Chase Through the Spiky Mountains

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(Energy - 11)

The Black Spear mountains looked menacing as expected. The cloud cover was thicker than usual, showing signs of a possible storm to come. That certainly didn't help with the overall menacing image portrayed. Who would ever want to venture to this place? Sova, having had a bad experience in this area in the past, didn't fancy coming back. But if he stayed away, that would make him a coward. That was something he just couldn't handle being.

Besides, he had a mission to do and he wouldn't have to go all the way to Black Mist Mountain. And there was a torchick with him, since it was an escort mission, so it wasn't really lonely. Though he was pretty sure the torchick wouldn't be a very capable fighter. At least the mission seemed easy. Find Staraptor and get her to stay and chat.

"Then I sincerely hope that you are telling the truth here. It's not as if I'd distrust you, but you did suggest several morally highly dubious methods to reach your goals here and with your constant recklessness ill-thought actions could be imaginable for you."
Luckily a bit of reason seemed to have returned to the Normal type. At least he was making a much more sensible argument now. It certainly was a relief that maybe the Eevee wouldn't have to be turned in to the authorities now. However it still was worrying that Sova could even have had the idea to joke about this kind of things.
William found himself wondering what the Torchic and the Staraptor had been talking about all this time...

"Ill thought? Me? Never." Sova joked. "Really though, the only thing I was serious about was using my self as bait. Wasn't the best way to do it but it was the only way I could manage that wasn't forceful. The birdie refused to talk to me otherwise. But I guess you've just got some kind of skill for starting conversations." He didn't want to admit it, but he was jealous that William could get the staraptor to talk to them with just words. Where had he failed that the gengar succeeded? What did he do wrong?

Speaking of the staraptor, what was happening with her and the torchick? Sova glanced over to them and listened in for a moment, seeing the bird seemed to be bored if nothing else. He heard a bit of their conversation, something about "I wanna be like you when I grow up" from the torchick. In sight of all the joy the staraptor was having, the eevee was kind of glad he got to talk to the mood killing gengar instead.

"Skill for starting conversations? With what had happened to me in the past the only thing I have a skill for starting are riots.", the Ghost type chuckled.
"Still, deliberately getting oneself into an emergency like that is a crime and thus I heavily advise you to instead simply abort a mission such as this in the future in case convincing the target normally does not work."
It was nice to see that the Eevee seemed to be getting more reasonable again.
With someone like Sova the slightest bit of reason was a welcome change and maybe the Gengar had actually been able to teach the Notmal type an important lesson today.
Probably not but one could hope.

Sova laughed. "Purposely getting my self hurt isn't a crime, it's just stupid. I'm all about stupid." He joked. He wasn't worried at all about putting himself at risk and was more than willing to show that. Maybe it was just foolishness that drove him to do such reckless things, but it was who he was. High risk, high reward, high excitement. He wouldn't change that for the world. Why would anyone want to be so boring? Risks make life fun after all. And he didn't have anything to live for aside from enjoyment.

Perhaps being "good" was also something to live for, but he still wasn't sure it was for him. After all, the most he'd ever gotten for trying to do good was judged harshly by William. Maybe he just wasn't good at it. Why'd he bother trying to help if he'd just make it worse?

"However dragging a member of a rescue team into helping with an unneccessary emergency does indeed constitute as a crime. I agree on it being stupid though."
William was worried highly about Pokémon putting themselves at risk. Why couldn't others just go for the safe and steady route that held little to no danger of becoming an outlaw or face serious injury? William wouldn't want to change this view for the world. Why would anyone be so reckless? So many risks would make life terrifying. And there was no real reason to live a terrifying life.
Maybe they believed for it to be fun, but fun should be something to be completely ignored if one's personal safety was at cost.

"I don't know of any law that'd make that a crime. It wasn't against her will after all. Are you sure you aren't just making it up? I think you aaaaaaaaaaare." Sova suppressed a giggle. He certainly hadn't heard of any law that would make tricking someone into fighting of their own free will illegal. Though, if worse came to worse, he could always simply play innocent and say he was in trouble and the staraptor saved him. It would be humiliating but it'd be better than being an outlaw or jailed.

"False Alarm. Feel free to look it up once we get back.", the Gengar spoke, maintaining a calm demeanour. However it was quite annoying that the Eevee wasn't taking him seriously and apparently didn't know much about legislature either.
Well, he would either learn or run into some serious trouble with the law enforcement officials sooner or later. That reminded the Gengar - wasn't a police station supposed to open up in Grassveil ages ago? What had happened with those plans? The Ghost type was unable to recall having spotted anything resembling a construction site in the general area. Had the plans been abandoned?

Sova shrugged. "Oh, but it wasn't false at all. If no one came to help, I would have been in serious trouble. Unless you think I could beat that primape alone. But then, why would you save me?" He spoke as if he didn't care at all about having put himself in such danger.

The most likely reason for his tone was that he DIDN'T care. In fact he preferred danger. What fun would a safe life be? And it is oh so hard to get things done if one is a coward. The eevee had had both his mental and physical strength insulted before, but never his bravery. Though it had been compared to mere stupidity before.

"You deliberatey got yourself into that danger, which you could easily have avoided. So yes, you could easily have defeated the Primeape by not encountering it in combat."
It was saddening that the Eevee seemed to simply refuse to realize how dangerous and questionably legal his actions had been. If other Pokémon would have known of this, they would most likely not have been this lenient with the brown ball of fur.
Maybe he would have to spend some time in prison to rethink his actions. But while the Gengar didn't want to admit it, the evidence was flimsy and Sova still was something sort of resembling a weird twist on something close to a friend. He couldn't turn him in right now. Not for this.

"Yes, we've established it was stupid and all the reasons it was stupid. But that doesn't make it illegal. Maybe it should be, but sometimes laws can be a bit unjust." Why did the gengar always disapprove of Sova so much? Was it so hard to say he had a good idea? Or at the very least, that he wasn't breaking the law?
Surely he would eventually find some way to earn the respect of William. Actually, at this point, even a compliment would suffice. Hopefully they wouldn't get stuck arguing about pointless things for ever. That could really ruin a friendship, if it hadn't already.

"Actually it does. There really is a law against doing exactly what you have done. And that is not meant to be hyperbole."
Why was the Eevee so stubbornly refusing to believe that there really was a law against getting oneself in danger like that to get someone else to help?
Just what was the Eevee trying to prove anyway? Was he trying to earn someone's respect? Hopefully he hadn't gotten himself involved with the wrong crowd of Pokémon, who would appreciate this sort of behaviour. Why couldn't everyone just respect the ability to moderate oneself and remain safe just like William did?

"I made a bad call, got my self into a situation in which I needed help getting out.  The staraptor would have come of her own free will and if no one did, I would have been the only one hurt.  I think that story would hold up.  The funny thing is it's the truth....just I worded it differently.  Wording can mean the difference between going free and being an outlaw."  Perhaps the manipulative intent in the wording of Sova's story would strike the gengar as wrong, but if faced with the law, it probably would hold up very well.

"Actually, I did it for the torchick too.  I didn't think I'd be able to distract the raging primape long enough for my client to get away without seriously hurting my self, so I decided to solve two problems at once.  I guess I actually solved three at once, revealing you being a creeper and all.  And in the end, no one got hurt but me."  Was there anything he would take seriously?  Probably, but this definitely wasn't it.

"You can reword it all you want. Your intentions make it clear that what you did was done with illegal intent in mind. You might be able to get away with that story if questioned, but it doesn't change the fact that by all means and intents you did commit a crime."
There was no doubt that the Eevee would be able to weasel his way out of this one sadly. Hopefully he would not get the wrong idea however and fall to a life of crime because of this. Further and increased supervision would be required to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid.
If only there was the option to have the Eevee experience the Gengar's mindset for a day or two. Then maybe he would finally be able to understand why what he was doing was something that couldn't be allowed to continue like this.

Sova thought for a moment. "Lets say you're right and I broke a law, making sure no one was hurt in the process and ensuring I can't get in any trouble for it, even helping someone. Basically, the only "wrong" I did was disobeying a rule. And sometimes, rules just need to be broken." He awaited the gengar's response, knowing already what it would be. The ghost would disagree, saying rules need to be followed. Then he would be able to back William into a corner and win this little debate.

He was sure to win this now.

"However there was no way for you to have known that noone would be hurt. In fact you deliberately created the dangerous situation by not simply fleeing. Additionally there is nothing to give you the right to decide which laws to follow and which to ignore. They exist for a reason you know?"
William did not know what Sova was hoping to accomplish with this arguing. The fact that he had broken a law was immutable. And even if he were to somehow convince the Ghost type that he had done no wrong, then that would still be a crime.
But since the Torchic and the Staraptor were still talking - well, the Torchic was, they would not get away from here any time soon so they could as well talk about something.
William would have preferred other topics however.