Lost Hope

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14 energy

Leif had spent six days, as promised, in recovery. Team Sentima had decided on the outlaw mission that would allow them to fight, and to fight as much as possible. Leif had spent much of the walk to pricklemist in silence. He had given up on Sova. He had given up on a purpose. Whatever feelings he had left, excluding anger, he began to neglect. His body was still lithe after the recovery, but for such a short time he had gained an incredible amount of body mass from his starving form. His special band and red ribbon were tightly bracing his arms and fists, while his equipped defense scarf was loosely slung around his neck to be used as a tool when needed.

Despite the intensity he felt, his face bore little or no expression other than boredom or annoyance. "We're here." Leif factually announced as they arrived in pricklemist forest. He cared little for the prize or explorer points. He simply wanted funding for another meal, and a chance to fight. Ever since he teleported away, Leif had completely abandoned any sign of being so heavily determined to get Sova back, and treated the relationship as largely professional.

Sova stayed silent for a while, just listening. He waited a moment before considering how to answer the sleep apnea comment. "I wish...." He considered elaborating, but was cut off by his eyes closing on him for a moment. Passing out felt like a good idea for a moment. Then he remembered that he would just wake up soon after from nightmares. It'd be pointless to try. Though he'd inevitably pass out eventually. He just had to not do it in front of others. Having the nightmares couldn't be avoided for ever, but talking about them could.

7 + 20 = 27 energy

Leif stopped walking as Sova started dozing off, "Well whatever it is, you should get it checked out. Sleeping during missions isn't good. And even more important, if this keeps up too much longer you might start hallucinating, losing your balance, not being able to focus... it isn't healthy. Keep this up and you won't be able to save me if I need it, like you said you would." He teased Sova, trying to lighten the somewhat downer mood he had set up by listing a lot that could go wrong. He ate two oran berries, snacking in his boredom.

Vulpes carried out 9 launched of one Pricklemist Hill :

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Sova forced a laugh. "Get it checked out? No doctor can help. Besides....I'm good....I'm...." He trailed off as he stumbled a bit off to the side of the path before collapsing on a bush. He was in the middle of passing out when a very agitating sound rang out from the bush, waking him and making him jump to his feet. A rather annoyed looking kriketot popped its head out of the bush and glared at him. "Oh....uh....sorry...." He muttered. The kriketot didn't seem interested in fighting, but the sound would have been heard by anything nearby. Though this wasn't something Sova had considered in his tired state.

13 Energy

"You're clearly not good, and you clearly need help of some sort." Leif stated factually. He watched the annoyed, noisy bug make some sounds before getting distracted and picking up the items he found around him. Suddenly, he felt two... three presences appear in his mental vision. Two from front and one behind. Behind trailed a Seviper while in front was a Ghastly and a Lilnoone. Leif spared no time teleporting up into the branches. It seemed they were approaching quickly, though it was possible they were not hostile. "Be careful, I sense pokemon approaching, I don't know if they plan to attack or not."

Sova seemed to completely tune Leif's suggestion and worries out. He had heard, it was just taking a while to register. After contemplating what had been said, he'd decided on not hiding. "I've got this." He said as he turned around and began walking towards what was coming into view as a seviper. "Hey, you friendly?" He questioned the snake. In return he got nothing more than a hiss as the snake picked up its' speed. He purposely waited until it lunged for a bite to freeze the fur on his chest into spikes and fire them like pin-missiles, knocking the enemy out of the air.

"Hey Leif, I don't think they're friendly. Just a hunch." He joked as he prepared for combat.

Leif shrugged, "Right..." of course they were hostile. Not that it made difference, they would go down without too much trouble, and it just meant more fun. If Sova wasn't in the mood for a challenge he could always challenge himself... Winning this battle unscathed without using teleport. That would do. The ghastly clearly posed the biggest threat to this challenge meant anything, so Leif began charging shadow ball, waiting until the Ghastly decided to strike before attacking. The Ghastly began a charge at Leif before a heavily charged shadow ball smashed it into the ground.

At this rate, the only pokemon that was left was about to go to Sova, and that wasn't gonna happen. Leif leaped from the branch onto the back of the Linoone that was about to charge Sova, tugging its head away before it could attempt to throw Leif into a tree. It began trying to run wildly before Leif got a lucky hit and froze it to the ground. Before he could relish in his victory, he felt a bruise on his leg from the Linoone. He stared blankly into space before giving a somewhat dejected look, he couldn't help but feel like he failed, "let's keep looking..."

Sova heard the linoone approaching and quickly spun around to attack, but relaxed as he saw Leif take care of it. He contemplated just resting the next time they had a battle. It seemed he didn't really even have to do anything. But he knew he'd have to at least do SOME of the fighting. Leif definitely seemed stronger, but he wasn't exactly a berserker, he would need help fighting. The glaceon would have to at least do enough to watch his ally's back.

"Yep...thisawaaaaaay...." He yawned.

Leif brushed some dirt off. "I was trying not to get hit without using teleport, to challenge myself. Though I suppose the practice couldn't hurt. Being able to teleport and dodge could be immensely useful." he pulled the headband off to look through his eyes, wincing in pain from the light. "I think at this rate, my eyesight is a hindrance. Were I lose my headband again I would be very distracted. Perhaps I should sit and stare at the sun some time, until I am blind." He put the headband back on, again walking, "what do you think?"

Vulpes carried out 1 launched of one Mission Dice :

4

Sova looked at Leif with a dull expression. "....Really? Just stick to the headband." He said in an unamused tone. Staring at the sun to force blindness just sounded stupid. Besides, it would hurt. Why would someone want to remove their eyesight anyways? One of the best things in life was sightseeing.

Then his attention was drawn to rustling nearby off the path. He turned in the direction it came from, but saw nothing.... He shrugged it off as nothing important.

"Alright. It just. Seems like a weakness." Leif's expression remained blank, "I mean, I can see... feel... I can sense my surroundings without my sight, in front and behind. The only disadvantage would be that I could no longer see color, I think. And even then Im half colorblind, I can't even see red." Leif was focused on the talking, and did not hear anything. Furthermore he was distracted and did not pay enough attention to sense whatever it was in the bushes.

"Being able to see colors is nice. Consider trying to get better at seeing with your eyes instead." Sova suggested. "Also, melting your eyes from sun exposure hurts." It was at that point that he'd heard the rustling again. He immediately jumped to the thought that something was following them, but shook it off as just a paranoid thought caused by sleep deprivation and stress. There was no need to worry his partner over his senseless worries anyways. If something were to attack them, they could fight it.

"Well... I can see behind me with my senses... not to mention I can see beyond trees and I can see farther. I suppose that means there's a lot to pay attention to, and it is easier to miss things. But not enough that I'd say it isn't worth it. I could do both, but then I would have to sacrifice practice using one method or the other, because doing both at the same time is like going cross-eyed." Leif admitted, "And I can imagine plenty of things that hurt worse." He restrained himself from mentioning the encounter he had with Sova freezing him. In the moment of quietness and Sova jumping, Leif thought he saw something, but it had hidden and gone still before he could be sure. "Did you see that too?"

Upon Leif mentioning he'd seen something, Sova began looking around the area. "No, but I think something's following us....Out of curiosity, can you handle a hailstorm?" He asked. There was a possibility he'd need to use Hail to draw the enemies out, and perhaps even to fight them, so he needed to know whether or not the abra could handle being in the hail. If not, it'd be more difficult to win a difficult fight.

The glaceon's attention was taken to different points a few times as he thought he heard movements, but it could have easily been his imagination, so he tried to stay calm and not panic. That was the last thing they needed.

"Depends... But if I teleport, I won't need to handle anything." He began charging energy, a new method he'd learned for his teleport on the island. It would allow Leif to teleport farther and more accurately by storing up energy for more time, in addition to his boosted skill. By using only a small fraction of the stored energy in a teleport, he could also teleport multiple times, however he could not use other moves while doing so. Leif stopped focusing on the moment he felt and heard, and more on his teleport. "Tell me when..."

Sova looked at Leif and tilted his head.  "Alright...."  He looked up and fired a beam of freezing vapor into the sky, similar to an Ice Beam in appearance.  He waited a moment before speaking again.  "Now."  He said as clouds rapidly formed in the sky and began dropping hailstones.  Any moment now, the enemies would reveal their location from being pelted by hunks of sky-ice.  Hopefully, Leif could teleport far enough away that he wouldn't be hit along with the enemies.

Right on queue, Sova could hear rustling again.  He began stretching in preparation for the fight.  "I wonder oh I wonder what could be hiding...."