The Island Mystery

The cool lake breeze brushed past the purpled-haired monkey as he shouldered his custom-made napsack composed of leaves, twigs and grass. He'd set out half a day ago to make his way to this peculiar island following a curious summons addressed directly to his tree dwelling in Pecha forest. It still wasn't clear who sent it or why, but the letter requested his help and he couldn't help but be drawn to the adventure. Of course, danger and excitement wasn't really his thing, but life in Pecha had grown stagnant and a change of scenery was exactly what he needed. The only problem was... He'd reached the last branch before the edge of the lake.

Cracker stared down at the forest floor where it transitioned from tall grass to a thin bar of sand leading into the water. It had been a while since he'd last set foot on solid ground, and he wasn't particularly looking forward to it. Safety was in the trees for him, and he just couldn't get over the texture of grass and dirt, with all those little twigs and bugs to snap and squish underfoot. Still though, the Aipom had come this far, it wouldn't make sense to give up and turn back now.

Wrapping his tail around the branch he stood on, Cracker closed his eyes tight and dove off backwards, swinging in a short arch before letting go and landing firmly on his feet. Immediately the prickly sensation of the grassy ground shot up his legs, making him dance uncomfortably. "Ooooh, why does it have to be so pointy!" he whined, shifting from one foot to the next as he quickly raced towards the shore. The sand was moderately better underfoot, but the way it squished between his toes made him shudder nonetheless.

With his tail hand, the Aipom reached into his pack and pulled out the little letter he'd gotten, perusing it once more. The neatly written words said: Please, help me. You're my only hope. Fallen Leaf Copse. That was it, no details beyond where to go. It was kind of exciting, actually. Like a mystery.

As he stood on the small beach, Cracker's feet sank into the squishy sand, the occasional wave of water helping to bury them. He could see the pathway leading to the island nearby, but the Aipom was considering an alternative means of transportation. One that would get him off his feet in particular. Shaking the sand off his feet, the monkey began scavenging pieces of driftwood scattered across the shore with the intent of constructing a boat. As he worked, Cracker started humming a terribly out of tune song.

((Energy 12))

Akuroma walked casually as he made his way to the stepping stones that led to the small island. He wasn't particularly comfortable coming to the aid of someone he didn't know, but the temptation to study the dungeon overpowered his wariness of his mysterious damsel in distress.

As the Gallade approached the shore, he noticed a familiar purple figure running around, collecting driftwood for some reason. Akuroma watched him for a moment, his dark cloak billowing as a gust of wind began to pick up around the shore. It couldn't be him, Akuroma thought to himself as he stood there.

Maybe he's the one who sent the letter. It'd make sense... he continued to think to himself. "Cracker?" Akuroma called out to the purple monkey, deciding to see if the Aipom was the one he believed him to be.

[37 energy]

The Aipom was well into the process of constructing his makeshift raft when the Gallade approached. He returned to his project on the shore, dumping a stack of driftwood he'd collected with his tail, while looping vine around his arm. As he was about to begin lashing the large chunks of wood together he heard his name. Ears perking up in surprise, the monkey looked around, not noticing the Pokemon at first against the backdrop of the forest.

When his eyes did focus in on the cloaked figure, he beamed, a big grin spreading across his face as he waved his arm it greeting. "Hiya!" he called out, dropping the vine and dusting off his paws as he took a few steps away from his wood pile. "My name's Cracker, it's nice to meet you!" Removing his back-pack, the Aipom turned to the side and gestured to wood he'd collected. "I'm making a boat so I can help somebody on that island over there!"

((Energy: 12))

Akuroma blinked, surely the Aipom hadn't forgotten him. Well, he had evolved twice since they last met. Shaking his inner thoughts away, Akuroma pulled down the hood of his cloak, "Cracker, it's me, Akuroma," the Gallade said. He slid his bag in front of him, hoping the Aipom would at least recognize it as the one he carried as a Ralts. In any case, Akuroma was curious why the Aipom was building a raft, there was a path to the island already there, he'd just need to walk across it.

Well, more importantly, the Aipom revealed himself as not the sender of the letter. Akuroma frowned at this realization. The sender was still a mystery, meaning it could be a previous victim from his thefts. He hoped not, as for the most part, he hadn't stolen much yet, at least in his opinion.

When the Pokemon mentioned his name, Cracker stared blankly, grin still plastered on his face. As the information processed however, his mouth curved into a confused frown. The Aipom knew an Akuroma but he was a Ralts, not this thing standing before him. That had been a while ago, though. He must have evolved. Still, he was having trouble believing it at first, until he saw the Gallade's bag. Then it instantly made sense.

Eyes widening in recognition, Cracker's mouth dropped open then jumped up into a grin again. Leaping onto his tail, the Aipom launched himself at his old friend. "Aku!" he cried, smacking into the Gallade's chest to hug him tightly with his shrimpy arms. "Wow, it's been so long! And you're so big now!" Releasing Akuroma from his hug, he squirreled around under one arm and up his back to cling to his head spike. "You must be so strong now! Oh, and the stories you must have! You gotta tell me everything!"

Leaning, forward to look Akuroma in the eye, the Aipom beamed with excitement. This day had just gotten a million times better. "I bet you've explored all kinds of places by now, and found all kinds of treasure! So exciting! But what're you doing here?" Cracker jumped back down to the ground, despite enjoying riding the Gallade's head--it was much better than being on the grass. "Are you on another adventure?"

Akuroma was caught off guard by the Aipom's sudden excitement at realizing it was him. It hadn't been that long had it? "Good to see you too, I haven't found much in terms of treasure unless you'd want to count the knowledge I've gained from studying dungeons. I'm actually here because someone sent me a letter asking for my assistance here. I guess you're not that Pokemon," he said.

The Gallade wasn't quite sure what to do now. Should he continue across the lake and enter the dungeon? It could be possible that he and Cracker were going to aid the same Pokemon, if it wasn't a trap. That wariness of the potential trap worried him greatly. Though he probably wasn't as infamous as Mirage, he knew he'd probably be arrested on sight, which would be a major problem.

[37 energy]

Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , ,

At the mention of a letter, the Aipom cocked his head. "Wow, really? You too?" Bouncing back over to his napsack, Cracker rummaged around for his. "And here I thought I was the only one," he said, pulling out the small piece of paper. "Well, that's bonkers, I didn't think they'd send more than one." Returning to the Gallade, he propped himself up on his tail, holding the letter in front of him. "It looks like this, right? I still can't help but wonder who sent it, though, y'know. I mean, I don't even have a mail box, let alone an address. Unless you count 'old rotten tree' as an address. Oh! Did I tell you? I found a home in Pecha forest! It's that same tree we stayed in while Mirage was sick. You remember her, right? I wonder how she's doing..."

Jumping back to the forest floor begrudgingly, Cracker walked back to his backpack, stuffing the letter inside and quickly donning the leafy container. He then returned to his wood pile, continuing to chatter on and on. "Anyway, you should see it now. The tree I mean. I totally redecorated the whole thing. And there's this special cream I made, something my Elders taught me. You rub it into the wood and everything just comes back to life again. It's really amazing!" Picking up pieces of wood, the Aipom started lashing them together with the vine he'd acquired, still intent of making his makeshift raft to cross the lake in style.

As he worked a Wurmple, awoken by the monkey's disturbance, crawled out of a hollow chunk of driftwood Cracker had relocated. It looked disoriented at first, but it quickly realized its home had been moved, and surmised that the Aipom fussing over a pile of similar wood pieces was responsible. The bug bristled at the violation of its dwelling and started crawling towards the distracted Cracker, intent on delivering a Poison Sting to his unprotected backside.

"Probably complaining about not being able to steal from anyone when she's just lounging about," the Gallade said as he rolled his eyes at the thought of Mirage. He hadn't seen nor heard of her since their run in back in Shadowhue Forest. The Gallade shook his head, half listening to the Aipom's story on his restoration of the tree, lost in his own thoughts. However, the sight of the Wurmple caught his eye, and the Gallade quickly stomped on the bug type, leaning down over it.

"Why hello there, you wouldn't happen to know anybody on that island over there who might request our help, now would you?" he asked nonchalantly. The Wurmple didn't espond kindly, spraying a String Shot at Akuroma's face in retaliation. The Gallade stumbled back gagging as he tried to pull off the sticky string.

[25 energy]

Cracker was in the midst of tying a knot in the vine to secure the logs when the much taller Gallade's foot stomped down behind him. Jumping in surprise, he leaped away and turned around, spying the small Wurmple on the ground, pressed beneath Akuroma as he casually interrogated the worm. It replied with an unceremonious squirt of sticky webbing straight into the psychic Pokemon's eyes, causing him to stumble backwards.

"Uh--Uh! Look out, Aku!" the Aipom cried too late as the Gallade stepped into a small hole in the ground within which laid a burrowed Cascoon. The Pokemon awoke angrily, puffing up until Akuroma's foot removed itself before bursting out of its makeshift dwelling.

In just a few moments Cracker and Akuroma had a couple of very unhappy Pokemon to contend with. Dropping the vine in his paws, the Aipom moved to assist his blinded friend, but the small Wurmple smacked into him, sending both of them sprawling along the ground. The tumbling monkey caught himself awkwardly on his tail, but before he could recover, another String Shot pinned his arms to his body.

"Hey, what's the deal?!" Cracker snapped, squirming in his binds as he balanced in the air. Rather than respond, the Wurmple charged into another tackle attack.

Akuroma gagged again as he finally pulled off the last of the String Shot from his face, looking to find Cracker now the one covered in the sticky string. Before the Gallade could help, the Cascoon sprayed its own webbing at Akuroma. Akuroma growled, about to pull off the webbing before it suddenly began to electrocute him, causing him to yelp in pain. The Gallade, groaned as he tried to get his body to move, the electricity flowing through it forcing him to slow down. Once his arms were in position, Akuroma's eyes and arms began to glow a psychic green energy, allowing him to slash forward, slicing the electrified web to tatters as the waves of psychic energy flew into the ground next to him.

"I guess I can't be civil with you, fine then, time for you to get squashed," the Gallade said as his fists burst into electricity, sparks flying through the air as he walked towards the Cascoon, which responded by beginning to harden its shell.

Cracker could hear the static charge of electricity nearby--it made his fur stand on end--but he was too busy contending with his own adversary to look. He'd dodged the initial Tackle attack, but the angry Wurmple kept coming. Balancing on his tail, the Aipom was able to avoid the bug Pokemon, swaying side to side as he struggled to free himself from the sticky String Shot, but without something sharp, or a means grab and pull on the stuff, he was helpless, and his tail was too busy holding him up.

The Wurmple had a bunch of pointy spikes on it, though. Cracker narrowed his eyes in contemplation, his face lighting up when he came up with the perfect solution to his predicament. Positioning himself carefully, he waited for the Pokemon to strike again, and when it did he quickly deflected it to the side by turning his body. One of the Wurmple's little horns immediately caught the webbing, tearing a nice long gash in it.

With his arms suddenly freed, the Aipom jumped down to the ground and spun sharply on his foot. His tail-hand dug into the sandy beach around him and kicked up a Sand Attack, blinding the Wurmple just as it was recovering from the last attack. Unable to see, it launched into a series of String Shot attacks, which Cracker narrowly avoided before rushing in to attack before the bug could clear its vision. It felt weird going on the offensive, where normally he'd retreat, but he had a mission and he was determined to see it through.

Screeching loudly, the monkey leaped into the air and spun around sharply, building up momentum before swinging his tail outward to connect with the blind Wurmple. The beefy appendage hit hard and sent the Pokemon catapulting into the woods with one last String Shot firing wide into the air. Huffing loudly, the Aipom puffed up his chest.

"That's what you get!" he shouted after it, sticking his tongue out and making a face. "Mess with the monkey, you get the horns! Or the--the tail! Or--Hm..." Cracker fell silent for a moment before suddenly being filled with an excitable energy. That was his first real battle. All on his own, with no help at all. He couldn't help but with bounce with giddy joy. He was about to do a victory dance when an electrical arch cracked loudly in the air.

Akuroma slammed his fist into the Cascoon's hardened body, sending the small Pokemon flying out at Cracker's makeshift raft, smashing it to bits. "Annoying bugs," he growled to himself as the electricity dissipated from his hands. Akuroma then began to check his items, making sure nothing left his bag during the battle. Finding everything where it needed to be, the Gallade pulled out an oran berry and munched on it before pulling out a Trawl orb.

"Now then, let's see what we can hope to find here," the Gallade said as he crushed the orb in his hand a strange light bursting from it before several items landed at his feet, as if drawn to the orb.

[35 energy, all pokemon rolls will be ignored and all items will cost 0 energy]

Dracorexion carried out 10 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , , , , , , ,

Upon turning around the first thing Cracker saw was his raft being blown to smithereens. His grin immediately dropped into an open-mouthed frown as he ran over to the obliterated pile of wood and dropped to his knees dramatically. "My boat! My beautiful boat!" he cried, cradling the pieces. "Why Arceus! Why have you forsaken me!?"

The instant Akuroma cracked open the Trawl Orb in his hand however, the Aipom's attention was diverted. "Oh cool!" And just like that his little project was forgotten. Dropping the pieces of wood he leaped up onto his tail and bounced over to the Gallade, watching as the glow from the orb materialized into a small handful of items that dropped to the ground. "Wooow! I've never seen one of those in action before! Where'd you get it?" Landing back on his feet, the monkey leaned over the items that had appeared, fixated on them. There were a couple seeds and scarves, a gummy and two oddly coloured leaves.

"Huh, I think you got gyped," he said, picking up one of the leaves. "Why are these leaves purple and blue? That's weird." Standing up he handed it to Akuroma, before piling the other items into the scarves and handing them over as well. He promptly glanced over his shoulder at the island of red, yellow and brown. "Well, I think we should get going before we run into anymore unfriendly faces. I guess we'll have to take that stone path though, since my boat's all smashed up." He frowned a little, having looked forward to riding on the water's surface. Suspending himself with his tail, he quickly moved towards the stony steps leading out into the water. "Come on, somebody out there still needs our help!"

Akuroma frowned at the leaves, placing them and the other items in his bag silently as Cracker handed them to him, "You were going to sail on that poorly made thing? I know you're resourceful Cracker, but I don't think shipbuilding's your strong suit," the Gallade said as he began to walk towards the stone path. Without even asking, the Gallade grabbed the Aipom by the scruff of his neck, lifting him onto his shoulder as he walked. "Don't get used to this, I just know how slow you are on the ground."

Cracker was surprised to be scooped up and placed on the Gallade's shoulder, but he didn't argue it one bit. In fact, he was grateful. He wasn't sure how much more ground-walking he could've handle before he exploded. Of course, the island was sure to be covered in fallen leaves, and just imagining what that might feel like underfoot made him shudder. Rather than sit on Akuroma's shoulder though, the Aipom climbed up onto his head and wrapped his arms and legs around the Pokemon's head-spike like it was a tree trunk.

"Thanks Aku," he said after settling in. "I can't wait 'til we get to the trees again. All this walking on the ground is just unnatural." He fell silent for a few moments as they reached the stones and started the trek across the lake. "Y'know, it wasn't that bad a boat. I mean it could've used some work; I just thought it'd be fun to paddle across the lake." He cast a glance back at the shore where his pile a wood and broken boat remained. "Actually... you know what, I think I'm over it. This is much better."