Rainbow Rocks

First topic message reminder :

Standing at the foot of this humongous mountain of black stone sharply piercing the skies above brought back memories. This was the place where William and Acro had met for the first time. This was the place William had found his Joy Ribbon. This also was the place he had found the Link Cable he used to evolve into the Pokémon he was today.
It was just one mountain in an entire range of them, but this one was special. So many things had happened here already. And that was why the Gengar was almost stunned by the wave of nostalgia that overcame him seeing this mountain again after such a long time.
But he was not here to think of the good old times. He was here to save a poor, defenseless family from the torment of one particular Scraggy.
This should not be too difficult as he was a seasoned explorer.
Unless of course some unforeseen disaster happened.
Something like someone completely inexperienced tagging along.

Sova laughed a bit, which actually did hurt, prompting him to stop. "I meant as a friend. I guess conversation partner is close enough to that though." He said, a bit happy that he got a "yes" where he wanted it. But, just as the mood began to lighten a bit for him, his Anticipation caused him to zone out for a moment, feeling a sense of danger. It was different from the fear he'd been feeling....it was normal, probably just something attacking....

Something attacking? He saw nothing in front of him, so he turned around just in time to duck and avoid a high jump kick from an enemy....scraggy. The enemy went crashing into a rock in front of them, to which the eevee couldn't help but reply with a giggle. "I think that's the guy." He was a bit nonchalant, attempting to hide his worry.

Then something odd happened. The scraggy, instead of continuing to fight, spoke. "Uuh....sorry, I don't know what came over me." He said as he approached the two, looking at he gengar.

Suddenly something crashed into the rocks in front of them. It was a Scraggy, most likely the one they had been looking for. Luckily Sova seemed to have been able to dodge the attack somehow, as it would most likely have caused some serious damage otherwise.
But now all of a sudden the Dark type became apologetic - which in turn caused William to become sceptical. All-too-familiar with the move Feint Attack he nudged the Eevee a little before levitating a short distance into the air, out of the Fighting type's reach. After all if it really was apologizing then this shouldn't be a problem.

Sova, in response to the nudge and his own Anticipation not settling, began to back away from the enemy. Then he got an idea. He knew the enemy was most likely going to continue attacking, which gave him an idea to use that to his advantage. He just had to move faster than the scraggy....

Slowly, as he backed away, he reached a paw into his bag and searched for a particular item, a small blue orb. He placed the Petrify orb on the ground with his paw on top of it, making sure to put it in plain sight as a warning to the enemy not to attack. He then waited.

"Aw, you guys are no fun...." The scraggy mumbled as he attempted to rush Sova with Feint Attack. The eevee simply smirked as he pressed down on the orb, shattering it and stopping the scraggy in place in front of him, mid punch. He laughed a bit, with the enemy's fist right in front of his face yet still so safe.

"So, what do you wanna do?" He said as he looked up to the gengar. He then noticed the enemy straining its self to move, beginning to break free from the paralysis of the orb surprisingly quickly. Its fighting typing gave it substantial physical strength, enough so to overcome the paralyzing effect more quickly than most.

"Hm, that depends on how much punishment we are willing to dish out.  I have a few ideas.", a devious smirk crossed the Gengar's features.
"Of course we could just beat it up like we were sent to do, but there are alternatives. With my Hypnosis and Confuse Ray we should be able to incapacitate it enough to bring it to those Sneasel it is supposed to have bullied. Slightly carmic, you know? Or we could just take the obvious solution and have me throw it off of the mountain. Since I have no personal preference here I'm leaving you to choose. Let's see what kind of Pokémon you are."
Now this was going to be an interesting choice for the Eevee to make. Which punishment would he determine to be appropriate? Or maybe he would come up with something on his own.

"Throw it off the mountain? That seems a bit harsh....it's not like it killed anyone." Sova said, looking up to the gengar. "But....it'd take a lot more time to bring it to the sneasels and beating it up here doesn't guarantee it will stop attacking them." None of the choices were particularly better than the others for him. They could wander around for hours looking for the sneasels, just beat the enemy up and not guarantee a ceasing in its attacks, or toss it off the mountain, possibly killing it....perhaps very likely killing it.

But, the enemy beginning to regain movement quickly forced him to make a choice quickly. He didn't want to make a choice like that, where no option was perfect. "Well....do you know where the sneasels are?" He said, hoping they could just make a quick trip there and make the choice he viewed as the most morally right one.

The Gengar shrugged yet once again.
"No clue. I've been here a few times but never found anything that could be described as a settlement. Maybe they are nomadic anyway. But unless you have any other ideas we may be in need of a descision just about now."
Why was the Eevee hesitating? It seemed as if he had strong convictions, so shouldn't it be easy for him to make a choice instead of having to cogitate endlessly over it? Hopefully a choice would be made soon, as the passage of time was making swift action a neccessity. And if this were to continue, then William would be forced to take action, the results of which would not be pretty.

Sova thought it over for a moment, there was only one choice that was sure to work. He sighed. "Toss him." He said a bit quietly. If the enemy survived that, surely it would be a good lesson. Just giving it a beating wouldn't be surefire and they could wander around for hours looking for any sneasels and never find any. Though that was just an excuse he used to feel like what he was doing was right without guilt. Truthfully, part of him just wanted the scraggy to receive that brutal punishment for what it'd done.

A sigh escaped the Gengar.
"I'm sorry, Sova. You failed. I'm not going to kill a Pokémon, no matter what it has done. I was testing you to see how you would react, but I didn't think you'd actually settle for this. Consider the following - If you kill an outlaw, then what makes you different from them? Maybe they have a family. Do you want to punish them for something they are not at fault for? You always claim to be strong - but behaviour like this shows weakness in the most critical part - your heart."
Now this was disappointing. The Gengar had began to acknowledge the Eevee as an equal, but this event completely destroyed that perception.
"I hope that you will understand what I mean when thinking about your choice."

Sova glared up at the gengar. "Consider this. If we just give him a beating, what if he gets even more violent in the future? What if HE kills someone? And if we give him to the sneasels, what if they kill him? How can I pass a test with no right answer?" He asked in an attempt to defend himself. Though he didn't feel that he could kill someone just for being a bully, dictating whether or not someone died felt a bit different.

"How about the obvious solution you overlooked? Turning it in to the police and guild for example. Problem solved - noone dies. There may even have been the possibility of the Sneasel having lied and the Scraggy having attacked us for some other reason. You would be killing an innocent Pokémon. Don't believe that you only have a few set options just because someone tells you you do."
Hopefully the Eevee would realize the error of his ways before it was too late. William really hated having to imagine facing Sova in battle some day because the Normal type had become an outlaw.
Right and wrong were fragile concepts, but few things were such undoubtably wrong as taking another's life.
"Think about it - you've probably made some mistakes yourself. Does that make you irredeemably evil? Forgiveness and Mercy are essential qualities. Without them we would all have killed each other long ago."

Sova looked down for a moment. The gengar was completely right, with the pressure and his clouded state of mind, he hadn't even considered any other options. He'd just been willing to do the worst without thinking of any other ways. Slowly, he raised his head and spoke. "I can't believe I-" He was abruptly cut off by a sweeping kick below his legs, knocking him off balance. The scraggy had regained mobility and had been pretending to still be paralyzed, waiting for a chance to strike. This time he had no new psychic feeling to inform him of the attack, as it was still lingering and gave no renewed warning.

As he fell to the ground, the scraggy launched its self into the air at him with a flying kick. He was able to detect it in time, rolling forward a bit to narrowly avoid the kick and send the scraggy crashing into the ground.

"I think there are more pressing matters to concern ourselves with right now.", the Gengar stated calmly. As he spoke, the Ghost type focussed all of the darkness his spectral heart could conjure up, horrible pain and crushing agony into one black sphere that was uncomfortable just to be around.
This Shadow Ball he then launched towards their recently re-mobilized adversary, hoping to deal at least minor damage.
The Dark type - eternal rival to the Ghost type and sadly resistant to the Gengar's attacks. At least William wouldn't have to worry about accidentally injuring the Eevee, which posessed an immunity against the otherworldly powers used in this attack.

"Can't you fight and talk at the same time?" Sova asked up to the gengar. It was something he'd grown used to doing, having conversations during battles. Given the conversation they were previously having was a bit important, he didn't want it to be put on hold just for a battle.

The Shadow Ball made direct contact with the enemy, who simply shrugged the attack off and looked up to the gengar. "Can't fight me head on? Are ya scared?" The Scraggy said, his words oddly infuriating, as if enchanted by some power....

In an attempt to shut the enemy up, Sova summoned a flurry of stars and sent the Swift flying at the scraggy, who took the attack, again taking minor damage and shrugging it off.

"Come on, what are you two, girls?" The enemy taunted, his piercing words being unreasonably rage-inducing.

Sova shook his head in a futile attempt to stop the rage from taking hold. He had a lot of anger to let out in the first place, he didn't stand a chance fighting against it.

"I'd rather focus my full attention on the battle at hand instead of making banter and holding convserations.", the Ghost type responded.
"Talking can be done all day, but battles tend to be a bit hectic, you know?".
And then a few words reached the Gengar's ears. They weren't that special actually, but for some strange reason they hit a nerve with the Ghost type, sending him into a rage.
Luckily however William knew just how painful the dark emotions of a Shadow Ball could be and thus the Taunt didn't cause for him to have to resort to using the Payback attack, which required close combat and additionally was doubly resisted by their adversary.
Not really having much of a choice in the battle, the spectral Pokémon conjured up another sphere of shadow.

Unlike his ghostly ally, Sova couldn't resist the rage, running right into melee range. Though normally he would have attempted to stay at a distance, he never picked a fight he didn't think he could win, he knew he could still beat the enemy at close range if he was careful. Though, being careful was not on his to-do list for the time being.

He immediately attempted a tackle, no effort put into aiming or preparation, no caution. The enemy simply avoided the attack, causing the eevee to fall to the ground with a stumble, not being able to recover in time to see the incoming high jump kick. Luckily, the massive danger the attack presented was enough to set his ability off, prompting him to duck, once again avoiding it and sending the enemy flying past him.

This time, however, he did something differently, biting onto one of the scraggy's back legs as it passed over him and pulling it down to the ground, in a perfect position for another Shadow Ball.