Dark and Gloomy

(Energy - 12. You don't get to see my math.)

Sova peered into the dark canyon before him, unable to see the bottom. Why were they doing this again? Oh, yes, because Mirage is a vampire. Of course they had to be passing by the Black Spear mountains when the complaints about the sunlight started. For some reason, the glaceon felt compelled to fix this problem his friend was having. The darkest place he knew of was the big bottomless hole in the mountain range; the Obsidian Crevice.

He kicked a rock down into the crevice and listened. While it quickly faded from vision, he could hear it bounce and roll down, deeper and deeper, until it got too far away to be audible. It didn't sound like it was intending to stop soon.... "Here's your darkness. Happy now?" He asked to the zorua as he took a careful step down the rather steep slope.

If he still had his old Anticipation ability, he would be risking falling just from the shivers.

Mirage merely huffed in response, feeling a bit guilty. Sova had brought her here because of the "darkness", and she knew she was supposed to love this place. Something seemed a bit...off about this place though. The land around here seemed desolate and ragged, at least Shadowhue Forest just looked ominous, but here? This place was practically a death trap waiting to snap up any unfortunate soul that happened upon this place. She flicked her ear and spoke in a low voice, "We going or what?", deciding it was too late to turn back.

[energy - 10]

Sova shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure you weren't getting cold feet. Last time that happened you passed out." He joked. Though despite his demeanor, he was curious what was down there. He couldn't help but remember how badly climbing to the highest point in the Black Spear mountains went over for him and wondered if descending to the lowest point would be comparable. What was in store?

With only one way to find out, the glaceon took another careful step into the crevice, then another, leaving behind icy paw marks. He was freezing his paws to the ground to gain more traction and avoid slipping, doing his best to only lower the temperature in his paws. The fur on his lower legs was freezing because of this, which included around his paws, helping a bit with the traction. He wondered if Mirage would fair so well without such ways to cheat, though.

Mirage stepped forward, carefully attempting to place each paw over the ice steps and avoid slipping. She failed, as a loud cracking noise sounded through out the crevice startled her. She jumped, and her paw landed on one of the icy steps, causing her to slip and begin to fall. In a desperate attempt to right herself, she grabbed onto the closest thing with her teeth, which happened to be Sova's tail. It however failed as it only dragged the Glaceon with her as she began to tumble deeper into the crevice.

Sova yipped in surprise as he felt something bite onto his tail and pull him off his feet. It seemed Mirage had slipped and was taking him with her. He may have been able to help had he not been yanked into the same situation....but now they were both definitely going to be feeling....not particularly good, if they would be feeling at all.

He tumbled along with the zorua, attempting to grab onto something, anything, but failing as there was only the sloped ground. Then as if Arceus had a sense of humor, his desire to have his fall stopped was granted....and he slammed into a large rock, hitting his back rather painfully. "AAHK!" He yelled out in pain. Definitely not what he wanted.

"Oi, da' hell you think you're doin?"
"That hurt mate!"

Mirage turned, looking to find herself in front of two heads that connected down to the same body. Next to the two heads were wide purple eyes of an espurr, and on the other side was...a stinger? Mirage looked down and saw that it was a skorupi.

"Ya hurt me!"
"Yo gon' have to pay mate!"

The dragon type Zweilous growled, the wings on their back flaring out in attempt to intimidate Mirage.

"Uh...Sova? You still there?" She called out.

Sova spotted Mirage, seeming to be in a bit of trouble, and immediately darted to her side....

Or he tried to, but the second he stepped away from the rock that was aiding him to stand, he collapsed. It seemed the fall had hurt him worse than he had originally thought. It wasn't helping that he was already exhausted from the trek they'd had getting here either. Mirage was likely feeling fatigued as well though, so she would need help if the rather menacing looking trio before her decided to attack.

The glaceon opened his bag and searched through it, biting onto a seed and eating it. He waited for a moment, expecting to feel his energy returning to him...But it seemed the Reviver Seed had no intention of taking immediate effect. Struggling to his feet with little immediate aid from the seed, he limped to Mirage's location. "Hey, hey, sorry if she bothered you....we fell. We're kinda new to here." He said to the hostiles in hopes of avoiding a fight.

"Some New Faces Eh?" The Skorupi spoke.
"Bummin' 'round into others," One of the Zweilous's heads spoke.
"Not very nice of ya' mate," the other spoke.
"This world is filled with souls of the hopeless..." the strange cat like pokemon with folded ears spoke, staring off at nothing in particular.

Mirage kept an eye on the group, wondering if they were going to attack or leave them with a warning. Her eyes looked to each one, trying to read their face and decipher their plan. She figured she likely should not say anything due to the risk of having them turn against her and Sova. The Zweilous in particular looked rather strong, and was going to be a fierce opponent if fought.

Sova saw that Mirage was not going to speak up and, worried where this conversation would go if neither of them tried to interact, decided to take it upon himself to do so. "All due apologies for that, we'll do our best to make sure that doesn't happen again in the future." He approached the zwelious and extended a paw so as to offer a truce.

"Would you let us off the hook this once? We're just a few lost souls looking for our way, nothing worth your time." He said in as calm a voice as he could muster, though he still sounded worn out. Perhaps that would add to the effect.

He just needed to stall long enough for the Reviver Seed to really start working....

"We haven't seen anything worth our time as of late..." the skorupi spoke.
"However that bag o' the zor'as," a head of the zweilous spoke.
"Lookin' like its got somethin' o' worth mate," the other spoke.
"All of the Items in the world wont help the souls of the damned..." the espurr spoke.

Ok, this was getting a bit creepy, Mirage began to step back a bit. She had stolen a bag from some random skiddo they had passed by. She had grabbed it without Sova's knowledge, and without the knowledge of the skiddo as well. The zweilous' mouth began to open, a purple mist leaking from it while the skorupi jabbed its claws(?) forward threateningly, and the espurr changed its gaze directly towards them. The espurr zeroed in on the bag, and it became enveloped in a purple aura as it attempted to take it. Mirage pinned the bag to the floor with her fore-paws, the mist disappearing as she made contact, her dark typing negating the effects of the psychic pokemon.

Sova refused to be threatened, standing his ground with a tired and agitated expression. "Then why are you trying to take our items? They'd be no use to you...." He said to the espurr. His tone of voice quickly changed to a bitter, unhappy one. Someone was threatening not him, but Mirage.... Mirage in particular. Even though they both had bags, the glaceon's likely carrying more items....wait, when did Mirage get a bag? He couldn't help but wonder, even though they were about to be attacked.... But that was something that would need to be discussed later.

The attempt to steal Mirage's bag was the only excuse the glaceon needed to attack. He would have considered running, for Mirage's sake, since he wasn't very capable of protecting her in his current state....only....the Reviver Seed was taking effect, so he most certainly could. Wasting no time, he immediately fired an Ice Beam at the zweilous, who was taken off guard by the now energized glaceon and took a direct hit.

Using Quick Attack to move quickly, he avoided a purple Dragon Breath from the zweilous....then another....but before he could dodge a third of the purple beams of wind, he suddenly felt an extreme headache....coming from of course, the psychic type of the enemy trio. This knocked him off focus for more than long enough to be struck directly by a Dragon Breath, knocking him onto the ground and disorienting him.

The zorua moved into action as she noticed something abnormal with the Glaceon, something was effecting him. She looked to the espurr to see it focusing on him intently. She stepped in between the cat and the icy fox-dog-thing, cutting off eye contact and forcing it to look directly at her and use its abilities on her. Her natural typing began taking effect and protecting her from the psychic attack. The espurr gave another glare before opening its mouth wide and giving a sickening cry that echoed throughout the crevice, Disarming Voice.

Mirage gave a yelp as her ears were assaulted by the sickening tone, and memories began rushing through her head frame by frame so fast she couldn't tell what she was even feeling other than panic and frustration. Mirage gave a panicked attack at the Espurr, using Fury Swipes to shut its mouth.

Sova felt the pain of the Confusion cease and struggled to his feet, but just as soon as the attacks on his mind and body had ceased, yet another attack was used, yet this time it was a far different kind of pain. First sound that made him want to cover his ears....then came....memories. The image of his frozen parents that hat been burned into his mind for eternity was most of it, tormenting him, but as the horrid noise came to an end....he could see....and feel....a mental image of himself, with red eyes and a sadistic grin, for just a moment, before he was finally able to focus.

Just in time to notice the zweilous gliding towards him with its two maws emitting black energy. He stumbled back in surprise, unable to avoid the attack....so he let it bite him. He froze his fur into spiky quills just as the two heads of the dragon bit down on his side. They were barely able to touch him before the two-headed beast recoiled back in pain from biting a spike factory.