Into the Depths

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The Oshawott ignored the sounds of other pokemon giving chase as she snickered, running ahead and heading towards the cave looming up ahead. It would have to do as a place to take cover for a while, since there wasn't much else around to work with, and she figured the pokemon wouldn't bother heading inside to give chase. Hopefully they would just head home.

She had been watching a few of them from her favorite vantage point, that being the treetops. Her plan had been to wait for them to move away from where they were and take some of their things, but it had fallen apart fairly quickly once she found herself falling out of the tree from a cracked branch. And right into a pile of berries they had been stocking up on. They were down more than a few berries now. And with that, she found herself running off for someplace to hide out.

To say that the cool, moist cave linking the Grassveil and Rainfront areas was a refresher from the desert trip she had embarked on before was an understatement. Ava found herself by the mouth of the cave as she ran up to it, looking around to check if anything else, or anyone else, was around. One might think that she would have learned to not go off on her own after nearly passing out and quite possibly dying in the desert. Well, one might think wrongly.

Serene Cave shouldn't be as bad as the desert was, she figured. If anything it would be a nice change of pace. The elements wouldn't be against her, and frankly she didn't have much of a choice in the matter as far as hiding spots went. The Oshawott moved into the cave and began to slow to a walk, hearing the echoing of her steps in the confined area as she kept a paw over her shell, switching glancing back behind herself and looking ahead, not wanting to get caught by something she hadn't seen coming.

Ava's Energy: 4/24.

Mirage's ears twitched as she heard the voices of something. Her head shot towards the sound, instead of outright attacking, she waited. The voices didn't sound like hostile pokemon, and she would rather not pick a fight only to get cornered and beaten. Her ears turned slightly as they caught the noise echoing off the walls of the cave. They were talking of a graveler, perhaps the one they had been fighting just moments ago? She took a seat, her tail wrapping around her front paws as she awaited the voices to approach, wondering how they would react. A rainbow color appeared over her head, slowly moving down her body as she suddenly changed her appearance to that of a oshawott, similar to Avaria.

Ava turned and backed up towards the wall of rocks that had fallen, moving beside the recently disguised Zorua. She was already preparing a story for the two of them when the two Pokemon they had heard seemed to step into view. A Bidoof suddenly stopped in its tracks as it set its eyes on the two Oshawott standing by the recently caved in exit, and the Noibat fluttering beside it seemed to be tensing up, wings flapping harder in preparation to use some sort of wind based attack.
"Woah, wait, hold on there!" Ava held one of her paws up, trying to show the universal gesture that she didn't mean any harm. She was hoping to avoid any unnecessary fights when she could, especially with who she was stuck with at the moment, unsure if she could trust her to work together.
"We're not looking for any trouble, we just got stuck in here." The Oshawott added, glancing over at Mirage for a moment. The Noibat was the first to speak, having the same tone of voice as the one that had been chastising what was probably the Bidoof earlier.
"Who are you?" It questioned sharply, not sounding too quick to trust the two Oshawotts.

Energy: 5/24(+1 for a new page.)

Mirage Energy: 1 (+1 from new page)

Mirage spoke first, "Lyra, and you? We got stuck in here as well," she had the illusion gesture to the rock wall behind the two that blocked the exit, "This used to be the exit, but a graveler attacked and had the roof cave in on it. We sent that graveler PACKING though!" she snickered gleefully, putting on a different personality from her usual self so that the chance of being recognized, even if she were to fail to keep her illusion up, would be reduced to zero. She took a seat herself, but the illusion still appeared as if she was standing. The 'oshawott' looking at the two with little suspicion and friendliness.

For a moment, Ava wondered if she should use a fake name as well. Sure, she hadn't gotten herself on the Outlaw Board yet at the guild, but there was still the possibility that they had heard of her, or worse, that she had done something to them in the past.
"I'm Renee, we were heading through here to visit family on the other side when it caved in behind us." She brought her paw down and held it by her front scalchop, glancing over at Mirage for a moment and smirking before looking back to the other two.

"Oh, that's unfortunate." The Bidoof frowned as it heard Ava and Mirage speak, but turned to the Noibat quickly enough, her attention obviously diverted.
"Can we get going? I really think we should find our treasure." The Noibat looked down at the Bidoof as it spoke, making a shushing noise, though it seemed to come out as a sort of hiss.
"Be quiet about that! Don't bring it up, you never know who's listening..." It seemed to scold the Bidoof. It huffed and looked down, appearing somewhat dejected.

Treasure? Ava thought about it as she turned to Mirage and mouthed the word to her silently, curious about the topic as the other two talked to each other in hushed tones. Hearing some of the rocks skitter around a bit behind them, the Oshawott turned and examined the rock pile a bit, taking notice of a stranger looking one. Grabbing her scalchop, she dug it into the rock and began to pry at the strange stone. As she did, the Everstone popped off of the rock pile, landing at the ground by Ava's feet, but as it did, another one of the rocks began to stir on its own. And then two eyes blinked open on the stirring, big rock she had disturbed, groaning as it began to come to. Blinking in surprise, she simply picked the Everstone up and stepped back by Mirage, turning around without acknowledging the Geodude she had disturbed from its slumber.
"Uh, Lyra, we might have some trouble coming up behind us, and it absolutely wasn't my fault..." She whispered to the Oshawott illusion beside her as the Geodude began to move out from the pile of rocks and rise up, hovering over the ground as it came to. The Oshawott had used the false name the Zorua had given so she could work on remembering it, not wanting to screw up in front of the other two.

Mirage turned to see a Geodude, not good. The other two pokemon would probably expect her to attack if it was aggressive, and they would expect water type moves, which she did not know. The zorua's mind began to turn as an idea formed, "You handle it Renee, it's just a GEODUDE, if we could handle the graveler together then surely you can handle the geodude...or are you chicken?" The zorua hoped that the oshawott would understand that she would not be able to fight without losing her guise, and rat her out on being a fake. She stood up, the oshawott illusion waddling forth and away from the geodude.

Looking back to Mirage, the real Oshawott nodded her head and turned to face the Geodude. She got what the false Oshawott was hinting at. Geodude was weak to water, so obviously, water type moves would be what they would expect. Except, Mirage wouldn't be able to perform any of those. At least, to Ava's knowledge.

"Pfft. Please, just sit tight. I can handle it." She responded to the illusory Oshawott, before opening her mouth and letting a stream of water erupt out, using Water Gun on the Geodude. The rock pokemon seemed to grumble a bit at that attack, before rushing forward, attempting to ram the real Oshawott with a tackle. Taking a few running steps towards it, Ava jumped up and pushed off the Geodude itself, vaulting over the pokemon and landing on the other side, causing it to miss her.

Meanwhile, the Noibat and Bidoof seemed to finally recognize the new threat. As the normal type began to back away, the Noibat started to fly back further into the cave.
"Hey, let's go! They can take care of that, we need to find that treasure!" It commanded, disappearing into the darkness. The Bidoof seemed to hesitate, glancing back at the two.
"But...are you sure they can-"
"They're two Oshawotts, of course they can. Now come on!" With a slight meeping sound of sorts at the Noibat's response, the normal type scurried off behind, leaving the two and moving further into the dark tunnels as well.

Mirage looked behind her as the other two fled, the possibility of the treasure slipping through their grasp! She glanced back to the oshawott as she fought, dealing with the choice to fight the geodude with Avaria or follow the two for their treasure. She wanted to stay and help at first, but she reminded herself that she was a dark type, she was an outlaw. It was her duty to follow them.
"I'll follow them," she spoke, not caring if the oshawott cared for their treasure or not. She was going to get that treasure, whether she had to get it by force or trickery. She darted after the two, her illusion looking like a rapidly waddling oshawott and looked rather silly.

Well, she couldn't say she was surprised that the Zorua chose to abandon her instead of help, once the other two pokemon had run off. Then again, Ava really didn't need much help on this one anyways. It was probably better for Mirage to run ahead, and she could catch up later. Once she had landed on the other side of the Geodude, she opened her mouth and used yet another Water Gun, hitting it in the back and blasting it into a nearby wall. As the pokemon seemed to grumble a bit in pain, the Oshawott could hear some skittering, and looked up as she took notice of the weaker looking rock lining the wall and ceiling above the Geodude. Smirking, she sent a stream of water blasting out of her jaws and into the weak rock, loosening it up a bit and causing the rocks to dump down on top of the Geodude, burying it for the moment.
"Good. Now stay down for a bit..." The Oshawott grumbled, before turning and running off after Mirage as fast as she could waddle, trying to go the same way the other Outlaw.

As they had run off, the Noibat and Bidoof had seemed to come to a fork in the cave. The duo stopped for a moment, considering which way to go briefly, and unknowingly allowing time for Mirage to catch up. Making a quick decision, they turned and began to rush off towards the left. As they did, the cave rumbled once more, shaking a bit, and the ceiling collapsed, blocking the left path off with falling rocks and kicking up some dirt and gravel.

Pikashock carried out 3 launched of one Serene Cave :

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Mirage skidded to a halt, about to follow the two further, but was stopped as the tunnel behind them collapsed. She huffed, swearing and flattening her ears in annoyance as her Illusion faded. There was no point in keeping it up, seeing as the very two pokemon she was attempting to trick had just run off and Arceus or something had blocked the path between them. She really wanted that treasure! She was an outlaw, she was supposed to steal right? So why was the world denying her this? Oh well. She huffed, she took a seat, wondering if the oshawott would turn up.

A short moment later, the Oshawott came running, slowing to a halt just by the Zorua as she glanced around for a moment, a bit curious about things.
"Why did you...?" She had started to ask why the Outlaw had stopped giving chase to the other two pokemon, before taking note of a few still stirring rocks in the pile blocking the path the other two had taken, looking like it had been a recent fall. That must have been the noise she had heard on her way to Mirage, too.
"Oh. That's why." With a sigh, Ava stepped forward and up to the rocks, taking a look at them as she searched for any weak points, maybe any way to clear them.

"...well, I don't really think we're getting through this way. Maybe we should just move on, I'm not really liking the feel of this place anyways." The otter pokemon turned back to look at Mirage, shrugging as she offered her suggestion. Despite the calm demeanor she was keeping, she wasn't exactly enjoying the constant rock slides that seemed to be plaguing the area. Turning back towards the still open path, she took a few steps towards it, not noticing the rocky floor seeming to shift and shake a bit while she walked over it, looking to be weaker and looser than the rest of the ground.

Energy: 0/24(Encounters)

Mirage had failed to notice the shifting ground as well, she had been sour about the failure to gain what could have been precious treasure. Then again, it was a bet. It could have been some kind of useless item that was only valuable to them. She disliked those kinds of items. Who would value a rock? If it was a rock of their dead grandfathers even, so? She did not quite understand the sentimental value of things like that. The closest thing she had to sentimental value was her earrings, and that was only because they looked pretty and it was a pain just to get them.

The ground below her rumbled and suddenly her paw fell into some kind of hole, she gave a yelp as her paw pierced the ground that lacked support underneath it and the ground around them began to cave in.

As the ground caved in underneath her, Ava let out an instinctual cry of surprise as she lost the feeling of the ground on her feet. She mentally cursed herself for not paying closer attention to her surroundings as she fell, hoping that it wasn't a serious distance to go.

A few moments later, as the dust settled at the bottom of the drop, the Oshawott let out a few coughs as she shuffled a bit where she was laying, managing to shake a few bits of rock off of her as she did so. However, as she did, she felt something a bit heavier on her foot. Craning her head back and looking there, she winced, seeing a heavier portion of what used to be the ground having fallen on her foot. Before anything else, she reached down into her bag and pulled a Blue Gummi from it, quickly eating it and feeling a little bit of her energy come back to her.

With herself settled first, she turned back and glanced around a bit, scanning the area for the dark type that had fallen in with her.
"Hey, I don't suppose you're still alive by chance, are you?" She asked, raising her voice a bit just in case the Zorua was further away. Hopefully she wasn't dead or otherwise incapacitated, because that would probably make getting back out of the cave two times harder. Especially since she heard the flapping of wings from further down the dark tunnel they had fallen into.

Energy: 3/24(From Blue Gummi)

Pikashock carried out 3 launched of one Serene Cave :

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Mirage cried out as she fell, her cry being cut short as she was buried under some dirt and rocks. Luckily they were not heavy or damaging, but it certainly left her with some rather harsh bruises. She heard the oshawott call for her, she forced herself up and responded after coughing up some dirt, "No, I'm dead, this is my ghost."

She huffed and shook herself, throwing off dirt from her fur and surrounding herself in a cloud of dust. She looked around, the cave was darker down here. That was dangerous, especially when the oshawott probably could barely see anything now. She heard the sound of flapping wings, and flattened her ears, "We should probably leave before whatever is heading this way gets to us," she suggested, turning to leave in the opposite direction of the oncoming pokemon before waiting for an answer. They would probably need somewhere to hide, perhaps behind a boulder would work?

Mirage Energy: 1

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Serene Cave :

"Die quieter then." The Oshawott groaned out in a deadpan as she rolled her eyes, pressing her paws on the ground and struggling to push herself up. The more she tried, the weaker she felt, and the rock currently holding her foot down wasn't doing her any favors. Turning her head back to look at it, she opened her mouth and spat out a blast of water, sending the rock tumbling down the opposite direction.

"Leaving sounds like a good idea. Let's just hope whatever's down there doesn't get to us first. Or that it's just that Noibat from before." Staggering slightly as she moved down the way Mirage had went, Ava felt herself bump into the Zorua's side for a moment, letting out an 'oomph' as she stepped back, her sight still not having adjusted to the darkness of the area just yet. Hopefully she could follow along with the sound of Mirage moving around without cluing her in on the fact that she couldn't see, though she wouldn't be surprised if the Zorua had already made that guess. After all, it wasn't too hard of a guess to make.

Energy: 0/24(Due to encounters)