The Island Mystery

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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))

Sova was just about to congratulate his vaporeon friend on not being a wuss when the situation got a bit more serious than a lone wrumple wurmple.  He saw that an ursaring had appeared in the midst of a lot of other, less threatening pokemon and had targeted Skylar.  He couldn't wait to see if she would win this, ursarings were too tough to underestimate like that.

Skylar watched as a hoard of angry looking pokemon appeared in the area.  The biggest of them all, an ursaring, directed its gaze towards her and immediately charged her on all fours.  She backed away in fear and an eerie purple glow surrounded her, a Curse to physically strengthen her in preparation for the attack.  She would have tried running away, but a familiar voice caught her attention and distracted her.  The bear stopped in front of her and lifted one of its front paws into the air, waiting for a moment as it prepared a Focus Punch before bringing the paw down.  However, instead of hitting her, a blue creature leaped into it and bit onto the arm, dragging the ursaring off balance and onto the ground before releasing and backing away.

Sova growled in frustration that he'd had to save his teammate, but it couldn't be helped.  This event was unexpected.  "Help the aipom protect the gallade, I'll deal with this thing.", he requested of his ally.

"There's an aipom?  There's a gallade!?", the vaporeon responded.  She hadn't been paying too much attention to their surroundings, just that there was a large menacing bear attacking her.  She then located the aipom and headed in his direction, before being stopped by the three teddiursa blocking her path.  She didn't want to hit three adorable cubs, but it didn't seem like she had a choice.  The eerie glow emitting from her body persisted and her tail's metallic coat returned.  One of the teddiursa adorably charged her, getting smacked into a tree by her tail.  The second one came and she slammed her tail fin down on its head, knocking it to the ground.

Then the third teddiursa.... didn't attack.  Instead it started crying.... and she was so easily swayed by the Fake Tears.  She approached the bear carefully and patted it on the head, not really knowing how else to calm it down.  It then jumped up and.... hugged her leg.  It was playing nice, literally, using the move Play Nice, but again she was easily fooled.  The gullible vaporeon had pretty much been completely disarmed by this little thing as the other two slowly approached from behind when abrupt whines from behind her snapped her back into reality.

Sova narrowly avoided a swipe by one of the ursaring's massive claws, followed by another.  He couldn't get a chance to attack and he could tell by a faint red glow around the bear that it was using Close Combat.  If he even tried to attack, he would take a serious hit.  He noticed the vaporeon he'd come here with being tricked by one of the teddiursa as the other two approached from behind and his body flared up with icy spikes as he darted between his ally and the two cubs, Ice Shard helping him reach her before the enemies could attack.  He spun his tail around, now covered in sharp spikes of ice, smacking the two teddiursas and knocking them away and unconscious with some wounds to think about.  He then leaped over the vaporeon and bit onto the scruff of the third teddiursa's neck before tossing it into the ursarang as it attempted to charge him.

"I thought I said to help the aipom....", he growled in an agitated tone before charging the ursaring.  It had caught the teddiursa in its front paws, leaving its self vulnerable.  The glaceon rammed it in the circular marking on its chest, his icicle-covered body piercing it and causing it to drop the teddiursa to the ground.  The glaceon landed as the ursaring stumbled back.  "You aren't so tough.  I've fought some other ursarings way better than you.", he taunted.

Skylar watched as the teddiursas were mowed down and her new "friend" was taken away from her, realizing moments later that it was just distracting her.  She still felt bad, though.  It had been so convincing.  She shook the thoughts of guilt out of her head before running off towards the aipom.  "You alright!?", she questioned.

The Ursaring growled at the Glaceon's remarks, slamming its foot into the ground and creating a large earthquake. The trees around the area shook violently, their leaves falling at a much faster rate while all the Pokemon who appeared from the house orb stumbled around, attempting to regain balance. The shaking did another thing, it broke the house orb within Aku's bag, which, of course, summoned more Pokemon to the party.

[46 energy]

House Orb

Dracorexion carried out 10 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , , , , , , ,

Aku

Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , ,

Still desperately defending Akuroma from the three Wurmple, a Furret and Phantump, Cracker was quickly running out of steam. The weak bugs were easy to fend off, but they had numbers on their side. The monkey batted them back one after another while he focused on the greater threat. That furret was particularly fast, and bearing its claws as it swung and slashed at him repeatedly. The Aipom was getting exhausted matching agility for agility. Eventually one of the attacks got through, knocking him off his feet.

The Phantump had been patiently increasing its strength with Growth, waiting for a moment to strike, and when Cracker was knocked to the ground it was then the ghost-type struck with Confuse Ray. And this time it connected, so when the monkey returned to his feet, it was with a thick haze of confusion. He wobbled awkwardly and held his head to regain his senses. Everything around him was suddenly spinning, making it hard to focus on avoiding the Furret's next attack.

He got lucky and narrowly escaped another slash, but when he moved to counter-attack with Astonish, he only ended up smacking himself in the face with his own beefy tail. The blow made him stagger, defenseless against the Wurmple trio as they tackled and swarmed him. It was then the Vaporeon appeared asking if he was alright. Muffled by the bugs, he attempted to respond.

"Oh, I'm great! I think I'm having a nightmare, though I don't remember falling asleep!" he giggled frantically. "I have to protect Aku, have to! He's relying on me!"

Suddenly the ground shook violently from the Ursaring's attack. The tremors put the Furret and Phantump off balance, and before they could recover, even more Pokemon were summoned to this insanity.

In the moment of confusion, Cracker managed to shake off the Wurmple and deliver a strike that sent all three of them sailing high into the air over the entire fray. When they finally landed, they scattered, along with the Deerling that had apparently taken off long before things had even gotten this far. Lucky buggers, Cracker thought, still dazed. This was getting too far out of hand. The clearing was packed with random Pokemon now, all of them focused on either Cracker, Akuroma, or the Vaporeon and Glaceon which had joined the party.

"Please tell me this is just a nightmare!" the monkey screeched.

Aku can sleep through a nuke.

Sova gasped as the ground began shaking, having to quickly back up to avoid a rather old tree falling near him.  Sadly, the violently shaking ground combined with having to suddenly back up caused him to fall over.  The ursaring then charged at him, stopping front of him and pulling one of its front legs up over its shoulder before bringing it down like a hammer.  The glaceon narrowly avoided the attack by rolling out of the way, just as the Hammer Arm slammed into the ground.  The ursaring seemed to have worn itself out a bit with the attack, as it was now moving more slowly.

The bear began swiping its front paws at the glaceon yet again, completely disregarding defense as it used Close Combat a second time.  He barely avoided the first few attacks by backing away, before the third hit barely grazed his chest, tearing away a portion of his icy spiked armor.  "Well, guess that's not gonna do any good....", he muttered, realizing this thing could just smash through his spike armor with ease.  His icy armor repaired its self just as he prepared to finally fight back.

The ursaring threw one of its paws forward at the glaceon, but this time, instead of backing away, he ducked.  He then bolted into the bear's chest, his icy spiked body piercing it yet again.  This battle would have been a lot easier if he still had Ice Beam or knew how to use his new move, Frost Breath, but alas bad decisions were made and he was feeling the consequences.

The ursaring grabbed onto Sova's tail and pulled him away from it, tossing him into the air before backhanding him into the ground with one of its heavy arms, the Close Combat giving him a brutal blow.  While he was down and struggling to get back up, the enemy lifted one of its paws high into the air, centering its balance and power there, before bringing down another Focus Punch.  The attack started the shaking up yet again, being mixed with an Earthquake.  But Sova had avoided it, rolling out of the way and immediately bolting up the bear's huge arm as it was positioned perfectly for him to run up it.

Sova spun on the ursaring's arm, slamming his spike-coated tail into its head and knocking it to the ground, finally out.  He took a moment to breathe after having to strain himself to get up so quickly and hit so hard after a brutal attack.  He was just a bit exhausted from that.



Skylar struggled to keep her balance as the ground began violently shaking.  She wanted to try to help, but she could barely stand with the earthquake wracking the ground.  However, to her relief, the aipom had taken this hazard and made use of it, using it to get the enemies off him.  She couldn't put her paw on it, but something was familiar about this aipom's voice....  But she didn't have time to think about that now, he needed help!

"Nope, not a nightmare, as much as it seems like it!", she replied as a furret charged into her.
She put her front paws up and stopped it as it attempted to slam into her, Curse having given her more than enough physical strength to do so by this point, at the cost of her speed of course.  She wasn't really fast in the first place though so that didn't matter.  She pushed the furret away, to the ground, before moving closer to the aipom so they could watch each other's backs.

Why did this aipom's voice seem so familiar?  She thought for a moment before realizing....  "Wait.... Cracker?", she questioned.
That was where she knew the voice from!  She'd met this aipom before!  But she didn't get a chance to say anything else as another furret charged into her, though it barely phased her, merely making her stumble back a bit from the impact.  Then a phantump appeard from under the ground near her while letting out a ghostly scream, causing her to rear up onto her hind legs and jump back in astonishment.  Then the first furret, which had gotten back up, then came crashing into the vaporeon with a very intense, Double-Edged tackle, hurting them both.

Skylar was slammed to the ground, letting out an "Oof!", before the furret on top of her began flailing its front legs at her, trying to scratch her.  Though it wasn't doing much with such a weak attack due to Curse's effects.  Still, Skylar had gotten the air knocked out of her and couldn't get up at the moment to stop the wet noodle slaps.

Whilst the insanity got worse, the shaking of the ground had caused an even greater terror to enter the fray. Akuroma stood clear over the other Pokemon, his face shadowed as he slammed his fists together, thunder ringing out as his fists erupted into electricity. "I see a party started whilst I was napping. So, who want's to play bloody knuckles with me?" the Gallade asked, his mouth turned in an almost insane smirk. Akuroma didn't wait for any response, grabbing the Furret who was attacking a Vaporeon, letting his Thunder Punch zap the furry Pokemon into unconsciousness before tossing it aside. "Cracker, get my items, leave these small fry to me," the Gallade said as the electricity disappeared, his elbows extending out as a psychic energy surrounded them.

[32 energy]

The Vaporeon's confirmation that this was not just some terrible dream was as upsetting to the Aipom as the Phantump that refocused its attention on him. He was grateful to have someone covering his back, though. It made it easier to concentrate on avoiding the ghost-type as it threw attacks at him. It first struck with Confuse Ray, which Cracker nimbly avoided despite his confusion, but then it surprised him with a blast of Solar Beam.

Screeching in surprise, the monkey flung himself into the air, narrowly avoiding the beam as it detonated against a tree behind him. The resulting explosion threw him to the ground, but he quickly recovered and kicked sand into the Pokemons' faces, blinding it for a moment as he recovered his stance and backed up closer to the Vaporeon. He was about to strike again when the water-type suddenly spoke his name.

"What?" he asked in confusion, "How did you know my--" Before he could finish, the Vaporeon was attacked by one Furret, then another. He sought to help, but before he could even move, the second Phantump that had appeared cut him off, charging up a Hidden Power attack.

Wide-eyed with terror, the Aipom spun sharply in a circle, kicking up as much earth as he could, to hide in a cloud of dust before the attack struck. When it did his cloud dispersed immediately but he was out of harm's way. When it blew away though, a new figure stood in his place. Akuroma had woken up and was looking for a fight. Which wasn't hard to come by with this clearing packed with Pokemon.

He dispatched one of the Furret without so much as breaking a sweat, before instructing Cracker to retrieve his belongings. "Yes sir, Aku, sir!" the Aipom replied with a salute before bounced out of the fray. The two Phantump had shifted their focus to the new threat, as had the Beautifly and Cascoon whom up until now had been quietly watching the chaos. This allowed the monkey to slip out of the fray and rush over to the Gallade's belongings where he'd hidden them.

Plunging both his paws into the leaf-filled hollow, Cracker extracted the bag, holding the heavy item over his head. He turned to make his way back to Akuroma, but a Sentret suddenly appeared in front of him. It stood balanced on its tail for a moment, taking one look at the Aipom, then the bag, then it promptly attacked with Quick Attack. Screeching in surprise, the monkey twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the assault, while simultaneously leading into a rebuttal of his own. He swung his tail outwards and struck the Sentret in the back, sending it tumbling into the bushes.

Still holding the bag, he rushed back towards Akuroma, only the be hit from behind as well as the Pokemon burst forward with Quick Attack. Thrown off his feet, the Aipom wrapped himself tightly around the bag and rolled like a purple cannon ball back into the flurry of fighting Pokemon. "AkuuUUUuuUUUuu!" he cried, tumbling towards the psychic-type.

Skylar had taken to closing her eyes and flailing her front paws in front of her, getting into a slap-fight with the sentret, before it was lifted off of her.  She opened her eyes to see a tall figure electrocuting the furret.  It then tossed the furret away and she couldn't help but wonder if it was even still alive.  For a moment, she worried she was next, but then the rather tall creature spoke to the aipom, confirming that said aipom was indeed Cracker.  This relieved the vaporeon on two levels; because surely a friend of Cracker would be a friend of hers and because this meant the gallade wasn't hostile.

"Uh....  Thanks....", she muttered as she got to her paws, still a bit fearful.  This guy was just a liiiiiiiittle really tall.  It made her feel a bit insignificant.  And wasn't she supposed to be protecting him?  This seemed a bit backwards.... not that she was complaining.
In her distraction due to the rather intimidating pokemon near her, she'd managed to completely forget about the enemies for just a moment.  It seemed like he was getting ready to attack again, but she kept her self from worrying.  Surely he wouldn't attack her, since she was on his side.

Sova, having taken care of the ursaring, turned his attention back to the main attraction to see what was going on.  He saw Skylar in a rather pathetic excuse for a fight with a furret, before the furret was pulled off of her and shocked into no longer being quite as alive as it previously was by a gallade.  It seemed the sleeping gallade was now awake.  He noticed the aipom running off to get.... the gallade's items, from what he could hear with his big canine ears.  That wasn't all he heard; he'd also gathered that the aipom's name was Cracker and the gallade's name was.... Aku.  That name seemed slightly familiar to him, perhaps he'd heard it before.  His favorite TV show is Samurai Jack.

For a moment, he thought that perhaps he could just leave it to the gallade to handle the small and boring things, since he seemed capable enough.  Then the remaining furret that wasn't unconscious or focusing on someone else bolted towards his vaporeon friend with Quick Attack, forcing him to take action.  With Ice Shard, he reached the furry creature and slammed his paw into its head before it could reach the vaporeon, knocking it to the ground.  He then smacked his currently spiky tail into its head as it attempted to get up, knocking it out.

It was then that he noticed the gallade seemed to be preparing to attack.  He figured this guy probably wanted to help clean up the remaining pests, though he couldn't help but think Skylar was just a little too close.

Skylar jumped in surprise and turned around as she heard something slam into the ground behind her.  She saw Sova attacking a furret, which she'd managed to gather had been aiming to attack her.  And to think, she hadn't even noticed it coming.  Or him, for that matter.  As she stared at the glaceon, her attention was completely taken away from the gallade who had previously been her center of attention.  Then the aipom's return transferred her attention yet again.  She wasn't really used to so much happening at once.

Akuroma looked down at the Vaporeon who he had inadvertently helped. He hadn't quite planned on it, having not even noticed the Water type when he grabbed the Furret. To be quite honest, he only grabbed the Furret because it was the closest Pokemon to him. Either way, he now had a Vaporeon next to him who could be a good match.

However, a Shadow Ball smacking him in the face distracted him from the Vaporeon, causing the Gallade to turn his attention to the two Phantump. The Gallade shook his head, as if shaking off the slight pain the super effective, yet quite weak, move had on him. He then looked at the source of the attack, finding himself staring at the little Ghost type Pokemon. "So eager, I see. Fine, I'll play with you first," he said as he stepped one foot clear over the Vaporeon, slicing his arms downward at the two Phantump.

One of the little Ghost types floated backwards, avoiding the attack. The other, however, wasn't fast enough and found itself quickly knocked out from the attack. Akuroma frowned, Are all these Pokemon this weak? It was then that a gust of wind blew at him from the Beautifly, silvery powder mixing with the wind that cut into Akuroma. Growling, the Gallade's hands began to glow a bright blue, but just before he launched his attack, a familiar purple monkey rolled into his foot, tripping him over.

Unable to control his trajectory, Cracker tumbled directly into Akuroma, kicking one of his legs out from beneath him just as he was preparing to attack the Beautify in their air above. The Aipom couldn't help but cringe on impact, not just from the collision, but because he'd inadvertently interfered with the Gallade's maneuvers. Fortunately smacking into Akuroma broke the monkey out of his roll, but he lost the bag in the process and skidded to a stop several feet away, surrounded by two Wurmple and three Teddiursa.

All five Pokemon looked down on him angrily, like he was the solely responsible for their midnight displacement in the clearing. At least one of the Teddiursa was from the previous three, but the two others were their own group and they both attacked first with Fury Swipes. Laying flat on the ground, Cracker screeched in terror and covered his head, as the bears struck. He was surprised however to find their assault less than threatening. They slapped at his body with their claws, but it didn't hurt as much as he expected, which told him they were rather weak.

Swatting away the Teddiursa attacks, Cracker jumped to his feet knocked one of then down with his tail, confirming his suspicion. They were push overs, even for an inexperienced fighter like himself. Grinning with confidence, the Aipom back-flipped and punted the second bear into the forest with an uppercut from his tail. He was just about to do the same to the one he'd knocked down when the third Teddiursa slammed into him with Close Combat.

The force of the blow threw the monkey into the two Wurmple just as they were preparing to launch a dual String Shot attack. The bugs were bowled over easily as Cracker smacked head first into the base of a tree. Dazed from the impact, the Aipom wobbled to his feet and turned to face his new opponent. Unfortunately, the Confuse Ray still hadn't worn off. That couple with his freshly bestowed headache, had him seeing double. The two Wurmple were knocked out, but the Teddiursa and his daze-induced duplicate came charging toward him, preparing for a Fury Swipes attack.

Remaining Pokemon

teddiursa x2
beautify
cascoon
furret
phantump
sentret

Skylar flattened herself against the ground as the gallade stepped over her, a bit intimidated and not really wanting to get in his way.  She crawled away slowly until she was a few feet from the gallade before getting up and seeing the aipom tumble into the scene and get himself into trouble.  She watched to see if he perhaps needed any help, but honestly, he seemed to have his own situation covered.  However, when the aipom was hit with an attack that seemed much stronger than the others, at that point Sky decided to help.

As the teddiursa ran forward, the vaporeon bolted into it and once again coated her tail in a metallic gleam as she stopped near the teddiursa.  She swung her tail forward at neck-level with the teddiursa as it ran, clotheslining it with the side of her tail fin and knocking it to the ground.  She then turned to the aipom and waved a paw with a friendly smile.  "Cracker, that's you, right?", she questioned, hoping to continue where they left off before everything in the copse rudely interrupted them.

Sova took notice of the beautify attacking the gallade, "Aku", who he'd gathered was an ally at this point.  To remedy this, he bolted towards the beautifly, firing a Shadow Ball in the process and hitting it in the wing, causing difficulties for its flight.  He ran up the trunk of a tree, flash-freezing his paws to it to allow him to stay on it long enough before jumping off the trunk and slamming into the bug, bringing it down to the ground.  He fired another Shadow Ball at its head, creating an explosion of the shadowy variety around him as he ensured it would stay down.

After a bit of a struggle to get his spiked body free from the unconscious enemy, he began calmly making his way back to the gallade who was thoroughly entertaining to watch fight.  He noticed Skylar actually willing to hit something without being told to, which was nice to see.  Apparently she already knew this aipom.

Akuroma growled as he stood up, finding the Beautifly already taken out by the Glaceon. "Oi, leave my prey alone," the Gallade said as he brushed the dust off of him. "Cracker! Where's my stuff!?" Akuroma barked at his companion, not at all caring about the small fry surrounding Cracker and Skylar. The Gallade had voted against attacking the two Eeveelutions due to one having an explorer badge. Best to not turn this temporary ally into a new enemy until the swarm of Pokemon around them was fully taken care of.

(Sorry for the short post, can't think of much rn ;A;)