Echoes in the Dark

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Mission Details:

Today was a nice day.  The sun was shining and it was warm.  What taunting weather....  Sova the glaceon stood at the entrance to a cave, peering inside.  Dark and cold awaited him.  Not that it made a difference to him.  He just wanted to do missions and gain ranking....  Eventually he would have the undeniably best team in the guild.  It wasn't really much of a "team" since he'd done most of the work, but that just made it even better for him.

"Well, this is definitely the spot.  Never been here before."  The glaceon spoke to himself, a bit bored and slightly lonely.  He took a step into the cave and sighed in boredom.  Hopefully something eventful would happen soon.  He didn't find the idea of being alone and bored for an extended period of time to be overly appealing at the moment.

(23 Energy)

Sova thought for a moment. How did a whismur look? He knew it was a pink thing, but that was about all. "Well....it's pink. It'll also probably be whining when we find it. It ah....isn't very happy being here from what I can gather." He explained. Now they had to decide where they were going, which path they were taking.

"Now onto where to search, there was a fork where I came from and I took this path because I heard you guys. We could go back the way I came from and check the other path." He suggested, not being able to think of any surefire way to find the whismur. Besides, he DID plan to go down the other path in the first place. He'd have hated to think he'd missed his client because he decided to go make friends.

Varda nodded as he listened to Sova's description. While they didn't get many physical features of this Whismur they were looking for, it was supposed to be pink. Surely they would notice it, not many things in the cave really were pink, so there was no way he could have missed that on his little cave exploration trip. And this client of their most likely would be making some kind of noise, feeling bad about being lost. The Swablu hadn't heard anything either, so he could pretty safely assume that the Whismur wouldn't be found in this area.

"That's a good idea," the bird agreed when Sova suggested that they would return to where he was about head before he heard the other two Pokémon,
"I haven't seen anything pink here. Or heard anything, it has been really quiet," he continued, feeling certain that this branch of the caves wouldn't hold what they were looking for. Varda even looked quite proud being able to say such, fluffing his feathers up a bit.

"Let's–!," The Swablu started, though quickly silenced himself when he realized that his sound was being a bit too loud,
"Let's go," he fixed his mistake, lowering his voice. Folding his wings neatly against his sides and back, Varda was already itching to go. Taking a couple of steps forward with his tail feathers bobbing from side to side, the little bird Pokémon's eyes turned to look at Sova.
"You should lead the way, though. I think you know where to go better than me!"


Current Energy: 12 (11 +1 from the new page)

Bird carried out 1 launched of one Serene Cave :

Veriq watched the swablu and the glaceon, the two seemed to be younger than him, especially the Swablu from the way it was acting, either that or it was rather happy-go-lucky. The tropius liked that about the swablu, and the Glaceon he had come to like as well for going forth to save the helpless pink thing!

"Hope it isn't too difficult to find, I would suggest shouting its name and hope for a call-back but if its really that scared then its obvious that would not be the best thing to do. The only option we have is to walk around and hope we run into it unless someone else would like to suggest a better plan as we walk?" Veriq awaited an answer, following the swablu before pausing to wait for the Glaceon to lead the way like the Swablu had said.

It seemed Sova had been appointed leader. Not that it bothered him, he would have to pace himself to not make any loud noises, even if he didn't have to pace himself for the others to keep up. Besides, he had company now. Something to keep him away from his own thoughts and occupy his time. That was more than a fair trade for having to lead the way.

He turned and began walking in the direction he'd come from, backtracking. "Alright, lets go then. My plan's just to wander around until I find it, since I can't think of anything better." He said to the two pokemon behind him whom he'd presumed were following, given they'd said they would.

The tropius' words were worth considering, though. What if simply wandering aimlessly through the cavernous maze proved to be futile in searching for the whismur? Then they'd HAVE to try calling for it. Maybe if they called out quietly it would be alright?

Varda cooed thoughtfully when Veriq brought up a very valid point: if the Whismur hated sounds so much, then they couldn't really call out to their missing client? That seemed like a really difficult way of finding a lost Pokémon, especially in these caves! How long and confusing were these tunnels, exactly? This was the first time the Swablu was in them, he had no idea...

The little bird happily started to waddle after Sova, his feet plopping down on the cool ground almost silently. Their new leader didn't seem to be having a plan – unless one counted just wandering around a plan. But Varda accepted it, unable to come up with anything better himself. Sova was in the Guild just like him, in a real team, so he felt like he could trust this new Pokémon with the decisions. Perhaps he even was the Swablu's senior?

"That doesn't sound easy," the bird Pokémon pondered out loud, but he didn't let such pessimistic thoughts linger in his mind for too long. With a great big smile, he looked up at the other two Pokémon.
"But I'm sure we will find the Whismur! Pink is an easy color to see, ri-iiiight–" Varda started to explain how he saw the situation, but suddenly the ground underneath his feet started to shake and rise. For a moment, he just stood there trying to keep his balance, his eyes wide open in surprise before he fell backwards onto his back.

And indeed, he did see something pink when he looked over his belly... But it wasn't the Whismur, he was sure. Instead of a pink Pokémon, it was three small pink dots – noses. On a strange-looking trio of Pokémon that had just erupted from the ground.


Current Energy: 7 (12 -5 from the encounter)

((Varda: SENPAI NOTICE ME))

Veriq looked down on the dugtrio, the swablu had been knocked over by them, but he wondered if they were hostile. They seemed to kind of just stand there and stare at the group, making the tropius a bit uneasy and be prepared to used Leaf Storm, or perhaps Leech Seed would be enough to do the trick? He waited for the response from the others, predicting the Glaceon to either attack or stare, and for the swablu to get up and befriend it if it had not been attacking by then. Veriq's wings spread, their leaves being prepared to be launched if it were hostile.

(Energy: 3)

(24 energy time to start using it)

Sova stopped and his ears perked up at the sound of the swablu's voice wavering.  He turned to see the dugtrio emerge from the ground, wondering whether or not it was hostile.  He considered letting the others handle communicating with it, but since no one else seemed overly interested in initiating a conversation immediately and he was the "leader", he figured he might as well.  "Uh....hi."  Was the best he could think of on such short notice.

Hopefully the dugtrio would be friendly.  He didn't want for there to be any commotion that could disturb any nearby whismurs....

Lord E V carried out 2 launched of one Serene Cave :

,

((It keeps happening))


Varda squirmed a bit, having a hard time getting his wings in a position where he could easily push himself upright again. It took a moment for him to roll over, but luckily the situation hadn't escalated during it. Sova seemed to try to communicate with the strange Pokémon that had popped up from underneath the bird, but there was no answer. The Swablu looked at the scene in front of him with bated breath, unable to even guess where it would lead.
"That's... Not a Whismur, right?" He asked to make it extra sure. Surely Sova would have described the Pokémon as something brown if it was, right?

The Dugtrio looked at the Glaceon with many puzzled eyes before it took a look around. Perhaps it was a trio and perhaps the two smaller Pokémon in the tunnels didn't worry it too much... But the moment it looked at the leafy giant, it seemed to grow more concerned. For a moment, it looked like it was about to dig back down and leave, but something in its eyes changed.

Perhaps it sensed something – and indeed, if one was paying attention to the ground, there was slight trembling one might feel with sensitive feet. And eventually, one didn't even have to pay much attention to it: clearly another Pokémon was digging its way up through the ground. The earth parted and another Dugtrio popped up, perhaps for backup. This one looked a lot more hostile and it seemed like even the one that had appeared earlier got extra courage from the other member of its species. One of the Dugtrio dug back down before re-emerging, pushing up some hard mud and launching it towards the intruders.

The tropius acted reflexively, his wings flapping and leaves spinning out in a harsh wind towards the Dugtrio. It blew the mud away from him, but he was not so sure about his friends. He did not wait to see if the storm of leaves had struck the dugtrio, but he reacted swiftly in launching a strange seed towards the Dugtrio and coating it in vines. The life was beginning to drain from the Dugtrio, and into the tropius as it stood back and away from the massive damage these two could probably cause to him.

((Leech Seed will not effect Energy on this use))

Sova watched as a second dugtrio appeared and the two engaged in battle. To most, this would likely be bad news, but to him it was quite the opposite. The whismur didn't seem to be anywhere around, so he could be as loud as he wanted to. He backed away from what little of the mud had managed to threaten to hit him. "Definitely NOT a whismur." He said.

The glaceon fired an Ice Beam at the dugtrio that was currently being sucked dry by Leech Seed, aiming to end the battle faster by focusing down one target a time. The beam hit, freezing some of the vines caressing it, though this didn't seem to weaken the effect of the Leech Seed at all.

Varda barely had any time to react as one of the seemingly feral Pokémon attacked, shooting out some mud towards them. But Veriq acted fast and created such a strong current of air with his leaves that it almost pushed the little bird away with the mud as well, but he fought it as well as he could, his claws digging into the hardened soil.

The pair of Dugtrio didn't manage to do much damage before they were already getting attacked themselves. First the Tropius' leafy storm cut them up slightly and then a strange seed forced countless of rather constricting vines to grow around one of the Dugtrio. The other one was already considering leaving, but its choice became certain once Sova fire shot out a beam of ice that seemed to damage its friend greatly. It buried back underground – and once the other greatly weakened and damaged Dugtrio managed to gather its remaining strength, it too quickly hurried back into its hole and disappeared.

"And that is why you don't pick fights even if you think you can win..." Veriq huffed before the vine connecting from him to the Dugtrio disconnected as it got too far to keep. The tropius wondered how in the world he had done so much to scare the two off, even with Sova's Ice Beam. He was a rather weak pokemon, he thought he had little experience in the art of battling. He knew nothing of his days as a tactician, and how he had helped his king lead forth armies only to be betrayed and beaten for one small mistake. He was completely oblivious to all of this.

"So, moving along?" he asked.

(16 energy)

Sova shrugged and gave a sigh of disappointment. That fight had not at all been what he was hoping for. It was more of target practice, really. "Yep, seems that way." He said in a rather bored tone as he began walking again in the direction he'd originally come from.

"Hopefully the next fight will be a little more eventful...." He muttered, still disappointed at how boring it was.

He didn't want for something his allies couldn't handle to happen, but having a "fight" just to have it end up being a hit and run- no, more like a MISS and run....it left him feeling robbed of what was his idea of fun. Fighting. Normally he would be okay with it, but this was quite literally just taunting him.

Varda barely had a chance to react to the fight before it was over and the two Pokémon that had popped up from the ground disappeared. Silence once again enveloped the cavernous tunnels, the tension of the battle gone and only the trio of Pokémon were left to gather themselves after a battle. Of course luckily for them, none of the group had gotten injured during the fight, not even one attack had managed to connect and cause harm. While the Swablu was a bit confused over everything that had happened so fast, he could at least feel content knowing that it all was over and no one was hurt.

"Phew," the bird sighed with a smile, relieved as he looked at the other two Pokémon,
"I thought that could have gone worse, but I guess they weren't as tough as they thought," he continued with a happy chirp as their little group started to move once more, hopping after the pair with light, springy steps. But he did notice how Sova seemed awfully... Down. Bored maybe, his muttering outlining his disappointment. It was something that Varda didn't understand, causing him to tilt his head. He wasn't able to turn into a fight himself, but of course he wanted to cheer up his new friends.

"If all the Pokémon in these caves are weak, then I'm sure the Whismur would be fine too, right?" The bird Pokémon suggested with a hopeful smile as he looked at Sova. The safety of their client was the most important thing on Guild missions – or so he thought, at least.
"Or maybe you're just too strong..."

Huh...the helper of the fluffy pink thing was down, he wondered if it was because he wanted a fair and decent battle or other reasons. Veriq himself had to admit that the battle was rather pathetic and one sided seemingly, but if a fluffy pink thing's life was at stake, he did not quite care for it.
"If the Whismur is as sensitive to sounds as the job says, then the pokemon here could easily take advantage of that if they are intelligent enough to distract it," the tropius spoke, looking down at his broken vine that had connected the leech seed to him. The dugtrio must have not been very intelligent to have been scared off easily like that, either that or it had other business to attend to other than a battle to the death.