd choose the smarter path." He hoped his pun would not fall on deaf ears and he actually wasn't sure if he really completely felt that way himself. "And....why would you want to protect the enemies?" He had just assumed Silverdawn was referring to the enemies when she talked about protecting those weaker than oneself.

"Honour?". Ned found himself surprised.
"While I agree that honour is important and should not be lost by breaking the law or hurting the innocent, fleeing from a battle is hardly dishonorable. After all fleeing means I survive, which in turn means that I can help more others again. And if fleeing is dishonorable...well, I'd rather lose my honour than my life any day.".
Ned wondered how he would have felt about honour growing up differently. He probably would not have cared about it at all. But considering his past with the clan, he was desperate to find ways to show that he was not like them. And that meant doing good whereever possible unless it posed a danger to his own wellbeing.

Silverdawn laughed to herself as Sova mistook her words of 'those weaker than her' to mean the enemies, not him and the nincada, but she didn't want to overly offend the poor pokemon. "Well it was almost unfair how we were so much better than them. No need to beat up a weaker pokemon, after all." she said. She listened to their words on honor. "Ah, you don't understand, I guess..." She sighed. "It's a way of life for me. Some things are hard to let go of."

Energy 8 + 1(page) = 9

Silver carried out 3 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

, ,

Sova just stopped talking at that point to avoid an argument, hedid know why the Ekans would have her beliefs in honor, but it was just hard for him to understand why anyone would take it so far.  But he had no right to judge someone else's moral values, what he was more focused on was why his ally was lying....When previously they were struggling to fight the enemies, she was now claiming to be vastly superior to them.  Claiming that all three of them were superior to the enemies by so much.  But in terms of flat strengths and weaknesses, the enemies had an advantage, so why would Silverdawn say otherwise?.  But he tried not to let that concern him.  After all, he could come to a harsh conclusion and that wouldn't be good.  He liked making friends, not enemies.

He wasn't sure about his allies, but he certainly was not built for the desert climate and he was beginning to feel fatigued.  That along with the desert sand began slowing his pace considerably.  "I don't think any more running is necessary, those Hippopotas may have been pretty sturdy but they weren't fast at all, we should be fine."  Just as he slowed down to try to catch his breath, a sandstorm suddenly picked up.

Sandstorm.  Why.  It was so random, there were no signs of a sandstorm prior.  On top of that, he thought he felt the ground around them begin shaking.  But perhaps that was his imagination....or nope, he was confirmed right as a Steelix rose up from under the ground in front of them.  It seemed pretty mad, they were probably on its territory or something.  "Uh....hi...."  He said, hoping it would be interested in talking things out.  Nah, it was more interested in intimidating glares and awkward silence.  And fighting.  Well, what would likely be closer to facerolling.  How could they even hope to beat a Pokemon such as a steelix?

"In any case, I suppose it's best for us to keep goi-..."
The Nincada was quickly interrupted as the metal titan rose from the sand in front of them.
"Going from bad to worse it seems..."
Of course their escape couldn't have worked. There was some fundamental law of the universe going against that. That was the only explantation the Nincada could think of as for why things like these kept happening and why there was an angry Steelix in front of them.
If they hadn't been screwed against the previous enemies, then they were now.
How were they supposed to defeat this hulking giant?
"Since our previous strategem had proven to be successful I advocate that we RUN!"

Energy: 9 - 6 = 3

Silverdawn felt the monster before her echolocation sensed it; she could feel the rumbling beneath her scales, and she swerved away as the Steelix came burrowing up from beneath the sand. She tensed; this huge monster could take all of them out in one swipe of it's massive tail if it desired to. Sova tried to talk to the thing, but it didn't respond to him at all, glaring down at the three trespassing pokemon with huge red eyes. Silverdawn was completely in favor of Ned's suggestion of running -despite all her talk about honor; there was honor and then there was just plain stupidity. They could have taken on the hippopatus; but this giant steel snake? That was just asking for death right there. "Ummm... I totally agree with Ned; let's get out of here!" Silverdawn squeaked, trembling against the ground in fear. But no sooner had the words escaped her, when the monster started doing something rather peculiar: it began to wind around itself in a strange sort of dance, clearing its massive body of sand. Silverdawn paled, her voice jumping several octaves. "ROCK POLISH!" she screeched. "RUN, before the move completes; we'll never get away if he gets to full speed!!"

Sova just stood in place. Perhaps the other two could gain some ground before the Rock Polish was complete, but he knew he for one wouldn't be able to get far in the sand, his body just wasn't built for it. Besides, the Steelix was going to be too fast to outrun in a moment and the sandstorm would stop Sova and Silverdawn from getting anywhere fast. But, for some reason, he decided to try and run anyways.

But to no avail. The steelix was already faster than them and the sandstorm wasn't helping with that. "I don't think we can get away...." He said as the Steelix blazed in front of them. Even though he knew what Rock Polish did, he was still surprised at how fast it was. steelix was a naturally slow Pokemon, but after rock polishing for barely even 10 seconds it was shockingly fast. Sova wondered what other moves it knew, probably something violent.

"You idiot!", Ned chided the once so reasonable Eevee.
"We need to get our asses out of here pronto! It could be hopeless, but at least it is doing something!"
How could the Normal type just be standing there?
They had absolutely no chance at all to take this thing on in direct combat and they established not even five minutes ago that they lacked the items to even fight using indirect means.
So there were exactly two options.
Flee, which included the possibility of fainting and doing nothing, which included the certainty of fainting. And while Ned would really have loved to pick the former option, the Eevee just sitting there once again forced him to completely ignore any sense of self-preservation and to try to get that ball of fur out of the area as well.

Silverdawn skidded to a stop in the blazing sand as the huge steel snake burst through the sand in front of her. She backed away, trembling. She hissed at the other two pokemon. "Hey, no time for fighting, you two! We gotta think of a strategy!" she cast around with her echolocation desperately for anything that could help them. She noticed something sticking out of the sand and scooped it up. It was a sitrus berry! She gulped it down, feeling her energy return to her. She cast around desperately for any more items that would be useful, sweeping the weird box aside for later.

Energy: 3 + 15 = 18

Silver carried out 3 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

, ,

Sova considered his options.  Running was obviously not going to work, as much as the Nincada wanted to believe it could.  Fighting probably wouldn't work.  Of course, standing around doing nothing certainly wouldn't work.  Perhaps he could just run in a different direction than his two companions, he could leave them behind.  Hopefully, the steelix would go after them and he could get away safely.  After all, the Nincada was being insensible and yelling at him for not wasting his energy running and the Ekans had earlier called him weak, which he was just now coming to terms with, so why should he help them?  Regardless of reasoning, he still chose to help anyways.

"Well, if all else fails....one of us could be bait so the other two can escape.  It's better than no one escaping.  And, since I came up with it, I guess I'll do it."  Or there could be a conveniently rolled Stun Seed to ruin the moment.  He looked to the other two, expecting their opinions on his plan, half hoping they would both refuse.  Despite wishing there was another way, it was the only thing he could think of, other than being a heartless coward and leaving his allies, which he wasn't going to do.

While Ned had to admit, that the Eevee's plan actually made quite a bit of sense and would be the best option concerning survivability he still couldn't quite agree with it. It would mean leaving a possibly innocent Pokémon behind, which would be exactly something they would have done.
And the last thing Ned wanted to do was to lower himself to their level. There had to be another way.
Before he even knew what happened, a wave of sand caused by the Steelix's Rock Polish had swept the small Bug type with it, causing for the Nincada to be thrown into the air for a short distance.
Recovering fron the shock the Ground type found that the ground he landed on was...moving? Apparently he had somehow landed on the Steelix itself. Could this day get any worse?
But for now things needed to be done. Dragging himself to his claws again, Ned crawled up the Steelix's body until finally reaching its head, panting in exhaustion from the climb.
There was not much the Bug type could do so he was going to make the little he could do have the greatest possible effect. Crawling directly above the Ground type's left eye, Ned unleashed his Fury Swipes attack, hoping to be at least somewhat effective with this move.

(HOLY WHAT.  When did you start doing that with your posts Haley!?  O_O)

Sova wasn't surprised neither of his allies had agreed with his plan, and just shrugged, smiling.  It seemed they had all agreed to fight, and for some reason he was happy.  Even if they all died, he felt alive challenging a colossus such as a Steelix, and having the other two with him meant maybe he would live after all.

He was taken away from his own thoughts by Silverdawn giving him the Stun Seed, which he promptly caught with his teeth.  He wasn't sure if he'd be able to get in the Steelix's mouth, but it was a much better plan than just sitting around doing nothing.  "Alright!"  He said as he ran into a better position and flung the seed at the Steelix.  It just barely missed the mouth, hitting the enemy's lower jaw and falling.  But with Ned clawing at the Steelix's eye and distracting it, he decided to try to just grab the seed again without being spotted by the monster.

Sova quickly darted to the Steelix in the area the seed had fallen in and grabbed it back off the ground, leaping back at the sight of the enemy's stone tail coming right at him, but sadly not quite far enough as it hit him in the shoulder, sending him spinning out onto the sand away from it.  He struggled to get up, then winced at a jolt of pain through his shoulder.  But he didn't have time to consider what damage was done.  He focused completely on aiming the seed this time, flinging it up to the Steelix and getting it right in the beast's mouth.  "Bullsey- agh!"  He said as he hopped a bit in joy before wincing again at his shoulder's pain.  He looked at his injured shoulder to see it was bleeding.

He then looked up at the Steelix which was now slowing down, but it didn't seem to be completely stopping.

The reason for the partial slowing of the Steelix's movements was to be found in what the seed actually hit. Before it landed in its supposed target, the item had managed to hit the small Bug type squarely in the face. And as the laws of inertia dictated the sudden slwing had other effects than the intended one as well. The suddenly immobilized Ned was incapable of holding on to the giant Steel type anymore, flung off and flying in a wide arc before landing in the sand before him.
"Nwt twmw yw swd awm bwmmn."
Since his jaws had been paralyzed as well, the Bug type's words were not the most intellegible ones, but at least they served as an indication that he was still alive.