There Might be Ruins

It was around midday when a flash of yellow fur suddenly darted from the Shadowhue undergrowth to the protective enclosure of Monochrome Falls, which protected the entrance to Monochrome Ruins. The fur belonged to Mercury the Fennekin, who was returning to her home after a morning trounce about the outlying areas that surrounded the place she now called home. She crept carefully behind the  large waterfall, although not because she was trying to be sneaky about going back to her home in the ruins. She had accidently gotten to close to the wall of water one too many times, and since then she had done her absolute best to never have a run-in like that with water again. Once inside, she began running around with the same usual reckless abandon once again, giggling to herself as she began thinking up new games to play in the afternoon. On the way back to her den, however, she got distracted by some pebbles and stopped. They looked just like rocks! Only smaller!!!! AMAZING!!! Mercury's small mind was completely blown.

(Mercury the Fennekin: Energy - 19/19)

"Well, that takes care of that..." Avaria muttered as she stepped closer to the large waterfall responsible for the area's name. Hearing about the ruins in the area, the Oshawott had always wanted to go there to take a look around, see if there was anything left there of value. And so she had found two Pokemon to go with, only instead they had dragged her into taking a guild mission along the way. I don't even know how they could deal with taking escort missions like that. It's just tiring, there's no reason for them to need an escort. She thought to herself, thoroughly annoyed by the experience. Thankfully, she had been able to slip away from the two and head to the Ruins on her own. She stepped by the large falls, feeling the cool rush of air and splashes of water droplets coming off from them. It almost made her want to postpone her trip a little and take a dip. Almost.

Ava paused a moment as she stepped in, staying still. There was a figure further ahead, a small fox pokemon poking around some...pebbles? Well...she must have a short attention span. Getting caught up in pebbles. Unless she collects them, which I can't really see any reason for... The Oshawott walked forward, moving quietly as she got closer. Maybe she could move past the fennekin? That could work maybe, she decided. And so she tried to move past Mercury unnoticed, carefully attempting to go around her.

Energy: 6/21, -15 for entering.

Mercury's ears caught the sound of footsteps on rock. She whirled around quickly, catching a weird-looking, orb-headed blue... thingy waddling into her territory, probably without even expecting it. Mercury's eye's widened as she processed this information in her head.

A visitor?!
A REAL visitor?!?
AMAZING!!!
Merc's small mind was completely blownerer.

"Hi friend, HI!!!" Mercury exclaimed, dashing all around the orb-headed blue-thingy in spastically-fantastic circles. "Hi circle-head friend, are you here to visit me? I like you!" Mercury exclaimed happily, her steps turning into overly-happy bounces. "What are you? Where are you from? What's your name? Do you like games?"

As Mercury bounced all around Ava, a mysterious power started to pull a shell away from the Oshawott. The shell seemingly became stuck to Mercury's fur, and then disappeared into said fur. Merc hardly noticed. She was too busy gasping at this new thought. She stopped right in front of Ava, unaware of what had happened.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP!!! Do yooooooooou liiike gaaaaaaames?!?!" Mercury exclaimed. "Do you want to play a game? Can we play a game?!?!" she asked in an over-excited tone, her tail wagging furiously in excitement.

Ava wasn't one to be surprised by a lot of things. The pokemon attacking her? Wouldn't have been surprising. Just talking to her? That wouldn't have been surprising either. But this level of spastic running around her and...general happiness? The Oshawott almost fell over from the combination of that and trying to keep up with the Fennekin running circles around her. She didn't even notice that the shell on her back had been taken, unbeknownst to either of them.

"I'm not here to play games, kid." The Oshawott commented rather calmly, just happy that the other pokemon had finally stopped running around. She rested her paws over the shell on her front, taking a fairly casual stance.
"I was hoping to explore around the area myself. Wanted to see what was around." She continued to explain, trying to get her thoughts on the Fennekin clear. The pokemon didn't seem hostile, but she definitely seemed to lack a certain maturity about things. Maybe she was really young or something?

Mercury frowned. No games? Who didn't want to play games? People always wanted to play games with her. They always chased her round, whether it was tag or keep away. Keep away was Mercury's personal favorite. She fell back on her hindquarters and looked the circle-headed friend skeptically.

"You don't play games? But that's so boring," Mercury grumped. She stood up again, and padded over to the circle-headed friend very bravely, because she wasn't afraid of friends. Merc remained in the friend's way. "Is it because you don't know how to play? 'Cause I know how to play all kinds of games; I can teach you!" She grinned and her tail began to wag around again. "I can teach you anything! Keep Away is m favortie, but you can choose if you want. I don't mind; visitors get first pick anyways! Unless you don't know any games? I can give you some suggestions if you want!" Merc's tail started waving around really excitedly again.

"I..." The Oshawott had started to respond, before realizing something. Her back felt much lighter than it normally was.
"I know how to play games, I'd just rather not get distracted by them while I'm out doing things..." She continued as she pawed at her own back, trying to feel for it. It seemed like nothing was there. Wait...what? Ava spun around quickly, looking around for her second scalchop. It wasn't on the ground anywhere in the cave that she could see, and it definitely wasn't on her back. She was a bit panicked, but took a deep breath, trying to keep herself calm. Thinking about it, the Oshawott turned back to look at Mercury.
"Did you take my shell?" She questioned the other pokemon, gripping her other scalchop in her paw, though she kept it down by her front. If the Fennekin didn't talk, then she would have to resort to using it.
"If you answer truthfully, maybe I'll play a game with you." The Oshawott added with a slight smirk, keeping her eyes on Merc.

"Hrrm? What? No, I didn't take your shkell," Mercury frowned, completely oblivious to the going-ons of earlier and the activation of her weird ability. "You said you didn't wanna play games yet. I don't do false starts," she answered honestly, sticking her tongue out. She contemplated what the circle-headed friend was saying. She only really picked up on the word "game."

"Game?! OKAY!!" Mercury grinned. "First one to find the skrell wins!!" She began to run around among the rocks with her nose to the ground, searching everywhere for the "skrell". As she bent over to sniff a peice of rock, something foreign peaked out of the fur on her back.

"What is a "srell", anyways?" Mercury asked. "Is it like a stick? Is it a toy? What does it smell like? What does it look like?"

A sigh escaped from Avaria as she shook her head, looking down. Something told her that she wasn't going to be losing the Fennekin anytime soon. And even then, she still needed the fire type to help look around for her scalchop. It was strange though, Mercury was the only pokemon there, and she had never dropped it before. The fire fox had to have taken it.

"It looks like this. And it's a 'shell'." The Oshawott pulled her scalchop off from her front and held it out, pointed at Merc as she pushed away any and all temptations to use it on the fire type yet. As she did this, she squinted, looking at the fox's back.
"It kind of looks like that, actually..." Ava muttered, frowning as she stepped up to Merc. Looking at the thing sticking out from her fur, she gripped the part of the shell and began to pull, trying to pry it free from the Fennekin.

Mercury kept moving around, completely oblivious to the circle-headed friend trying to tug the thing off of her back. She kept sniffing around, but she grew despondent. "Aww, I can't find the thingy..." she mumbled. The fur on her back began to twitch, causing her lots of discomfort.

"Eww, my back's all itchy," she grumbled. She reached up with her hind leg and began to scratch her back rapidly. As she did, a shell-shaped item fell out of her fur, making a little clatter noise. She her the noise and put her leg down immediately, looking around all over for the source of the noise. At last, her eyes fell on the white thing.

"Oh! Oh!! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!!!!!" Mercury exclaimed happily. She bounced up and all around, scooping the shell up into her mouth and bringing it over to circle-headed friend. She pranced all around victoriously before dropping it in front of circle-headed friend and sitting back a few steps.

"I found it! I found it!! I found found found it!!" Mercury grinned widely, her tail wagging back and forth. "That was fun; and I almost thought you weren't good at games!!!"

As the Fennekin began to scratch herself, the shell popped free. Surprised at it suddenly coming out, Ava stumbled back and fell down, dropping the shell on the ground. With a slight groan she sat up, shaking her head a bit and collecting herself.

"Great, yes, you found it..." The Oshawott grumbled, standing up and picking the shell up off of the ground where Mercury had dropped it. That was...odd, really. The Fennekin had to have taken it, and yet she seemed eager to return it as well. Maybe the fire type stole it just for the thrill of taking it, or having somebody try and take it back?
Yeah, for the game. Come on, you've got to admit, that's part of the reason you're still running around doing things like that. You love the challenge, it's like a game.
"...now, why did you take it in the first place?" She questioned the fox, placing the shell onto her back once more and setting her eyes on Merc. It wasn't too accusatory, and it didn't seem hostile. No, she had more of a curious tone. Like she genuinely wanted to know.

Pikashock carried out 1 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

Mercury blinked.

"Huh? Silly circle-headed friend, I didn't take your sprell! I would have remembered that!! Plus, I found it on the ground out here, not in my den. My den is still empty from the last game I won," she laughed, waving a paw in the air as if to say, "it's no big deal, scuttlebutt." She scratched the back of her ear, then got a secretive look on her face.

"Wanna hear a secret though? Sometimes items come to play with me! It's like people want to play with me so bad, their items float over to me! Then we play keep away for a day or two." She giggled at this awesome secret that she and her new friend now shared. "I don't even have to grab the items, they just float over to me!!! Shhhhhhh, it's our secret though," she chortled.

Overhead, a peculiar flapping noise could be heard. The flittering made Merc's ears twitch, and she glared at the ceiling. "Stupid neighbors. They're always mean when I'm entertaining friends," she grumbled.

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 1 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 1 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

"Uh-huh...interesting..." That was really the only thing she could think to say after the other pokemon's explanation of how she had found the shell. Yeah. Something was still really, really wrong with this Fennekin. Or maybe she was just really young and immature. At this point, the Oshawott couldn't really tell.
Still, the items just float over to her or something...she seems to believe it at least. Could be some sort of move, or ability, or maybe she takes it and just doesn't realize she does. Some sort of memory issue. Or, she could be messing with me and putting up some sort of act. That's not out of the question yet.

Looking up to the ceiling as she heard the Zubat flap its wings a bit, Ava shook her head and held a paw up to her mouth, almost as if making a shushing motion.
"Hold on, it might not have seen us. If we're quiet, maybe we can just pass by it." She suggested in a bit of a whisper. If they got into a battle, she wasn't sure of how capable the Fennekin would be in that sort of situation, and she wasn't looking forward to having to look out for the fire type. No, maybe the Zubat wouldn't mean them any harm. Or if they were quiet, they could just sneak by maybe.

Maybe. Then again, if it went right, it just wouldn't be a normal day, would it?

Energy: 2/21 (-5 for Zubat.)

Behind Mercury, a scuffling could be heard on the floor of the ruins. They were heavy and metallic, like iron scrapping and tapping against the colorless rock floor. The oddly-colored Fennekin whirled around just in time to see an enraged ant trying to guillotine her head clean off her shoulders with nasty looking metal pinchers.

"Woah! You play dirty, friend!!" Mercury cried as she barrel rolled out of the way. As she did, her Magician ability kicked in again and an inconspicuous Plain Seed floated away from Ava and embedded itself into Merc's fur. What a catch. Such loot. Much valuable. "Now I'm gonna have to take a penalty shot!" Merc warned, none the wiser as she arched her back and sucked in a HUUUUUUGE breath. She released a shower of firey-hot embers onto the unprepared neighbor, dousing him in the painful heat and causing him to erupt into flame. The steel bug couldn't handle the heat due to the quad weakness. It collapsed and fainted, but unfortunately the Zubat was attracted buy the noise of Mercury defending herself.

"Whew... that's the third time that's happened since I moved here! Neighbors are rowdy!!!" Merc exclaimed, still oddly cheery despite almost having died.

Ava didn't have much time to react as she looked over at her temporary companion, watching as the Fennekin rolled out of the way, and doused it in embers for a KO. She hadn't even noticed that fire fox's ability causing her to steal a plain seed, and grabbed her front scalchop, looking up at the Zubat. Screeching out angrily, it dropped from the ceiling and flapped its wings, heading down towards Mercury in an attempt to bite the fox pokemon.

"Hey, watch yourself." The Oshawott told the Fennekin, her voice calm and collected as she lunged forward, bringing her shell up and slashing it downward with a Night Slash, her scalchop imbued with dark energy as it fell down. Slashing across the Zubat's body, the bat pokemon retreated from its attempted attack, hovering up by the ceiling and flying around in a circle above the two.

Pikashock carried out 1 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

Mercury was startled by the screech, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. She whirled around, fur bristling with fear, just in time to see circle-headed friend slash at the bat with her skrell. She was amazed by the strange shadowy power that made up circle-friend's attack, her toothy mouth hanging agape. "Wooooooah, circle-headed friend, that was really cool!!" the little fox exclaimed.

"Neighbor stop bothering friends!!! You're not even playing a game anymore; you're just being mean!!!" Mercury exclaimed before inhaling deeply again. She spewed another Ember attack at the Zubat, torching it's right wing. The Zubat screeched in pain, then plummeted down to the cave floor. It hadn't fainted, but it certainly wouldn't be flying any time soon.